In this case, Jamie is not just the missing lover but the basal idea that a woman’s value is contingent on her marital status. Harris’ intangible presence gives his character a certain ambiguity, allowing him to embody the form of a man and the idea of marriage.

Likewise, by naming the absentee husband-to-be “Jamie Harris,” Jackson insinuates that, like the devil, he will destroy this woman’s life. The female-damnation motif occurs in other works by Jackson including “The Beautiful Stranger” and “The Tooth” which Wyatt Bonikowski finds “narrate a woman’s gradual realization of her subjection to a demonic male figure, whose claim on her dispossesses her of both home and self” (Bonikowski 66). By reusing the names, she equates a woman’s search for a husband to her downward spiral into hell. Jackson’s decision to not only name her story after the original, but to repurpose the devil’s name, “Jamie Harris,” is a deliberate nod to the previous piece and works to draw a parallel between the two works’ depiction of hell. Jackson’s portrayal of her main character’s desperate quest for her lover is borderline nightmarish the sheer amount of ridicule and obstacles the unnamed narrator faces is surreal and provides a glimpse into her mental anguish as she frantically races around town. Shirley Jackson’s interpretation on the traditional narrative works to create a modernized depiction of hell by telling the story of a woman inwardly tormented by societal expectations whose fixation on creating the illusion of a picturesque life is rooted in attempts to attain social validation. Originally a Scottish Ballad detailing a woman’s run-in with her former lover, the devil, “The Daemon Lover” depicts the literal and figurative destruction of her life. The novel maintains a stressful atmosphere as it focuses on the title character’s frantic hunt for her fiancé, representing women’s search for validation from their community. Known for her concentration on the horror genre, Shirley Jackson writes “The Daemon Lover” to portray the very real horror that women were subjected to by societal standards in the early 1900’s. Horror is the embodiment of true fear and Shirley Jackson demonstrates her mastery of the genre by seamlessly bringing that fear to life.

The Tooth by Shirley Jackson