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The Irish Literary Renaissance

The Demon Lover


RL 1 Cite evidence to support Short Story by Elizabeth Bowen
inferences drawn from the text,
including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
RL 5 Analyze how an author’s Meet the Author
choices concerning how to
structure specific parts of a text
contribute to its overall structure
and meaning as well as its
Elizabeth Bowen 1899–1973
aesthetic impact. L 4b Identify
and correctly use patterns of One of the 20th century’s most encouraging. She had always dreamed
word changes that indicate important Anglo-Irish authors, Elizabeth of being a writer, once stating, “From
different meanings or parts of
speech. Bowen published 10 novels and more the moment that my pen touched paper,
than 70 short stories. Her fiction, which I thought of nothing but writing, and
deals primarily with the upper middle since then I have thought of practically
did you know? class, is beautifully crafted, with finely nothing else. . . .[W]hen I have nothing
Elizabeth Bowen . . . drawn characters and detailed, evocative to write, I feel only half alive.”
• served as an air-raid descriptions of setting.
Life During Wartime In 1935, Bowen
warden in London Neither English Nor Irish Born in and Cameron moved to London.
during World War II. Dublin, Ireland, of Anglo-Irish parents, Many of her best works take place in
• counted writers Edith Bowen spent her early childhood at wartime London, a setting she presents
Sitwell, Aldous Huxley, Bowen’s Court, a large stately home with realism and force. In fact, British
and Virginia Woolf
that had been in the family since the novelist and critic Angus Wilson
among her friends.
18th century. Although her family was asserted that the short stories Bowen
well-to-do, her childhood was unsettled. wrote during the war provide some
When Bowen was seven, her father of the best documentation— fact or
suffered a nervous breakdown, and fiction—of the psychological effects war
Bowen was sent to England with her had on Londoners. Her acclaimed novel
mother and a governess. Six years later, The Heat of the Day (1949) also takes
her mother died from cancer. place in the battered city.
The death of her mother was one Diverse and Distinguished Bowen’s
of the pivotal events of Bowen’s life. literary career was diverse as well as
The sense of abandonment she felt is distinguished. In addition to publishing
evident in much of her fiction, which a new book almost every year, she wrote
often explores the themes of grief, essays and book reviews for prestigious
displacement, and lost innocence. journals such as the Tatler, the Spectator,
and the New York Times Magazine. She
Fulfillment of a Dream In
The Fulfillm
also was appointed a Commander of
1923,
1 23, Bowen
19 Bow married Alan
the Order of the British Empire and
Cameron, an educator. That
was awarded honorary doctorates from
year, she also
al published her first
Oxford University and Trinity College
collection of
o stories, Encounters;
in Dublin.
the book was
wa an immediate
success, which
whic Bowen found very
Author Online
Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML12-1228

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text analysis: foreshadowing and flashback
Authors of dark, spine-tingling tales like “The Demon Lover”
often rely on the following narrative techniques to engage
readers:
How can a
• Foreshadowing—a writer’s use of hints and clues to indicate
events that will occur later in the story. Writers often
promise
generate suspense, or excitement, through foreshadowing.
• Flashback—an episode that interrupts the action of the
haunt you?
story’s plot to show an experience that happened at an “The Demon Lover” is set in 1941 during
earlier time. Writers often provide important background the Blitz, the bombardment of London
information about characters in flashbacks. by the German air force. Against this
dramatic backdrop, the story’s main
As you read, notice how Bowen uses both foreshadowing and
character, Mrs. Drover, recalls her
flashback to build your interest in the story.
romantic past, including a dreadful
promise made to a soldier going off
reading skill: analyze ambiguity
to battle.
In fiction, ambiguity refers to the way in which a writer
intentionally presents aspects of a story as confusing or open DISCUSS With a partner, make a
to interpretation. Writers often create ambiguity with words, list of short stories, novels, and movies
phrases, and passages that have multiple meanings, as in the that feature a character making
following lines from “The Demon Lover”: an important promise. Discuss the
promise, the character, and the
A cat wove itself in and out of railings, but no human eye character’s reasons for offering
watched Mrs. Drover’s return. the promise. Explain whether the
The phrase “no human eye” could mean that nobody watched character keeps or breaks the
Mrs. Drover or something far more disturbing—that no human promise by the end of the work.
watched her. As you read the story, create a chart like the one
shown to record and interpret examples of ambiguity.

