MILLICENT BELL
119
the attribution to men of all the admirable
human
qualities is the ulti–
mate sexual prejudice. And yet, James was not wrong if he sensed
that the division that had become so absolute between male and fe–
male life had been damning to both. As practical life had become
more brutalized the domain of the ethical and the aesthetic - "femi–
nized" if you will- had become more effete.
It
is for this reason that
Verena has no alternatives to Ransom, that the princess must marry
the third prince when he comes to claim her. His indubitable mascu–
linity, dreadful as it is, is a better thing than the offering of either of
her previous suitors, the meretricious publicist Matthias Pardon or
the rich dilettante, Burrage. For the sad fact - and it cannot be other
than sad under the circumstances - is that men and women are in–
complete without each other, and that Olive's radical feminism–
which dispenses with men altogether - will never work for most
women. But does marriage "work" either? James, deeply pessimistic,
hardly thought so as he foresaw Verena's tears. In any case, union
with Olive would have been no less productive of them, ultimately,
that union being founded, as the story shows, also on the principle of
dominion and submission, the rule of power.
BORIS SOUVARINE
1894-1984
