"The Daemon Lover" is also the name of a Scottish ballad. “The Daemon Lover, or Mr. James Harris,” is another name. James Harris it the name of the fiance in the story. In the ballad, a husband thought long to be gone forever, returns to claim his wife, stealing her from her children and takes her to sea. Though he is not her lover, but the devil in disguise. This story, beyond the name James Harris, isn’t exactly a clear adaptation of this ballad. Rather, it seems to adapt the events immediately preceding those of the ballad. Perhaps when the wife went searching, but what is the story really about? On the surface, a woman looks for her betrothed who has gone missing, but the details Jackson dwells on would imply more than that.

     The story begins with her wondering what to wear for her wedding. She finds a print dress, but worries “it was too young for her, and it had a ruffled neck, and it was very early in the year for a print dress, but still…” (Jackson 9). This concern will continue for several passages until it transfers to her makeup routine. Like her wardrobe, she does not want to do anything age inappropriate, yet she cannot stand the thought of looking her age (12). When she ventures out, these questions are still on the table, despite her missing lover. She is concerned those around her notice her and judge her for aesthetic choices. Angela Hague discusses the particular anxiety many women in Jackson’s stories evoke:

 

"Jackson's characters possess neither gyroscope nor radar; lacking a core of identity forces them to seek meaning and direction in the world outside themselves, but their inability to relate to and communicate with others and their fear of unfamiliar environments create the panic and paranoia that descend upon them when they venture beyond the dubious safety of their domestic environment (76)."

 

 

     This then begs the question of what this woman is really after? The relationship is implied to be recent and the repetition of her age is telling of her true paranoia of her place as an unmarried woman in society. She isn’t seeking a true lover in the sense of companionship, she is seeking tangible evidence she can function within the confines of her feminine identity. It should be noted she is a nameless character; she literally does not have an identity to the reader nor herself. Those around her try to help her, but seem uneasy in her presence. Or at least, she perceives them to be uneasy around her.

     The majority of the story is within the woman’s head as she navigates the physical world around her, but she is clearly lost in her own psychology, which maker her interactions with others awkward. Moreover, she is completely self aware of the discomfort, but attributes it to superficial elements, like her garb and makeup.

     In the end, her hope to end the role of outcast is thwarted by the fruitless search of James Harris. She returns many times, but remains as she was: 34, unmarried, and indicative of Jackson: “her characters' lack of a sense of self, their disempowered role within patriarchal families, and, quite frequently, their subjection to male control and abuse” (Hague 80). In this case, it isn’t physical control or abuse, it is the mental control James Harris, or rather the limits of women of a certain age James Harris represents, that has taken over her psychosis.