The Supernatural in The Bachelors, The Takeover and Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark

Abstract

Muriel Spark (1918 - ) is a distinguished Scottish novelist, who once said in an interview published in the Sunday Times in 1962, "I think we're all involved in the supernatural world." Indeed Spark was involved in the supernatural world and there were three main influences that affected her fiction and linked it with the supernatural world. These were: her birth in Scotland, her conversion to Catholicism and the influence of Gothic novel on her writings. This thesis deals with some of the supernatural elements present in three . of Spark's novels : Demonology and Spiritualism in The Bachelors (1960). Gothic in The Takeover (1976) and hallucinations and second sight in Loitering With Intent (1981). In the light of these supernatural elements, an analysis of the setting, characters, plot, theme and technique of the three novels is achieved, highlighting the three major influences that involved Spark in the supernatural world and affected her fiction.