Examples of Ambiguity Possible Interpretations


the mysterious letter The caretaker, Mr. Drover, or an
(lines 32–51) unknown character left the letter.

vocabulary in context
Use context clues to figure out the meanings of the boldfaced
words.
1. Clearly he was no visionary, for his speech was prosaic.
2. The white moths had a spectral appearance in the night sky.
3. Never stingy, she gave without stint to many charities.
4. Official duties can circumscribe the life of a princess.
5. Brilliant ideas often emanate from creative discussions.

Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

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The Demon Lover
Elizabeth Bowen

background The onset of World War II placed a tremendous physical and


psychological burden on Londoners. From September 1940 to May 1941, the German
air force launched a series of bombing raids designed to obliterate London and force
Great Britain to surrender. Many families evacuated the city and moved to country
villages and towns. Those who could not leave took refuge in subway tunnels and
air-raid shelters during the long nights of horror.

Towards the end of her day in London Mrs. Drover went round to her shut- Analyze Visuals
up house to look for several things she wanted to take away. Some belonged to Why do you think the
photographer chose to
herself, some to her family, who were by now used to their country life. It was
tint and blur this image?
late August; it had been a steamy, showery day: at the moment the trees down the
pavement glittered in an escape of humid yellow afternoon sun. Against the next
batch of clouds, already piling up ink-dark, broken chimneys and parapets 1 stood
out. In her once familiar street, as in any unused channel, an unfamiliar queerness
a FORESHADOWING
had silted up;2 a cat wove itself in and out of railings, but no human eye watched
In lines 1–11, what details
Mrs. Drover’s return. Shifting some parcels under her arm, she slowly forced suggest that Mrs. Drover
10 round her latchkey in an unwilling lock, then gave the door, which had warped, may be unsafe in her
a push with her knee. Dead air came out to meet her as she went in. a London home?
The staircase window having been boarded up, no light came down into the
hall. But one door, she could just see, stood ajar, so she went quickly through into
the room and unshuttered the big window in there. Now the prosaic woman, prosaic (prI-zAPGk) adj.
looking about her, was more perplexed than she knew by everything that she saw, not given to poetic
flights of fancy; lacking
by traces of her long former habit of life—the yellow smoke stain up the white
imagination; dull

1. parapets (pBrPE-pGts): low walls or railings, such as those on balconies.


2. silted up: piled up, like sediment deposited in a river.

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marble mantelpiece, the ring left by a vase on the top of the escritoire;3 the bruise
in the wallpaper where, on the door being thrown open widely, the china handle
had always hit the wall. The piano, having gone away to be stored, had left what
20 looked like claw marks on its part of the parquet.4 Though not much dust had
seeped in, each object wore a film of another kind; and, the only ventilation being
the chimney, the whole drawing room smelled of the cold hearth. Mrs. Drover
put down her parcels on the escritoire and left the room to proceed upstairs; the
things she wanted were in a bedroom chest.
She had been anxious to see how the house was—the part-time caretaker she
shared with some neighbors was away this week on his holiday, known to be not
yet back. At the best of times he did not look in often, and she was never sure that
she trusted him. There were some cracks in the structure, left by the last bombing,
on which she was anxious to keep an eye. Not that one could do anything—
30 A shaft of refracted daylight now lay across the hall. She stopped dead and
stared at the hall table—on this lay a letter addressed to her.
She thought first—then the caretaker must be back. All the same, who, seeing
the house shuttered, would have dropped a letter in at the box? It was not a
circular, it was not a bill. And the post office redirected, to the address in the
country, everything for her that came through the post. The caretaker (even if he
were back) did not know she was due in London today—her call here had been
planned to be a surprise—so his negligence in the manner of this letter, leaving it
to wait in the dusk and the dust, annoyed her. Annoyed, she picked up the letter,
which bore no stamp. But it cannot be important, or they would know . . . She
40 took the letter rapidly upstairs with her, without a stop to look at the writing till
she reached what had been her bedroom, where she let in light. The room looked
over the garden and other gardens: the sun had gone in; as the clouds sharpened
and lowered, the trees and rank5 lawns seemed already to smoke with dark. Her
reluctance to look again at the letter came from the fact that she felt intruded
upon—and by someone contemptuous of her ways. However, in the tenseness
preceding the fall of rain she read it: it was a few lines.

