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Review by Robin Fiorello
The Collector
Confronting the insanity of a compulsively possessive man
The Collector, by John Fowles, illustrates a man obsessed with a woman to the point of insanity. Ferdinand, the antagonist of the novel, is a misfit of society. Growing-up as a loner, he develops a passion for collecting butterflies. He feels the need to possess the beautiful creatures with no concern for their freedom and beauty displayed in nature. After secretly observing Miranda, the protagonist of the novel becomes crazed with desire to trap her and add her to his collection. Miranda's beauty and grace as well as her life are destroyed during Ferdinand’s possession of her.
Someone who is intensely taken with a person displays obvious fanatical behavior. For instance the obsessor may follow the obsessed secretly, or experience unusual dreams about the person. Ferdinand evinces these characteristics in his feelings for Miranda. He experiences a dream about capturing her and taking her to a remote place that he eventually acts upon:
"...I first gave myself the dream that came true ... I captured her and drove her off in the van to a remote house and there I kept her captive in a nice way. "
Although he wants her to himself, he has no sexual desire for her. He views her as a beautiful object that he wishes to possess. This view of her is destroyed during her imprisonment when she displays human frailties that destroys the beauty he perceives in his dream. One is her sexuality. When she tries to seduce him, he realizes that she is not the perfect object that he had envisioned:
"…You’re no better than a common street-woman, I said. I used to respect you because I thought you were above what you done. But you're just the same (as the rest). You do any disgusting thing to get what you want. "
Ferdinand believed that trapping Miranda to be able to view her beauty whenever he wanted, as he traps butterflies, would end his constant longing. However he wanted his love to be reciprocated. When Miranda is unable to comply, his longing only grows more intense.
Miranda’s zest for life is annihilated during her imprisonment. Reading the passages of her diary, the observer learns that she is an artistic, optimistic person who is full of life:
"...I miss the fresh air and the fresh faces of all those people I hated so on the Tube. The thing I miss most is fresh light. "
Like the butterfly Miranda relishes life to the fullest. She realizes early in her sentence the association he makes between her and his captured beauties:
"…I know what I am to him. A butterfly he has always wanted to catch..."
"…Then there were his butterflies...And I felt for them, poor dead butterflies, my fellow victims…."
Love is an underlying destructive force in The Collector. Both characters believe that Ferdinand’s "love" for Miranda is what is keeping her prisoner but only Miranda knows it will destroy both of them. Miranda by death and Ferdinand by insanity.
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