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The Demon Lover And The Disturbing Lover

Decent Essays

Marriage has been an important aspect of life for thousands of years. While the world has not always married people formally, the link between a wife, her husband, and both their families has been a significant part of history; however, things change. Many women cheat and have children that are not their husbands’. It has been a problem since Mesopotamian society; at least, that is as far back as society can trace it. Ancient societies started making laws against the adultery of a woman and punished them for cheating. While the laws have disappeared, adultery has still continued through history. Both the “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen and the Scottish ballad “The Daemon Lover” deliver messages in order to warn women to stay faithful to their partners, no matter the circumstances. Bowen’s “The Demon Lover” expresses a warning to women during times of war. The story takes place at the beginning of World War 2 and tells the tale of a woman, Mrs. Drover, who remarried after her fiance was presumed dead during his time in the war, but many years later, received a letter from him. She was awestruck, but she had a husband and kids …show more content…

Both stories have the woman remarry and have kids (though the number of kids varies) and the woman reunites with the man in some form, whether through the letter in Bowen’s story or in person in the ballad. Also, the end of the stories are similar, the ballad ends in the sinking of the ship and the couple going to hell and Bowen’s story ends in the taxi speeding away without mercy, (arguably) taking the taxi driver, the Devil, and Mrs. Drover to hell. Both stories varied in details. The number of children changed and the story of the woman changes. The ballad is more straight to the point and conveys the message quickly in contrast to “The Demon Lover” in which the story is more descriptive and is left to deeper

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