17 2012

Lover’ written by Elizabeth Bowen. A letter is written to Mrs. Drover by an anonymous author, with intimations of a shared sexual past. Consequently, Mrs. Drover becomes confused and disorientated. Indeed, the final enigmatic line of the letter, “Until then...”, leaves Mrs. Drover in an uneasy state. Both the letter and the bra are everyday objects which assume emotional significance for the characters as they symbolise violent sexuality and fear.They are objective correlatives for the paranoia and frustration of the stories’ protagonists. This is another episode that serves as a sublimation of the damaging effects of living in a modern urban society without adequate emotional expression. Like the bath and the arrest, this serves to show the profound effect that the world is having on this man. These examples of le non dit show that everyone has desires and ideas that are explicit, violent and obscene. By hiding these and burying them deep under a “thick skin”, a skin of consumerism, by being inert and often by smothering them in “cider cans”, we do nothing to solve them but rather compound them. In the last paragraph there are multiple references to the narrator clipping his nails. This is a mundane, monotonous example of mankind’s attempts to cultivate itself.The repetition of “clipping” is introduced to show how man is constantly trying to limit and repress the animal within himself. Indeed, nails are a powerful symbol of man’s animal identity hidden beneath layers of philosophy, science and culture. Humans are the only animal to cut and preen away at their appearances in order to dissociate from their animalistic tendencies. This is not commendable although it is certainly beneficial in order to operate in a modern society.This conviction is satirically and interestingly discussed by the American author,Mark Twain, in his essay ‘Damned Human Race’. Here he describes man as the only animal who enjoys “the passion of revenge”, as the “cruel animal” and as “avaricious and miserly”; it is an ironic, savage belittling of mankind. He states that “man, with his soiled mind, covers himself ” and that any

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