James, Henry. "The Beast in the Jungle".

Introduction

(by Quentin Anderson)

- James's style of narrative defeats reader's expectations (the character of May Bartram) and so establishes a struggle with the reader

- the author creates his own system of symbolism (like W. Blake, W. B. Yeats, etc.)

- continues in the tradition established above all by N. Hawthorne and H. Melville who wrote as prophets in the Old Testament sense and were also preoccupied with moral questions

- in most of his other writings, James expresses his general moral intention in his system of symbolism

- but: in "The Beast in the Jungle" James creates his own moral convention, establishes the values the reader is required to use, and lets the characters define themselves by their actions

- unlike in his naturalistic writings, the characters of this story are not predetermined, but are fully responsible for their actions

- introduces technical innovations in the narrative: dialectic storytelling, stream of consciousness, experimental points of view, etc.

- James creates both his own formal convention and his own moral convention, the fusion of these results in a freshly told story with fresh moral insight

Summary and Analysis

I

At first confusing: the reader is suddenly thrown into the torrent of sentiments which the characters themselves have trouble to utter, express and explain. The chapter is based on dialogue and observation of inner movements. The narrator enters the consciousness of John Marcher, in this way not only his thoughts are revealed, but also to a lesser extend the thoughts of May Bartram as assumed by Marcher. Marcher's stream of consciousness is mingled with the narrator's voice to such an extend that they are hardly distinguishable. The narrator refers to Marcher as to "our friend" etc. and establishes a communication with the reader.

The chapter establishes the theme of searching for the sense of life and for one's identity. Among the recurrent motives is above all egotism as an obstacle preventing a person to live a full life and rendering the person as an ignorant, self-centred being. It is also concerned with the concept of the unique versus the common, with the real truth of life, and with loneliness versus the sharing of one's life. Throughout the whole of the story, James uses the device of foreshadowing.

May Bartram is an unmarried handsome woman, aged thirty, who ranks in the house as a poor relation. John Marcher, also unmarried, is aged thirty-five. The two accidentally meet after a long time of not seeing each other at a luncheon in the Weatherend house. They reminisce and Marcher recalls their meeting for the first time in Italy ten years ago. He is mistaken in many details, while May remembers the circumstances of their meeting precisely. This is probably the first hint on Marcher's incompetence. The meeting results in feelings of unfulfilment: "the past could give them no more than it had". The other result of the luncheon is that May becomes Marcher's confidante. She remembers everything that he told her, though he forgot most of the things himself and recalls them only with May's help. This is another hint on Marcher's incompetence.

May becomes the only person to share with Marcher his secret. Her attitude toward him is pitiful and sympathetic. Marcher's secret is revealed to the reader first after a considerable prolongation. It is Marcher's belief that he is kept for something rare and strange, possibly prodigious and terrible, perhaps overwhelming. He has not necessarily an active part to play, maybe something happens that will only be suffered by him. May suggests a danger of falling in love as the name for it. Marcher refuses such an explanation. He has been in love already, but it was not overwhelming. May thinks that it was not love then. May agrees to watch with Marcher until the expected event comes.

II

A great bond is established between May and Marcher. Due to the death of her great-aunt, May acquires a house in London which enables the two of them to meet regularly. Marcher's inner state is marked by his predicament, he is haunted by his burden. Outwardly he appears to be a common man, though sometimes called unsettled.

The marriage of May and Marcher is impossible because of the event Marcher is waiting for to happen. The remark about the marrying comes very unexpectedly, almost in a shocking way, as no hints on any established love relationship are really present. Marcher compares the thing he is waiting for to a crouching beast in the jungle. A man of feeling does not accompany himself with a lady on a tiger-hunt, that is why Marcher rejects the idea of marriage as impossible. Marcher's calling himself "a man of feeling" gives here rather an ironic impression.

