Elizabeth Bowens The Demon Lover Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Elizabeth Bowens The Demon Lover - Essay Example The story ‘Demon Lover’ was entitled as â€Å"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. 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 fiancà ©. ... uses 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 â€Å"panic and fear† of Mrs Drover after travelling back from the flashback where a young girl is sho wn 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