In the novel. Misery. Stephen King embodies the province of ownership by an evil being who happens to be the detailed and horrifically psychotic adult female. Annie Wilkes. In this narrative. Annie represents a female parent figure. a goddess and a loyal reader of the love affair novelist. Paul Sheldon. In world. nevertheless. Annie simply represents person who has problems decoding between world and fiction. This uneven compulsion with non merely Paul. but with the fictional character Misery. shows the mental instability of her.
They happen to run into merely by opportunity. Paul gets in an accident and she happens to take him back to her cabin and nurse him back to wellness. Annie acts like a proud female parent of two ; one kid being Paul Sheldon. and the other his highly popular heroine. Misery Chastain. She views Paul in a madly maternal manner. Early in her detention of Paul. she brings him pills for his tormenting hurting. but he must suck them off her fingers in a grotesque lampoon of a nursing kid. If she leaves him untended excessively long. Paul wets his bed. and she must alter his sheets and apparels. When he is tired or frustrated. he weeps like a little kid because he feels wholly incapacitated. She has made him immobile. Therefore becomes wholly dependent on her for everything. Annie ensures his childlike dependance on her and looks of her maternal love continue with doing him addicted to trouble killing-drugs. Her disciplinary actions contribute to her motherly character. besides. When he has been bad. she disciplines him but in motherly manner. frequently soothing him while making so. Annie punishes Sheldon after he attempts to acquire free by cut offing his pes and pollex with an ax. exerting editorial authorization over his organic structure.
Annie besides acts as a virginal and protective female parent of the virgin Misery. She prevents Paul from allowing Misery Chastain dice in child-birth in his new novel. She must populate and a new novel must be born. Annie nurtures Misery’s return every bit good. Nothing will interfere with Misery’s safety or the birth of the book she is fostering. There are no uncertainties as to the significance of Annie’s maternal image in the novel.
Behind Annie’s destructiveness lies a alleged goddess figure–a goddess in charge of Paul’s. every bit good as Misery’s. fate. Paul is invariably at the clemency of Annie. He makes it through the yearss. but merely in a complete fright of being murdered by Annie. This illustrates Annie’s powerful clasp over Paul. and she will run him down if he tries to get away. Annie is besides a protective goddess of Misery Chastain. By salvaging Paul’s life. she finally saves the life of Misery. Annie knows that upon completion of Misery’s return. she and Sheldon must decease. Therefore. conveying about Misery’s return is her chief aim. In order to extinguish any distractions. Annie fashions a self-enclosed universe within the confines of her place. She is a sort of like a psychic lamia ; she sucks out Paul’s inspiration and creativeness in order to manner a self-enclosed universe. As the goddess of this fanciful universe. Annie must restrict Paul’s physical and mental. convalescence so that her authorization is non challenged. She destroys his independent life. and plunges him back into antediluvian darkness. To set it shortly. Annie’s dark goddess figure helps her retain control in her self-enclosed universe.
Annie is a uninterrupted reader of the fictional novels. Her compulsion with Sheldon’s love affair novels reflects the demands of an eager audience. Sheldon’s authorship is her reading dependence. Linked with the pain-killing drugs. she alternately offers and withholds from him. Annie. therefore. is a direct consequence of Paul’s success in pulling and hooking readers. In fact. Annie comes to incarnate all that the heroine Misery suggests. Annie must besides be recognized as the disapproving comments of academic critic. She conspicuously dictates the class of Sheldon’s newest book. Anything less than perfect receives rough unfavorable judgment at the least. Sheldon receives direct feedback from his ‘readers’ and is hence able to bring forth his best Misery novel. of all time. Annie’s destructiveness takes ‘constructive criticism’ to a whole new significance. In the long tally. Sheldon needs the awful Annie more than he of all time thought possible. It’s unusual to believe that King made Annie’s character a reproduction of his spiritual followings. Is this truly how he sees all his fans? They can’t wholly be every bit psychotic as she was.
Misery is about the powerful hold fiction can accomplish over the reader. as personified in Annie Wilkes. Annie comes to incarnate a female parent. goddess like figure and the audience image in the novel. At whatever the monetary value. Annie’s originative force will populate on. Her decease will ne’er be a world. any more than Misery Chastain’s decease is a world. She would ne’er be able to understand that her head doesn’t work like ours. She is unable to decode the differences and similarities of an fanciful narrative and existent life. Clearly. Annie has a psychotic personality with little traits of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She is decidedly one I would remain far off from.
