The Demon Lover

Bowen and Gilman:

Houses of Horror

The story, “The Demon Lover,” written by Elizabeth Bowen and the poem, “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, have house’s that possess human characteristics. Each house is indicated at the beginning that they are houses which are old, cold and full of something supernatural other than human life. Each house are described by the authors as having a supernatural entity that lingers throughout the rooms. The essay will discuss further evidence that the houses actually take on human personalities which are mysterious and malevolent.

In the story written by Bowen, she starts off by describing air that comes to meet Mrs. Drover as she enters the house. She writes, “Dead air came to meet her as she went in” (p 703). Air is what keeps people alive. Air is life. Bowen describes air as dead. This dead air comes to meet Mrs. Drover as she is entering the house. Is this a welcome or a warning not to enter? The reader can almost sense that something is not right. The house is boarded up and one can imagine this uneasy setting. It is as though the author is letting the reader know that there is something in the house and that she is not alone.

One indication that she is not alone is described in the next quote. Bowen wrote, “A house can be entered without a key. It was possible that she was not alone now,” (704). Everyone knows that you can not get into a locked house without a key. Bowen is suggesting to the reader that there is a ghost or at least something supernatural present. Mrs. Drover entered the house by herself, so who or what is in the house with her? The reader at this moment of the story senses that there is something lingering in the house.

As Bowen’s story continues, she describes a silence that is very disturbing. This silence travels from the basement up to the point where she stands at the top of the stairway. She explains, “She heard nothing, but while she heard nothing the passe air of the staircase was disturbed by a draught that traveled up to her face” (704). Again air is used to describe the eeriness that is present in the house. As you read that sentence the reader can almost guess that something is going to happen. This is where the horror of the story begins.

While Mrs. Drover is standing at the stairway hearing nothing, she describes a noise that comes from the basement. She writes, “It emanated from the basement: down there a door or window was being opened by someone who chose this moment to leave the house” (705). This gives a reader a definite feeling that something was in the house. It says though that someone left. If a person can get in a house that was locked without a key and leave through a window or door, who or what is it? The mysterious events that happen in the house while Mrs. Drover is in it make the reader wonder about these mysterious events that happen. This is not hard for a reader to imagine with all the air that is described that moves around.

Meanwhile, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” has a woman who is obsessed with the wallpaper that is in her bedroom she is forced to sleep in. Her husband is her physician and keeps telling her that she is not well. Although, there are no signs of her being “sick,” the reader does sense that there is something strange about what she has to say about the wallpaper that does not let her sleep at night.

She describes the yellow wallpaper as having human characteristics. She continually talks about the wallpaper with such a horrible image’s. She describes at one time that, “There is a recurrent spot where the pattern looks like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down” (427). The wall paper is bothering her “Must not think about that. This paper,” (427) she says. She now wants to avoid thinking about it, but finds that she can not.

This wall paper is always changing. She actually says at one point that, “There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice but myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes” (431). The wallpaper seems to be at a constant change. The reader helps but to wonder that because it is always changing is the cause for her obsession.

Her husband tells her that he will change the wallpaper but then makes excuses not to. A reader wonders if he knows that this wallpaper is bothering her, and then maybe this would be a good way of keeping her from getting “better.” She keeps mentioning the wallpaper to him but he refuses to listen. As she