The Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen Literary Analysis Essay Example

In Elizabeth Bowen’s, “The Demon Lover,” the dynamic protagonist Kathleen Dover’s mental state shifts from dispirited to a state of discomposure after she discovers a letter from her presumed dead fiancè while retrieving her belongs in London following the Blitz, a German bombing. Initially, the unwed, prosaic protagonist, who was in earnest need of a husband, promised her hand in marriage to a soldier she was very unfamiliar with. As soon as Kathleen made the promise to the unfamiliar soldier “she felt that [the promise was] unnatural” (Bowen 2) foreshadowing that she did not think she could keep the promise and to her it was sinister. A few months later “her fiance was reported missing” (Bowen 2) which caused a wave of relief knowing that she did not have to keep the promise. She remarried, with much struggle, and was starting to forget about her old fiance. Kathleen was a woman “whose utter dependability was the keystone of her family life” (Bowen 3) emphasizing that despite her mental state she would do what she promised her family. She already was feeling anxious about going back to her house in London and all of a sudden she saw a letter on the bed. Seeing this letter made her feel “intruded upon '' (Bowen 1) forces the feeling of being annoyed. As she read the letter it triggered a state of paranoia and she started “to go white” (Bowen 3) suggesting how seeing a letter from her ex fiance caused a vast shift in her mental state. All she could think at this moment was, is he here? Am I not alone in this house? Am I safe? I need to get my belongings as fast as possible? She could have left as soon as she found the letter but she did not want to let her family down by not retrieving the objects she came to get. This fear was what caused her to eventually die. All she knew was that she never wanted to see his face ever again. The one downfall to forgetting his face is “you have no time to run from a face you don’t expect” (Bowen 4) foreshadowing she will be face to face with him and not know until the moment she was eye to eye with him. The apprehension was unbearable and she hit the point of realization that she needed to get out. When she opened the door she felt air surge up to her divulging that someone had just left through the door on the floor below her. This proved that she was not alone in the house, ultimately suggesting that her fiance knows where she is. When walking out of the house and to a taxi to detect safety she felt affrighted. Her reasoning for finding a taxi was so she would not have to be alone and worry about her fiance finding her. Something seemed off about the taxi just knowing that she would be there. She started to feel extremely taken back when the taxi driver seemed to know where he was going. She was curious about what was happening and when she saw the taxi driver's face “she issue[d] her first scream”(Bowen 4) divulging that she was feeling an immense amount of fear because the taxi driver is her fiance. In essence, in “The Demon Lover,” Elizabeth Bowen articulated that by avoiding your emotions and not listening to your gut, in the fullness of time, you could end up dead.