Previous
Kathleen Drover
Mrs. Drover’s first fiancé was a soldier during the First World War. Readers never encounter him directly (only in Mrs. Drover’s flashback), but in her memory, he was cold, cruel, and mysterious. She never saw his face directly, he scarred her hand cutting it with his button, and she always felt uncomfortable and even frightened by him. Though Bowen never makes this entirely clear, it seems he is also the sender of the letter, signed with a “K”, and the demon lover of the story’s title. If this is the case, he has returned twenty-five years later to make Mrs. Drover keep an unspecified promise that she presumably made during the First World War. He provokes a breakdown of sorts in Mrs. Drover, causing her to act in an irrational way in the present. Throughout the story, he is consistently sinister, but as the plot develops there’s a suggestion he has somehow, at least in Mrs. Drover’s mind, transformed into a supernatural figure. At the end of the story, when Mrs. Drover gets into a taxi and reacts in horror upon seeing the driver’s face, the implication is perhaps that she has come face to face with her old lover and he has come to deliver a horrible fate.
The Former Fiancé Quotes in The Demon Lover
The The Demon Lover quotes below are all either spoken by The Former Fiancé or refer to The Former Fiancé. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Demon Lover
Quotes
The young girl talking to the soldier in the garden had not ever completely seen his face… Now and then…she verified his presence for these few moments longer by putting out a hand, which he each time pressed…painfully, on to one of the breast buttons of his uniform
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
She remembered not only all that he said and did but the complete suspension of her existence during that August week. I was not myself—they all told me so at the time… Under no conditions could she remember his face.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Through the aperture driver and passenger, not six inches between them, remained for an eternity eye to eye. Mrs. Drover’s mouth hung open for some seconds before she could issue her first scream. After that she continued to scream freely…as the taxi…made off with her into the hinterland of deserted streets.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Demon Lover LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Former Fiancé Quotes in The Demon Lover
The The Demon Lover quotes below are all either spoken by The Former Fiancé or refer to The Former Fiancé. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
The Demon Lover
Quotes
The young girl talking to the soldier in the garden had not ever completely seen his face… Now and then…she verified his presence for these few moments longer by putting out a hand, which he each time pressed…painfully, on to one of the breast buttons of his uniform
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
She remembered not only all that he said and did but the complete suspension of her existence during that August week. I was not myself—they all told me so at the time… Under no conditions could she remember his face.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Through the aperture driver and passenger, not six inches between them, remained for an eternity eye to eye. Mrs. Drover’s mouth hung open for some seconds before she could issue her first scream. After that she continued to scream freely…as the taxi…made off with her into the hinterland of deserted streets.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
