Character Sketch of Mrs. Drew
Question : Describe the character sketch of Mrs. Drew as portrayed in “The Cookie Lady”.
Answer:
Character Sketch of Mrs. Drew:
Mrs. Drew is the main character of Philip K. Dick’s short story “The Cookie Lady”. Her role in the story is like that of a vampire, without scruples to use any person to her advantage.
In the story she is depicted as a very old lady “a little dried up” like the “weeds” growing in front of her house. She lives an isolated life in her “shabby and unpainted” “a little box” like house. She often sits on an old rocking chair, placed on the porch.
Mrs. Drew is a kind woman who is an excellent cook. She bakes delicious cookies with “nuts and raisins” in them. She serves these cookies with cold milk to satiate Bubber’s appetite.
Mrs. Drew is a lonely lady and has been living alone since a long time so that “she found herself saying strange things and doing strange things.” Her interaction is restricted with only few people like “garbage men” or “mailman” coming with her pension check or when she went down to the store. She yearns for companionship as she urges Bubber and to “stay” and “talk” to her “for a while”. She asks him to “read” to her and insists him to “come back again”.
But all these qualities are superficial as Mrs. Drew is entirely different woman from within and her villainy is exposed gradually with the progress of the story.
Mrs. Drew is a strange lady, Ernie Mill is also curious about Bubber’s strange “lady friend”. Ralf Surle also don’t want his son to hang around that “crazy old lady”. He is suspicious about Mrs. Drew, saying “There’s something strange about that old lady”.
Mrs. Drew is a foxy, cunning, manipulative lady who bakes cookies not because of her kindness but actually she uses these cookies as a bait to trap Bubber to exploit him. She has some evil intentions behind her kindness.
Mrs. Drew is a greedy lady she longs to regain her lost vitality from the young boy. She doesn’t actually long for his companionship but she wants to gain proximity with the young boy to steal away his youth and vitality.
Her words “Ah, to be young again” and “what did the world mean to the old ?” reveal her longing for youthfulness.
Mrs. Drew possesses the powers of a witch. She can suck out the youth from the boy like a sorceress and could feel the “youngness of him, flowing between her fingers through her arm”. She begins to change her “gray wrinkle”, “fine lines dimming away”. Her hair “heavy” and “black again”. Her body rounded her bosom swelling. Her voice throaty and sensual. She was “blooming again”, filling with life” and “swelling into richness”.
Mrs. Drew is a tricky and selfish old lady. Every time Bubber visits her she tries to steel his youth as he comes out “always washed out”. This continues for “over a month” now. When Bubber tells her that this is his “last” visit to her, it makes her furious and desperate for permanent youth. She wants to be young again at any cost. She sits by the boy “closer than ever” and ultimately she “touched his arm” to make the transfer of energy and youth prominent and permanent.
She is remorseless, unapologetic and hideous lady, she takes pride in her transformation without even thinking about the boy. When Mrs. Drew laughs cunningly “with excitement”, gazes at her “full rounded body”, she is evil and sinister and predatory.
Dick being the master of psychological horror and paranoid fiction, excellently develops the depth of Mrs. Drew’s complex character.