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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Beast in the Jungle, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate and Failure
Understanding and Connection
Love and Loss
Courage vs. Cowardice
Summary
Analysis
That April, Marcher goes to visit May. For the first time, she’s sitting without the fire on, and Marcher feels like she looks cold and distant. In fact, she looks like an “impenetrable” sphinx or an artificial lily, drooping but preserved. Usually, the house is carefully tended to, but now it looks like everything has been put away—it seems to Marcher that May’s work is done, which makes him feel abandoned. If her job for all these years was to wait for his fate, she must know his fate now, as he suspected earlier. After all, she no longer seems occupied. He’s been growing anxious about his fate, which he never was before.
Marcher continues to view May not as a person but as an extension of his own issues. He used to see May as a confidante, and he now sees her both as inanimate decoration and as a sphinx, a mythical creature that demands that travelers solve its riddles, usually in exchange for safe passage. In other words, May’s entire personality is still centered around Marcher’s fate (in Marcher’s eyes), but now she’s an obstacle—like a sphinx—rather than an ally, since she knows things that he doesn’t. Marcher claimed only a few pages earlier to be primarily concerned about May, but now it’s clear that he’s still concerned about himself, since he views her imminent death as a betrayal.
Themes
Literary Devices
Marcher doesn’t want to ask May what she knows about his fate in case he makes everything worse, so he talks around the subject instead, asking May what she thinks the worst possible fate would be. They’ve talked about this before, but May says that she couldn’t possibly choose. Marcher says there are some fates he’s thought of that he’s never mentioned, because they were too awful. Marcher notices that May’s eyes are the same as they were when she was younger, and they flicker as the two of them speak.
Because Marcher and May are trying not to bring up Marcher’s real fate, and because it’s not clear what May knows, this passage is vague. It’s not clear to readers why May won’t speculate about the worst fate (maybe because that’s the one she thinks Marcher will experience) or what unspeakably awful fate Marcher is referring to. However, because he previously seemed unafraid of death or bankruptcy, it seems likely that the worst fate for Marcher would be having no fate at all.
Themes
Marcher says that the two of them imagined lots of different fates for him, often taking those fates to the extreme. He notices that he’s speaking about his fate as if it already happened—he wishes that were true. May seems to question Marcher’s assertion that the two of them confronted most of Marcher’s possible fates. She finally agrees that he’s right but then says that some of their fears are things they’ve never spoken about. Marcher says that he could face the worst possible fate if he knew what it was, but he no longer has the power to imagine such awful things. However, he knows that May has imagined the worst possible fate, and he confronts her by saying that she knows something he doesn’t.
Yet again, Marcher suggests that his experience waiting for his fate is heroic in some way, because he has lived with imagining awful fates. And again, May is skeptical of this assessment, implying that her definition of courage differs from Marcher’s—in fact, May suggests that Marcher hasn’t even imagined all of his possible fates. This implies that there are things worse than death or bankruptcy, which are both fears that Marcher is now used to. Marcher once again believes that if he knew his fate, he could confront it, but this isn’t true—acclimating to one’s fears isn’t the same as actually confronting them. In fact, some imagined fates wouldn’t even require confrontation. For instance, if Marcher died suddenly, that wouldn’t demand bravery.
Themes
May denies knowing anything, but Marcher reminds her of their conversation on her birthday. Now, he sees that whatever his fate is, it must be the worst one imaginable. He’s asking May what it is now because he’s afraid of not knowing. He can sense that May is done with him and is abandoning him to his fate. Stiffly, May tells Marcher that the fate she’s keeping from him would be the worst, most monstrous thing imaginable—but it’s just her idea, still unconfirmed. She denies abandoning Marcher.
This is the first time Marcher has openly admitted to being afraid, but again, he believes that knowledge about his fate would make him unafraid, which runs counter to the normal definition of courage: confronting the things you’re afraid of. And again, Marcher views May as just an extension of himself rather than an individual, and he treats her death as though it’s a personal affront to him. This passage confirms that May doesn’t want to speculate about the worst possible fate because Marcher’s fate is the worst, assuming that May is right about what it is.
Themes
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May stands and walks toward Marcher, something she rarely does these days due to her illness. Though he has lots of questions for her, he starts by asking if he will “consciously suffer” due to his fate. She says he won’t, and he’s confused: why is his fate the worst fate imaginable if he’s not going to suffer? That seems to be the best-case scenario. She questions this, wondering if Marcher can truly imagine no better fate, and she seems to be talking about something specific.
Marcher’s attitude about his fate is contradictory, since he previously wanted to suffer. The fact that he won’t suffer seems to corroborate Marcher’s earlier fear that his fate is no fate at all—of all the fates that have been floated as possibilities, this seems like the one that would guarantee zero suffering. May’s comment to Marcher is ambiguous, because she’s suggesting that a life without suffering isn’t the best outcome. It’s possible that, like Marcher, she believes that he’d be a failure if he didn’t suffer. But it’s also possible that May is speaking generally and implying that a good fate sometimes involves suffering, too—therefore, a life without suffering isn’t always good.
Themes
Marcher gasps, believing he understands what she’s talking about and what she’s always thought his fate was. But May says that the fate she imagines for Marcher isn’t the same one she imagined previously (on her birthday). Marcher had assumed that his fate was to not have a fate at all, but she denies this: Marcher’s fate is real, and it’s still to come. It’s not too late. Over the course of their conversation, May has moved closer to Marcher, maybe to underscore the things she’s saying. She has to hold onto her shelf to keep upright, and Marcher can tell that there’s something else she wants to say or give to him, and he can also tell that she’s been telling the truth.
This passage confirms that when May questioned whether or not Marcher could imagine a better fate than one without suffering, she wasn’t hinting that his fate would be to have no fate, meaning she might have been saying that a good fate demands suffering. Additionally, readers might interpret May’s comment that her opinion about Marcher’s fate has changed to mean that she once thought Marcher wouldn’t have a fate and now thinks that he will (as Marcher assumes). But the novella doesn’t state this, and it’s possible that May has had two ideas about Marcher’s fate, both distinct from Marcher’s idea. After all, she’s always viewed his fate differently than him—remember that she once thought his fate would be love.
Themes
They keep staring at each other. Marcher expects May to say something, but she just shudders instead. He continues to stare, but she turns away and returns to her seat. He asks why she isn’t telling him what his fate is, but she says she’s too sick and calls for her maid. He almost wonders whether she’s going to die before she can tell him, but he stops himself before he can say this out loud. Still, she seems to know what he was about to say. She asks if he now knows what his fate is, and as the maid arrives, Marcher impatiently says that he still doesn’t know anything.
The novella intentionally leaves this passage vague, as Marcher has no idea what has just occurred between him and May. Her moving towards him, however, hints that perhaps she was trying subtly to initiate physical contact, and that perhaps this has to do with his fate. In his confusion, Marcher again confirms his selfishness, as he’s concerned about not learning his fate rather than about May’s health. It seems clear that May had hoped Marcher would guess his fate from their eye contact, and that she hoped he’d do something during their encounter that he didn’t do. Interestingly, this makes May a lot like Marcher—she wants to connect with him, but she’s unable to make that connection herself. She may have a reason for this, but it also might be cowardice on her part.
Themes
May exclaims out loud, and the maid asks if she’s in pain, which May denies. Marcher asks what just happened. As the maid leads May away, May corrects Marcher: he should be asking “what was to” happen.
This passage confirms that May expected something to happen during her encounter with Marcher, and that her expectation didn’t pan out. The full meaning of her words will become clear as the novella progresses, but for now, readers are left in the dark.
Themes
