Charlotte Bernard Dr.

Peeler English 215 September 22, 2009

The Demon Lover on the surface is a ghost story of a woman and her dead suitor coming back to hold her to a promise. On another level, there is a much deeper story about an all consuming love that shatters the mind in its absence. The author does not state this instead it is up to the reader to see the parallel between the house and the protagonist and interpret the imagery and what it means in reference to the protagonist. Window boarded up The eyes are the window to the soul and the protagonists eyes are boarder up. These two important insights in to the protagonists character. Physically, the reader can picture the abandoned building the house that was no longer a home, what was that is no longer, a desolate isolated abandoned place where no one else is, it is boarded off to ward people off. This in relation to the characterization of the protagonist it can give the reader a picture in how Mrs. Drover presented herself to the world. She was closed off from people and families, she was closed off from life. One can easily picture a closed expression on her face, not a very welcoming presence. Even the lat look in her eyes evidence of how shattered the protagonist was after her suitor went off to war the last time. In relation to the mentally condition, this image reveals how the protagonist separated herself; like the closed off house she closed her mind up. It is almost like a defensive mechanism of the mind to protect itself from a reality it is not ready to accept or to separate itself, from pain. It is a coping mechanism after a trauma; it is the only way the mind knows how to protect itself. No light came down the hall

The outside world and the mind no longer were connected; stimulus from the outside world could not reach her anymore. Light could symbolize the absolute loss of hope, of the protagonist outlook for the rest of her life barren. Mixed into these emotions are probably some feelings of abandonment. She might feel as if she was left, in the dark, to fend for herself. A person suffering loss and dealing with abandonment issues will try to control as much of their environment as possible to negate emotional tie and simplify life as much as possible. Her need to control self is seen in Mrs. Drovers appearance and her care with it. Even after receiving the disturbing note she is able to put herself back together after glancing in the mirror and realizing she was losing control over her appearance. The house becomes a static place where there is no light. Light is need for life, life needs sunlight and warmth and the protagonists life is void of both. In describing the house as static it gives the reader, the impression after the last deployment the protagonist life is static. But one door stood ajar The house has been said to represent the protagonist and at the same time the house is symbol it is like a coffin. If all doors had been shut and abandoned, this would have symbolized total death of the body, mind and spirit. Instead one door is still open, this shows how she still functions in a stunted way, by closing everything but this narrow door which she allows herself of her past. It is not total amnesia or total repression but a limited view out looking in, this concept I later revisited in the memories the protagonists recalls. She remembers in such detail that she knows the date and an even picture what he was wearing but cannot recall his face. It is no coincidence that she cannot remember that finite detail, it is simply the mind protecting itself. The extreme way she tries to suppress her memories reinforce the importance of this suitor. Even though she said he was not nice he was a focal point of her life. She displace herself it is almost like a victim that suppress harmful memories, it is not that they never existed but the victim actively avoids the reminders of the past and seek to devalue, belittle the events and make to events less scary, less harmful, less powerful to affect them now and days, a hearth that hard grown cold is a comfort because she is no longer needs fire,

excitements that swings the door until it bounces off the wall, its a point of pride she has come from that

Prosaic woman

In another part of the story, it is stated that after the suitor or demon lover left she was lost unable to identify with anything. In a sense she had lost herself without the other person there to define herself as lover, wife, fianc, so she labeled herself. She then proceeded to do everything she could do to fit that self-identified label. She was the prosaic woman as both a point of referencing and protection against her past. She would never again be Katherin the type of person to experience such a range and depth in emotions.

She would be the prosaic woman who did not ask, expect, or want to even inspire emotions such as love in another person or have them in herself. She wanted to go as contrary and dissimilar as possible to contrast her past self

In associative learning, one learns to attach one thing to another when the two pass each other, the protagonist redefined herself as Mrs. Drover a prosaic woman versus Katherine the finace, lover, the one who abandoned.