The Chaser Essay

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Often times when we read a piece of literature little pieces of information are overlooked, not capturing the true meaning of the story. Feminist Criticism is the focus on the relationship between men and women. In the story "The Chaser" by John Collier, feminist criticism was well hidden. When I first read the story, I didn't see anything that lead to feminist criticism but as I reread the story I started to see a few examples. In "The Chaser", Alan, a young man was seeking for love in all the wrong places. He went to an old man who was said to have a love potion. He wanted his partner, Diana, to be completely in love with him. He had a perfect image of what love should be and how she should treat him and that is what he wanted, he wanted …show more content…

Before buying the love potion, Alan was warned to “consider the spiritual side” (Collier 2), implying that he should consider the consequences of someone being completely and crazily in love with him.. the reality. He also tells why the love potion is so inexpensive compared to the other things he sells. He said that if a customer is pleased with their first purchase they will come back for something more expensive. I believe that the old man knew the consequences of the love potion. He knew that you will only get sick of the person who is crazily in love with you after time. The old man also sells a poison that is colorless, flavorless, and completely untraceable. He says that “one might call it a life-cleaner” (Collier 1). By calling it a life cleaner, it implies that having a woman will only contaminate your life. Which is probably why the poison is five thousand dollars. Another line in the story that I found interesting was “One has to be older than you are, to indulge in that sort of thing[the poison]”. From this line I can infer that he meant the death of a women is something to indulge in, almost as if it were like saving up for a reward. He also mentioned that it would be for someone older and I believe it’s because he will get sick of his woman after years of her on the love

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