Appearance Vs. Reality Essay -- essays research papers

One of the characteristics of Realism, in American literature at least, is the ironic use of perceptions of sort vs. reality. With this in mind, Henry Jamess The Real Thing and The Beast in the Jungle be two works wherein such characteristics can be shown to solve as James employs cleverly woven twists of appearance and reality in each of the plots.In Jamess The Real Thing, the plot is centered on an unnamed artist and his interactions with two sets of models the Monarchs (members of genteel society), and Miss Churm and Oronte (members of the working class). The ironically named Monarchs are a couple who appear as though they bedevil disco biscuit thousand a year but whose lives diverge dramatically from the literal definition of a monarch. Upon introduction to the artist, they unwittingly deceive him into initially assuming that they are interested in commissioning a portrait in fact, the Monarchs are seeking work as sitters. The case of mistaken identity is further heighten by the artist who pretends to be a nifty painter of portraits but who is actually an illustrator whose depictions of nobility constitute his main source of income his pot-boilers. Jamess basic interplay of character identity with appearance and reality serves as a clever backdrop for the story where reality conflicts with appearance.While their outward social appearance and actions have an indefinable air of prosperous thrift and personify that of high-class society, the Major and Mrs. Monarch are actually penniless and no longer members of the genteel sect. moreover the Monarchs are unable to resolve their appearance of high society with their reality of financial destitution, and remain psychologically entrapped in a self-imposed netherworld of pseudo-culture and pseudo-class. insistent upon being treated as members of the high society to which they no longer belong, the Monarchs also present a conflict of appearance and reality for the artist because he is forced to allow the m the social deference of portrait sitters, yet pay them as models (viewed as their superior but not their equal). The complexity of appearance vs. reality is further illustrated when the artist realizes that while Major and Mrs. Monarch may appear to be the real thing, he is unable to transform their outward reproval of nobility onto his canvas without sacrificing his ... ...m. James counters Marchers emotional distance from reality with May Bartrams embrace of life and love. But it is through the voyeuristical glimpse into Marchers internal machinations that readers understand the waste of a life based upon appearances.Like the Monarchs in The Real Thing whose marriage to appearances entrapped them in world devoid of emotion, John Marchers identity is innately linked to fine things, intrinsic features, pictures, heirlooms, and treasures of the arts and he is similarly constrained in a self-imposed world of apathy. Although it appears that Marcher has an enriched life, he is act ually a man with rather colourless (emphasis added) manners who is satisfied to wait for the elusive ample thing to happen. Because Marcher remains afraid to confront the beast (the metaphoric unknown in life), it is not until the death of May Bartram that he realizes her love for him was the great thing, and that he was waiting for something that he unknowingly possessed. The simple truth that John Marcher recognized albeit too late is that It wouldnt have been failure to be bankrupt, dishonoured, pilloried, hanged it was failure not to be anything.