A Demon Lover Analysis

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The guilt of betrayal never ceases from the lost lover. The post World War II setting of “A Demon Lover” reveals that losing a loved one to war has the power to permanently incapacitate. In “Demon Lover” Elizabeth Bowen uses juxtaposition to demonstrate both the power and curse of guilt. While this guilt of past love causes a constant doubt to plague the Mrs. Dover, it also creates a eerie tone adding to the ambiguity she experiences.
Throughout the beginning of the short story as Mrs. Dover first returns to her former house Elizabeth Bowen uses juxtaposition to began to blossom the theme of doubt. In the second paragraph it states that Mrs. Drover is “more perplexed than she knew by everything that she saw, by traces of her long former …show more content…
Dover discovers the mysterious letter Bowen begins to compare Mrs. Dovers current relationship with the one from her past. Upon reading the letter Mrs Dover exclaims “‘The hour arranged… My god,’ she said, ‘what hour? How should I…? After twenty-five years…’ (2)”. This response raises a suspense and curiosity into the unknown of Mrs. Dover’s former life, it also supports the ongoing theme of ambiguity. In the dialogue Mrs. Dover is both confused and doubting her initially belief. Bowen goes on to tell the romance of this mysterious K. who wrote the letter to Mrs. Dover (2). This romantical flashback juxtaposes Mrs. Dover’s first love and her current life. In the flashback Mrs. Dover is a “young girl talking to a soldier” while now she is married to William Drover after being courted at age 32 (2-3). The flashback goes on to tell the story of her long lost soldier who seems to have made a reappearance. In Short Stories for Students Vol 6 Jamaica Kincaid writes that not only does Mrs. Dover not remember her soldier foundly but that “this vision reinforces the sense of him as potentially the “demon lover” of the title”. The soldier is remembered “not with warmth but for his sense of power or control over her (“Demon Lover” 108).” The contrasting stages in Mrs. Drover's life and the reappearance of her mysterious love causes her to question everything she thinks she knows about her current life. Mrs. Dover even goes as far as thinking and then dismissing “any idea that they(her current family) were still watched.(Bowen
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