Dear Kathleen: You will not have forgotten that today is our anniversary, and the
day we said. The years have gone by at once slowly and fast. In view of the fact
that nothing has changed, I shall rely upon you to keep your promise. I was sorry to
50 see you leave London, but was satisfied that you would be back in time. You may
expect me, therefore, at the hour arranged. Until then . . . K. b b AMBIGUITY
Reread lines 47–51.
Mrs. Drover looked for the date: it was today’s. She dropped the letter onto the Who is “K,” the author
of the mysterious letter?
bedsprings, then picked it up to see the writing again—her lips, beneath the
Offer two possible
remains of lipstick, beginning to go white. She felt so much the change in her identifications for this
own face that she went to the mirror, polished a clear patch in it and looked at ambiguous character.
once urgently and stealthily in. She was confronted by a woman of forty-four,

3. escritoire (DsQkrG-twärP): a writing desk or table.


4. parquet (pär-kAP): a wood floor made of small blocks laid in geometric patterns.
5. rank: growing vigorously and coarsely.

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with eyes starting out under a hat brim that had been rather carelessly pulled
down. She had not put on any more powder since she left the shop where she ate
her solitary tea. The pearls her husband had given her on their marriage hung
60 loose round her now rather thinner throat, slipping in the V of the pink wool
jumper6 her sister knitted last autumn as they sat round the fire. Mrs. Drover’s
most normal expression was one of controlled worry, but of assent. Since the birth
of the third of her little boys, attended by a quite serious illness, she had had an
intermittent muscular flicker to the left of her mouth, but in spite of this she
could always sustain a manner that was at once energetic and calm. L 4b
Turning from her own face as precipitately as she had gone to meet it, she went
to the chest where the things were, unlocked it, threw up the lid and knelt to Language Coach
search. But as rain began to come crashing down she could not keep from looking Derivations Many
different words are
over her shoulder at the stripped bed on which the letter lay. Behind the blanket derived, or generated,
70 of rain the clock of the church that still stood struck six—with rapidly heightening from the same base
apprehension she counted each of the slow strokes. “The hour arranged . . . My word. A precipice, which
God,” she said, “what hour? How should I . . . ? After twenty-five years . . .” comes from a Latin word
The young girl talking to the soldier in the garden had not ever completely meaning “headlong
fall,” is a steep cliff.
seen his face. It was dark; they were saying goodbye under a tree. Now and How is precipitately
then—for it felt, from not seeing him at this intense moment, as though she had (line 66), meaning
never seen him at all—she verified his presence for these few moments longer by “suddenly,”related to
putting out a hand, which he each time pressed, without very much kindness, and precipice? What other
word derivations are
painfully, onto one of the breast buttons of his uniform. That cut of the button
related to precipice?
on the palm of her hand was, principally, what she was to carry away. This was
80 so near the end of a leave from France that she could only wish him already gone.
It was August 1916.7 Being not kissed, being drawn away from and looked at,
intimidated Kathleen till she imagined spectral glitters in the place of his eyes. spectral (spDkPtrEl) adj.
Turning away and looking back up the lawn she saw, through branches of trees, ghostly
the drawing-room window alight: she caught a breath for the moment when she
could go running back there into the safe arms of her mother and sister, and cry:
“What shall I do, what shall I do? He has gone.”
Hearing her catch her breath, her fiancé said, without feeling: “Cold?”
“You’re going away such a long way.”
“Not so far as you think.”
90 “I don’t understand?”
“You don’t have to,” he said. “You will. You know what we said.”
“But that was—suppose you—I mean, suppose.”
“I shall be with you,” he said, “sooner or later. You won’t forget that. You need
do nothing but wait.”
Only a little more than a minute later she was free to run up the silent lawn.
Looking in through the window at her mother and sister, who did not for the
moment perceive her, she already felt that unnatural promise drive down between
her and the rest of all humankind. No other way of having given herself could

6. jumper: pullover sweater.


7. leave . . . 1916: The young man was on leave from the fighting in France during World War I.

