Frederick Clegg In The Collector

ohn Fowles’ The Collector is a book that stands out for various reasons. Not only it depicts two characters diametrically different from one another, but it describes them with such depth and inner scrutiny that it makes it hard to believe only one author has created those opposing protagonists. Another thing standing out in The Collector is the character of Frederick Clegg and the personal mystery hidden in within him, as there is a big degree of difference in between Clegg and a person that would be seen as normal.

There is a perpetual belief that one’s childhood not only shapes their personality as a child, but even influences the entire rest of their life. In the case of Frederick Clegg, his adolescence was not exactly harmonious in any way. Having lost his father when he was only two and being abandoned by his mother shortly afterwards, he was raised up by his Aunt Annie and Uncle Dick. Nevertheless, the father-figure in his life passed away fairly early and that left Frederick exposed to the fatal impact of his aunt, who believed that bikini cause cancer to the person who wears them. She also insinuated a crooked idea of women into his

Frederick has a certain idea of what a “proper” language looks like and even though he despises what he himself calls a la-di-da voice, it might as well just be because he does not have one. Grey likes to make fun of his rigid way of speaking, even though Frederick himself claims he has started to buy an upper-class newspaper in order to charm her with his knowledge. This part of his personality is, along with others, more revealed in Miranda’s part. “C. It’s like I said. M. As I said. C. I used to be told I was good at English. That was before I knew you,” (Fowles, 182). He gets caught up in phrases he overuses, such as “etcetera” and overall uses almost emotionless