Lost and Unseen Love as the Beast in Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle

953 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Beast in the jungle essay

Lost and Unseen Love as The Beast in Henry James' The Beast in the

Jungle

The story of "The Beast in the Jungle" by Henry James has a real

message that is pervasive throughout the story, which is that by

spending all your time worrying about what will happen in the future

you miss what is happening to you now, this being represented in the

story by lost love. John Marcher represents what can happen when you

spend all your time worrying about what is going to happen to you, as

opposed to what is happening to you. May Bertram obviously loves him

and he does not see it and realize that he loves her also until it is

too late because he was continually worrying about the overwhelming

feeling of apprehension. "It isn't a question of what I want, God

knows I don't want anything. It's only a question of the apprehension

that haunts me-that I live with day by day" (1562) This apprehension

and feeling of impending danger is May's time running out with him

worrying about something else while neglecting the one person who he

has ever truly loved.

This theme of not looking at what you have is prevalent in the entire

story. Marcher is always looking over his shoulder waiting for this

bad thing to happen to him never realizing that if he stopped looking

to the future and worrying about the future so much that the

"thing"(1562) would never have been able trouble him. Gert Beulens

says:

John Marcher is the benighted author of his own sorry fate. Unable to

see that it is up to him to bring about the major event for which he

secretly feels destined, he never musters the courage to act and ends

up a miserable failure. May Bartram, with whom he has shared his

secret, is perceptive enough to see the nature of his problem, yet she

cannot impart her insight to the obtusely self-absorbed Marcher during

her lifetime. Only after May's death does Marcher come to realize her

importance to him and see that she loved him. Too late, he understands

that he should have acted by returning the passion she felt for him.

Thus summarized, the story is a romantic tale with a palatable moral.

If only the hero had been less self-preoccupied, he would have

responded to the love of this warm and selfless woman. Or, with a

slightly different emphasis, if only the hero had not dreamed in such

lofty terms of a strikingly rare destiny, he would have embraced the

worthwhile opportunities offered by common reality. (Beulen, 17)

This is also prevalent in James's other works, this idea that people

Show More
Related

  • Beast In The Jungle Narcissism Essay

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    A narcissist is one who believes “he or she is ‘special’ and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special” people. They exploit others for their own advantage, lack empathy, and are “preoccupied with fantasies” or ideals that can be unrealistic. They believe they are the “primary importance in everybody’s life”. (“Narcissistic Personality”) Henry James’ theme in his short story, “The Beast in the Jungle”, is about a man, who is so egotistical and self-absorbed that he misses what life has to offer him, in particular, love, because of the narcissistic behavior he is doomed to live a life of loneliness and misery. John Marcher, the protagonist of “The Beast in the Jungle”, is about a narcissistic upper-class man who believes his life is to be defined by some unforetold event. He focuses only on himself and as a result, he neglects everything and everyone in his life. Marcher meets May Bartram, a woman who knows his secret, and instead of pursuing a romantic relationship with her, or even a genuine friendship, he uses her for his own benefit. Henry James utilizes a variety of literary devices to convey this theme in his story, such as the title, symbolism, dialogue, and the use of a limited third-person narrative. Henry James leaves us our first clue to the theme in the title, “The Beast in the Jungle”. When one thinks of a beast, they typically imagine something big and ferocious; Marcher’s ego was just that.

    Read More

  • Unconditional Love in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    went out of his way for it to happen. It was much more the will

    Read More

  • Upton Sinclair's Work Conditions

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    Employment is hard to find and hard to keep and a job isn’t always what one hoped for. Sometimes jobs do not sufficiently support our lifestyles, and all too frequently we’re convinced that our boss’s real job is to make us miserable. However, every now and then there are reprieves such as company holiday parties or bonuses, raises, promotions and even a half hour or hour to eat lunch that allows escape from monotonous workloads. Aside from our complaints, employment today for majority of American’s isn’t totally dreadful, and there always lies opportunity for promotion. American’s did not always experience this reality in their work places though, and not long past are days of abysmal and disgusting work conditions. In 1906 Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” was published. His novel drastically transformed the way Americans felt about the unmitigated power corporations wielded in the ‘free’ market economy that was heavily propagandized at the turn of the century. Corporations do not have the same unscrupulous practices today because of actions taken by former President Theodore Roosevelt who felt deeply impacted by Sinclair’s famous novel. Back in early 1900’s in the meatpacking plants of Chicago the incarnation of greed ruled over the working man and dictated his role as a simple cog within an enormous insatiable industrial machine. Executives of the 1900’s meatpacking industry in Chicago, IL, conspired to work men to death, obliterate worker’s unions and lie to American citizens about what they were actually consuming in order to simply acquire more money.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    Upton Sinclair exposed the exploitation of Immigrants working in Chicago’s meatpacking industry during the early twentieth century. Many people believed his book “The Jungle” helped with the exposure of the corruption in the government during the twentieth century. The book focused mainly on the poor living and working conditions of Immigrants during the early twentieth century. Sinclair wanted to prove that labor unions and Progressive reform had little or no impact on improving the working conditions of Immigrants. He felt that capitalism, with or without unions or reform, would be bad for workers, especially immigrant workers who were even lower on the socioeconomic ladder than native-born workers. Sinclair 's book is meant to reject the capitalist system and bring in its place a socialist system. In this critical portrait of capitalism and its exploitation of immigrants and other workers, unions are in fact shown to be tools for the capitalist bosses, used as another means to control and mislead immigrants.

