Miranda's Evolution: Character Development in Confinement

The Personality of a Cellar John Fowles The Collector explores the idea of developing an individual female character in a complex situation. Miranda is kidnapped at the prime of her life, and trapped in the cellar of Clegg, where she has to explore bother her old and new identities. Because she is trapped in the cellar, Miranda goes through stages of emotional and psychological states when finding herself within her situation. Because of all of her new experiences in the midst of her kidnapping, Miranda’s character development is significantly different than it would be if she was never trapped. When Miranda first wakes up in the cellar of Clegg, she faces imprisonment in two senses: literally and figuratively. Miranda is literally trapped

Smith writes about how inmates after solitary confinement become insane (458). Miranda is an inmate in solitary confinement. She talks to one person a day, those conversations are cold and impersonal. She only has her diary. Her diary starts as a good thing, but as time progresses, Miranda becomes obsessed with her ideas portrayed in her writing. She is obsessed with why GP never loved her in the way she loved him. She also receives a picture of GP from Clegg and she “kissed it when I unwrapped it” (211). She is obsessed on the idea of GP, his teaching, and his art. Not only does she become obsessed, but she also becomes ill. She is stuck in an underground cellar with no fresh air. Her illness sets her back. She cannot eat or move for much of her illness. There is no way for her to recover because Clegg refuses her treatment. He says he is preparing a room for her to recover in, but he does not trust Miranda enough to live above the cellar. None of this would have happened if it were not for the illness. Her biggest setback was the fact that Miranda dies. She never gets to fully develop her character as a grown