In James' short story "The Jolly Corner," the readers are introduced to the fifty six year old Spencer Brydon. Brydon becomes engrossed with the search for his past life, or "alter ego" (176). However, Brydon soon realizes that his idea of his past life has a physical form. What is the function of giving this idea physical form, a ghostly one at that? At some points in the story, his pursuit is referred to as a challenge,
"he had tasted of no pleasure so fine as his actual tension, had been introduced to no sport that demanded at once the patience and the nerve of stalking a creature more subtle, yet at bay perhaps more formidable, that any beast in the jungle" (175).
Is this a healthy pursuit? Or does Brydon lose himself in the idea of attaining something he can't have? Where else in our readings have we seen characters attempting to attain something and how has that worked for them?
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In The Jolly Corner, Brydon becomes overwhelmed with all that has happened in his town since he left over thirty years ago. During the visit Brydon becomes overly obsessed with what his life would have been like had he never left New York. He visits the two properties which he owns there, and is shocked to see what has become of them. One of them, for example, has been transformed into a block of apartments. Byron recognizes that although he has been living a very comfortable life in Europe, he may have been more successful had he continued his work in New York. After considering this, Brydon becomes obsessed with the idea of this other life that he could have possibly led. “He found all things come back to the question of what he personally might have been, how he might have led his life and ‘turned out’, if he had not so, at the outset, given it up”(169). Brydon addresses something that many face when reaching a certain age. However his fixation on it causes him to mentally conjure up an alter ego and ultimately leads to him going a bit crazy. During the nighttime he wanders his old home, looking for this alter ego. He becomes so convinced that it exists somewhere in there that one night he actually “finds” it hiding behind a door. The “ghostly” form of the alter ego serves to show that looking too much into what could have happened can create a dangerous situation.
As we mentioned in class after watching Twin Peaks and Rear Window, our behavior is often a product of our environment. Brydon finds himself constantly questioning, “What would it have made of me?(169)He seems to recognize the fact that our environment shapes how we act and live our daily lives. It is not necessarily a “healthy pursuit” which Byron has in the beginning, but rather a normal or human one. However, as the story progresses it becomes quite unhealthy, to the point where he is driving himself crazy over something he cannot control or change. His thoughts in the story are very reminiscent of Robert Frosts’ poem “The Road Less Traveled”. It is normal as humans to question what would happen if we were to have chosen different paths in life.
I agree with Erin that this relates to the idea of one's environment having a significant impact on their behavior. It is because Spencer Byron has returned to his native environment that he begins to be obsessed with the idea of what type of person he would be if he were to have stayed. He ultimately finds that his environment has had a major influence on the person he has become. His alter ego, the one that stayed in New York instead of going to Europe, is completely different from himself. This other version is so different that Byron continues to doubt that it really was him: “This Brute, with his awful face-this brute’s a black stranger. He’s none of me, even as a might have been. ” (192)
I agree with Erin that that questioning how things could have been different is natural human instinct. Spencer Byron, however, has definitely taken it a step too far and has developed an unhealthy obsession. Despite this unhealthy obsession, however, I believe that finding his alter ego in the end was a positive thing. First of all it ends his obsessive questioning of what life could had been like for him, and second of all it seems to make him appreciate his own life more: "He had come back, yes-come back from further away than any man but himself had ever traveled; but it was strange how with this sense what he had come back to seemed really the great thing, and if this prodigious journey had been all for the sake of it.” (189)
This story had some similarities to Ceremony in which Tayo had to undergo a certain process in order to regain his sense of identity. Before completing the ceremony, Tayo was haunted by memories of his past. In this story Byron is attempting to find his alter ego. He is haunted by what he could have been like if he had remained in New York. After returning from a strange mental journey, Byron has finally found out what he could have been and this has allowed him to let go of the past.
In the Jolly Corner, Brydon loses all sense of control and has a feeling of vanity (emptiness). As Erin went into great detail with, he comes back to New York City some thirty years after being abroad in Europe, living the leisurely life. He plans to tear down the old family house for a nicer apartment, for lack of money. After returning home and seeing all the dramatic changes that have taken place in the past three decades, he gets that human question (as Erin talked about) of "what could have been?" He goes onto rant on page 169, 'What would it have made of me, what would it have made of me?' He came to all questions of 'what he personally might of been.' (169) We come to points in our lives where we ask this question and usually it comes during middle age, known as our 'mid life crisis.' Instead of wanting a new sports car and 20 year old wife, Brydon sees his alter ego in the form of a ghost, the person he could or would have been if he had taken a different path...business.
I do not think Brydon's pursuit was a healthy one. It is normal for someone to question their pasts and have a few regrets, but the good thing is that many of us can look past that and look to the future and see what life still has to offer. Brydon was more concerned with events and decisions that he made that cannot be undone. He chose to live the life of leisure for over thirty years. There is no changing that now. It soon becomes a 'morbid obsession' with him as he sees and confronts his ghost. We are left to question whether or not it actually happened or if it was just a bad dream as he wakes up on Alice's lap.
