John Fowles The Collector

The Collector by author John Fowles represents the notion of the Many and the Few. Fowles characters Miranda Grey and Frederick Clegg represents the Few and the Many respectively. In an interview with Roy Newquist, Fowles defines the Few as “the good, the intelligent, the independent.” (Vipond) And he defines the many as “the stupid, the ignorant, and the easily molded” (Vipond). He also says being either part of the Many or of the Few as a matter of chance at birth. This notion is encompassed in his idea of Hazard. To Fowles, Hazard means a person genetic makeup including personality, as well as a person’s social and family backgrounds. Both the Many and the Few face challenges in life, but if one fails to rise above the challenges they …show more content…
At the start of the novel she believes that love matters and sex does not matter, but later on, she changes her stance by saying, “‘sex is just an activity, like anything else. It’s not dirty, it’s just two people playing with each other’s bodies. Like dancing. Like a game’” (Fowles 107). Her stance also changes toward G.P. with her view on sex as she becomes jealous of the women he has slept with as he is a womanizer. The jealousy that she feels drives her to the point of wanting to be free so that she can tell him the truth on how she feels: “To tell him he always has been in my thoughts…I still can’t tell him that I love him. It’s because now I don’t know what love is… Sex doesn’t matter. Love does” (Fowles 256-257). She also changes her attitude towards her mother when she says “She’s always been my mother I’ve hated or been ashamed of … I’ve never given her enough sympathy” (Fowles 151). Not only does she change her stance towards her mother, but she also changes her stance towards her father when she realizes he was trying his best to provide for his family, although he was not around that much. With her also changing her stance on sex, she takes a step forward to becoming more of an authentic …show more content…
Syhamal also, talks about how Miranda admits to having admiration for Clegg which baffles her, “She admits to an uneasy sense of admiration for him, and this baffles her” (226). She shows her empathy for him after she realizes he is impotent and this is demonstrated when he tells her the lies about his condition, “He got beastly… We were further apart than ever. I said I pitied him” (Fowles 261). By Miranda telling Clegg that she pitied him, she demonstrates she is trying to educate Clegg so that he will be able to improve the condition that he is in. Another step that shows her changing into someone that is authentic is when she says she forgives Clegg when she is on her death bed, “The last thing that she said was, ‘I forgive you.’” (Fowles 286). Since Miranda shows a change in most aspects of her beliefs she is on her way to living authentically, but unfortunately she dies from pneumonia before she