Would you use magic to make someone fall harder for you? Well Alan did, in the story “The Chaser” by John Collier. Alan wasn't satisfied with the amount of love his girlfriend Diana had for him, so he went of of his way to find Mr. Austen who sold Alan a potion to use on his girlfriend. The potion makes someone obsessed with you, it also makes the person feel empty when their not with you. This story is a patriarchy because Alan wants to be the dominant one in the relationship, Alan also wants to make his relationship be in a sealed environment, and he wants to be the center of attention at all costs. Additionally taking the dominant side of the relationship too far, can be abusive. “The Chaser” by John Collier is a patriarchal piece, …show more content…
Alan wants to be the dominate one in the relationship. Mr. Austen explaining to Alan what the potions do “she is, she will change altogether. She will want nothing but solitude and you… She will, when she has taken this. She will care intensely. You will be her sole interest in life” (Collier 164). Alan agrees to Mr. Austen's potion because he wants his girlfriend's life to revolve around him. An unsophisticated critic would say that Alan is dumb for trusting Mr. Austen since he doesn't know him that well. However a sophisticated critic would say Alan is scared to be alone so he wants his girlfriend's life to revolve around him. This story is similar to the movie the The Switch (2010) in the sense the main male character Wally also does something very extreme to get a girl to like him back. However; “The Chaser” by John Collier Alan only goes to get a magic potion for his girlfriend to love him more unlike the movie ”The Switch” (2010), Wally trades his sperm with the donor's sperm. Kassie ends up using the sperm which resulted into him having to tell her the mistake he made, he also ended up having to spend time with his kid which got him closer to kassie. Overall, Alan wants his girlfriend’s world to revolve around him so she won't find someone else she could possibly like.
Additionally Mr. Watson giving Alan more reasons for him to give his girlfriend the potion “She will be afraid of the pretty girls you may meet.” (Collier 164). Having Allen agree to the potion is like having his girlfriend think about him and who he's with all the time. An unsophisticated critic would notice that Alan is insecure and wants more attention from his girlfriend. Unlike a sophisticated critic would probably notice that Allen wants to make his girlfriend insecure, he also wants her to feel like she's not good enough for him, so every time Alan is around girls she's scared he will leave her for another girl. This quote sounds similar to a scene in the movie Daddy's home (2015), In the movie Will Ferrell plays Brad who recently married Sara. Sara has two children, once the kids father comes back into the picture Brad starts getting really jealous and he starts thinking he's good enough for Sara and the kids. In the contrast Alan wants his girlfriend to feel that way, he wants his girlfriend to be jealous. Unlike in the movie, Brad just felt bad by seeing Sara and the kids hang out with the kids
dad. Although Alan wants Diana, his girlfriend to love him, he also wants her to nurture him. Mr. Watson explaining to Alan what else the potion does “How carefully she will look after you! She will never allow you to be tired, to sit in a draught, to neglect your food. If you are an hour late, she will be terrified. She will think you are killed, or that some siren has caught you.” (Collier 165). An unsophisticated critic would say that Alan has mommy issues and that's why he needs love so much from a woman. However, a sophisticated critic would probably say that Alan just wants to feel cared for. His wants remind me of the movie, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005), Willy Wonka never felt like his dad loved him so he drowned himself in his candy. Unlike Willy, Alan took action and found someone who can make his wishes come true. Overall Alan thinks his needs and wants are more important than a healthy relationship. Instead of Alan talking out the problems he has, with Diana he drugs her without her knowing and takes advantage of her feelings. Alan also wants his girlfriend’s attention to be on him so she won’t have time find someone else.
In all of these stories one could see the relationships where men were in control, and women were the followers. All of the relationships had problems and the cause was the lack of love, and communication. They could have had better relationships if they solved problems by having true and honest conversations, and try to know and understand the other person's thoughts. Those were stories of the 19th century, but there are still problems between males and females dealing with unbalanced relationships, and miscommunications or no communications. Love is a hard subject, and there would always be problems in relationships dealing with it, but if one is willing to listen to another and puts effort into reaching true love, the relationship could be a happy one.
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
Control and emotional manipulation are more commonly used in the beginning of a relationship as the “captain” of the house. The abuser starts to control who their spouse can be friends with, when and how they can spend money, and when they can go to town. If the victim of the relationships does anything without their permissions, he or she is emotionally punished by the abuser by threatening to leave the victim, uses guilt, rage, or criticizes. An abuser feeds off of these two types of abuse. A relationship that starts out like this can grow into something potentially more dangerous for the victim. The last three types of abuse are the more dangerous kinds of abuse. Verbal abuse is harmful to the victim’s confidence and self-esteem. Name calling, cruel jokes, and humiliation in public places are all types of verbal abuse that will bring someone into deep depression. Sexual and physical abuse is harmful to the victim’s health. In a healthy relationship, sex is wanted and meaningful; however, if the spouse is being forced to have sex, use unprotected sex, or not allowed to decide about keeping the baby, than this is a health hazard. It is an unhealthy relationship that is untrustworthy and disconnected; therefore, transmitted diseases can spread to the victim. Physical abuse is the more commonly known type of abuse. It is intentional pain from
Domestic violence has been plaguing our society for years. There are many abusive relationships, and the only question to ask is: why? The main answer is control. The controlling characteristic that males attribute to their masculinity is the cause of these abusive relationships. When males don’t have control, they feel their masculinity is threatened and they need to do something about it.
