Demon Lover By: Elizabeth Bowen Ghost Story V. Psychological Drama - Essay Example

26 May DEMON LOVER BY: ELIZABETH BOWEN GHOST STORY V. PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA I. INTRODUCTION Do you remember the ghost stories that were told to us when we were little children? The title of Elizabeth Bowen’s short story “The Demon Lover” is deceiving because when you read the title, the first thing that comes to mind is the demon. The vision of satan or demon is usually present in horror movies like “The Exorcism”. This movie is probably the scariest classic movie among its genre. However, Bowen’s story did not include the real satan or demon. It was a story of a dead lover from the past who comes back for his great love. Bowen’s short story has been a highly acclaimed and widely anthologized short story. As it turns out, it is not a ghost story, but one of psychological drama. The setting of the story is during the World War II in London. The story focuses on the haunting of a woman, who is already in her middle age, who is caught up with her past, her old flame during her younger years, who was presumed to have been killed during the World War I. The writer has intricately played with the language used to make the story more appealing to the readers as they are left wondering whether there was a truly a ghost in the story, or it was just a product of imagination by the protagonist in this story. “It is a story of the dead returning to haunt the living or does Mrs. Kathleen Dover herself fallen prey to hysteria or delusion?” (Kessler 82). II. SUMMARY/PLOT The plot of the story tells of a young woman who has pledged her eternal love to her lover, who is a soldier and about to leave her to join the military forces at war time. When her lover did not return, she married someone else. The lover comes back for her after all in the form of a ghost, haunting her and making a revenge for breaking her promise. Mrs. Dover, the protagonist, after several years returns to her home in Germany, only to discover the letter that she wrote to her lover professing her great and undying love for him, but eventually broke off her promise. In the letter, she was supposed to meet her lover on that same evening. As Mrs. Dover was overcome by fright, she immediately hails a taxi cab to leave the house, for fear that the lover will come back for her to revenge. While in the taxi, she looks at the driver and screams, obviously frightened by what she has seen. The writer left the readers hanging by not revealing what exactly was the image seen by the protagonist. It is safe to assume that she saw the dead lover. III. PYSCHOLOGICAL DRAMA VS. GHOST STORY According to Dr. Wormhoudt, the Demon lover has made a systematic attempt to apply some of the newer findings of psychoanalytic psychiatry to Romantic poets (73). On the other hand, Reed stated that Bowen brilliantly uses the demon-motif to expose the rape of war, disruption of society, and the incomprehensibility of personal tragedy (91). Bowen’s title creates a contemporary demon-lover “ballad” to express fears during a time when the people in England felt victimized and vulnerable (91). The horror part in this story is when the dead lover stalks his victim mercilessly. That demon illustrated in this story is a person who casts evil and wickedness in the civilized world. In common, it is hard to distinguish between an actual ghost story and a psychological drama. Psychological drama is widely known as series work of art, representing an idea that accumulates to something greater than the sum of constituent superficial events. Classifying the story of Bowen as one of psychological drama is aptly put since the author exposes a “psychological dynamics involved in the pathological aggression and pathological victimization, having a primary psychic image in the collective unconscious” (Reed 92). The author leaves an open ended which can be interpreted in various ways depending on the readers’ comprehension of the story. According to Kessler, the author wrote the story during the World War II which explored the singular emotional effects of the war among London’s besieged inhabitants (82). At first, readers of Bowen’s story will give them the idea that this is a ghost story as the dead lover continues to haunt Mrs. Dover and abducts her in a series of occasions. Malcolm has stated that this story easily fits into “collections of tales of horror or suspense” (238). The readers are in left in quandary if the ghost is real or just a product of a mental delusion of Mrs. Dover. According to Kessler, “the demon’s passion is dark, obsessive and primal, wholly foreign to the structure of civil and domestic life. It is with this force of violence and disorder that Mrs. Dover will have to struggle, as around her the curtain of nightmare begins to fall” (83). The climax of the story is when Mrs. Dover discovers that the driver inside the taxi is the ghost of her lover. The story ended with the idea that she was trapped inside the taxi with the demon and makes off with her in the hinterland of his or her own memories. At first blush, readers will think that this is a well-written, spine-tingling ghost story that is scary, filled with suspense and horror. However, towards the middle of the story, they will find a deeper meaning and intention of the author to expose the dramatic progression and emotional effect towards the end of the story. Thus, this story is more of a psychological drama than your typical ghost story. IV. CONCLUSION To conclude, The Demon Lover is a psychological drama which exposes the personal tragedy in England during the World War II. The author brilliantly presented the demon lover motif to expose disruption of society and rape of war. According to Reed, the plot recreates the kind of psychological disconnectedness brought about by war, which causes terror, uncertainty, denied reality, the disappearance of people and death (91). It became an expression of fear among people in England during the time of war, who became victims of the painful effects brought about by the hostilities during the warfare. Given these facts, it clearly shows that this story is not the common ghost story but rather, it is a psychological drama that presented important social issues. Works Cited: Kessler, Joan. Night Shadows: Twentieth-Century Stories of the Uncanny. Canada: David R. Godine Publisher, 2001. Print. Malcolm Cheryl Alexander and David Malcolm. A companion to the British and Irish story. West Sussex, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Print. Reed, Toni. Demon-lovers and their victims in the British fiction. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1988. Print. Wormhoudt, Arthur. The Demon Lover: a psychoanalytical approach to literature. New York: Exposition Press, 1949. Print. Read More