Goia Nicoleta- The Collector

7/25/2019 Goia Nicoleta- The Collector

1/25

THE COLLECTOR,BY JOHN FOWLES

Student: Goia Nicoleta-Mariana


2/25

JOHN ROBERT FOWLES B IOGRAPHY

( 31 M A RC H 1926 - 5 N OV EM BER 25 !

John Robert Fowles was an English novelist, whoseliterature can be positioned between modernism andpostmodernism.

He was infuenced in his work by Albert amus ! aFrench writer o" the ##$ century% and Jean &aul 'artre! also a French writer o" the ##$ century%.

John Fowles was born in (eigh)on)'ea in Esse*,England, the son o" +ladys ay Richards and RobertJohn Fowles.

Fowles spent his childhood with his mother andhis cousin &eggy Fowles, - years old at the time o" hisbirth. 'he took care o" him "or ten years.


3/25

JOH N ROB ERT FOWL ES B IOG RA PH Y( 31 M A RC H 1926 - 5 N OV EM BER 25 !

Fowles attended Alleyn ourt &reparatory 'chool.

$n -/0/ , Fowles won a place "or 1ed"ord 'chool,

and he 2nishes his studies in -/33. His time at 1ed"ordcoincided with 4he 'econd 5orld 5ar.

A"ter living 1ed"ord 'chool in -/33, he enrolled ina 6aval 'hort ourse at Edinburgh 7niversity .

A"ter completing his military service in -/38 ,Fowles entered 6ew ollege, 9*"ord , where he studiedFrench and +erman, studies that he also thought "or

e*ercising his knowledge.


4/25

MAJOR WOR"S OF JOHN FOWLES4he ollector , novel : -/;0

4he Aristos, essays : -/;3

4he agus : -/;;, revised in -/88

4he French (ieutenant


5/25

MAJOR WOR"S OF JOHN FOWLES

=aniel artin : -/88

$slands : -/8

4he 4ree ) -/8/

4he Enigma o" 'tonehenge : -/>

A short History o" (yme Regis : -/?

antissa : -/?

(yme Regis amera : -/?


6/25

MO#ERNISM$ POSTMO#ERNISM

odernity e*presses the absence o" the motivation o" living.

odernity is a science based on an individual.

5hen we speak about odernity , we speak about impressionism,

realism, naturalism .

odernity has as "oundation, 2*ed narrative points or unmovable

moral positions.odernity believes in a single social identity, and let me tell you that

modernity is very strict because o" the totalitarian regime o" those days.


7/25

MO#ERNISM$POSTMO#ERNISM&ostmodernity doesn


8/25

TOTALITARIAN REGIME

4he totalitarian regime is a "orm o" government that interdicts "reedom and that

subordinates all aspects o" the individual li"e to the authority o" the government.

$ndividual li"e is aDected by coercion and repression.

oercion represents respecting the rules o" the most important political organiations o"the state, the government, the parliament, and also courts o" low.

Repression represents the act o" "ollowing the citiens o" the state, through totalitarian

rules.

7nder totalitarian rule, all kinds o" "actories and organiations are suppressed people

are watched and their moves represent "or the organiations o" the state a possible

threat.

An e*ample is the regime that we meet in +eorge 9rwell


9/25

THE COLLECTOR (1963!

4he ollector is a psychological novel inspired "rom a real "act.

4he novel is divided into "our parts, narrated in the 2rst person.

4he author speaks about a butterfies collector, obsessed with a young girl

that he "ollows everyday in the street.He watches every step she makes, arriving to know all details in her li"e.

He knows where she lives, where she works, what kind o" cigarettes shesmokes, and almost all her "riends.

He discovers that she is a student at 4he 'lade 'chool o" Fine Art in(ondon, and he sees her like a possible capture in his collection o"butterfies.

9ne day he becomes the heir o" a big sum o" money that he wins, and hebegins to make a plan, in which he will kidnap the young girl, namediranda.


10/25

THE COLLECTOR

(1963!

He also begins to make plans o" how she will become in love with

him.

He will buy a house in the country side, an old one, and he willstart making plans and buy all kind o" things "or his captureB.

4his novel is a 2ght between pre@udices , a 2ght between good and

evil, between a healthy mind and a sick mind, between the desire o"

living and death, the taste "or art and beauty and the desire o"

destructing and ugliness.

4hose antithesis will be also archetypes "or this novel and symbols

o" it.


11/25

THE #ECON STR%CTION OF MEAN IN G

=econstruction is a critical approach concerned with the relationship

between the te*t and the meaning.

According to JacGues =errida and Ferdinand de 'aussure , language is

a system o" signs and words only with a meaning related by the contrast

between these signs.