A little off topic, but we see Lisa try to 'attain' Jefferies attention in "Rear Window" as she becomes part of his adventure in capturing the murderer across the way. We can assume that things will be good for both Lisa and Jefferies, but we cannot be sure.
James' ghost story "The Jolly Corner" demonstrates, as Erin and Tara P. said, that we are products of our environments. Brydon comes back to New York to sell his family's old home, which is nicknamed "Jolly Place." He has been away from his home for years since he has been living "the leisurely life" in Europe the past few years. Upon his return to New York, Brydon starts to question his choices in life. He begins to realize that his life would have been dramatically different had he chosen the wealthy life over his life of leisure. Brydon visits the house twice everyday, and begins to think that he alter ego, the man he could have been, inhabits the house. He searches the house for his alter ego, eventually finding it behind a closed door. Sometimes we find things because we have been looking for them, such as in Brydon’s case.
Brydon has changed because of the environment that he was inhabiting in Europe, but when he returns to New York, he questions the fact that he could have been another person, and that questioning starts to influence him. I agree with Tara P. that Brydon’s questioning is a healthy human instinct. Many humans wonder what he or she may have been fi they had taken another route in life, although I do agree that Brydon has gone to the extreme on this one. By imagining up a ghost of his alter ego, Brydon is allowing for his “new” environment, New York and “Jolly Place,” to influence him dramatically. But as Eric said, do we even know if Brydon actually encountered his alter ego, or was it all a bad dream?
You have all mentioned the idea of being a product of our environment(s), but what about others who are exposed to this environment i.e. his maid and Mrs. Staverton who accompanies Brydon? Also can his short visit really have changed his behavior that much?
Brydon becomes overly obsessed with what he could have been which is very unhealthy because he's just aspiring to be something he cannot. He develops an obsession once he realizes he could have been very successful if he had stayed in New York instead of going abroad. When one focuses more on what could have happened in the past instead of what will happen in the future, it is very possible for them to lost touch with reality, which is what ultimately happens to Brydon. Trying to figure our what could have occurred required Brydon to create an alternate reality and descend down the path of insanity. His mental production of a new reality also required him to create an alter ego to live in it, and ultimately severed most of his ties to actuality. But it wasn't all negative, for he ended up appreciating life more and he stops his incessant questioning of what life would have been like when he realizes how debilitating it is to him.
Like everyone else stated, this goes along with the motif that one is the product of one's environment. As Anthony states, it didn't affect his maid the same way, but you can't expect a specific environment to influence everyone the same way. If I was thrust into the ghettos of New York I would have a different reaction than my little brother would, even though we grew up in the same household and spent a lot of time together. In Brydon's case, it didn't require an incredibly long visit to change his behavior, for that was all it took for him to start questioning himself.
I think that erin's and tara's idea that Brydon is in fact a product of his environment, but in response to Anthony's second question, I think it is Brydon's unfamiliarity with a place in which he used to be so familiar with that has spurred his "what if" obsesion. when he comes back to what could have been a "better" life he obvisouly begins to lose a sense of familiarity with both new york and himself. the realization that he probably made the wrong choice is obviously something that is disconcerting to him. In response to this he creates this uncanny double in which to explore different aspects of himself and "what could have been". This reminds me of the movie fight club, in which the character creates this figment of his imagination in which to live his life through. Not to get too freudian everyone, but i think it sort of relates to the roles of the id and the ego and the perception of reality. The way a person perceives themselves is important to their sanity. In brydon's case he realized that his perception of his "good" life was not good at all and therefore came completely undone. Although this had a lot to do with his environment I thinkt hat ultimately it his own realization of himself and his surroundings that finally allow him to accept his decisions.
Anthony hit on several extremely interesting points in his questions. I think it is important to realize however, the role that his childhood home plays in Brydon’s nightmarish pseudo-reality is never independent of his psyche. It is not an uncommon occurrence for one to inherit their childhood home. It is altogether another to inherit it and immediately assume it holds the specter of all ones lost possibilities. Just as, in Twin Peaks, it is revealed that the murdered Laura had been harboring dark and self destructive tendencies for some time, it is clear that this regretful and damaging progression of thoughts had taken up residence in Brydon for some time previously. He has been trapped for some time in a prison of his own making- I think it is in fact a healthy thing that he finally is given the opportunity to lay this fascination out in a place where he might meet it on his own terms, and therefore become reconciled with it.
Brydon’s character is also in many ways like that of Alex’s in Into the Wild. He has a curious ideal running around in his mind of how he ought to have turned out, a conviction that the path he was currently on was the wrong one. He must have expected to get some value out of seeing his better other that an alteration of some sort would occur. It is clear from the frightening apparition he sees that his idealism was unfounded; there is much less satisfaction in fulfilling a goal than many initially intend there to be. What, however, can we make of his manifestation, or Alice’s visions? If we place all paranormal happenings into the realm of simple mental projection, it seems as if they are merely reassuring themselves about their pasts. If Brydon had stayed, he would have been that monster—therefore their time apart was not actually wasted. But what if it was meant to be real? What role, then, does memory have on a place, and vice versa? What does the previous history of a place change for its occupants? Home, for Brydon at least, cannot exist without being viewed through some philter of the past.
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