The Collecotr

John Fowles gives one a glimpse into insanity in, The Collector. A lonely, single man comes into some money, and suddenly his fantasies can become reality. He collects butterflies, killing them and posing them in little glass plates. Is he evil? It is hard to say, and as one reads the lines are blurred and morals questioned. Is that which is wrong always done with bad intentions?

Frederick, the main character, is in love with a beautiful, young girl who he has never spoken to. They lived in the same town, and occasionally he would see Miranda, the art student, walking about as he looked out of windows from home and from work. When Fred wins the lottery, he realizes that he will be able to have Miranda, but he does not believe he will follow through with his plan.

He buys an old house in the country with a hidden cellar. The preparations he takes to keep Miranda in his house are enormous! He buys fine furniture, but nothing that could be dangerous to him. Nothing sharp is in her room, and he puts up a thick steel door that she could never break through. Fred was ready to collect Miranda as he collected butterflies, but he said he never meant for things to happen like they did. "What I'm trying to say is that having her as my guest happened suddenly, it wasn't something I planned the moment the money came." (Fowles 11.)

The way Fowles writes the novel is amazing. He gives insight into Fred's mind, and the reader understands where he is coming from. If you tell someone there was a man who kidnapped a young girl and kept her in his basement, he would be condemned as evil, but when one reads The Collector, the question of whether he is really evil arises. He never raped her, and would not even touch her in a sexual manner. His intentions were pure; just to have her and watch her, knowing she is his.

A twist in the novel is when half way through, Fowles switches the narrative of Fred to Miranda's encounter. Using a journal, Miranda writes down her thoughts of Fred and tells stories of her life outside her new prison. "I felt sorry for Caliban [Fred] this evening." (Fowles 209). Even she is brainwashed into thinking Fred is not so evil, feeling sorry for his desperate and bland life. Fowles uses Miranda to show the other point of view. "I know what I am to him. A butterfly that he has always wanted to ctach." (Fowles 129). Seeing what she says makes