Unsettling Language in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Demon Lover
Elizabeth Bowen retells a popular folk tale in her short story, "The Demon Lover." The title suggests that the plot consists of a woman being confronted by a demon lover from her past. Bowen does not stray far from this original tale. Instead of originality, Bowen's prose relies on the use of subtleties to keep the story interesting. The story's subtleties feed us questions that continually grab our interest.
Bowen immediately begins to create a sense of uneasiness in the first paragraph. As Mrs. Drover, the protagonist, walks toward her London house, "an unfamiliar queerness had silted up; a cat wove itself in and out of railings, but no human eye watched Mrs. Drover's return" (36). The author's use of the word "queerness" puts the reader on guard for something out of the ordinary. She then follows it by the description of a cat-a mysterious creature-wondering down the street with no regard to any passersby. The phrase "no human eye watched" seems to be overstating the situation. Instead of just saying that nothing was watching Mrs. Drover, the author chose to say that no human was watching her. We are led to question whether the cat was the only non-human watching her or not. And, if not, what else was watching her?
The feeling of uncanny continues throughout the next paragraphs. The house Mrs. Drover enters is given characteristics that suggest that it is living. There is a "bruise in the wallpaper" and a piano "had left what looked like claw-marks" (36). On their own, these descriptions would not have created uneasiness. But, the house that bruises and furniture that leaves claw-marks contribute to the sense of uneasiness that had already begun to develop. W...
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... no resulting rescue (40). Her screaming leads us to believe that she had in fact gotten into the demon lover's taxi. As the driver "made off with her into the hinterland of deserted streets," we are still left questioning who exactly the driver was, how he had come back from the dead, what Kathleen had promised him, and whether she had actually remembered her promise and had used it as an escape to her monotonous life (40).
All of the unanswered questions, along with subtle uses of unsettling language, create an unsettling effect throughout the story. The title, "The Demon Lover," gave a good general idea of what Elizabeth Bowen was writing about, but her clever writing left interesting questions lingering throughout the story and even after its end.
Works Cited
Bowen, Elizabeth. "The Demon Lover." Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen. New York: Knopf, 1981.
When the colonies were being formed, many colonists came from England to escape the restrictions placed upon them by the crown. Britain had laws for regulating trade and collecting taxes, but they were generally not enforced. The colonists had gotten used to being able to govern themselves. However, Britain sooned changed it’s colonial policy because of the piling debt due to four wars the British got into with the French and the Spanish. The most notable of these, the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War), had immediate effects on the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, leading to the concept of no taxation without representation becoming the motivating force for the American revolutionary movement and a great symbol for democracy amongst the colonies, as Britain tried to tighten their hold on the colonies through various acts and measures.
In conclusion, critical evaluation of what makes a book good or bad depends on the selection criteria and agenda of those making the evaluation. The prizes have been criticised through the years and the selection committees have risen to this by changing the selection process, even if this change has been slow. Children’s Literature is in flux due to the ever-changing ideas and perceptions of childhood. Children’s books seen as prestigious today may become, like Blyton, unpalatable to the critics of tomorrow.
Parten’s idea of child lead stages of play would support JNTCP ‘behaviour that is freely chosen, personally directed’ as when the child is ready to progress they make the personal decision. It could be said that Parten’s job would have influenced the way she views play. Being a psychologist may have led her to believe that child led play is more beneficial for the child’s development as they are able to figure it out for themselves, thus making the child more independent. A teacher idea of play however, would be the opposite to that of a child psychologist, as a teacher would believe that adult led play is more beneficial for a child, as it can have a planned outcome and consequently better the child’s social, emotional and physical development. The Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY, 2002) research clearly states that there becomes a point where children need to be supported by an adult in order to further their thinking. Vygotsky theory of proximal development would support the teacher’s idea of child lead play. Proximal development represents the gap between what a child can accomplish alone, and what they can do with the guidance of an adult. Similarly, Bruner’s theory of scaffolding mimics the same idea as Vygotsky, the adult giving a helping hand to the child’s play to better their learning and
Works Cited I. Powell, Janice A. Teaching Faulkner. Online. Internet. Powell.html at www2semo.edu 15 July 1999 II. Who makes a Devil out of a Fair Lady? Du Fang/Canadian Social Science Vol.3 No.4 2007 18-24 III. Charters, Ann. The Story and its Writer : an Introduction to Short Fiction. Eighth edition. New York: St.Martin's, 1983. Print.
In a variety of works, it appears that Hellman’s themes have all centered around evil and lies. They have drawn on things that, for the most part, people do not like to look at. Her works are truly disturbing, as she forces the audience to dig deep into their own psyches. It is important to note that Hellman had grown up in interesting times. She was a teenager in the Roaring ...
Whalley, J. (2009) ‘Texts and Pictures: A History’ in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.299-310
Poe also uses symbolism to represent the connection between the house and the Usher family. The description of the house itself has a shocking resemblance to that of Roderick and Madelyn Usher. Upon the main character’s arrival, Poe offers an interesting description of the building’s physical state. “The discoloration of age had been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in fine tangled web-work from the eves” (1266). Poe is able to establish an air of suspense by relating the state of the house to that of Roderick and Madelyn Usher.
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In Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House", there are numerous traces of the representation of the uncanny which was suggested by Sigmund Freud. In the story, the Hill House itself is an uncanny figure to the central protagonist, Eleanor, as it features as her mother which has an ambivalent nature as the meaning of the German word of `uncanny' itself. Moreover, the house also acts as a mirror reflecting her own image so that she can see herself by looking at the house, thus the house is actually an allegory of Eleanor's psychological condition and she is literally consumed by it in the end as the boundary between her and the house collapses. Besides, another protagonist, Theodora, is a double of Eleanor as she figures her opposite side which is her denied self and self-destructiveness while she also expresses the repressed feelings of Eleanor. These examples match with the concept of the uncanny which stresses on the uncanny effect of the `Doubling' and `Infantile complexes' . (Alison 32)
While examining nineteenth-century female monster, Susanne Beacker reveals that she remains a mere idea, a “voiceless textual object” in women’s gothic texts whose happy endings close to the retribution and exorcism of the monstrous woman and the entrapment of the heroine in the patriarchal system (72). In this context, DeLamotte contends that:
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The transition in women’s roles in horror stories and the genre itself is a long and overdue process. Today society regards men and women more equal than ever before. The transition from Perrault to Flagg demonstrates that horror has evolved from a genre that portrays women as weak, and dutifully obedient to giving them positions of authority over men, who will cater to their commands, without supernatural powers.
Similarly, the furniture in the house is as sullen as the house itself. What little furniture is in the house is beaten-up; this is a symbol of the dark setting. The oak bed is the most important p...
In the mid 1800’s America was in full swing of the romanticism movement. During this time readers were entertained by the fresh new writing styles of the latest authors. There were several famous authors in this era such as: Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant. One innovative author from this movement however, added a new dynamic writing style that still intrigues many readers today. Edgar Allen Poe, through his invention of detective stories, has become a house hold name to many. In his short stories “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” Poe describes two heinous crimes committed by men whose motives can only be traced back to their deranged perception of reality, domestic relationships, and a soul whose thirst can only be quenched through violence.