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have made her feel so apart, lost and foresworn.8 She could not have plighted a
100 more sinister troth.9 c c FLASHBACK
Kathleen behaved well when, some months later, her fiancé was reported Reread the flashback
missing, presumed killed. Her family not only supported her but were able to in lines 73–100. What
important information
praise her courage without stint because they could not regret, as a husband for
do you learn about Mrs.
her, the man they knew almost nothing about. They hoped she would, in a year Drover and the writer
or two, console herself—and had it been only a question of consolation things of the letter in this
might have gone much straighter ahead. But her trouble, behind just a little grief, episode?
was a complete dislocation from everything. She did not reject other lovers, for stint (stGnt) n. limitation;
these failed to appear: for years she failed to attract men—and with the approach restriction
of her thirties she became natural enough to share her family’s anxiousness on
110 this score. She began to put herself out, to wonder; and at thirty-two she was very
greatly relieved to find herself being courted by William Drover. She married
him, and the two of them settled down in this quiet, arboreal part of Kensington:10
in this house the years piled up, her children were born and they all lived till they
were driven out by the bombs of the next war. Her movements as Mrs. Drover
were circumscribed, and she dismissed any idea that they were still watched. circumscribe
As things were—dead or living the letter-writer sent her only a threat. Unable, (sûrPkEm-skrFbQ) v. to
restrict; to limit
for some minutes, to go on kneeling with her back exposed to the empty room,
Mrs. Drover rose from the chest to sit on an upright chair whose back was firmly
against the wall. The desuetude 11 of her former bedroom, her married London
120 home’s whole air of being a cracked cup from which memory, with its reassuring
power, had either evaporated or leaked away, made a crisis—and at just this crisis
the letter-writer had, knowledgeably, struck. The hollowness of the house this
evening canceled years on years of voices, habits and steps. Through the shut
windows she only heard rain fall on the roofs around. To rally herself, she said she
was in a mood—and for two or three seconds shutting her eyes, told herself that
she had imagined the letter. But she opened them—there it lay on the bed.
On the supernatural side of the letter’s entrance she was not permitting her
mind to dwell. Who, in London, knew she meant to call at the house today?
Evidently, however, this had been known. The caretaker, had he come back,
130 had had no cause to expect her: he would have taken the letter in his pocket, to
forward it, at his own time, through the post. There was no other sign that the
caretaker had been in—but, if not? Letters dropped in at doors of deserted houses
do not fly or walk to tables in halls. They do not sit on the dust of empty tables
with the air of certainty that they will be found. There is needed some human
hand—but nobody but the caretaker had a key. Under circumstances she did not
care to consider, a house can be entered without a key. It was possible that she
was not alone now. She might be being waited for, downstairs. Waited for—until
when? Until “the hour arranged.” At least that was not six o’clock: six has struck.
She rose from the chair and went over and locked the door.

8. foresworn: guilty of perjury.


9. plighted . . . troth: made a more ominous promise of marriage.
10. arboreal (är-bôrPC-El) . . . Kensington: woodsy part of Kensington, a residential London neighborhood.
11. desuetude (dDsPwG-tLdQ): disuse.

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140 The thing was, to get out. To fly? No, not that: she had to catch her train. As Language Coach
a woman whose utter dependability was the keystone of her family life she was Meanings of Idioms
not willing to return to the country, to her husband, her little boys and her sister, Idioms are expressions
without the objects she had come up to fetch. Resuming work at the chest she set that have a special
meaning different from
about making up a number of parcels in a rapid, fumbling-decisive way. These, the dictionary meaning
with her shopping parcels, would be too much to carry; these meant a taxi—at of the words. In some
the thought of the taxi her heart went up and her normal breathing resumed. I contexts, the expression
will ring up the taxi now; the taxi cannot come too soon: I shall hear the taxi out the thing can mean “that
which is important or
there running its engine, till I walk calmly down to it through the hall. I’ll ring
essential.” Paraphrase
up—But no: the telephone is cut off . . . She tugged at a knot she had tied wrong. “The thing was, to get
150 The idea of flight . . . He was never kind to me, not really. I don’t remember out” (line 140).
him kind at all. Mother said he never considered me. He was set on me, that was
what it was—not love. Not love, not meaning a person well. What did he do, to
make me promise like that? I can’t remember—But she found that she could.
She remembered with such dreadful acuteness that the twenty-five years since
then dissolved like smoke and she instinctively looked for the weal12 left by the
button on the palm of her hand. She remembered not only all that he said and did
but the complete suspension of her existence during that August week. I was not
myself—they all told me so at the time. She remembered—but with one white
burning blank as where acid has dropped on a photograph: under no conditions
160 could she remember his face.
So, wherever he may be waiting, I shall not know him. You have no time to run
from a face you do not expect.
The thing was to get to the taxi before any clock struck what could be the
hour. She would slip down the street and round the side of the square to where
the square gave on the main road. She would return in the taxi, safe, to her own
door, and bring the solid driver into the house with her to pick up the parcels
from room to room. The idea of the taxi driver made her decisive, bold: she
unlocked her door, went to the top of the staircase and listened down.
She heard nothing—but while she was hearing nothing the passé 13 air of the
170 staircase was disturbed by a draft that traveled up to her face. It emanated from emanate (DmPE-nAtQ) v.
the basement: down there a door or window was being opened by someone who to issue forth
chose this moment to leave the house.
The rain had stopped; the pavements steamily shone as Mrs. Drover let herself
out by inches from her own front door into the empty street. The unoccupied
houses opposite continued to meet her look with their damaged stare. Making
towards the thoroughfare and the taxi, she tried not to keep looking behind.
Indeed, the silence was so intense—one of those creeks of London silence
exaggerated this summer by the damage of war—that no tread could have gained
on hers unheard. Where her street debouched14 on the square where people
180 went on living, she grew conscious of, and checked, her unnatural pace. Across

