In the story of the “The Demon Lover” Mrs. Dover’s character starts off as a normal prosaic woman struggling in the times and hardships of the second world war. Much like many of the English people, she had been shaken by the detriment that had been caused by this war. However, soon she discovers a letter embedded with the reminder of the sinful promise she had broken years ago. Upon reading the letter speaking of her promise, she is infected with a paralyzing fear that eventually devolves her into a paranoid, hallucinating woman. Her paranoia creates the story of “The Demon Lover” by cultivating the inner fear within herself. Her hallucinations create and control the surroundings and events that eventually take place. Thanks to her amassed fear of over twenty-five years, Mrs. Dover’s character almost completely controls the plot and the overall outcome of the story. There are several key indicators and hints dropped throughout the story that tell about her unstable state. The first of …show more content…
This quality is her unfaithfulness. If she had been faithful, she would have nothing to fear in the first place. Because of this she would most likely not have had the hallucinations or paranoia. Not only that, if the demon lover had somehow been a supernatural apparition that came back to haunt her, he still could not have existed. If she had not made that that promise she had intended to break, the entire story of “The Demon Lover” could have been avoided. The story provides evidence to the intentions of the promise when it states “No other way of having given herself could have made her feel so apart, lost and forsworn. She could have not plighted a more sinister troth” (3). This statement confirms the unfaithfulness to the promise made to her soldier lover. She had every intention of breaking her promise. Therefore, she lived the serve the punishment twenty-five years
Zacharias’s “The Extraordinary Flight of heroism the occasion demanded of me.’: Fantasy and Confession in The Turn of the Screw” describes the actions and the apparitions in the novella as a part of the governess’s anxieties and how they are the symbol which resemble the execution of her job. The readers first get an understanding of how fantasy is her coping mechanism when she first has troubles dealing with the job. As Zacharias puts it, “the fantasy relieves the anxiety she feels from feelings of inadequacy for the very fulfillment of the master’s expectations” (321). Zacharias then moves the audience towards the fact that the fantasy can also be the cause for anxiety, which is the intriguing aspect I would like to focus on.
The events in Elisabeth Bower's 'The Demon Lover'; can be explained naturally. The story being as vague as it is leads most to concur with the title of the story and imagine that there is a supernatural aspect in the story. In the short story, Kathleen has returned to her home in London that has been abandoned during the bombing of World War II. She is not expected, yet she finds a letter addressed to her on a table in the hallway. Twenty-five years has past since the leaving of her former lover during World War I. Kathleen's lover is had been presumed dead after months of being missing in action and she has moved on. She is now married to a William Dover and living the countryside with her immediate
In his ironically titled story, “Devotion,” Adam Haslett introduces Owen, a middle-aged man who lives with his sister in their deceased parents’ home in England, and as they both prepare for a visit from a special friend, his hidden fears and emotions are awakened. As the author reveals the intricacies of the bond between the siblings it is clear their relationship isn’t as loving and healthy as it could seem, but is instead a harmful relationship that keeps them away from a normal life in a larger world. Relying on flashbacks, letters, and symbolism to unravel the reasons Owen and Hillary live together in their parents’ home, Haslett also conveys how fear of being alone can make a person selfish and cause them to inadvertently ruin someone
In "The Demon Lover," by Elizabeth Bowen, Kathleen Drover returns to London from her house in the country in order to gather some things that she and her husband had abandoned during the bombings of the war. It is a humid, rainy day in late August and her once familiar street is now mostly deserted. The caretaker of her house is supposed to be out of town for a week and her arrival is assumed unknown. Mrs. Drover enters the old musty house and discovers a letter addressed to herself and it is marked with the present date. Curious to know if the caretaker is back in town and a little annoyed by the letter seeming to have no urgency in being mailed to her, she proceeds upstairs to her old bedroom to read it. In utter shock and complete
People’s personalities are not always what they seem. That is the case in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Possibility of Evil.” The main character is an elderly woman who seems sweet and kind; however, she reveals that she is not sweet and kind. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her.
The seclusion endured by the narrator causes a dramatic change in her mental state. Her surroundings are now coming alive within the walls around her. “I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman” (736). Initially, the figure witnessed around the walls was merely just the shadow projected from the narrator creeping around the paper. Now this shadow is taking on not just any life form but ironically the form of a woman. Just like the narrator is trapped within the barred windows of the mansion, the woman is trapped within the patterns of the paper. This parallel view is transforming the narrator’s identity within the walls of the paper. However, this obsession begins to heighten. She begins to see the woman through every window in the bedroom. She appears to be creeping not only around the walls but now outside in the garden and along the
The De Lacey family are conventionally not bad people, but upon the sight of a horrific guise, their typical behaviors change, and that response psychologically affects the monster. The side characters are portrayed as the only good because the daemon appears to be evil, yet the deed they are committing is of prejudice as they don’t even know if the fiend’s structure truly reflects his character - this fallacy is as best ironic, and at worst, a harmful misinterpretation.
All three versions of “The Demon Lover has the same common messages: to be careful in trust, be careful of the vows you make, and that the decisions of the young often come back around negatively. All three pieces exemplify these messages heavily. Of all of the works maintaining these themes, Elizabeth Bowen’s “The Demon Lover” displays these messages the most vehemently. Bowen’s version of “The Demon Lover” take on the principles of Harris’ “The Demon Lover” and makes the ideals more noticeable to the novice reader.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a woman who writes about personal experience, and in her short, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we learn exactly who our author is based on the language and communication that appears throughout the story. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a captivating tale, largely because the language and communication between characters translates to a feeling of near madness for the reader. The man, the dominant character in the story, has much to say about his wife’s mental condition and practically refuses to permit her feelings. Gilman explains how this story wasn’t made to drive people insane, but rather to save people from insanity. She realizes she has the power to create a powerful effect within literature and that is the thing that
Charlotte Gilman, through the first person narrator, speaks to the reader of the stages of psychic disintegration by sharing the narrator's heightened perceptions: "That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, but I don't care--there is something strange about the house--I can feel it" (304). The conflicting
Her attitude changes threw out the play, she’s very confident in the beginning, she doesn’t really talk back to anyone, but as it goes on her attitude changes and she’s very upset all the time and depressed.
As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist. Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be. She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170). However, in a time
Her paranoia was caused by the amount of stress she had. She didn’t get enough sleep at night either. This caused her to not be able to think straight. It also made her delusions worse and made her think they were even more real.
Another common attribute of paranoia is the belief that others are plotting something potentially hurtful. This can be seen in the way that she feels as if she is being tested by others. She is admitted to a mental institution, and it is apparent that she is untrustworthy of the motives of others when the doctors visit her:
“The Devil’s Wife” by Carol Ann Duffy is a tragic and powerful poem. Written in the form of a dramatic monologue, Duffy adopts the persona of Myra Hindley, the notorious Moors Murderer. The poem consists of five individually titled sections, each describing an individual part of Hindley’s experiences from meeting Brady to feeling sorry for herself while sitting in her prison cell. At the end of her life. Themes relating to avoiding responsibility, self-pity and her fear of society’s reaction to her crimes are explored as Duffy creates an effective persona.