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Analyze and discuss the seasonal and/or dark and light imagery in "The Beast in the Jungle."

In James' "The Beast in the Jungle," both seasonal and "dark" and "light" imagery are used to highlight the passage of time and changing of the physical seasons. This is done in order to evoke a sense of repetition and the cyclical quality of nature and events which occur over time. These events, such as the changing of the seasons and the rising and falling of the sun, are eternal; that is to say, they go on forever without stopping.


The characters in the story are named after months of the year, Marcher and May, and the house where they first meet is called Weatherend. Throughout the story, each scene of importance in which the two main characters interact takes place during either spring or fall. Spring is a season which reminds us of opportunity, promise, and the coming of happy times ahead. This can be characterized as "light," while fall can be characterized as the coming of a "dark" time, or winter, when depression and a sense of loss are common.


For example, October is when May and Marcher meet at Weatherend, during which they both experience a feeling of melancholy and a loss of purpose. In section IV of the story, May is sick and Marcher doesn't understand her mention of the "beast" when she alludes to it. The "beast" is a darkness, or an ill fate that seems to be hunting Marcher, and he has a sense of foreboding about it, as though he cannot do anything to stop it, as with the changing of the seasons. May's birthday even takes place in the fall, which is during a time of "general outward gloom." During this time there is fog, which could suggest a blockage in what Marcher is capable of seeing; he is unsure of his own future, of his fate. The last scene of the story takes place in a cemetery during the autumn, a setting which bodes ill for the future, and shows the ushering in of darkness once more.

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