How do we account for what appears to be a lie, however, in the context of the representation in "The Jolly Corner" of genderized political struggle? We might refer to Marlow's lie to Kurtz's intended—a lie Marlow justifies as a strategy to protect the woman from a truth too dark for her to comprehend or bear. Staverton's prevarication would reverse the gender roles—here a woman protects an aging man from a truth too horrible for him to bear—but it also secures an emotional (and perhaps financial and political) victory for her. We might also turn to another late James work for significant intertextual resonance. Alice Staverton's subtle, yet authoritative and successful, verbal ministrations can be read as a later examination of what Maggie Verver accomplishes in The Golden Bowl. While very different in age, both Verver.....
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