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For Monday: Fowles, The Collector, pp. 140-200 (or so)



NOTE: Keep reading and get as close to 200 as you can, but you'll have plenty of time to catch up as the readings get shorter next week (since we're close to the end!). 

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: According to Miranda's diary, what kind of relationship does she begin to have with Frederick? Though not a friendship or any kind of love affair, how does she attempt to explain the way they talk to one another, and their daily conversations? Consider, too, her comment, "knowing someone automatically makes you feel close to him" (148). You might also consider whether this in part of Frederick's plan all along, or if it's more human nature.

Q2: Why might she be interested in Frederick in the same way she's interested in G.P.? Note that she's not attracted to either of them, and both of them try to 'collect' her in their own way. What about them fascinates her, even as they both (in different ways) repel her?

Q3: Miranda writes about Frederick that, "I know he's the Devil showing me the world that can be mine. So I don't sell myself to him...he wants me to ask for something big. He's dying to make me grateful. But he shan't" (180-181). Do you think Miranda properly understands his intentions and motives? Does she read him too much through men she's known (such as G.P.)? Or has her greater knowledge of people actually helped her see through him? 

Q4: She also writes that "I think and think down here. I understand things I haven't really thought about before" (150). In a strange way, is Frederick a better teacher than G.P.? Is he teaching her to sift out G.P.s rules and biases and come to her own thinking at last? And can we really credit this to Frederick, or simply to her total isolation? 

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