May sees Marcher as a harmless maniac and she is also the only in the world to know why he is what he is. Marcher disguises his problems with identity by wearing the mask of a common man. May tries to save Marcher from his egotism and selfishness by their habit of meeting, discussing, etc. Marcher suppresses in himself the rather subconscious fear that the event he has been expecting throughout his whole life will after all never occur. He however denies to May having this fear and claims himself a man of courage. This does not seem to be the case with him, though. Marcher finds out that May knows more about him than he himself does. She refuses to tell him, so Marcher concludes that it is perhaps too bad for him.

III

Marchers implores what it is that saves May from the appearance of variation from the usual human type, what it is that makes May a common human being. May thinks that this is because she has a man to save her, meaning Marcher. As Marcher has May who tries to save him, May has Marcher whose simple existence is effectually saving her. May chooses to be common rather than to be unique, which to her means to live really. May tries to help Marcher to pass for a man like another, at the same time she paradoxically wants him to go on as he is.

The motif of May's knowledge of Marcher that she will not share recurs. A new motif is introduced: it is Marcher's dread of losing May. It is revealed that May suffers a grave blood disorder and the disease contributes to her growing old quickly. This may seem as the first step to Marcher's "correction", however, his main concern for May lies in the loss that she might suffer by not finding out what the name of the beast is. This is an interesting juxtaposition, the former hope for Marcher's correction is diminished by the nature of his concern for May. Marcher muses whether his being condemned to see May pass away may be the great event he keeps on expecting. He expected quite another thing, but to him now anything is better that the fulfilment of his dread that he has been waiting for nothing all his life. He does not care what terrible crash overwhelms him, only if it would be proportionate to the posture he had kept all his life.

Marcher's concept of life based on his uniqueness is corrupted. He starts to doubt. There is rising action. The reader gets an impression that the climax is about to be reached, though it is delayed for a longer time still. The early climax of the story is May's revelation that the beast has happened already. It comes as a surprise both to Marcher and to the reader, both remain unaware of it.

IV

May's occupation of waiting for the beast with Marcher is finished. Her near-prophetic and omniscient role has now ended. She remains impenetrable like a sphinx. Marcher muses what the very worst that can happen to him may be. May thinks that it is spending his life with thinking of nothing but dreadful things. The two mentioned some of the dreadful things before, maybe they went too far in mentioning them. But the thing unmentioned would be the worst.

What Marcher is most afraid of is ignorance, not knowledge. This sounds ironically with him. The other thing he is afraid of is May's abandoning him. In response to the latter of his fears, May exclaims that she will never abandon him. She undertakes the last attempt to communicate him the answer: she raises with difficulty from her chair and approaches him. She is not understood.

V

May is dying. Marcher muses whether his impending loneliness is the beast that he expects. But this is a common doom, not unique. Marcher nevertheless starts to judge even a common doom as sufficient now. He has lived by May's aid, to leave her behind would be cruelly to miss her. What could be more overwhelming than this?

Marcher actually misses May already and he is actually overwhelmed, though he remains unaware of that. He starts to think that the beast is something that they never feared, something else. With May's death, the light which fed Marcher's life is wasted. The beast has stolen away, the jungle is vacant. Marcher is acutely missing it. He quits London to travel.

VI

To Marcher the world is vulgar and vain now. He periodically returns to the grave where the truth of his life lies. He is brought to knowledge of what the beast was by the face of a mourning man by the neighbouring grave. The fellow mourner shows a deep ravage of the features, and Marcher envies him. No passion has ever touched him, he saw the outside of his life but never looked within to see the void of his life.

The beast which occurred turns out to be Marcher's missing May and wasting the chance to love her. In contrast to Marcher, May had lived fully because she had loved him for himself. Marcher never though of her but of himself only. Marcher's uniqueness lies in his being the man to whom nothing on earth was to have happened, a rare stroke indeed. The beast in the jungle turns out to symbolize the egotism of Marcher's life. Suddenly Marcher sees the jungle of his life and the lurking beast preparing itself for a leap: "His eyes darkened—it was close; and, instinctively turning, in his hallucination, to avoid it, he flung himself, face down, on the tomb."