University of the Saarlands

“The Demon Lover” and “Mysterious Kôr”
as stories of suspense and stories of war

WiSe 00/01

by

Elizabeth Bowen

Table of content

Introduction  2

The Demon Lover  2

Mysterious Kôr  9

Conclusion  13

Vorschlag zu einer Unterrichtseinheit zu Elizabeth Bowens Kurzgeschichten

“The Demon Lover” und “Mysterious Kôr” in der Oberstufe  15

Lesson 1: Elements of the short story and definition of the short story  15
Lesson 2: Pre-reading activity: London in the Blitz and a definition for suspense  16
Lesson 3: Introduction of “The Demon Lover” and Elizabeth Bowen as a writer  17
Lesson 4: Finish the presentations of the groups and post- reading activity: “The Demon Lover” poem  18
Lesson 5: “Mysterious Kôr”  19
Lesson 6: Conclusion and Comparison  20

Appendix A: Elements of Short Stories  21

I. Plot - series of related events that make up a story  21
II. Four types of characterization - techniques the writer uses to develop character  21
III. Themes of literature/Analyzing characters  21
IV. Setting/Description  21

Appendix B: How to Read a Short Story  22

Before  22
During  22
After  23
Terms to Know  23

Appendix C: The London Blitz, 1940   24

Appendix D: The Daemon Lover   27

Bibliography  29

Introduction

Elizabeth Bowen is a well-known author of the twentieth century. Among her biggest success are the novels The Death of the Heart and The Heat of the Day but also some of her short stories won fame in world literature of the last century. Many of her novels and short stories include important elements concerning the Second World War, especially London during the Blitz. Bowen herself worked as an air raid precautious warden during World War II when German bombers regularly attacked London. Her stories successfully try to capture life under this stressful and often frustrating situation of war. She focuses on the different ways ordinary people try to cope with the dread of devastation and the loss of family and friends. In many of her stories she emphasizes that this was a special time in wartime London: “[...] in wartime many people had strange deep intense dreams“¹. “The Demon Lover”, one of her most famous short stories, and “Mysterious Kôr” are part of “The War Years” stories in Elizabeth Bowen Collected Stories². Both tales count to those stories, which are temporarily situated during wartime London. The following essay focuses on “The Demon Lover” as a story of suspense and gives a portrait of an unhappy woman, who perishes on the two World wars. “Mysterious Kôr” is also a story of suspense, not in a classical threatening, but in a positive sense. It shows how people in a situation of war helped themselves by means of dreams, to at least grant their souls some shelter.

The Demon Lover

Many elements within “The Demon Lover” point out that we are dealing with an excellent story of suspense. There are various definitions found in literature about what makes a story suspenseful. Morris defines it as “[...] the building of a particular type of nervous tension.”³ and Cuddon talks about “A state of uncertain, anticipation and curiosity as to the outcome of a story or play, or anykind of narrative in verse or prose [...].”⁴ Both definitions emphasize that stories of suspense let the reader create his/her own feeling of tension. The te nsion is rising until the end, which leaves the reader without clear solutions and keeps him in suspense. As a writer of suspense Bowen backs on “tension-laden atmosphere”⁵ which supports the subtle character of this story of horror and suspense.

Bowen follows the tradition of the Gothic Novel in a modified and modern form. The Gothic Novel is defined as “A type of romance very popular from the 1790’s onwards until the 1820s. It has had a considerable influence on fiction since (still apparent in the 1990s) and is of much importance in the evolution of the ghost story and the horror story [...] Most Gothic novels are tales of mystery and horror, intended to chill the spine and curdle the blood. They contain a strong element of the supernatural [...].”⁶ The supernatural element is dominant in “The Demon Lover”, although it mainly emphasizes the hidden theme of war. In this horror tale the supernatural and hidden truth merge into one story. 

Bowen begins “The Demon Lover” with a description of the streets in wartime London. The reader experiences the emptiness when the protagonist, Kathleen Drover, traverses a deserted street to visit her family’s town house. The unpleasant weather situation supports the sinister situation, which subliminally raises the tension in the reader: “It is a steamy showery day”, “next batch of clouds, already piling up ink-dark” (661). In the flow of the text the weather changes are described meticulously, as the weather worsens the situation for the protagonist becomes more and more hopeless. The weather functions as a mirror of the situation, but also raises the tension in the reader. Before Kathleen Drover enters the house Bowen uses further elements to raise the level of suspense: “[...] a cat wove itself in and out off railings” (661). Cats are mysterious creatures and often play an important role in fairy tales, but they also appear in modern stories and are often in connection with the evil. Further on it is stated that “no human eye watched Mrs Drover’s return”, which metaphorically means, nobody saw her returning to her house, but behind that a subliminal possibility is offered that something inhuman could watch her.

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1 Elizabeth Bowen, The Demon Lover & Other Stories (London: Jonathan Cape, 1945) Preface.

2 Hermione Lee, Elizabeth Bowen Collected Stories (London: Vintage Random House, 1999).

3 J.A. Morris, “Elizabeth Bowen’s Stories of Suspense,” Twentieth-Century Suspense. The Thriller comes of age, ed. Clive Bloom (New York: St. Martin’s,1990) 114.

4 J.A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary terms and Literary Theory (Cambridge MA: Basil Blackwell Inc., 1991) 379.

5 Morris 124.

6 Cuddon 381.