Literary criticism - Research Paper Example

She is looked after well in the house and in return she does service in the house. As per ( Dover) “May’s great-aunt leaves her a legacy, which enables her to live in a small house in London, where from time to time she meets Marcher, who is a government clerk there”. She is friend and confidante to the hero. The other minor characters are the great aunt, man at the cemetery and visitors at weatherend house, the maid and people at May’s funeral. The central metaphor the novel is hunt.

Marcher likens himself to a man who is hunted by a wild beast in the jungle. He feels that any moment this beast can attack him and his life will change forever. He has no idea whether he will kill the beast or the beast will kill him. The story keeps the readers waiting to discover what will be the beast in the story. However, both reader and marcher fail in this attempt of facing the beast. Here, the author has the purpose of opening the eyes of the people towards the fact that life is not one – dimensional.

In the story, the female character, May has all the answers to the questions of Marcher which obviously he does not know. The story essentially focuses on two components, that which concentrates on May Bartram’s secret and the other that belonging to John Marcher narrative journey. This story is all about a man named Marcher who is in pursuit of a beast which would transpire his life. According to ( Bobe) “John Marcher, James's tragic protagonist, is so propelled by a fear of that unknown abyss that he inadvertently allows his fear to deliver him to the very emptiness that he is trying to avoid”.

The names of the two characters give an aura of seasonal melancholy and they are autumnal being. The hero Marcher has a feeble identity and passivity in him. There is enormous silence between Marcher and May who fails to be a couple. As per (O’Leary) “What gives Marcher grandeur is not only the thoroughness of his encounter with the essential loneliness of his life, but the correlation of this with depth and scope of consciousness – the very stuff of art for the writer James”. In the story, the female character May is less explained about.

Since the dialogues between Marcher and May were abstract and elliptical less is revealed about her character. The story has a theme of quest as the protagonist Marcher is in a constant hunt of a beast. He considers himself to be a chosen one for some happening which is extra – ordinary. His major part of life is spending in discovering the truth about his imagination. As per ( Hussain) “In "The Beast in the Jungle", the entire development is focused to illustrate the main theme: John Marcher is waiting the worst of all imaginable things to happen to him”.

The story also has the theme of fate and failure in it. These are also an important theme of the novel. Marcher in this story is a failure. He lives in a fantasy world and does not do anything which is worth of appreciation. Fate also plays a significant role in his life. May who is a confidante and friend of Marcher dies due to a fatal blood borne illness. In the story, marcher is sorrowed by the death of his friend. So we can definitely comment that his failure has been aggravated by the cruel fate.

He is certainly alone after her death and has no one to turn for emotional support. As per (Wijaya) “ Through May, we had our glimpses of hope for his salvation”. There are also some minor themes of loneliness and frustration in the novel. Marche