12. weal: a mark or ridge raised on the skin; a welt.


13. passé (pB-sAP) French: old; stale.
14. debouched (dG-bôchtP): emerged.

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the open end of the square two buses impassively passed each other: women,
a perambulator,15 cyclists, a man wheeling a barrow signalized, once again, the
ordinary flow of life. At the square’s most populous corner should be—and was—
the short taxi rank. This evening, only one taxi—but this, although it presented
its blank rump, appeared already to be alertly waiting for her. Indeed, without
looking round the driver started his engine as she panted up from behind and
put her hand on the door. As she did so, the clock struck seven. The taxi faced
the main road: to make the trip back to her house it would have to turn—she
had settled back on the seat and the taxi had turned before she, surprised by its
190 knowing movement, recollected that she had not “said where.” She leaned forward
to scratch at the glass panel that divided the driver’s head from her own.
The driver braked to what was almost a stop, turned round and slid the glass
panel back: the jolt of this flung Mrs. Drover forward till her face was almost into
the glass. Through the aperture 16 driver and passenger, not six inches between d AMBIGUITY
them, remained for an eternity eye to eye. Mrs. Drover’s mouth hung open for Identify two possible
interpretations of the
some seconds before she could issue her first scream. After that she continued to
story’s conclusion.
scream freely and to beat with her gloved hands on the glass all round as the taxi, What effect does this
accelerating without mercy, made off with her into the hinterland17 of deserted ambiguous ending have
streets.  d on you as a reader?

15. perambulator: baby carriage.


16. aperture (BpPEr-chEr): opening.
17. hinterland: backcountry; wilderness.

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After Reading

Comprehension
1. Recall Why has the Drover family left their home in London? RL 1 Cite evidence to support
inferences drawn from the text,
2. Recall Why does Mrs. Drover return to the house? including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
3. Summarize Describe what happens after Mrs. Drover leaves the house. RL 5 Analyze how an author’s
choices concerning how to
structure specific parts of a text
Text Analysis contribute to its overall structure
and meaning as well as its
aesthetic impact.
4. Understand Setting and Mood Review the description of the story’s setting
in lines 1–24. What mood, or atmosphere, does this passage establish? Cite
specific words and phrases to support your answer.
5. Examine Foreshadowing Reread the following passages from “The Demon Lover.”
In what specific ways do they hint at important events presented later in the story?
• “Her reluctance . . . of her ways.” (lines 43–45)
• “Only a little more . . . a more sinister troth.” (lines 95–100)
• “She heard nothing . . . leave the house.” (lines 169–172)
6. Draw Conclusions About Character Describe the thoughts and behavior of
Mrs. Drover in each of the following scenes. Do you think that she is a victim of
her own troubled mind, some supernatural force, or a combination of these?
• her reaction to the mysterious letter (lines 52–65)
• her farewell meeting with her former fiancé (lines 73–100)
• her memories as she packs (lines 150–160)
7. Analyze Ambiguity Review the chart in which you recorded different
examples of ambiguity. Identify the ambiguous word, phrase, or passage that
you found most intriguing or effective. In your opinion, what does
this example contribute to the story?
8. Evaluate Flashback Reread the flashback in lines 73–100. Would the story
be as powerful if the events had been told in chronological order without
the use of flashback? Explain your thoughts.

