The Collector

English Essay

In the novel the Collector by John Fowles, the reader feels sympathy and disgust for the antagonist Clegg; therefore Clegg is a perfect example of the antagonist to show that the reader is always positioned to respond negatively.

Society and Clegg’s upbringing has made Clegg who he is, a pathetic, disturbed and a terribly lonely person. Though in making Frederick not a monster, but a pitiful, lonely man in need of love we sympathise towards Clegg. Through a Marxist interpretation we are able to get a better understanding of Clegg and his thoughts (being badly treated by society) and therefore able to sympathise towards him. “They still treated me behind the scenes for what I was- a clerk. It was no good throwing money around. You could see them saying, don’t kid us, we know what you are, why don’t you go back where you came from” (pg14). This shows that society is divided into different classes which are in conflict with each other. Clegg feels as though he is being looked down upon and is very conscious of his inferior education. Clegg blames the class system as part of the cause for his own isolation. Clegg blames his lack of success with Miranda as being partially the result of the different classes to which they belong and because of this we are able to see that he has a sense of class consciousness, and part of him is dominated by his class inferiority. “She often went on about how she hated class distinction, but she never took me in. You could see it when she got sarcastic and impatient with me because I couldn’t explain myself” (pg41). We get the notion that he believes in class inferiority and sees this as a barrier between him and Miranda, because of this we are able to sympathise towards him.

Psychology is the science of the mind; the study of why people, and animals, behave as they do. John Fowles has explored the minds of two people, Clegg and Miranda, abnormal and normal respectively. Clegg’s retrospective account dominates the narration and makes him an unreliable character because of what he is and his beliefs which contrast with those of society. Due to his upbringing, Clegg has been given the idea that sex is dirty, which led Clegg o repress his own desires and turn them into something perverted that he was not able to control. He has a perverted way of interacting with society. His initial purpose in buying a camera is to observe butterflies, one of his only purposes in life, but he soon discovers that he can take photos of things that couples get up to. Clegg relates to things that are dead (his butterflies); he can only deal with things that are in his control. We are made to feel sympathy towards him, because of the way he has been made to act by society.

This sort of behaviour by Clegg relates to the "id" of psycho- analysis. This concept of the subconscious was first introduced by Sigmund Freud. He proposed the idea that the personality is divided into three major systems: the id, the ego, and the superego and these systems work together. When Freud's theory of the subconscious is applied to Clegg it is seems quite obvious that he operates on the ‘id’ and the ego of the mind. Clegg is missing superego and that separates him from society. Although Clegg is able to realise his desires and calculate how to fulfil them, he is not able to keep the reasoning of his actions socially acceptable and humane. We also get this notion that by capturing Miranda who he sees as a ‘Madonna’ and not a whore; we see that Clegg wants someone respectable, someone that can look after him as he was deprived of a mother when he was young. “You want to lean on me. I can feel it. I expect it’s your mother. You’re looking for your mother” (pg59-60). The repetition of the word ‘mother’ it shows us and Miranda that Clegg is suffering from an Oedipus complex. Then this Freudian idea suggests that Clegg’s neuroses began in childhood.