Analising The Chaser by John Collier

Maharani Tamyizul Fikri

10320041

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of Choosing the Topic

John Henry Noyers Collier was a British-born author and screenplay writer best known for his short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker  from the 1930s to the 1950s. He was born in London, 3 May, 1901. John Collier's writing has been praised by authors such as Anthony Burgess, Ray Bradbury, Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon and Paul Theroux.

John Collier was privately educated by his uncle Vincent Collier, a novelist. When, at the age of 18 or 19, Collier was asked by his father what he had chosen as a vocation, his reply was, "I want to be a poet." His father indulged him; over the course of the next ten years Collier lived on an allowance of two pounds a week plus whatever he could pick up by writing book reviews and acting as a cultural correspondent for a Japanese newspaper. During this time, being not overly burdened by any financial responsibilities, he developed a penchant for games of chance, conversation in cafes and visits to picture galleries.^[2] He never attended university.

Due to the explanations above, the writer conducts analysis on the Chaser in revealing the person in artificial love. John Collier’s “The Chaser” is based on the situational irony of the unreal hope of youth as opposed to the extreme disillusion of age and experience. Collier builds the brief story almost entirely in dialogue between a young man, Alan Austen, who is deeply in love and wants to possess his sweetheart entirely, and an unnamed old man who believes in a life free of romantic involvement.

1.2  Objective of the study

The primary objective of this analysis is revealing the characters of person who was in a tragedy of artificial love. It is to show the character who has really obviously and loves a women named Diana.

1.3  Statement of Problem

Based on the previous background of the choosing the topic, the statement of problem can be formulated as follows how does the person wants to get a women named Diana to love him and received him as a good boy in woman’s life?

1.4 Scope of the Study

This paper is showed to the aspect of artificial love in revealing the manner of getting the woman that the man wanted. This paper will analyze the aspect of some characters, language, setting and theoretical background which were explained in The Chaser. Through these aspects, it will expose the real manner of artificial love. 

1.5  Theoretical Approach

The sales method used by the old man reveals his cynical understanding of men like Austen Collier makes clear that the old man knows why Austen has come. Before showing his love potion, the old man describes the untraceable poison, which he calls a ‘glove cleaner’ or ‘life cleaner.’ His aim is actually to sell the old man’s art of manipulation, for even though Austen is at the moment horrified by the poison, the seed has been planted in his mind. He will always know, when his love for Diana changes, that he will have the choice of “cleaning” his life. This unscrupulous sales method effectively corrupts Austen in advance. Such a calculation on the old man’s part is grimly cynical. Supporting the tone of cynicism in the old man’s sales technique is his use of double meaning For example, his concluding words, “Au revoir” (that is, “until I see you again”), carry an ironic double meaning. On the one hand, the words conventionally mean “goodbye,” but on the other, they suggest that the old man expects a future meeting when Austen will return to buy the poison to kill Diana. The old man’s acknowledgement of Austen’s gratitude shows the same ironic double edge. He says, “I like to oblige . . . then customers come back, later in life, when they are better off, and want more expensive things.” Clearly the “expensive” thing is “the chaser,” the undetectable poison. Through such ironic speeches, the old man is politely but cynically telling Austen that his love will not last and that it will eventually bore, irritate, and then torment him to the point where he will want to murder Diana rather than to continue living with her potion-induced possessiveness. Before “The Chaser” is dismissed as cynical, however, we should note that Austen’s ideas about love must inevitably produce just such cynicism. The old man’s descriptions of the total enslavement that Austen has dreamed about would leave no breathing room for either Austen or Diana. This sort of love, because it excludes everything else in life, suffocates rather than pleases. It is normal to wish freedom from such psychological imprisonment, even if the prison is of one’s own making. Under these conditions, the cynical tone of “The Chaser” suggests that the desire to be totally possessing and possessed—to ‘”want nothing but solitude” and the loved one—can lead only to disaster for both man and woman. The old man’s cynicism and the young man’s desire suggest the need for an ideal of love that permits interchange, individuality, and understanding. Even though this better ideal is not described anywhere in the story, it is compatible with Collier’s situational irony. Thus, cynical as the story unquestionably is, it does not exclude an idealism of tolerant and more human love.

