A Deviant Prison Guard’s Inclination towards Possessing Self-Confidence: John Fowles’ The Collector

Touching upon the elements of horror, romance, art as

well as power and control, John Fowles, in his debut novel The Collector, portrays the spiral and hideous plans of an

insignificant, introvert butterfly collector Frederic Clegg by laying emphasis

upon the transformational influence of the concepts such as imprisonment, class

conflict, intellectual disaccord on the ego and self of the protagonist. In

spite of manifesting himself at the beginning of the novel as an ordinary

character with a mediocre life, Clegg, then, embraces the determinant factors on

his personality for example deviance, obsession, commitment, solitude and

fondness, and he morphs into an intrepid adventurer who imprisons a college

student of fine arts but does not bother, annoy, harass or torture her. The

fact that Clegg kidnaps Miranda and puts her in a basement with the thought that

she can like him thanks to confinement, yet he does not hurt her, heightens the

tension and reveals certain implications of Clegg’s perverted, abnormal,

twisted psychological state.<o:p></o:p>

The purpose of this

study is to designate the determinant factors of Frederic Clegg’s metamorphosis

into adopting a deviant self in accordance with the unrequited affection which

uncovers the concepts of disconnection and fracture in the protagonist’s

personality and identity. The main focus of the study will be closely associated

with unveiling the nuances between the personality characteristics of a

psychopath, sociopath, or a pervert by looking at Clegg’s overriding drives and

impulses in The Collector.