The Demon Lover By Elizabeth Bowen - 1383 Words

â€Å"Modernism released us from the constraints of everything that had gone before with a euphoric sense of freedom†(Erickson). During the 20th century, British writers switched their writing style to mimic the values of the modernism period. The main values of this period include psychology and science, the effects of war, social and personal concerns, and streams of consciousness. â€Å"The Demon Lover† by Elizabeth Bowen, â€Å"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night† by Dylan Thomas and â€Å"The Naming of Cats† by T.S. Eliot all embody these values in some way. The Modernism period gave authors a more open approach to express psychological feelings and also gave the reader the chance to criticize warfare while also being able to praise individual growth.†¦show more content†¦Critics can agree that Mrs. Drover is being strongly affected by this event because of the guilt she carried with her all of this time. â€Å"There are a number of hints in the story that she is not an emotionally strong woman; there is something almost childlike about her, and she seems uncomfortable with powerful feelings. In this reading, the stress of war has brought her to a nervous breakdown†(Doughty). In summary, â€Å"The Demon Lover† reflects modern values through referencing death, however â€Å"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good night reflects them by doing exactly the opposite. Secondly, â€Å"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night† by Dylan Thomas embodies the modernist value of social/personal concerns. The poem was dedicated to the author’s father in his last days of life. In the poem, the author seems to be rejecting the fact that his father is dying and he wants his father to continue to fight for his life. â€Å"And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night,†(Thomas 16-18). These lines show that the author is beg ging his father to not go gentle into the night. He wants his father to continue to fight so that if he does die, at least he put up a fight to live. The theme of this poem is to never give up and to always continue to fight until your last breath. This poem relates to the values of the modernism period because of its connection to social/personal concerns. ManyShow MoreRelatedThe Demon Lover By Elizabeth Bowen894 Words   |  4 PagesWritten by Elizabeth Bowen, â€Å"The Demon Lover† was First published in The Listener in 1941, and reprinted in The Demon Lover and Other Stories in 1945 , â€Å"The Demon Lover† is typically initiated as a clever tale of witchcraft possession. The story takes place in the in the middle of World War I and II, when the main protagonist Kathleen Drover returns to her house in London to pick up some things after her family moved due to the bombing from the war. â€Å"The Demon Lover† is a tale of one woman s introspectiveRead More Elizabeth Bowen s The Demon Lover880 Words   |  4 PagesSome viewers see Elizabeth Bowen’s â€Å"The Demon Lover† as a ghost story. Robert L. Calder essay on â€Å"The Demon Lover† gives an explanation of the story: he sees it as an allegory representing a death of World War I and has had an effect on people a second war in their life. As Kathleen Drover came to the abandoned house, the narrator is quickly to remind that the dangerous destructive war had taken place. Outside, she sees â€Å"familiar street unused channel, an unfamiliar peculiarity had slited up† thatRead MoreAmbiguism In The Demon Lover By Elizabeth Bowen1059 Words   |  5 PagesThe Demon Lover by Elizabeth Bowen’s is set in London during World War II. Bowen adopts a common folklore theme of the demon lover in her short story in which a woman is left traumatized during the blitz in World War II. The story follows a married middle age woman who is haunted by the ghost of her love from her youth. This ghost was known to be killed in the First World War nearly twenty-five years earlier. Bowens focuses on the atmosphere to create a disturbing ambiguity leading to many interpretationsRead MoreAnalysis Of Elizabeth Bowen s The Demon Lover 2451 Words   |  10 Pages Gogri 10 Elizabeth Bowen: The Writings of War Jay Gogri Sr. Marlene Mucha, S.S.J British Literature February 10, 2016 Elizabeth Bowen: The Writings of War What forces a person to write? It could be feelings, situations, or even experiences. Writers such as George Orwell and Sylvia Plath influenced the world with their writing. As a major writer in the Blitz era, Elizabeth Bowen wrote her experiences in the war. Using the atmosphere and the surroundings as a source of her writingRead MoreLiterary Devices In The Demon Lover By Elizabeth Bowen1206 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Mrs. Drover’s mouth hung open for some seconds before she could issue her first scream† (Bowen, 1162). Set in London during World War II, â€Å"The Demon Lover† is a suspenseful story about a woman whose former fiancà ©, whom she previously assumed was dead, has come back for her twenty-five years later. In â€Å"The Demon Lover,† the author, Elizabeth Bowen uses various literary techniques that include imagery and mood, character development, and mood/tone to convey the suspenseful and mysterious mood andRead More Unsettling Language in Elizabeth Bowen’s The Demon Lover Essay1256 Words   |  6 PagesUnsettling 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, Bowens prose relies on the use of subtleties to keep the story interesting. The storys subtleties feed us questions that continually grab our interest. Bowen immediately beginsRead MoreThe Demon Lover Essay1338 Words   |  6 Pagesperson’s actions are always good, when in reality they are not at all. In Elizabeth Bowen’s short story called The Demon Lover, a woman’s long lost lover tracks her down and leaves her a letter. In the letter he asks her to keep her vow and spend her life with him. After getting scared the woman tries to run away by getting into a taxi.. Another situation quite similar to this happens in an anonymous poem also titled, The Demon Lover, but the woman in the poem agrees to leave with the man and ends upRead MoreEssay about Three Versions of The Demon Lover Contain a Common Message531 Words   |  3 PagesAll three versions of â€Å"The Demon Lover has the same common messages: to be careful in trust, be careful of the vows you make, and that the decisions of the young often come back around negatively. All three pieces exemplify these messages heavily. Of all of the works maintainin g these themes, Elizabeth Bowen’s â€Å"The Demon Lover† displays these messages the most vehemently. Bowen’s version of â€Å"The Demon Lover† take on the principles of Harris’ â€Å"The Demon Lover† and makes the ideals more noticeableRead MoreNew Historicist Study of Demon Lover Essay example654 Words   |  3 Pagesbrief view on The Demon Lover, from New Historicist point of view. The first step, represents three methodologies which are necessary in which unlocking the text according to New Historicism. The second step develops each methodology with reference to the text of the work and depicts different views in this regard. Since New Historicists view an aesthetic work as a social production, a texts meaning resides for them in the cultural system, composed of the Demon Lover from New HistoricistRead MoreThe Demon Lover, An Analysis Essay599 Words   |  3 Pages In The Demon Lover, by Elizabeth Bowen, Kathleen Drover returns to London from her house in the country in order to gather some things that she and her husband had abandoned during the bombings of the war. It is a humid, rainy day in late August and her once familiar street is now mostly deserted. The caretaker of her house is supposed to be out of town for a week and her arrival is assumed unknown. Mrs. Drover enters the old musty house and discovers a letter addressed to herself and it is