Beast in the Jungle: You want to yell at him: Kiss her, you idiot!

Those who've read Henry James's "The Beast in the Jungle" will remember exactly how it ends: Marcher, now fairly old (we don't know his exact age) realizes that the great and unique event that he has been waiting for his whole life has already passed him by: what makes him unique is that he is the only person who has been unable to experience love, a man without feelings and emotions, or, to anticipate a later work - a Man without Qualities. He realizes this in a final dramatic scene, at the gravesite of his friend Bartram, standing there cool and intellectual, and he sees a man visiting another grave wracked by tears. Marcher understands then that he has no feelings. This story is tragic and horrifying, more powerful now on re-reading than I remember from first encounter many years ago. On first go through there is something foolish and idiotic about Marcher and his eogism; reading story now I also see the tragedy of his life, of every life in a way, thinking of missed opportunities and broken connections that for the ragged sleeve of everyone's life - but are at the heart of this life. Also, it's easy now to understand that Marcher's life is an echo of James's, a sexual outsider, who repressed his feelings - but of course who triumphed over his loneliness by creating great art. The final scene between Marcher and Bartram is almost comical: she's so obviously trying to get him to declare that he loves her, and he just doesn't see it (it does seem like James thinks we don't see it either, which we obviously do - James a little too close to his protagonist here) - and we get classic example of late-James dialogue, characters just totally unable to express their feelings - and you want to jump right into the page and grab Marcher and say: Kiss her, you idiot, or grab Bartram and make her say: I love you, you madman! But, no, their tragedy is that they can't, don't - and she dies unloved and he, at the end, flings himself onto her grave, his life gone by him, wasted.