The Role Of Self Conflict In Elizabeth Bowen's The Demon Lover

In the book “Night” by Elie Wiesel, he shares his story of his experience through World War Two. Through his experiences, he experiences both internal and external conflicts. The conflicts he experienced include ideas of dehumanization, loss, and physical changes.

When Henry got to her apartment, he found out that Keiko was married and widowed, just like him. Like the two halves of the record, though apart, still the same. Ultimately meeting after 40 years, Henry and Keiko picked up where they left off. They were like an old married couple, finishing each other's sentences. “They stood there, smiling at each other, like they had done all those years ago, standing on either side of that fence. “Oai deki te…” She paused. “Ureshii desu,” Henry said softly. (pp. 285) With this shared sentence, Henry and Keiko were mending their relationship, putting the parts back together to create a new bond, one that was never broken. Their old relationship could never be truly fixed, but they started a new one with the intact record. The record, and Henry and Keiko’s bond, was finally renewed in this meeting.

In the Devil’s Snare by Mary Beth Norton is a narrative describing and analyzing the Salem witch crisis and pinpointing one of the greater causes of the event. Norton's thesis is that the Salem witch trials were directly related to the two Indian wars, also known as King Phillips War and King Williams War. A significant portion of the accusers, according to Norton’s research, were in fact refugees from the Maine coast. These were people who had watched their families and neighbors be killed by the Native Americans, a people who the Puritans closely related with the devil and devil worship. With many source documents used, the book seemed very dry.

Contemporary novels have imposed upon the love tribulations of women, throughout the exploration of genre and the romantic quest. Zora Neale Hurston’s Their eyes were watching God (1978) and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (2000) interplay on the various tribulations of women, throughout the conventions of the romantic quest and the search for identity. The protagonists of both texts are women and experience tribulations of their own, however, unique from the conventional romantic novels of their predecessors. Such tribulations include the submission of women and the male desire for dominance when they explore the romantic quest and furthermore, the inner struggles of women. Both texts display graphic imagery of the women’s inner experiences through confronting and engaging literary techniques, which enhance the audiences’ reading experience. Hurston’s reconstructions of the genre are demonstrated through a Southern context, which is the exploration of womanhood and innocence. Whilst Woolf’s interpretation of the romantic quest is shown through modernity and an intimate connection with the persona Clarissa Dalloway, within a patriarchal society.

Arnold Friend, a main character founded in the short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, is often a debated by many readers to be a demon, a crazed stalker and maniac, or in fact Lucifer himself. After reading the short story and analyzing the details of the characters, Arnold Friend really stands out and leaves many unanswered questions on what the author was intending to do with this particular character in identifying who he really is. After thoroughly analyzing the character, Arnold Friend, throughout the story, it is unclear to say that he is a human, yet it is much clearer to indicate that he is a demon, the Devil, or a figment of Connie’s imagination as her deepest desires coming to life.

devil and was raped, getting what she wanted in the end, love from a male.

As she begins to lose interest in her husband she reminds herself of “her desire [is] to be worshipped by the people” (Kempe 8), a desire she had likely forgotten in the time that her husband actually fulfilled her

This paper takes two steps to have a brief view on The Demon Lover, from New Historicist point of view.

One caliginous night, in the streets of New Orleans, walked a woman who went by the name, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a 24 year old in which her body was being possessed by a demon called Lucifer. Lucifer made Elizabeth see what he saw. Every single unpropitious action Lucifer made her do. That night, Lucifer decided to grab a meal. He really fancied Elizabeth’s neighbor, Janis. So Lucifer invited Janis over to her apartment. Elizabeth and Janis were supposed to enjoy dinner together. Janis on the other hand did not realize she was the dinner. Elizabeth remembered that night as if it just happened yesterday. She remembers ripping out Janis’ emitting beating heart. Looking straight into Janis’ artic, annihilation eyes as the life drained out of

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

“The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen is a short story that takes place during World War II in London, England. The main character, Mrs. Drover travels by herself to the bombed city to return to her boarded-up house. While gathering belongings, Mrs. Drover notices particular and out of place that begins to haunt her. The reader witnesses her mental state deteriorate as she begins dreaming of safety. The use of vivid imagery and flashbacks in “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen develops the mysterious and paranoid mood throughout the piece of literature.

To begin, the speaker, in a very calm manner, describes a moment in time where she and a man called Death share a carriage together as if they were in a relationship with one another. Not only does the speaker leave with Death without any questions, but also states that she is obligated to leave her household to work for her new husband Death in lines five through nine. Due to the fact that the speaker so carelessly goes along with Death, shows just how strong her connection is with him. She is completely unaware and blinded at the fact that leaving with Death is something that is forever.

The Demon Lover is a short story which contained a vast theme. The two main themes: horror and romance mingled together, accompanying with the extraordinary use of descriptive languages to describe the ambiance, thus creating suspense. Through the portrayal of the “steamy, showery sky” and the internal environment of the old and vacant house, the author tried to evoke queerness and eerie to both the readers and the main character, Mrs. Drover. With the uses of pictorial words, Elizabeth successfully created suspense and this suspense kept enlarging like a snow ball as the story goes on. This suspension reached the summit when Mrs. Drover suspected that someone was also in this house, looking at her.

[Antonia] moved in a fashionable society...and became, through her protracted refusal to marry, one of it’s scandals. Her marriage to me, when it came, was a sensation. I was not sure at the time ... whether she didn’t take me simply because she felt it was time to take somebody... So for a while everything was for me at a standstill and I was absorbed completely into the delightful task of being Antonia’s husband. (16)

takes the readers through what Mrs. Mallards husband’s friend, Mr. Richard broke the news first