John Collier’s 1940 short story “The Chaser” is a brief, highly cynical narrative that discusses the folly of love and warns readers of the consequences of receiving what you wish for. The story is relatively short, following a single dialogue-heavy scene in which Alan, a love-struck young man, purchases a love potion with alarming implications from a cunning old salesman. Although Collier does not detail the precursors that led Alan to this man or confirm the ending of the protagonist's story, he does not have to. Through rapid characterization, heavy foreshadowing, and ominous implications, Collier tells readers all they need to know: this story will end unhappily.  

“The Chaser” unfolds in a third-person-limited point of view and takes place in a single, sparsely furnished room. Alan and an unnamed old man occupy the room, and the contents of their discussion flesh out who they are and what is to come. Readers quickly learn that Alan is gullible, for he is woefully distracted by his yearning for a woman he cannot seem to woo. Readers also learn that the old man is a seasoned salesman who has perfected his trap: selling unsuspecting, love-sick young men cheap potions with unexpected and maddening consequences, to later sell them far more expensive wares. As his business model clarifies, so too does the title's meaning. Initially, readers might assume that the title refers to the chase that Alan engages in as he pursues a woman who does not love him. Upon completing the story, the title delivers the bleak punchline and confirms the readers’ suspicions about the potion seller. The love potion, sold for only a dollar, is the first sale the man hopes to make to Alan and his ilk; the expensive, poisonous "glove-cleaner," as he calls it, is the chaser—the second drink he will sell. 

Collier suggests that young men are desperate to fall in love, thinking it easy or cheap. The salesman is happy to sell this first potion at a low price because "customers come back, later in life." Reading between the lines clarifies the salesman's meaning: those who purchased a love potion and married a woman who will never divorce then will return for the "glove-cleaner" as a chaser to dull the bitter taste of false love that fills their unhappy lives and one-sided marriages. It is, of course, a cynical view of love and marriage. Collier seems to argue that what seems romantic to young men—women wanting to know "all [they] do," being jealous of them, and worrying about other women—will quickly become intolerable, particularly after marriage. At this point, because their wives "will never divorce" them—again, something that seemed romantic at first—they will be compelled to return to the mysterious salesman, ready to pay five thousand dollars for a draught to rid them of their wives.

To a modern reader, the story’s focus on women but unwillingness to give them voices or agency seems misogynistic. However, it is necessary to remember that the 1940 short story invariably bears the context of its time. Indeed, Alan’s anxious and fumbling actions disguise his insidious intentions, and the narrative prioritizes the regret he may soon feel over the mistreatment of Diana. It is his misery that readers reflect on rather than hers, even though his selfish actions will not only alter her life against her will but also, as the old man heavily implies, potentially end it. 

Diana is merely a conduit for the plot, a helpless victim to Alan’s cluelessness and lack of self-awareness. He wishes her to change, to enjoy partying less, and to love him; it is immediately...