As a result , deconstructionist critics tend to emphasie about how

language is used in a te*t.

=econstructionists try to show how the te*t deconstructs , how it can

be broken down into mutually irreconcilable positions.


12/25

MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL

Frederick legg is a city clerk and an entomologist who loves to collect

butterfies.

He is antisocial, because he lost his parents at an early age, and all

along the novel, he behaves himsel" like a psycho.

4he "act that he earns a big sum o" money, determines him to put, in a

way, in application his sickness.

'tarting "rom his passion o" collecting butterfies, he gets in love with a

young girl, a student at 4he =esign Faculty, and she will be now one o"

his pleasures, a new part o" his collection, now a collection o" women.


13/25


iranda) is a ?> years old student at 4he 'lade 'chool o" Fine Art

in (ondon.

Her "amily is dys"unctional because o" the diDerences o" age

between her parents, and that


14/25


+eorge &arston) is the character whit whom iranda is in love. He

is between ages and teaches iranda how to love art and how to

perceive it diDerently.aroline anbrugh)Jones) is iranda


15/25

THE F IGHT B ETWEEN GOO# AN #EVIL

4he 2ght between good and evil is a general concept, but this concept applies

very well to this novel.

5e can say that good is identi"ying with art, class, thinking, behavior, and evil

with prison, collecting, power and control, photographic images, concepts that

are symbols to this novel.

4he "our parts o" the novel present legg


16/25

THE F IGHT B ETWEEN GOO# AN #EVIL

+ood, in a general sense, relates with the "act that iranda is a

positive character, and that she 2ghts "or her rights. Evil, in a

general sense, relates with the character o" legg, who 2ghts tokeep iranda ne*t to him, the girl captured in the basement.

+ood, in a typical sense, relates with the two ways o" thinking. For

e*ample, legg, in his way o" thinking, behaves like nothing is

wrong.

Evil, in a typical sense, relates, in iranda


17/25

CLASS

4he symbol o" class is the division made between classes

o" society lower class, "rom which legg is being part,

and the middle)class, "rom which iranda is being part.

4hose classes, lower and middle, have diDerent ways o"

seeing the li"e and o" thinking.

4he "act that legg earned a big sum o" money, doesn


18/25

CLASS

iranda is a character that, being part o" the middle)

class, plays her role, at the beginning without any "ear,

because she realies the abyss that is made between her

and her kidnapper, in the 2eld o" knowledge.

'he advices legg to read a book that she read earlier in

her li"e, 4he atcher in the RyeB, 1ut "or him results being

very hard.

4he "act that he is an unaccomplished person, made o"

him, a very ugly character.


19/25

ART

Art means beauty, that


20/25

PRISON

4he prison is a real one "or iranda, she is hidden in the

basement o" an old house in the countryside o" (ondon, and

she tries to escape she tries a lot o" solutions to catch legg

on a wrong "oot, and to get away "rom that real prison.

At the beginning o" the novel, legg gives us the impression

that he is in love with iranda, but "urther we discover that

he is a real psycho, and that he has no "eelings "or her.

He also lives in a prison, the prison o" his mind and his acts.


21/25

COLLECTING

4hat pleasure "or collecting butterfies is like an obsession

"or catching the beauty and "or destructing it, step by step.

4his pleasure trans"orms in an obsession "or girls, "or

beauti"ul ones, and in a target "or his plans.

9bserving legg


22/25

POWER AN#

CONTROL

Regarding power and control, iranda and

legg seem to be on a "oot o" eGuality, in a way.

4hat


23/25

PHOTOGRAPHIC

IMAGES

4hese photographic images help legg to 2*

the moment in time, and helps him to be happy

o" his capture.

4hat 2*ing o" the moment is biarre "or

iranda, who never lets legg make this kind

o" pictures.'he is photographed in the situations when

she is "eeling Guite bad, and when she doesn


24/25

THE FIGHT BETWEE N HEALTHY AN#SIC"

A healthy mind is revealed by iranda.

'he has dreams, she is a student, she is in

love, and she behaves hersel" like a normal

person.

A sick mind is revealed by legg.

He has obsessions, he is a clerk, with no

dreams, and he has no "amily.


25/25

PSYCHOLOGICAL INFL%ENCE

4his novel is a psychological one it plays with

the patience, with the nerves, with liberty, with

pre@udices and with li"e, in the end.

$s an interesting novel, though is Guite easy to

read, in a "ew hours.

$t has many symbols and antithesis and is a

lesson o" li"e, in this 2eld o" literature.

Goia Nicoleta- The Collector

Documents

Transcript of Goia Nicoleta- The Collector