The Short Story The Demon Lover and the Supernatural Background - Research Paper Example

?The Demon Lover: A Paradox and Panorama beyond Supernatural Introduction Literature bears the reflection of age and society in which it is culminated and is expressed either implicitly or explicitly through those. The literary products many a times fail to express the real content captivated within the piece and get expressed through the myriad layers of allegorical implications. Again the use of extensive allegory within the close context of the plot is sometimes deliberate as the author might feel that the subject matter should get subverted. The short story, “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen likewise seems apparently a story with supernatural elements. Published in the year of 1945, “The Demon Lover and the Other Stories” is definitely culminated in the post-World War II era and evidently bears the mark of the war on human psyche. The brunt of the wartime stress, fear, threat and destruction witnessed by the mankind had direct effect on their mind set. Bowen’s short story, “The Demon Lover” therefore uses the paradigm of supernaturalism to express the psychological upheaval that mankind witnessed in the post-war situation with an implicit allegory with the symbolic soldier standing for the mark of an endless inescapable violence. The Demon Lover: Beyond the Supernatural The story “The Demon Lover” is a dark tale with an ominous foreboding that eclipses the entire story and leaves a long lasting impression on the minds of its readers. At the outset of the story, the readers are introduced with a set of supernatural occurrence that takes place around the protagonist of the story, Mrs Drover, who received a letter from her past lover dated presently who was presumed to be killed in the previous war. The story is obviously culminated on the medieval ballad centring round the stories of the demon lovers who used to abduct their lovers on the ground of infidelity after their death but this mere fact does not label “The Demon Lover” as a simple supernatural story. At the beginning of the story itself, the readers are introduced to Mrs Drover, the protagonist of the story who is a bit clumsy in her appearance and confused with the dates of the war. Secondly, she visits her old home in London which was being evacuated for the reason of bombing by Germany. Mrs Drover is shown threatened by some unknown fear and seems to be chased with the brunt of the memory associated with her past life which gets evoked after visiting her old home. The description of the day when Mrs Drover visits her old home and the kind of language deliberately used for the purpose of description, evokes a dark feeling of foreboding chased by an unknown figurine almost making the atmosphere “ink-dark”. Authoress describes the day, "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. Against the next batch of clouds, already piling up ink-dark broken chimneys and parapets stood out” This kind of language definitely indicates a strong sense of supernatural environment but just the next paragraph preceding would launch the readers into a plane where evidences of some neurotic disturbances within the psyche and behaviour of the protagonist could not be ignored, “The staircase window having been boarded up, no light came down into the hall. But one door, she could just see, stood ajar, so she went quickly through into the room and unshuttered the big window in there. Now the prosaic woman, looking about her, was more perplexed than she knew by everything that she saw, by traces of her long former  habit of life—the yellow smoke stain up the white marble mantelpiece, the ring left by a  vase on the top of the escritoire? the bruise in the wallpaper where, on the door being thrown open widely, the china handle had always hit the wall.” From these activities it become evident that “Mrs Drover was anxious to see how the house was” and far more poignant are the senses of anxiety, threat and strong sense of remorse along with guilt which are chasing Mrs Drover in an omnipotent way more than the threat of her dead lover from the past. The ending of the story also indicates a strong involvement of the brain storming by the readers. Chased by the unknown fear or apparition, Mrs Drover rushes out from the house which becomes intolerable for her and takes a cab where the story ends with an awful look of Mrs Drover launching the readers into endless brain storming and casted with a superb halo of ambiguity, the sight that made her hysteric with the pulling of the car as she casts her eyes into the eyes of the driver. Bowen never unveiled the object which made Mrs Drover hysteric. The open ending of the story is another evident indication of making it a psychological drama as Bowen leaves it to the discretion of the readers to conclude whether Mrs Drover is moved and guided by some neurotic disturbances which is hallucinating her or it is the visage of her dead lover which really made her dumb. This way, Bowen very intelligently and deliberately throughout the story leaves space for the readers to formulate their vision regarding the story’s thematic and moral bent. The purpose of a modern prose is to relate the readers with the narrative frame of the story. Also the participation and incorporation of the readers into the psychological narrative framework indicates that the story has enough space for the culmination of psychological narrative. Conclusion The short story “The Demon Lover” provides a platform build with the supernatural background, setting and elements on which the psychological drama is culminated successfully that involves the minds of the readers within the narrative framework of the story making, it a successful psychological drama. Bibliography Bowen, Elizabeth. The Demon Lover and Other Stories. J Cape, 1952. Kukil, Karen. “The Sylvia Plath Collection”. No Date. Smith College. March 01, 2011. Thompson, T. W. ““The Demon Lover”: Elizabeth Bowen’s “Unashamed Retelling” of “The Jolly Corner”. No Date. Clemson University. March 01, 2011. Read More