CHAPTER II

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

2.1 Background of the Artificial Love

            Love is often exemplified by candlelit dinners, bouquets of roses, heart-shaped chocolates and kisses. We often get the impression that these are the only things that comprise the state of being in love. But with the images of roses and chocolates, the reality of love is compromised. There is a much bigger world than the mere exchange of passionate looks and sweet words. There is the harsh reality that even in love, there is tragedy.

CHAPTER III

ARTIFICIAL LOVE OF THE CHASER

The casher is told about the man who was really inspirited to get a women named Diana to be his girlfriend or his wife in all of the man’s life. In “The Chaser” by John Collier, the main character, Alan Austen, searched desperately for a painless solution to his dilemma. But Alan’s love for Diana is shallow. Alan’s decision to go to the potion-maker is like forcing Diana to love him. Love, in its truest sense, must be something borne out of deep, mutual feelings between two people. It is something shared. However, this is not the case in this story. Alan’s desperate attempt is not noble in any sense; what he is doing is merely luring Diana into his trap. Only, Diana is unaware that she is being pushed into this relationship. “She is already [everything to me]. Only she doesn’t care about it. Alan is deceiving not only Diana but himself as well. He is making himself believe that she will actually fall for him. But in reality, the only thing Diana will be falling for is his trap. You want love to come naturally. There is nothing like the feeling of being in love and being loved in return. Alan wants to be loved by Diana in return very, very badly so he thinks that the love potion is the answer to his prayers.

Alan Austen, as nervous as a kitten, went up certain dark and creaky stairs in the neighborhood of Pell street, and peered about for a long time on the dine landing before he found the name he wanted written obscurely on one the doors.

He pushed open this door, as he had been told to do, and found himself in a tiny room, which contained no furniture but a plain kitchen table. A rocking chair, an an ordinary chair. On one of the dirty buff- coloured walls were a couple of shelves, containing in all perhaps a dozen bottles and jars. An old man sat in the rocking chair, reading a newspaper. Alan, without a word, handed him the card he had been given.

In the first paragraph, it shows that the man was shy to come to the old man house. He was uncertain to enter to the dark house. He was waiting for a long time to meet with the old man. He knocked the door, he saw the house which is dirty and there is no furniture. He looked at the old man sat in a rocking chair and reading a newspaper. Alan handed the old man without saying any words.

            Do you mean it is poison?’’ cried alan, very much horrified.

‘’call it a glove –cleaner if you like,’’ said the old man in differently,’’maybe it will clean gloves. I have never tried. One might call it a life-cleaner. Lives need cleaning sometimes,’’.

From the conversation above, we can know how does the mean of the old man to give an addition about poison in life. Alan was not uncertain to direct his conversation. Moreover the price of the poison is really expensive. Alan was really confuse how can he got much money to buy the poison. It was really hard, how to reach his dream. Desperate for the love of the girl of his dreams, nervous Alan Austen visits a mysterious and dingy shop to purchase a potion has he heard will make Dianna fall in love with him.  He falls victim to the wise old shopkeeper’s persuasive tactics and desperate for her affection, purchases the  potion without noticing the old man’s hints about the more deadly product and expensive product  he will surely return for at a later date. Alan Austen. He is descried as nervous as a cat and is desperate for the love of a women named Diana.-Other characters : The other main character is the old man. eHe is He  He is described as wise and he interrupts Alan when he speaks. He knew Alan would be coming. He is sneaky with his words.