stereotypical theme of a female wanting to be loved by a man who in turn
For instance, in the film Roxanne Feder becomes jealous of Penny, a local sweetheart Lenny used to date back in sixth grade. The psychotic women threatened Roxanne 's position as Lenny 's wife. Even going as far as saying that Lenny still has feelings for her. Roxanne agrees with the woman that working and keeping a tight toned body will keep Lenny away from Penny. This shows that women can use their bodies and sex appeal as a weapon to seduce and keep that man they desire in their life. Towards the end of the film, the relentless Penny runs to comfort Lenny only after being kicked in the face by Roxanne, where she went to her husband 's aide. The quarrel between the two women in hopes of getting and keeping their man only shows how submissive women are perceived. It 's as if women are in desperate need of a man to comfort, lead and love them. Their so submissive that they would see each other as a threat giving off dirty looks, arguing and even having a physical fight just so that they can have the victory and honor of having Lenny as their
Pearson, Alyn. “Traditional Male/Female Roles Promote Sexual Violence”. 2000. Sexual Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. Comp. Helen Cothran. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2003. 42-47. Print.
Emma's arrogance shines through when she brags that she is exceptionally skillful at matching couples. She believes that she is in control of fate and must play matchmaker in order for couples to discover their true love. Austen confirms, "The real evils indeed of Emma's situation were the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself" (Austen 1). Although Emma is so spoiled and overbearing, she truly doesn't realize this fact.
It was the research of Dobash and Dobash, a husband and wife team from Wales, that first posited that “intimate partner violence is the result of male oppression of women within a patriarchal system in which men are the primary perpetrators and women the primary victims” (McPhail, B. A., Busch, N. B., Kulkarni, S., & Rice, G., 2007). According to Lawson (2012), feminist theories treat the problem of intimate partner violence as fundamentally related to the patriarchal domination of men over women. Historically, patriarchy was the dominant social structure from early Greek and Roman civilizations where women were considered to be the property of their father, if unmarried, and their husband if married. As such, women were often beaten, burned, and killed for not being obedient to a man’s
Every relationship is different. Weather one may be in a relationship with a boy, or just a friend, it is different. Even though they are different, the characters in “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “IND AFF” by Fay Weldon are in similar relationships. That is, the male is dominant over the female, and the woman thinks the man is her knight in shining armor. In the beginning of “IND AFF” the unnamed woman thinks her professor, Peter, who she is having an affair with, is her ticket to creating a good thesis and higher standings. Similarly, in “The Birthmark,” Georgiana thinks her husband is her ticket to flawless beauty because he tells her he will remove her birthmark. Obviously, this is not how relationships operate in today’s society. These two relationships compare and contrast with each other as well as with relationships in today’s day-and-age.
Alan Austen simply wants someone Diana to fall in love with him. He wants a companion and someone to enjoy life with. Austen does not want to work for it. He wants it to just appear for him. True love takes time and two people perfect for each other. Austen wants to force love so he buys the potion. He does not listen to the old man and buys the potion. The old man knows its only a matter of time before he is back .Aan returns to purchase the expensive glove-cleaner. Alan Austen desire for love ends up killing him because he will understand that it is impossible to find true love and will use the glove cleaner as his escape.
Patriarchal Terrorism is general need to control a relationship. It is violence exclusively initiated by men as a way of gaining and maintaining absolute control over their female partner. (Shehan, 2003) The second form of couple violence, is common couple violence, is less a product of patriarchy. (Johnson, 1995) Patriarchal terrorism does exist today. Differences do not exist in intimate violence based on social class, education level, race / ethnicity or sexual orientation. Intimate violence is violence that occurs between two people in a relationship. It includes four types of behaviors: physical abuse, sexual abuse, threats, and emotional abuse. The longer the abuse goes on the longer it will affect the victim. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006) Partner violence occurs in all countries, social, economic, religious and cultural boundaries. (Shehan, 2003) I have observed couples with good communication and poor communication and intimacy. Dr. Gottman and his colleagues created recommendations, tactics, and strategies for couples with poor communication, intimacy and conflict problems.
An example of this is when Elizabeth in “The Leaving”, is ordered around by her husband “get over her ‘n’ make my supper wom[a]n!”, (Wilson, 1990 p. 3). This is a strong example because she is not appreciated or respected. Even though she lives in a different culture and time frame, the same sort of situation can be observed in “Another Evening at the Club”. This occurs when Samia does not have a choice of who she marries “you're a lucky girl,... he’s a real find” (Rifaat, 1998, p. 255). Along with these two women Anilam, Aqsa has to overcome their families not approving who they want to marry or how they want to dress. Finally, Mrs. Mallard also experiences this while she does not really love her husband but cannot confess to him as he has more power over her, so she has to just put up with him. This is shown when she says “free, free, free!” (Chopin, 1894 p 2), and she is finally happy even though he had died. Since all of the women in the story live in a patriarchal society or a repression they face really similar
The second form of abuse is patriarchal terrorism in which there is almost no hope for the couple to get out of it (Johnson, 1995). Patriarchal terrorism is when one partner, almost always the man, uses a different variety of ways to isolate, degrade and punish the other partner (Berger, 2003). This form of abuse can lead to...
Even those of us who like to consider ourselves liberated and open-minded often have a difficult time even imagining that husband battering could take place. Although feminism has opened many of our eyes about the existance of domestic violence, and newspaper reports often include incidents of abuse of wives, the abuse of husbands is a rarely discussed phenomenon.