I’m re-reading this book yet again and I know it’s been mentioned on this board so I figured I’d start a thread on it. I don’t know why I keep coming back to it but it fascinates me so.
I like that the main character, Fred, is so utterly sick and yet he doesn’t know it. And it’s kind of scary almost how reasonable he is in the parts written from his POV, to the point where you almost feel bad when Miranda keeps managing to escape and is constantly taking him down a peg. At the same time, he’s so…dull, you can’t help identifying with her either in her parts.
The one thing I was curious about is that Fowles doesn’t make the Miranda character (well, in my opinion) all that sympathetic. I guess she’s young (and an art student)–but she comes off as very snooty, pretentious, judgmental, etc. I’m nothing like Fred (or Ferdinand…or Caliban) but I think she’d probably bite my head off if I met her. It makes me wonder, was he doing that on purpose because he kind of makes us want to sympathize with the kidnapper? Or just to show us that being a victim doesn’t make someone necessarily “nice”? Or perhaps she is a normal person and I’m just being way too judgmental in thinking of her as a heinous bitch? Now that I think about it, it kind of makes me realize that it’s truly all about the “collection” for our title character. He likes the idea of having a beautiful object but couldn’t care less what’s inside–what makes her tick.
In the first section. you can’t help but pity Fred, even though he is doing a monstrous thing. Miranda does come across as a bit unsympathetic, even as a victim.
I felt that the second part reversed these roles drastically, and from her POV Freddy is the selfish AND evil one.
I haven’t read this since high school, but as I recall, he specifically bifurcated the story. It’s kind of a modern take on the duality of existence in that no two people see something the same way: so we have the exact same story told twice, relative to each observer.
For what it’s worth, I don’t recall having sided with Fred in my first read, despite understanding his, for want of a better word, feelings on the matter. So, perhaps I missed the point of the story, or it wasn’t written compellingly enough for me, or whatever, but I wasn’t able to profoundly relate (i.e., not on an emotional level) with him in the first case. I do recall reading the second half of the book took me three times as long as the first because her side of the story was very, very boring to me. It didn’t show anything, to me, that isn’t quite self-evident.
On that level, I think the book did what it set out to do, in that even though I wasn’t able to emotionally relate to Fred’s character, I was able, nevertheless, to have an interest in him and how he came to reason things out as he did. For Miranda’s side, yes, it sucks being held captive I guess, but there wasn’t anything in there I’d want of a person who is in a situation well-lent to self reflection. She just seemed kind of flat in comparison to the well-fleshed out character Fred (or Caliban depending on which side of the book you’re on!)
Well, I guess the first time I’d sort of think, maybe it’ll work out for him, and she’ll end up learning to love him. The second time I read it I just thought he was creepy.
I did feel bad for her when I got to her part. But I didn’t think she was all that sympathetic as a person. The situation she was in–kidnapped victim–yes, very sympathetic, but if I met her in a different situation, I’d just think she was a pretentious bitch.