![]() ![]() Misery touches on several large themes: the state of possession by an evil being, the idea that art is an act in which the artist willingly becomes captive, the tortured condition of being a writer, and the fears attendant to becoming a "brand-name" bestselling author with legions of zealous fans. Annie Wilkes literally breathes life into him. ![]() He hates her, he fears her, he wants to kill her but all the same he needs her power. The manuscript fragments he produces tell of a great Bee Goddess, an African queen reminiscent of H. Thus, in the novel within a novel, the romance novel that his mad captor-nurse, Annie Wilkes, forces him to write, he goes to Africa-a mysterious continent that evokes for him the frightening, implacable solidity of a woman's (Annie's) body. Paul Sheldon, the hero of Misery, sees himself as a caged parrot who must return to Africa in order to be free. Each is about a writer faced with the dominating monster of his unpredictable muse. Each novel bristles with claustrophobia, stinging insects, and the threat of a lethal explosion. In Misery (1987), as in The Shining (1977), a writer is trapped in an evil house during a Colorado winter. ![]()
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