32 pages • 1 hour read
Elizabeth BowenThe Demon Lover
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1945A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Mrs. Drover has come to London to retrieve some personal items for her family (now living in the country due to the German air raids). Although she’s lived in her home for several years, she now feels it has “an unfamiliar queerness” (661). What are some of the reasons she might feel this way?
The story refers to the main character as “Mrs. Drover” in the present-day action but “Kathleen” in the action set in 1916. Is there a difference between these two identities? Does Mrs. Drover herself feel she has two selves? If so, what might explain that sense?
The story can function either as a realistic tale about a woman’s trauma or as a gothic tale about a demon lover who has come to claim his fiancé. Using evidence from the text, how do you read the tale?
Many of Mrs. Drover’s recollections of the soldier describe him as “unkind.” However, he is a young man headed off to a battle that would be quite traumatizing. Could this have caused his unkindness? Approaching the story as a realistic one, how do you see the soldier? Are Mrs. Drover’s perceptions of him fair?
How do Bowen’s descriptions of the house, both its exterior and interior, establish the atmosphere of the story? How does this atmosphere illuminate some of the story’s themes?
What clues does Bowen leave to show that Mrs. Drover has experienced mental illness? What evidence does she give to show that she has recovered? Given all of this, how reliable do you find her perspective, and why?
The letter Mrs. Drover receives is signed with the initial “K” (662). Some scholars have speculated that the initial is short for “Kathleen.” What do you think of the idea that Mrs. Drover might be the author herself? Would this change the story’s themes?
The letter’s arrival—and how it got on the table—is unclear to Kathleen, who wonders if it was put there supernaturally. To the extent that the story is a variation on the “daemon lover” trope, this is entirely possible. However, are there any nonsupernatural explanations for how the letter arrived where it is or how old it might be?
It seems that Mrs. Drover has received a lot of support throughout her life. For example, “Her family not only supported [Kathleen] but were able to praise her courage without stint because they could not regret, as a husband for her, the man they knew almost nothing about” (664). William and she have a marriage of 15 years and seem to have lived happily. Yet Mrs. Drover seems to feel extremely isolated. Why might this be so?
Part of what makes “The Demon Lover” powerful is its ambiguity. The reader doesn’t fully know the identity of several of the characters—particularly the soldier, the caretaker of the house, and the taxi driver. Critics have made cases for all three being the same demon lover. Others have argued that each is a quite realistic person, none out to deliberately harm Mrs. Drover. How do you see these three characters functioning in the story? Are any, all, or none the titular character?
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By Elizabeth Bowen
