3. The Jolly Corner - Henry James

The Jolly Corner – L'angolo bello

Henry James (1908)
The Jolly (simple: plot) Corner (difficult: structure and language). Is written by Henry James in 1908. It's interesting because it opens with the language of the 20^th century but at the same time it uses words, sentences and focuses on problems that are central for understanding the 19^th century American Literature.

General ideas about the story

• It's very simple because not many things happened in the story but at the same time Henry James makes it philosophical and intricate (the plot is simple).
• There are a lot of pages to understand, not so much the development of the story but the way in its structure and his point of view.
• Henry James is considered one of the most interesting writers from the stylistic point of view (he writes by paragraph, NOT by sentences).

Characters

Spencer Brydon

He's the main character. He's a man who returns to New York after living 33 years in Europe [33 years = reminds us of Jesus Christ: it's like a ritual death]. This man has always been interested in Art. He goes back to NY after so many years which is something that we will find in the American Culture.

American Culture has been obsessed by European Culture, so in the 1920s there is a big group of writers who go to live in Paris. After the 1^st World War some writers, that have fought in this War, were fascinated by Paris, so they decided to go back there: for this reason this group is called Espatriate and there were famous people inside (for example Hemingway, F.S. Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby", Gertrude Stein "Picasso" – she was an experimental novelist – and "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas").

Europe

• Has to do with history because one of the problems Americans had to face is the idea of America lacking history – they go to Europe to understand their own rules because most of Americans came from Europe, but they felt their rules (together with history they are interested in Art).
• There is an interest in European Tradition (United States do not have a strong historical tradition).
• European Culture is strongly more attractive, so people go to Europe to find out a part of the human soul that is still missing in the United States.

America

• It's the land of opportunity. America doesn't have tradition but it offers more opportunity for wealth, development, creativity. America seems to be the place where you can get money, where you could have success (there isn't any weight of the past, but at the same time there isn't any memory of the past).

Spencer returns to the US

When Spencer goes back to America, he is very cultured because he spent many years visiting museums and art exhibitions (he studies the history of Art) – [Many steps in the story are autobiographical because also Henry James was an American who spent some time in Europe. He returned to NY but he decided to fly back to Europe and spent the rest of his time there].

When Spencer goes back to the US, he revisits his house: his relatives are dead and he finds out that NY has changed very fast, very rapidly. On one hand, he's totally horrified by the changes; he doesn't like skyscrapers.

It's quite common in the 19^th century: rich people would be many European aristocrats, to give historical importance (they become books collectors, ancient things collectors, ...). But at the same time Spencer discovers to have something in common with this business (in fact the family business is building houses). He starts to relate with the present NY, but at the same time he starts to relate with the ideas of the past (what would he become if he stayed in NY?).

William James (Henry James' brother – filosofo/psicologo)

At the end of the 19^th century, he alluded to Henry James' story and developed the double personality which became the basis of the division of the mind in three parts by Freud. He commented that the story of his brother seems similar to another story of E.A. Poe: William Wilson – a story where the protagonist (WW) lives in England, goes to school in London and realizes that in the school where he's studying there is another boy who looks exactly like him, who moves like him and whose name is William Wilson.

Spencer Brydon's houses

Spencer Brydon has two houses: one where he lives and the other is the Jolly Corner House where he grew up. It's a totally empty house, nobody has rented it because the family decided to keep it as a commemoration of their existence. Spencer goes there every day and starts to walk through the rooms and little by little he realizes that in the house there is a ghost.

The Ghost

It's not the ghost of some member of the family but it's probably the ghost of himself: the ghost of what he could have been if he had decided to stay in the US and spend his life in NY, working with buildings. Spencer begins to relate with this ghost and discover a part inside him he never knew.

Mrs. Muldon

She's the cleaning woman who cleans the Jolly Corner House every day. Brydon asked her to clean the house in the evening/night but she's afraid because she senses a presence in the house.

The Narrator

It's External. It's a narrating voice which does not participate; it's anonymous and partially omniscient. He's in all the story but he doesn't know some details of the story. He realizes that the ghost is a mystery in the life of Spencer but he's not revealing the meaning to the reader.

Alice Staverton

She's the female figure of Spencer's childhood. She goes with him when he checks his building and she listens to him when he constantly reminds his ghost and comments about his life and choices. She's like a psychologist and she develops some intimate affections for Brydon (they fall in love at the end of the story).

The text

Crowds

It seems the story of Edgar Allan Poe, The Man of the Crowd, because the houses in NY are described with compassion and there is a reference to William Wilson. [The Man of the Crowd is a story about a man who walks around NY and the narrator is sitting and looking at the passengers passing by and is very much surprised by the man who seems to be in a state of trance. He just walks so he starts to follow him to see where he goes. At the end of the day, after having followed the man all day, he goes in front of him thinking the man will speak but he has lost his identity, he's a part of the crowd – IDEA OF THE CROWD – negative interpretation].

The passage from a small crowd to a bigger one was fast (the existence of the crowd is a threat – POE). Henry James takes from this story the idea of the crowd. In NY he only has Alice, who has also lived the changes of NY, and Spencer, who knows exactly what's going on inside of him. He's also magnetized by the house of the Jolly Corner on the 5^th avenue of Washington Square. Spencer lives in a Hotel, goes to the club, he's a rich man and receives properties: one of them is to renovate to make money and the other is the family home, but Spencer refuses to give it to the market, to sell it. He never worked in the family business (but he lives on the money of the family business so he has also a sense of guilt, for this reason he sells the JC).

When he goes to the house he hopes to find his alter-ego. He doesn't want to open the door and run away but finally, he meets the ghost, his alter-ego who's dressed in an elegant suit but has a horrible face. In fact, where they meet for the first time the ghost will cover his face. Behind the idea of monstrosity, there is what he thinks about business and at the same time, it's his own monstrosity why he lost his face in NY (ha perso la faccia davanti alla famiglia e questo è uno dei motivi per cui non vuole andare ad abitare in quella casa – si sente talmente in colpa che si sente inadeguato a viverci, però ci va tutti i giorni alla ricerca di questo fantasma che oltre ad aver perso la faccia, gli mancano due dita). The narrator tells us that he lost these two fingers in a fire exchange, it means that something is violent (the business is violent).

Finally, Alice finds Spencer and declares her love for him; she felt pity for him.

• Memory – is a way to remember the best.
• Loneliness – everybody is dead, he has taken some decisions, and he lost his family (not only the family, he also has lost the image of the city where he lives: when he goes back to NY everything is changing very quickly (new buildings are coming up).
• American Dream – by going to Europe Spencer doesn't see the American dream and when he goes back he becomes a sort of spectator of the American dream. When he goes back he's an observer, it's a disgusting observer of what he sees. [nel dedicarsi al sogno Americano la gente perde l'anima. In questo attaccamento al progresso monetario c'è tutta una critica ad uno stile di vita che implica una riduzione degli interessi culturali].

Dichotomy

The problem of the American Dream (l'attaccamento al progresso monetario e la gente che perde l'anima).