Elizabeth Bowen, the author of “The Demon Lover,” was born in a small town in Ireland. During World War II, Bowen was employed by the Ministry Information in London and also served as a an air raid warden. This inspired Bowen to write most of her stories about the events and the effect of World War II. One of the effects Bowen writes about is the wives of fallen or missing soldiers. Many women today are currently waiting on their fiances or husbands to come back from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The internal struggle for these women is whether or not to move on and find another husband to take care of them or to wait for their lover until their arrival back home. Elizabeth Bowen’s “The Demon Lover” uses characterization and symbols to demonstrate that the psychological effects of war that causes guilt and anguish. The story has mysterious and terrifying plot line that intrigues the reader to love and adore the story. In the beginning of “The Demon Lover”, Mrs. Drover returns to her to her old home in London. After the bombing in London, she decided she wants to retrieve some of her and her families items they had to abandon when they fled from London. As she walks into her old home she felt a “dead air [come] out to meet her as she went in” (Bowen 1). She starts looking around her old home reminiscing about the times before her and her family had to abandon her lovely home. She starts rummaging through her old trinkets when she came upon a letter sitting on the hall