Alan is simply chasing after his dream of being with Diana and there is nothing wrong with that. But the manner of his pursuit is questionable. Certainly, there is nothing wrong about hoping for what is desired. However, in this case, hope was provided for by a potion, a supernatural substance supposedly capable of making one fall madly in love. Magic realism comes into play through this potion. A magical element unobtrusively inserted into everyday living is magic realism. In stories like Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the famous television series, Bewitched, wherein magic was used to craft relationships, the love that took place was clearly superficial. This method of making people fall in love is tragic because it does not give the other party the freedom to choose.

The effects of the potions the old man creates are said to be permanent. “The effects are permanent, and extend far beyond the mere casual impulse. But they include it. Oh, yes they include it. “‘For indifference,’ said the old man, ‘they substitute devotion. For scorn, adoration… -and however gay and giddy she is, she will change altogether. She will want nothing but solitude and you.’” Diana will want to know everything that about Alan. She will want to be involved in everything he does. She will very carefully look after Alan. “If you are an hour late. She will be terrified. She will think that you are killed” This explains part of the insistent effects of the potion. The other part is elucidated by its everlasting effects, which will therefore result to the need of the glove-cleaner. The effects of the love potion were laid out for him by the old man and yet he heeded none of it. All that Alan needed to do was to comprehend the old man’s warnings. But the effects, Diana’s extreme curiosity, her over protectiveness, her paranoia, her actual makeover, overwhelmed Alan which made him turn a deaf ear to the advice. Anyone in the right state of mind would not go as far as Alan just to be loved in return. Alan is too one-dimensional to realize that. His referral to the potion as wonderful shows how narrow his mind is as depicted in the 38th paragraph. “‘And how much,’ said Alan, ‘is this wonderful mixture?’” How could anyone be this shallow and still think that this is such a “wonderful mixture?” But Alan was obviously just holding on to the string of hope he had, ignorant of the implications. This way of loving is tragic because it is not real. It could even be said that he does not really love Diana and that he only is in love with himself because of a lack of sincerity. Artificial is what it is. Artificial love is indeed a tragedy.

Protagonist: Alan Austen is described as |nervous as a cat and is obviously desperate for the attention and love of A woman named Dianna. He is a static character. He buys the potion and shows no sign of realizing the old man’s warnings that he will regret his purchase.

Antagonist: The old shopkeeper who sits waiting for desperate people to buy his potions using carefully chosen words to warn them they will have to return for other drugs to get out of the inevitably bad result of their choice.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

From the story above, Austen, the young man full of illusions and unreal expectations about love, has come to the old man to buy a love potions so that his sweetheart, Diana, will love him with slavelike adoration. Collier makes it clear that the old man has seen many young men like Austen in the grips of romantic desire before, and he therefore knows that their possessive love will eventually bore and anger them. He knows, because he has already seen these disillusioned customers return to buy the “chaser,” which is a deadly, untraceable poison, so that they could kill the women for whom they previously bought the love potion. Thus Collier creates the ironic situation of the story—the beginning of an inevitable process in which Austen, like other young men before him, are made to appear so unrealistic and self-defeating that their enthusiastic passion will someday change into hate and murderousness. Alan Austen enters a dirty store on a side street in New Yorks China town.An old man sits waiting for him and tells him about two products he sells. Alan shows he is excited that the old man has a potion that could make Diana fall in love with him. The old man also mentions to Alan about a more expensive product that costs much more.Alan buys the love potion for one dollar and the old man says,” Au revoir” which means see you later.

The story is set in a dark and dingy side street shop on Pell Street in China Town, New York.  The shop where the purchase takes place is described as tiny, with one table and chair.  The atmosphere is dark and suspicious. As you read the story, you know Alan is making a mistake. You feel like warning him to run away before he makes a grave mistake.  The climax is near the end of the story. The old man finally shows Alan the “tiny, rather dirty looking phial” and Alan excitedly thanks the old man. It is climactic because you wonder if he will buy it or be overcome by guilt and worry given the old man’s warnings. The story ends immediately after that and we are left to wonder what happens when he leaves the store.