    Read More

  • Love In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    How are humans able to hate something they desire so badly? Love is something each and every individual seeks throughout their lifetime. Yet in some instances, love can hurt those who have fallen prey to their significant other. This is because, love is an emotional, physical, and psychological roller coaster with rapid unpredictable twists and turns. In Aldous Huxley’s riveting novel Brave New World, the concept of love is nothing but a fleeting emotion locked away and suppressed in the back of everyone's minds through conditioning and drug use. However, outside of their utopia resides a reservation; a peculiar land consisting of “savages”, religion, and love. In particular, there happens to be a savage named John that finds love utterly distasteful.

    Read More

  • The Search for True Love in The Chaser by John Collier

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Chaser,” by John Collier is a short story about a young man, Alan Austen, who is desperate to find love. Finding true love takes time and some people may not ever find it. Alan Austen has had a rough time finding true love and is looking for a way find it quickly. He is willing to try anything for love. Austen is searching for a potion the will make someone Diana fall in love with him. He does not want just anyone to fall in love with him; he wants Diana. Unfortunately, he is pursing is a fake love and he will live a miserable life if……. Austen will realize living without love is better than forcing love. In John Collier's "The Chaser," Alan Austen feels desperate to make Diana love him and ignores warning signs, but will eventually regret his rash decision to seek out the old man's potions.

    Read More

  • Exploration of Different Kinds of Love in Poems To His Coy Mistress, First Love and Porpyria's Lover

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    This shows that she has taken his love and that he is madly in love

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the early 1900's life for America's new Chicago immigrant workers in the meat packing industry was explored by Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle. Originally published in 1904 as a serial piece in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, Sinclair's novel was initially found too graphic and shocking by publishing firms and therefore was not published in its complete form until 1906. In this paper, I will focus on the challenges faced by a newly immigrated worker and on what I feel Sinclair's purpose was for this novel.

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast Remember and A Birthday by Christina Rossetti

    1905 Words  | 4 Pages

    the time when he won’t think of her in the natural flow of time which

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Beast In The Jungle

    783 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love is a variety of different feelings which can warm or hurt someone’s feeling. Love can fill-full or empty someone’s life; it has the unexpected power to conquer the world or destroy one’s bright future. Love’s infinite meaning has been proven in “The beast in the jungle” by Henry James. This short story describes about the friendship between John Marcher and May Bartram psychologically rather than physically. May has loved Marcher for years and is always by his side while Marcher did not realize or love her back. At the end of his life, Marcher suddenly discovered that he had wasted his life many years by living in fears and had lost his dearly friend like slipping water through his fingertips.

    Read More

  • The Language of Sexual Crime: Consent an Essential Factor in Sexual Offenses

    2045 Words  | 5 Pages

    at that time he knows that she does not consent to the intercourse or he is reckless as to whether she consents to it.”

    Read More

  • Love In Rudyard Ripling's The Power Of The Dog

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    Love is often perceived as romantic, the love and lust two shares with each other, but there are many dimensions to love. Love is also dejected, patient and jubilant. These type of loves were explored through the heartfelt poem ‘The Power of the Dog’ which explores unconditional love as being dejected, questioning the reader if they would ‘risk their heart for a dog to tear’. Rudyard Kipling ultimately questions his audience ‘why do we choose to do things that are only going to hurt us in the end’. Similar concepts were also explored through Shaun Welling’s short film, ‘If I Could Bark’, which explores the patient love of a dog and his owner. Jubilant love was explored through the highly loved novel Marley and Me, written by John Grogan, shows

    Read More

  • The Symbolism Of 'The House In The Jungle'

    228 Words  | 1 Pages

    The house the family bought in “The Jungle” had both positive and negative symbols. The house symbolized a place for hopes and dreams in the beginning of the story. The family came to America for a better life, but later in the story things changed.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird True Love

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Is a true love story the journey of a tragic romance? Or maybe it can simply be the tale of a widowed man loving those he cares for. This man is in Harper Lee’s classic American novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Atticus Finch’s daughter Scout tells the unassuming story of his presence in Maycomb County, Alabama. Maycomb and the Finches experience new people, places and conflicts only to ultimately reside in the embrace not of a lover, but the welcoming arms of Atticus. To Kill A Mockingbird tells the simple love story of Atticus Finch’s love for his family and those around him.

    Read More

  • Forbidden Love: A Short Story: Forbidden Love

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Brittany, there once was a knight who owned a horse. The knight, Peter, came off to be a very brave and noble man, but had a very dark side to him, which no one knew about. He was possessive, jealous and very selfish.

    Read More

More about Lost and Unseen Love as the Beast in Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle

Open Document