Comparing Themes And Symbols In Elizabeth Bowen's Demon Lover

The short story Demon Lover written by Elizabeth Bowen, as well as the ballad Demon Lover appear to revolve around the same concept. The short story is about a woman that was once in love and engaged to a soldier, who fought in World War II. When she returned to her former home she was blindsided by a letter she found on her table.No one had known that she would be visiting her home. The letter forced her to recall a promise that she had made to her former lover. Along the lines of the Demon Lover, the ballad is about another woman who was once engaged, but her lover was deployed to war, and returned at an unexpected time. Unlike the first woman her lover showed up without any warning. Without a struggle she chose to leave with her former lover. These two pieces present multiple similarities and differences. The similarities include the following: both demon lovers wait until they can return to their beloved, and return at an unexpected time of their former fiances lives. Second, both demons end up with their lovers, one way or another. The final similarity is, both the short story and the ballad have a supernatural or ghostly sense to them. The …show more content…
In the short story, Mrs.Drover flashes back to her final moments with her former lover. From these moments she can not remember what her lovers face looked like only the spectral glitters in place of his eyes. She also remembers his presence and a cut that was left on her hand from their last encounter when she pressed her hand onto one of the buttons of his shirt. The ballad contains keywords that symbolizes the devil. “They had not sailed a league, a league,A league but barely three,Until she espied his cloven foot,And she wept right bitterly.”(Ballad 1025) A cloven foot is one of the many representations of the devil himself, such as the pitch fork, or the