Mysterious Kor Literary Elements

Wartime story

A moonlit night in London between 1941 and 1944

Omniscient narrator; third-person point of view

Mysterious, melancholic, eerie, supernatural

The protagonists are the lovers Pepita and Arthur, who want to be alone. Their "antagonist" is Callie, Pepita's roommate, who does not want to leave the flat.

Arthur and Pepita want to spend the night alone, which leads to a conflict with her roommate Callie, who does not want to leave the flat and give them privacy.

When Arthur dismisses Callie's pursuit of real goals to achieve happiness, her ideals are shattered. The deeper meaning is that rational dreams have failed, and humans must now turn to places beyond reality.

When Pepita and Callie are about to go to bed, Pepita is annoyed with Callie because she did not leave the two lovers alone. Callie says that she does not like Pepita's tone, to which Pepita replies, in that case "[she] had better go in with Arthur." The ironic statement foreshadows Callie's private conversation with Arthur while Pepita is sleeping.

When Callie suggests inviting Arthur to her flat, Pepita accepts her "goodwill without much grace," which is an understatement because Pepita's behavior makes it obvious that she hates Callie for not giving her some time alone with her boyfriend.

When in 1947 the BBC asked Elizabeth Bowen about a book that had most affected her in their formative years, she quoted "She" written by Rider Haggard that she had read at the age of 12. She was fascinated by the power of the pen, which led her to become a writer later on. Lines of the poem "She", which is a response to the novel, are directly referenced in "Mysterious Kor." Moreover, Bowen, just like Pepita, also compared Kor in "She" with London directly, only to be disappointed by reality--which is the major theme of her short story "Mysterious Kor."

Bowen's initial description of London in the moonlight paints an eerie, almost ghostly image of the city: It is "shallow, cratered, extinct." This tricolon of adjectives depicts the destruction of the city, where bombs have leveled buildings, blasted craters in the ground, and killed a number of its inhabitants. The remaining buildings are dull, the streets are glowing, and people try to escape the moonlight as if it were an immaterial threat: "The buildings strained with battened-down human life, but not a beam, not a voice, not a note from a radio escaped." It seems there is no room for friendliness when three French soldiers are only greeted by the expressionless faces of the air wardens roaming the streets. Therefore, the city is so quiet that periodically only the subway can be heard--and felt, as it rumbles deep underground.

Pepita tries to escape reality by imagining the fictitious city of Kor. She says that she wants to be alone with Arthur, who feels her statement is a paradox because he is already here with her and alone.

Both female characters pursue imaginary dreams to escape the dreadful reality. While Pepita dreams of the flawless city of Kor to forget bombed-out London, Callie, a virgin without a boyfriend, fantasizes about Pepita's and Arthur's relationship to feel love.

An example for metonymy is the fictitious city of Kor, which for Pepita represents the ideal state of being alone with Arthur forever, as time has no meaning in this mysterious place.

The story introduces the moon, drenching and searching the city, as if it were a suspicious character looking for a victim. This personification emphasizes the irrational perception of moonlight as a threat, as the Londoners try to avoid being exposed to it.