Elizabeth Bowens The Demon Lover - Essay Example

?Elizabeth Bowen’s ‘The Demon Lover’ Table of Contents Introduction 3 Thesis 4 ‘The Demon Lover A Psychological Drama - Arguments 4 Conclusion 6 Bibliography 7 Introduction The ‘Demon Lover’ is probably one of the most successful anthologised versions of Elizabeth Bowen’s short stories. Published in the year 1945 in Great Britain, the collection first appeared in the collection named ‘Ivy Gripped the Steps and Other Stories’ in USA. At its publication The New Yorker probably gave the most coherent and phenomenal explanation indicating the content of the book which made it perfectly explicit to its audience. The story ‘Demon Lover’ was entitled as “a complete successful explanation of what war did to the mind and spirit of the English people” by The New Yorker. Apart from this the story also brings forward some of the essential writing characteristics of Bowen. To assess the story ‘The Demon Lover’ as a psychological drama or a mere story with supernatural element, it is first essential to understand the background against which the story is written. Bowen wrote the story during the time of World War II after experiencing the Ariel bombardment in London inflicted by the Germans during the year 1940-41. After experiencing the events of World War I, it was quite scary and traumatic for the people of London to encounter another war in the face of World War II. At this juncture of social history, Bowen tried to captivate within the limited compass of her story, the neurotic breakdown and horror any war can bring through the story, ‘The Demon Lover’, raising its thematic parameters far from being a mere story with supernatural elements. Thesis The essay aims to assess Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover" and to find out if it is a ghost or a psychological drama. ‘The Demon Lover’: A Psychological Drama - Arguments The story ‘The Demon Lover’ does not revolve round the simple context of supernaturalism. The story deals with a sentiment obvious and evident in human psyche and life during the post-war situation highlighting the trauma and fear that prevailed in the London as an aftermath of post-Blitz disaster. The protagonist of the story Mrs Drover is shown hallucinated by the effect of the war and confuses World War II with World War I and the story opens with her return to the evacuated city and home where she goes to collect some of her belongings and consequently illusioned by the aftermath of the recent bombing thinks of her long-dead fiance. The identity of this character and events following the opening scene builds an atmosphere of ambiguity where it is not transparent whether the events in the evacuated house taking place with Mrs Drover is supernatural or consequential of neurotic trauma and psychological disorder. The eerie atmosphere, the supernatural consequences and the ambiguous and unveiled ‘troth’ adds perfectly to the unnatural element of the story. But there are many other features under consideration which proves the operation of the psychological elements throughout the story. The oscillation of Mrs Drover into the present and the past, the “panic and fear” of Mrs Drover after travelling back from the flashback where a young girl is shown departing from a soldier who probably is missing since the war are all indication of strong psychological elements operating within the plot of the story. In other words, Bowen takes the platform of the supernatural hallucination to culminate the psychological elements of drama within the story. The first expression after receiving a letter from someone very close and expected is beautifully described but at the very moment the attitude with which Mrs Drover rushes for a cab and the way she gets into it indicates some kind of disturbance evident in the surrounding atmosphere. The prevailing aura of foreboding, a sense of unknown chase by the demon lover, the hint of a threat, the inky darkness and calm scene with odd lights might seem apparently ordinary and very commonplace to any story with supernatural element within it but at an allegorical plane all these little odd and evens of the story starting from its plot to props are implication of some psychological disorder. The operation of psychological elements in the plot of the story becomes evident through its language even. The story begins with the following lines, “It was late August; it had been a steamy, showery day: at the moment the trees down the pavement glittered in an escape of humid yellow afternoon sun." This line indicates an innocent description of a particular day mentioned in the story but a focus on the very next line of the same paragraph would launch the readers to a psychological paradigm where the innocent thoughts would be spontaneously substantiated by a sense of ambiguous foreboding which initially seems to indicate supernaturalism strongly but at an actual plane it is the expression of some neurotic malfunction. The line followed by the innocent description of the day runs with a stark contrast preparing the mind of the readers to accept the unnatural and hence become an integral part of the entire psychological drama operating within the tight-lipped plot of the story: “Against the next batch of clouds, already piling up ink-dark". The intricate details in the story are also presented before its readers as psychological puzzle. The month of August plays an integrating element connecting the past and the present of the story. The images seem to indicate Mrs Drover’s ardent attempt to escape from her fate. The story, ‘The Demon Lover’ is not worked on the age-old themes redundant to the stories with supernatural elements. It is culminated in a very subtle way exercising the traditional themes of a ghost story woven carefully with modern presentation. The omnipotent lurking eyes of the demon watching Mrs Drover are kept in dark. Along with the readers, the ambiguity, fear and panic of Mrs Drover gets entwined with the similar feelings operating within the readers till the last point in the story where, Mrs Drover is abducted in a very modern and innovative way in a black London Cab. Conclusion Psychological drama has the power to encapsulate the minds and psyche of the readers into the operational scheme of its plot. With the development of the story, myriad dramatic elements instigate the minds of the readers to get transformed into a wide stage where the denouement and the conclusion take place. Elizabeth Bowen’s short story, ‘The Demon Lover’ fulfils all these expectation of the readers with its developing anxiety, panic and fear raising the standard of the story into a greater paradigm, where the story can be successfully viewed as an enchanting psychological drama. Bibliography Bowen, Elizabeth. The Demon Lover and Other Stories. J Cape, 1952. Read More