Henry James

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Dark and light imagery
The Beast in the Jungle is a book that utilizes both dark and light imagery to depict how seasons go by annually. Seasonal imagery is used to refer to the cyclical nature time and the fact that it is endless. Changing of seasons goes on forever without stopping. It depicts that the nature of events that occur in the story happen over time and are eternal. Emphasis is placed on the dark and light imagery because May Bartram and John Marcher the main characters are named after the third and fifth months of the year. March is used to depict the end of winter to usher in spring that is from darkness to light. Despite this Marcher remains constant as time passes. The place where they first meet, Weathered suggests the change or end of time. The major scenes in the story take place either in spring or autumn. Spring is used to depict opportunity and the promise of happy times ahead which signifies light (James 23). Fall is used to show the opposite that is the coming of dark times. Spring is used to depict light whereas autumn shows dark; therefore, fall and spring are used to describe May’s and Marcher’s relationship characterized by both light and darkness. The author points out that May and Marcher meet in the tenth month of the year or autumn hence showing why the two characters are endowed with low self-esteem and sadness. Meeting in Autumn further tells the reader that Marcher’s life if full of crises.
May’s purpose is to light up Marcher’s dark life.

She plays a major role in bringing light in the form of knowledge into Marcher’s life. When they meet in Weathered Marcher recalls the first time he meets her years ago in Rome. He recollects that “her face and her voice all at his service now worked a miracle the impression operating like the torch of a lamplighter who touches into flame, one by one a long row of gas jets’’ (“Analyze and Discuss the Seasonal And/or Dark and Light Imagery in “The Beast in the Jungle.”” n.p.). Marcher recounts the details of the first encounter even the smallest details. This shows that Marcher dark past has been lit. The operation of a lamplighter’s torch is likened to Marcher’s confidence and memory after meeting May for the first time. This realization turns out to be opposite since darkness in marcher life is clearly illustrated when later on may gives her encounter of their first meeting by revealing of something that marcher had not remembered. When May informs him of his confession during their meeting, the writer points out that a light breaks from Marcher. Even when May is sick, that light can still be seen in her eyes. Despite her sickness, Marcher describes her eyes as gorgeous and possessing a strange light that seems cold.
Sunday marked May’s birthday that Henry describes as a season characterized with outward gloom and thick fog. This further illustrates the seasonal imagery and darkness. The thick fog suggests that Marcher has no idea about his fate. He is not sure about his future. It shows the veil over his eyes concerning his future. When May is ill during late April, and they meet, during their conversation she gives him that hint about the “beast’’ but marcher fails to understand the clue. The beast is a darkness that hunts Marcher which likes the changing of seasons he is unable to change. She tells him “you admitted it months ago when I spoke of it to you as of something you were afraid I should find out” (“Beast in the Jungle by Henry James – Full Text Free Book” n.p.).
At the end, May leaves Marcher stranded and in darkness again. Even if may was an important woman in his life that is the bringer of light marcher has less claim to this, the writer says that even the stupidest cousin had more. Even the visit to May grave does not help. Shockingly, ties were cut between Marcher and the woman who had played a role in lighting up his life. In the final scene when Marcher is in the cemetery, it is in autumn. The author depicts that light and dark are seasonal in a person’s life because Marcher’s life is once more plunged into darkness when May dies. The fall day that May, and Marcher meets in Weatherend returns. Even though the two days take place in autumn, that is “when leaves were thick in the alleys’’ therefore depicting how the two days diverge. In Weatherend there was a promising prospect, but in the cemetery, Marcher has nothing to look forward to in life because all hope is gone.
Henry James has used the seasonal and light and dark imagery very well in dramatizing the different events in the story. Seasonal imagery is used throughout the story; it is used in naming the characters stressing motivation and in emphasizing the unlived life of the main character. The use of seasonal imagery can portray the inner life of John Marcher, the main character very well. It tells a life of omissions and opportunities missed rather than that of accomplished deeds. Unlike seasons that change John, marcher life remains the same. Seasonal imagery has been used to show the contrast in marcher life with nature that is a refusal to change.
 

Works Cited
“Analyze and Discuss the Seasonal And/or Dark and Light Imagery in “The Beast in the Jungle.”.” ENotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.
“The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James – Full Text Free Book.” FullBooks.com – Thousands of Full-Text Free Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. <http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Beast-in-the-Jungle.html>.
James, Henry. The Beast in the Jungle. Champaign: Project Gutenberg, 1990. Print.