Alan Austen's Use Of Dramatic Irony In The Chaser

In John Collier’s ironic short story “The Chaser,” the reader learns that obsessions can cause tragedy. Alan Austen goes to a run-down potions store at night looking for a special love potion to get his love to reciprocate his feelings. The seller in the middle of making a potion says he has just the thing. Austen asks about the potion in the seller’s hand to which is to be explained as a “glove-cleaner,” potion worth five thousand dollars while the love potion is only one dollar. However, the love potion makes the victim highly obsessed with the user. Thus, through the use of dramatic irony the reader knows Alan will return to purchase the poison to kill his love because she will be too obsessed with him. In the poem “Porphyria’s Lover,” by

He meets the shopkeeper who tells Alan about the stock, especially a potion that is “tasteless,” “colorless,” and unknown to any method of autopsy. This potion is revealed to be the “glove-cleaner.” The “glove-cleaner” is indeed poison that is used to kill the victims of the purchasers of the love potion as the shopkeeper explains he would not have told Alan about it had Alan not asked about a love potion. The love potion is “permanent,” and the effects make the victim want only the user and everything the user does, said, etc. The only reason the shopkeeper mentions the poison is because he knows the love potion will work too well, and Alan will not enjoy his love’s company. He knows Alan will not enjoy being an object of obsession and will eventually need to dispose of the lover. He offers the perfect tool. Therefore, the shopkeeper knows that obsession in the form of love in this case will ensue

The speaker in his monologue tells of how “Porphyria worshipped [him].” He mentions she “loves” him and is willing to give “herself to him for ever.” The speaker eventually, realizing that he is obsessed with her as well, is paralyzed and “debates on what to do.” It dawns on the speaker that she might leave him for another and being so obsessed with her the speaker strangle her with her “yellow hair.” The obsession is visible in both works as is the tragedy. Alan will use the poison to kill his love as the speaker strangled Porphyria with her hair. The speaker still is obsessed with Porphyria and does not want her to feel pain so “he is quite sure she felt no pain” and he even keeps her corpse resting on him. The poison Alan will use is also painless to not harm his love. The poison is not only painless but undetectable as well so no one can prove Alan killed her. The speaker “warily oped her lids: again/Laughed the blue eyes without a stain,” therefore, explaining that Porphyria does not have blood stained eyes or marks around her neck which are the tell-tale signs of being strangled. Thus, Browning’s imagery emphasizes that no one will be able to prove she was murdered or convict him for the murder. The catastrophes both works describe are caused by