Abstract

This article aims to prove the inaccuracy of the queer reading of Henry James’s “The Beast in the Jungle” (1903). The paper shows how the queer theorist Eve Kosofsky misinterprets the character of John Marcher as concealing homosexuality. The paper is not just affirming that there are no signs of homosexuality in the selected work, but it also transforms the argument to show how James, as a psychotherapist, treats the anxiety and fear of his male protagonist who behaves strangely in a world full of sophistication. The article concludes that the queer reading of “The Beast in the Jungle” is imprecise and provides a new psychological reading which is based on Implosion Therapy. This new reading adds strength to the perspective which refuses to sexualize everything in James’s work.

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