Elizabeth Bowen The Demon Lover

“The Demon Lover”, originally written by Elizabeth Bowen, has many interpretations, making it possible for completely different retellings, such as the Scottish Ballad and Shirley Jackson’s “The Daemon Lover.” Even then, the reader can find many similarities and differences between the themes of the texts.

The Scottish Ballad, and “The Demon Lover”, both have very similar themes. Bowen’s story tells the reader to always stay true to their promises. This is shown by the way Mrs. Drover’s guilt of choosing to betray her fiance ended up driving her crazy. This is similar to the Scottish Ballad in which the main character is “punished” by death for the choice she made to leave her family behind. Both women in the stories suffer consequences for the decisions they made; however, Mrs. Drover suffered mentally while the woman in the Scottish Ballad suffered physically.
In Jackson’s story, the theme is more towards how society shuns unmarried, older women, while Bowen’s teaches more about the importance of keeping true to your word. In “The Daemon Lover” the character undergoes many socially-crippling experiences caused by other people’s mockery. This causes a change in the character which is shown throughout the story as she gets more and more desperate. She even pays a little boy in order to get information about where her fiance might be. Whereas, the main character in “The Demon Lover” has already been experiencing the guilt from breaking her promise and in the story we see her finally crack from the