Throughout “The Demon Lover” the author leaves hints that clue the reader into the fact that Mrs. Drover’s old lover was abusive. The first hint happens on the second page: “Shifting some parcels under her arm, she slowly forced forced round her latchkey in an unwilling lock” (Bowen 91). Words like “forced” and “unwilling” help establish tone throughout the entire short story, but they may also allude to rape or assault. It is later established that the most vibrant memory she has of the man she almost married is of him forcing her hand to the button on his uniform and that button in turn cutting her hand. This illustrates that, above all else, she associates pain with this man and further reinforces the idea that he was abusive. Other clues include “He was never kind to me, not really. I don’t remember him kind at all,” (Bowen 97). Reinforcing the sexual nature of this abuse is the scene in which Mrs. Drover first reads the letter and it falls with not-so-subtle imagery onto the bed. While much of her frantic reaction to the letter could be written off as a response to the supernatural nature of how it came to rest in her London house, her reaction is not dissimilar from that of a person who’s survived abuse. The trauma of being in such a situation haunts someone throughout the rest of their life and the possibility that, despite whatever new life they manage to forge for themselves, that person could somehow return and take it all away is one that will never go away, despite how irrational it might be. 

Mrs. Drover’s ex-fiancé is not called the demon lover because he is a product of hell, but because of the hell he put her through in their younger years. 

Mrs. Dalloway is a story about haunting. However, the characters in Mrs. Dalloway are not haunted by spirits but by their pasts and their regrets.

Peter Walsh is haunted by his past with Clarissa and the fact that she rejected his marriage proposal; he envies her life and her husband’s wealth and regrets that things had not been different. Septimus Smith is haunted by the death of his commanding officer, Evans, as well as the other horrors of the war that drive him to suicide. He regrets that everything that has happened to him has led to the moment in which the doctors would come and take away his freedom and takes his own life instead. Mrs. Dalloway is haunted by her past relationship with Sally Seton that went nowhere and envies Septimus for his suicide because, in her sheltered mind, he has done what she wished she had done years ago when her and Sally were still experimenting with each other. Had she died then, she would’ve died in a time when it felt like Sally loved her and wouldn’t have to live with the regret she knows now.

There is a sense of haunting that permeates this text.  It is generated by the regrets of the characters who long to return to a time when things were different, in the same way that post-WWI England wanted to return to a time before war and mustard gas destroyed its innocence and sense of reality. 

A reoccurring theme in Mrs. Dalloway is that of Clarissa and Elizabeth Dalloway’s attraction to women. In the first part, Clarissa ventures into the streets of London to purchase flowers and begins to wonder if her daughter, Elizabeth, is in love with her history teacher, Miss Kilman. This relationship between student and teacher is reminiscent of a lesbian relationship that Clarissa had with a friend, Sally Seton, in her younger years. It is stated throughout the book that Clarissa and her husband have a loveless marriage devoid of affection, and this is likely due to Clarissa’s own sexuality and an incompatibility between the husband and wife. 

Clarissa spends a great deal of time fondly reminiscing about her relationship with Sally, a relationship that was incredibly important to her as a teenager but never went anywhere. Her reminiscing culminates in her most intense memory in which Sally kissed her. This memory is interrupted in real life just as it was back then by Clarissa and Sally’s friend, Peter. Peter has come to visit the titular Mrs. Dalloway who had rejected his marriage proposal years before. While her lack of feelings for Peter encouraged her to reject him, her attraction to Sally and women in general was also likely a strong factor. Perhaps Clarissa looks at Elizabeth and Miss Kilman’s relationship with anger not because she resents the idea of her daughter having a lesbian relationship but because she resents the fact she could never explore her own sexuality when she was in her prime.