Symbolism And Motifs In Elizabeth Bowen's Demon Lover

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In "Demon Lover" by Elizabeth Bowen, various symbols and motifs are used to describe the events happening in Kathleen Drover's life. In the story you are given the impression that Mrs. Drover's dead ex-husband has come back to life in the aftermath of a bombing in World War II. During the story, Mrs. Drover is contemplating the reality of her husband being a ghost or the stability of her mind. My thoughts are that Mrs. Drover was going insane due to this quote from the story,"had . . . an intermittent muscular flicker to the left of her mouth, but . . ." which gave me that impression.
Elizabeth Bowen created Kathleen Drover to test reader's perceptions by using certain items left by Mrs. Drover's husband such as the letter telling Kathleen that," they'll be together sooner or later" to let readers believe that he is a ghost. …show more content…

Drover returns to her home to retrieve her belongings from the aftermath of a bombing in World War II. She notices all of the remnants of dust and stains and cracks from the bombing from when her and her family moved out. While she is entering her home she notices a letter addressed to her even though over the years the house has been boarded up and abandoned. As she goes to her room to read the letter it is signed with just a K ,but it bears today's date. The letter then brings up memories of the soldier she was suppose to marry 25 years ago. As she is experiencing these flashbacks she remembers the promise that they made back then and tries to put the pieces back together on how the letter was marked for that day's date, and the means that brought her to the letter. As memories of the past start to haunt her, she begins to hallucinate by putting past with present. My explanation is that she isn't being haunted by a ghost ,but that he mental stability was not good. Which is why she believes her ex-fiance was haunting

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