Title of this book: The Collector
Writer of this book: John Fowles
Character : Describe the personality of the main character. What is he/she like? What is his/her goal, strength, weakness? Who is his/her helper and adversary?
Frederick Clegg: A lonely man, 22 years old, collects butterflies and has no love in his live. Until he falls in love with Miranda. His goal is to kidnap Miranda and to ‘add her to his collection’. And so he does. His weakness is his inability to translate his thoughts to words. And thus, communicating with him is difficult. He is also mentally ill, which becomes very clear in the book, sometimes even inhuman.
Setting: When and where does the story take place and in what kind of social environment? Be as precise as possible. Imagine that a painter will make a painting of your answer, he would need a lot of information from you to make a detailed painting!
Place: The story mainly takes place in the house where Miranda is kept, inside the house she is mainly kept in the basement. The house is near Sussex and pretty remote, which is the reason Frederick bought it. Also some bits of it happen in London, where Miranda went to Art school and where Frederick kidnapped her.
Time: The story takes place in 1957, and happens over a time span of approximately 3 months.
The social setting includes situations taking place at a certain time period in history, social trends, rules of behavior (the do’s and don’ts of the time). Don’t forget to think about how those situations affect the main character! What is his/her role in a particular situation? Describe this role and the situation he/she is in.
Social Setting: Apart from social do’s and don’ts of the time, kidnapping someone was never accepted (I think?), so Frederick is doing something he absolutely shouldn’t. His role in the matter is, of course, the kidnapper.
Narrator: From what perspective is the story told? Why do you think did the writer chose this perspective?
The story is told from the perspective of Frederick, as well as from the perspective of Miranda. I think the writer chose these perspective to showcase how different Miranda and Frederick experience their time ‘together’.
Theme: What is the message that the writer wants to give his readers? Did the message come across?
I think the message the writer wants to give his readers is that we need to watch over people who are low on the social ladder, because they can pose a threat. The message did come across.
Tension: In what way(s) did the writer catch/keep your attention? For example: two or more storylines, flashbacks or forwards, funny or scary characters, beautiful descriptions etc.
The book contains one storyline, but told from two different perspective, this makes for some exciting moments. Also with Miranda trying to escape multiple times, the tension is never far away. Of course there is one scary character: Frederick, because of his mental problems he can be quite unpredictable and very inhuman.
Summary of your book.
Part 1:
The 22-year-old Frederick Clegg lives with his uncle Dick, Aunt Annie and his niece Mabel, because his father is dead and his mother doesn’t care about him. Frederick collects butterflies he captures himself, the only one who praises Frederick for his collection is Uncle Dick, as he dies Frederick is alone with his unsympathetic aunt and niece in the house. At one point Frederick wins the pools (a kind of lottery) and receives 73000 pounds. When his aunt and niece emigrate to Australia, he decides to stay. He is obsessed with Miranda, a 20-year-old student at the Art academy. He makes plans to kidnap her. He buys a house in a spirited village called Sussex. He redesigns the basement so that he can keep her captive there. He buys clothes and books for Miranda.
One day, Frederick actually manages to kidnap her, though he thought he would not actually do it. Once Miranda is trapped in ‘her’ basement room, she begs him to release her. Frederick says she has to stay for 4 weeks. The communication is difficult, they are totally different personalities. Miranda tries to understand him. He lets her know that he does not want to kill or rape her. Miranda realizes she is trapped by a sick mind. Someone who collected butterflies and added her to his collection. Frederick makes pictures of her and buys everything for her that she wants, but does not let her go.
During her captivity she tries to escape 7 times, all unsuccessful. She tries to push him and run away, but the outside door is locked. She tries to flee when she goes into the bath, she tries to dig a tunnel, she pretends to be sick, tries to kill him with a small axe she found, and eventually she tries to seduce him, which is not in good nature. He does not treat her with the same respect as first. He ties her down and makes pornographic pictures of her. The 4 weeks have now become 2 months. He never let her go.
Part 2:
Here you can read the diary of Miranda, how she experiences the same events and dialogues. She is disgusted by Frederick and calls him in her diary Caliban, a halfmenselijke slave from Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest“. On the other hand she pities Frederick and wants to help him. In Her diary she writes how bad she wants to escape. She also writes about G.P. and she agrees that she is in love with this man. You notice reading her diary that she adores him, at the end of the diary she even makes plans to marry him when she is free.
At some point she gets sick, according to her because of pneumonia. The pieces she writes in the last part of her diary are getting shorter, until she is so sick that she can’t write anymore, which is really heartbreaking. She realizes that Frederick will let her die and she had just decided not to die for him.
Part 3:
Miranda eventually dies. Frederick had promised to take a doctor, but he did not do so. He did wear her up when she asked, because she wanted to see daylight before she dies. Before she dies she says she forgives him. When she finally dies, he doesn’t know what to do, eventually he decides to commit suicide, because without her he is nothing.
Part 4:
It’s the next day, it’s a beautiful sunny day. He decides not to commit suicide. In a village he sees one day a girl who has a lot of Miranda. He buries Miranda and makes the room in order for his next victim. A girl named Marian.