The Collector :: essays research papers

John Fowles - The Collector â€Å"The Collector† by John Fowles deals with a man’s obsession with a woman that turns to kidnap and eventually death. What attracted me to this book was the unusual topic of obsession and intriguing title. In my review I intend to study how the writer, John Fowles, portrays an obsessive personality - though Frederick’s actions, dialogue, and his changing relationship with his obsession Miranda. The book is set around the two main characters of Frederick and the girl he is obsessed with Miranda and is mainly set in Sussex around the middle of the 20th century. His obsession with Miranda begins in his hometown where he merely watches her from afar but she then moves away to London to go to college so his obsession dies away. After winning the pools, however, his obsession takes a new turn. He moves to London, on the advice of the ‘pools people’, where he sees Miranda again and his obsession grows once more. Once in London he starts to develop a fantasy to capture Miranda but never really intends to act upon it until he come across a house that fits perfectly into his fantasy. The buying of this house then encourages him to carry out his fantasy and kidnap her. This book is arranged in an unusual way. The first chapter is told from the view point of Frederick of the capturing and after the capture of Miranda. The second chapter is in diary form; this is told from Miranda’s point of view. In this she recounts people and events from before she was captured and also describes her escape attempts. This chapter is very good in letting us see how Miranda perceives the events that are happening to her and provides a contrast to Frederick. The third is back to Frederick’s point of view and is about Miranda’s illness, Frederick’s attempt to help her and his reactions. The fourth chapter is very short and is about Frederick finding Miranda’s diary, chapter two in the book, and realising that she never felt anything but resentment for him. It also introduces the idea that he may do it again for a comparison. Frederick, looking back on his experience with Miranda, tells the book in the form a dialogue with the reader. The writer, Fowles, demonstrates Frederick’s obsessive personality through his actions. One of these is the way he marks down the viewing of Miranda in his diary.