A Portrait of Characters in Henry James' the Beast in the Jungle

He had been standing by the chimney-piece, fireless and sparely adorned, a small perfect old French clock and two morsels of rosy Dresden constituting all its furniture; and her hand grasped the shelf while she kept him waiting, grasped it a little as for support and encouragement. She only kept him waiting, however; that is he only waited. It had become suddenly, from her movement and attitude, beautiful and vivid to him that she had something more to give him; her wasted face delicately shone with it - it glittered almost as with the white lustre of silver in her expression. She was right, incontestably, for what he saw in her face was the truth, and strangely, without consequence, while their talk of it as dreadful was still in the air, she appeared to present it as inordinately soft. This, prompting bewilderment, made him but gape the more gratefully for her revelation, so that they continued for some minutes silent, her face shining at him, her contact imponderably pressing, and his stare all kind but all expectant. The end, nonetheless, was that what he had expected failed to come to him.
Henry James, “The Beast in the Jungle”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature” 1865-1914 Volume C., p. 544

This passage, from Henry James’ “The Beast in the Jungle”, is very representative of the work as a whole in that it presents an accurate and precise view of the two main characters, John Marcher and May Bartram. The character profiles which can be derived solely from this passage are important as they speak not only to the characters themselves, but also to the extent to which individuals can and will go to blind themselves to what is, quite literally, directly in front of them, all the while focusing on some obscure and far-off glory. Ultimately, this passage serves as a striking criticism of blind adherence to the Romantic ideals that were so prevalent in America in the early 19th Century, but also offers a kinder message that those ideals can be achieved, if only they are strived for with realistic aims.