Alan Austen

Like many who might seek out a love potion, Alan is gullible. He is a young man who almost obsessively seeks to attain the love of a young woman who spurns him. Although he is brave enough to seek out the potion seller, it is clear that Alan is rather inexperienced with these types of transactions. He is “nervous as a kitten” about what he is doing, but his desperation to attain the affection of his beloved, Diana, motivates him. Alan is awkward and struggles to orient himself in this unfamiliar environment; he is sure the old man sells love potions, but the item is too mystical and embarrassing to discuss, so he is uncertain how to broach the subject. Very much a fish out of the water, Alan is unsure of himself and terrified of the old man and his wares. Only the promise of the love potion keeps him going, and he is overcome with delight when he learns that the old man does indeed sell such a potion. Despite a slew of hints and subtle warnings, Alan purchases the potion and sets himself up for a life of misery and false love.

As Alan speaks of his beloved and how he wishes her to feel toward him, readers realize that his youthful naïveté extends further than it first appeared. He is blind to the truth and sees the world only as he wishes it might be. He is willing to subject the woman he loves to a forced obsessive love by slipping her an unknown substance—that alone indicates his selfishness and lack of external awareness. Moreover, his obsession with the love potion causes him to overlook the old man’s veiled warnings, and his actions in the story set him—and Diana—up for a life of misery.

The Unnamed Old Man

Throughout the story, the old man who runs the potion shop goes unnamed. Rather than a named character, he is merely a conduit for chaos, offering desperate people, such as Alan, the tools to solve their problems. He is a salesman, and a canny one, who seems to only offer two main options: a one-dollar love potion and what he calls a "glove cleaner," which is an untraceable poison that costs an exorbitant five-thousand dollars for a single dose. The pricing of the potions is intentional and reveals the old man’s penchant for tricking desperate, unsuspecting clients with low prices and high consequences. As the story progresses, the old man’s clever business model clarifies. Readers understand that the old man sells love potions cheaply to young men because he wants to be able to charge them five thousand dollars for untraceable poison, once the attractions of marriage and false love have worn off.

Diana

Diana is the unwitting object of Alan’s affection. According to Alan, she loves parties and dancing, and she is apathetic about the young man. Alan espouses love for her, yet he wishes her to change, revealing that his love is one-sided and false. Indeed, his misplaced love stands to victimize Diana, as he plans to drug her and force her to fall in love with him against her will, and then when he grows frustrated with her as the old man predicts, he might even kill her. Though the story focuses on Alan’s desperate need, the true victim is Diana, who is subject to the manic love of a young man who wishes only to change and control her to suit his whims.