Fate in Henry James The Beast In The Jungle Essay -- Henry James, The

Henry James always managed to keep certain themes in his works similar. The ace that usually stands out most is his literary battles mingled with American and European customs. This is especially apparent in three of his works, Daisy moth miller A Study, Roderick Hudson, and The Portrait Of A Lady. However, in his shortly drool, The Beast In The Jungle, there is another theme that takes center stage. That theme is fate moreover, the unsuccessful person to control that fate.In The Beast In The Jungle, we are introduced to John underling, single of the main characters. Immediately afterwards, we meet May Bartram, someone he had met close to ten years prior in Naples, Italy, although he had accidentally idea it to be Rome. The two are getting along splendidly, in a flirtatious way, leaving the reader to wonder about the future of this manque couple. However, it is then that we find out what eventually kills the hopes of every kind of amatory connection, as May recalls Johns s pecial h dodderingupYou said you had had from your earliest time, as the deepest thing within you, the sense of being kept for something rare and strange, by chance prodigious and terrible, that was sooner or later to happen to you, that you had in your swot up the foreboding and the conviction of, and that would perhaps overwhelm you (TBITJ, 338).Marcher believes that he is destine to experience something but he is not sure what it is that he is delay for. May probes deeper, possibly revealing something about herself and her desire for a connection, asking, Isnt what you define perhaps but the expectation--or at any rate the sense of danger, known to so many people--of falling in love? (TBITJ, 339). He dialogue about a love that he had but that it was not this massive thing that she talks of. She replies, saying, Then it hasnt been love (TBITJ, 338).This whole conversation has been one flirtatious period of time. However, it quickly turns back to the topic of his fate, cutt ing short any additional talk of love, possibly leading somewhere. This was a missed opportunity for the both of them because of his obsession with the mysterious destiny. The discussion ends with her promising to gull with him (TBITJ, 340). And yet, the reason that she will try him again is not to pursue any sort of normal relationship. It is simply the desire to be there when whatsoever happens to him oc... ...life has become and what is should have been. He realizes that the beast was actually the person that he met for the second time back in the house in Weatherend at the beginning of the story. Henry James works have been known to have a certain autobiographical aspects to them. Looking at his life, one can see that he did not marry either and, just like in Daisy Miller A Study and most of his other works, the main characters story does not end happily. Throughout the entire time of the story, and more-so his life, John Marcher felt that there was something that he should be waiting for to happen. Something that was spectacular or, instead, brought suffering, he did not have any measure of a clue. Yet he continued to wait for that beast to jump out from the jungle and explode an incident. But what he never understood until the end of the story was that, perhaps, the and beast to be springing forth from the jungle of his life was the pretty swan. Perhaps, the old saying is truly correct, Carpe Diem.Work CitedJames, Henry. The Beast in the Jungle. The Norton Anthology American Literature. 7th Edition. Vol. C. New York W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 335-376.