摘 要

《追逐者》是约翰·科利尔于1940年发表在《纽约客》上的短篇小说，后被美国文学批评家米尔顿·克莱恩收录进《短篇小说精粹50篇》。这是一篇典型的幻想小说，有着较完美的故事结构与深刻的故事内涵。小说将一种病态的爱情，以卖药老人与年轻人对话的形式，演绎成貌似轻松的故事，通过反讽的手法，将这种爱情观置于道德的舞台上给予淋漓尽致的批评。在《追逐者》中，科利尔将年轻人艾伦的幼稚天真与老人的悲观的世界观进行对比，刻画了两个截然不同、个性鲜明的人物形象。文中运用大量的双关语，巧妙地将爱情与死亡糅合，表达出犬儒主义者对急功近利的社会现状的冷嘲热讽，同时批判了一种男权为上的爱情观。本文将从言语反讽、戏剧反讽、情景反讽三个角度入手，分析鉴赏反讽修辞对小说中人物形象的塑造作用以及对其主题的升华作用。

关键词：《追逐者》；言语反讽；情景反讽；戏剧反讽

Contents

1. Introduction...............................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration..................................................................................................2

2.1 Verbal irony in The Chaser ..................................................................................2

2.1.1 Verbal irony in the old man’s sale promotion........................................................2

2.1.2 Verbal irony in the old man’s tone..............................................................3

2.1.3 Verbal irony in the old man’s supposition................................................4

2.2 Dramatic irony in The Chaser..................................................................................4

2.2.1 Dramatic irony reflected in the title .....................................................................4

2.2.2 Dramatic irony reflected in the plot......................................................................5

2.3 Situational irony in The Chaser...............................................................................6

2.4. The effect of irony in The Chaser...........................................................................7

2.4.1 Effect on the characterization................................................................................7

2.4.2 Effect on the theme................................................................................................8

1. Conclusion................................................................................................................9

Works Cited........................................................................................10

Bibliography......................................................................................11

A Brief Analysis of Irony in The Chaser

1.Introduction

John Collier(1901-1980), a prolific writer of plays and short stories, was born in a poor family in London. After the primary education, his family couldn't afford the tuition, so he had to drop out of the school. At home, Collier read Andersen's Fairy Tale and found great interest in those myths and legends, which attributed to his creation of works full of particular fantasy. John Collier was highly praised for his brief language and relaxed tone, which was largely affected by one of the greatest satirists, Jonathan Swift, who was a prolific writer, notable for his satires because he always used simple, direct and precise satire in his works. John Collier first published this fantasy fiction The Chaser on The New Yorker in 1940. Upon publication, the fiction received a huge response and caused wide discussion by the Americans. In 1951, Collier received the International Fantasy Award.

The fiction tells a story about a young man named Alan Austin, who was obsessed with the pursuit of a girl’s true love. He found an old man who sold love potion, which was said to be able to help the girl fall in love with him and become loyal to him forever. However, the old man promoted another potion, the unique treasure of his store, “life-cleaner”, to Alan. The old man believed that Alan would need it one day in that the love potion’s effect will make Alan unbearable. At the beginning of the story, instead of recommending love potion to Alan, the old man introduced life-cleaner that priced $5,000. Life-cleaner is a kind of poison that can kill a person invisibly and quickly. After hearing about the effect, Alan felt afraid and refused to know more about it. Meanwhile, he worried a lot because he was not sure whether he could afford it, so he cautiously asked about the price of love potion. Love potion in a dirty, little bottle charged only $1, which made Alan surprised and decided to buy it at once. However, Alan wasn’t aware of the tragedy that would happen after using love potion.