Text Criticism
9. Cultural Context The title of Bowen’s story derives from a figure in gothic
literature, the demon lover—a man who abducts his sweetheart because she
has broken her promise of faithfulness. The sweetheart happily follows her
lover, only to discover too late that he is leading her toward death. In what
ways does this information enhance your understanding of the story?

How can a promise haunt you?


Do you think the protagonist of Bowen’s story got what she deserved for
breaking her promise? Why or why not?

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Vocabulary in Context
vocabulary practice word list
Identify the antonym of each boldfaced vocabulary word. circumscribe
emanate
1. prosaic: (a) prosperous, (b) everyday, (c) imaginative
prosaic
2. spectral: (a) gloomy, (b) whimsical, (c) substantial
spectral
3. stint: (a) weakness, (b) generosity, (c) beginning
stint
4. circumscribe: (a) control, (b) decide, (c) release
5. emanate: (a) influence, (b) absorb, (c) exude

academic vocabulary in speaking

• approach • assume • environment • method • strategy

How do you approach the existence of the supernatural? Do you assume that
ghosts and other supernatural figures may be real or do you think they are
merely projections of the human mind? Discuss this question in a small group.
Use at least two of the Academic Vocabulary words in your discussion.
L 6 Acquire and use accurately
general academic and domain-
vocabulary strategy: the latin prefix circum- specific words and phrases.

The word circumscribe joins the prefix circum-, which means “around,” to the
root scribe, which comes from the Latin word for “to
write.” Circumscribe means “to write marks or a circle circumnavigate
around someone or something,” setting limits within
which that person or thing can operate. Circumscribe
circumpolar circum- circumstantial
also has a technical academic meaning: in geometry,
it describes, for example, a circle surrounding and
intersecting the corners of a square. Each word in the circumference circumlocution
web diagram at right has a technical, academic usage.
Some are also used in everyday speech.

PRACTICE Use context clues and your knowledge of word parts to explain the
meaning of each boldfaced word. Then, where possible, use the boldfaced word
in an everyday sense. Note whether the common, everyday sense of the word is
different from its technical meaning.
1. Circumstantial evidence—namely, motive and opportunity— pointed to the
defendant’s guilt; but no physical evidence linked her to the crime.
2. One form of euphemism, the substitution of mild or vague language for
harsh, realistic terminology, is circumlocution.
Interactive
3. The formula for the circumference of a circle is 2πr. Vocabulary
4. Was Magellan the first explorer to circumnavigate the globe? Go to thinkcentral.com.
KEYWORD: HML12-1238
5. Circumpolar objects, such as stars, never sink below the horizon.

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Wrap-Up: The Irish Literary Renaissance

The Flowering of Irish Letters


For hundreds of years, Irish literature written in English did not have Extension Online
its own identity. However, in the 20th century, as Ireland undertook INQUIRY & RESEARCH Use
its quest for national independence and rebounded from the the Internet to research the
devastation of the potato famine, the Irish began to take stock of political and cultural conditions
their own cultural heritage. surrounding the Irish Literary
Led by William Butler Yeats, writers of the Irish literary revival Renaissance. What values were
vigorously explored Irish identity. Some wrote explicitly about such being expressed? How did the
topics as Irish rural life, the effects of colonialism, and Irish folklore. movement spread? How was this
Others wrote about classical topics or accounts of modern life, but literature received by the public?
always with an ear for the lyricism of Irish speech and a sensitivity Write a brief report to explain
toward common themes such as spirituality and repression, often your findings.
tinged with fatalism. Also, modern Irish writers shared the clever and
sometimes dark wit typical of their countrymen.

Writing to Compare
The Irish writers in this section explore different subject matter, W 2 Write explanatory texts to examine and
convey complex ideas through the effective
but they share similarities in theme and tone. Choose two selection, organization, and analysis of content.
selections and write an essay comparing them, supporting your W 2b–c Select quotations or other information
and examples; use appropriate transitions
ideas with examples from both texts. and syntax to clarify the relationships among
complex ideas and concepts. W 7 Conduct
Consider short research projects to answer a question;
synthesize multiple sources on the subject.
• each author’s use of imagery and figurative language W 9a (RL 2, RL 4) Determine themes of a text;
determine figurative meanings; analyze the
• each author’s tone, or attitude toward the subject impact of word choices on meaning and tone.

• the themes represented Anglo-Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen at Bowen’s


Your two topics should be clearly organized and linked Court, her ancestral home in County Cork,
Ireland
with transitions and sentence structures that make your
comparison clear.

wrap-up 1239

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