EXISTENTIAL FEMINISM IN HENRY JAMES’S THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE: A BEAUVOIRIAN STUDY

Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle” (۱۹۰۳) shows the two genders struggling with life and each other simultaneously. While John Marcher, the protagonist, maintains his “grey” existence, May Bertram seeks to redeem his life with her “finer nerves.” Aware of the answer to the riddle of Marcher’s existence, May feels bound to tend her troubled relationship with him in a circle of deception. The way May is deprived of what she looks for in her life by Marcher’s behavior can be explained by Simone de Beauvoir’s existential feminism. De Beauvoir is the first existential feminist who attests to the environment and society's role in constructing gender roles. She believes that women are often relegated to an animal-like life by getting limited to a reproductive function and being deprived of social involvement due to their physical weakness. Hence, they are the Hegelian “Other.” However, such feminine experience, she argues, is historically imposed on women by the repressive discourse of patriarchy. The present article argues that by using de Beauvoir’s existentialist ethics and feminist philosophy, the way May, confined by her feminine roles of responsibility and engagement, is relegated to the status of “Other” can be best illustrated.

Keywords:

Simone de Beauvoir , existential feminism , The Beast in the Jungle , Henry James , “Other”