Question: Characters are literary constructions, made to embody the ideas, values and beliefs of the author or the time in which they are written. Discuss the significance of the characters of The Collector and the ways in which they represent class and power.

Have you ever been walking down an empty street and felt like someone was watching you? It might do some good to look around you next time, especially if your name begins with an ‘M’. The Collector, written by author John Fowles, is a psychological thriller about a lonely young man, Frederick (Ferdinand) Clegg who collects butterflies until he decides to collect something more beautiful and rare, an art student by the name of Miranda Gray. The Collector, published in 1963, was Fowles’ first novel and was an exploration into many themes and ideas such as social classes, power divisions, philosophical ideals and psychological states. Fowles uses the two main characters, Miranda and Clegg, and the situation that they are placed in to embody his ideas, values and beliefs and to highlight the division between social classes and therefore power.

Miranda is a young, talented, upper-class woman who, though she expresses her hatred of the la-di-da-ishness of her mother, cannot escape the influence of her class upon her character. One of the first things that she comments upon when she is kidnapped by Clegg and held captive in her cell beneath his house is that he has no taste in art or interior décor. It is a strange thing for her to say if you factor in the idea that she is completely at Clegg’s mercy. It is because of such remarks as these that the readers are encouraged to sympathise with Clegg instead of Miranda and her upper-class ideals and values.

As Miranda is of the upper-class she is a representative of the few, the social group who is undeniably better than their working class counterparts. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus was one of the first to develop the idea of the few and the many or the Aristoi and the Hoi Polloi. The term ‘Aristoi’ is derived from the Greek word Arete which means “goodness”, “excellence” or “virtue.” In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was bound up with the idea of fulfilment of purpose or function; the act of living up to one’s full potential. This then inextricably links the few (or Aristoi) to the philosophy of Existentialism, the idea that we are able to determine our future and live up to our potential without some form of higher power governing our lives. Miranda is also proof of this link as she most definitely embodies the philosophy of Existentialism until the last paragraph in the novel where she turns towards God to save her from death.

Clegg is a working class man, a representative of the many (or the hoi polloi) of society. He is very narrow-minded in his ideas and philosophies and because of this is a captive within himself. In the beginning of the novel, he expresses his love for Miranda as an impossible obsession. She was not of his class and he knew that he would be ignored by her; he would have no chance of capturing her fancy. It was only an impossible obsession until he won a sizeable amount of money at pool and, now that he had acquired the means to, kidnapped her. Even with Miranda as his captive his ideas and philosophies do not change. Throughout the course of the novel, she attempts to get him to ‘think for himself’ but he finds that he is unable to break free of the ideas that are ingrained into his

consciousness and therefore incapable of forming new opinions or changing those that he already has.

Clegg’s hate of the la-di-da upper-class is one of the few things that he has in common with Miranda. He expresses this hatred very early on in the book when he describes Miranda’s mother and father. However, this does not stop him from kidnapping Miranda as he seems to think that she is an exception to the upper-class, like a rare butterfly in a sea of moths. And, like his previous obsession with collecting butterflies, he decides to collect Miranda. Though, after her death, he describes his kidnapping of Miranda as ‘aiming too high’ as well as saying that he ‘ought to have got someone who would respect me more. Someone ordinary who I cold teach.’ This suggests that he would now look for someone that he could hold power over instead of someone who still held power over him no matter what their situation was.

Another idea that is explored within the novel, The Collector, is that of class power. Miranda, being of the upper-class, should rightfully have power over Clegg, the lower-class, but the roles are seemingly reversed when she is kidnapped by Clegg and put at his mercy. I say ‘seemingly’ because that is what should have happened. Instead, Miranda still holds the same power over Clegg as that which she held over him when she was not his captive. She can demand food, books and art, tell him what is right and what is not, push her ideals on him without any objection and command him to do anything for her with exception of setting her free. Clegg still holds the ultimate power over her, life and death, imprisonment and freedom, but Miranda is the keeper of every other power. Still that one step above him. The alternating first person narration used in The Collector also helps to highlight the deep and unquestioned division between the characters and their social classes. It provides the reader with the thoughts and feelings of both characters and, because of this, the thoughts and feelings of both classes that are explored within the novel. This provides the reader with an omniscient view and the option to side with either character, though we are encouraged to sympathise with Clegg even when we know that we should share the same feelings towards Clegg that Miranda does at the start and end of the novel.

The Collector is an exploration into class and power that strives to reveal the true nature of such things in a way that many other novels would never dream of. Through this exploration, the reader’s attention is brought to the fact that, though it seems unfair for the lower-class to have less power and status than the upper-class, it is not necessarily beneficial for the two classes to be equals. If Clegg had not acquired the means by which to kidnap Miranda than he would never had done it, he said it himself. This brings forth the question, ‘can the lower-class be trusted with the power of the upper-class, or would they all turn into Cleggs?’