John Collier, a
contemporary English author, was born in London, England on May 3,1901 and
lived his last years in Palisades, California where he died of a stroke on
April 6, 1980. Collier was a writer of
the 1920's era, educated in post-Victorian England, and according to Anthony
Burgess in the London Times. He was
known for "literary allusiveness and quiet wit" (Contemporary Authors
111). A collection of his most memorable
works was published in 1972 entitled The John Collier Reader. His literary style reached beyond his native
country and became popular in the United States.
John Collier's
writings are full of surprises. His
short stories combine an element of horror
as well as love which are focused on the relationships of the young and
old. Collier is notable for lightly
carried erudition, literary allusiveness and quiet wit, according to Anthony
Burgess. Anthony Burgess, a novelist,
said though not a writer of the very first rank, he possessed considerable
literary skill and a rare capacity to
entertain (Contemporary Authors 111).
Collier's readers are involved in his writings by trick endings or "take away endings" in which
readers are given all clues but asked to finish, the story on their own
(Critical Survey 1169). His subject manner is often the line between logical or
psychological meaning. The subject contains an irony that is well balanced
between an element of horror and humor.
His short stories are based on relationships of the young and old. Collier's characters are hoping to fulfill
their dreams and they do have them fulfilled but only to discover they have
been dreaming the wrong thing.
"The
Chaser" is a story that deals with a man's dream of gaining a woman's love
through a potion. The man wants the love
of this woman so badly that he wants to purchase a potion to gain her
love. The old wise man that owns all
these potions is a man who has experienced much about love in his life. This woman to the young man is
everything. He will go to all limits to have her care about him. With this potion the old man says "She
will care intensely. You will be her
sole interest in life." this is
when the young man says "That is love." we can see here how desperate
of a dream to have the love of this woman is to him (Collier 48). When the woman drinks the potion she will
have total adoration for the young man and will want nothing but him. This story is very typical of John Collier
with the whole story being summarized in the last line. The last line said by the old man is "Au
revoir" meaning until or for we meet again. These words
leave the reader thinking that the young man will return for the glove
cleaner (Collier 49).
The relationship
between characters of the old man and the young man is one based on knowledge
and desires. The knowledge is of the
dream that the character has the desire is o fulfill this dream. The young man in this story has dreams of
obtaining the love of a woman yet the old man knows that he is going about it
the wrong way for it will not work and the young man will be back to purchase
the other potion just like the men before him.
In the ending of the story we know the young man's immediate dream is
fulfilled by his purchasing the potion, yet we are left to decide if the young
man must return for the 5,000 dollar potion to correct his dream that has gone
bad.
Love in a relationship is also the basis of the
story "De Mortius". Young and
old is once again portrayed in the relationship of this story. The characters of this piece question the
relationship between the doctor and his young wife. The man is old and his wife
is young and full of life unlike himself.
This couple is at the two far ends of the spectrum. He is one with deep thought while she is as
the man states " she's stupid."(Touch of Nutmeg 17). One might think that such extreme devotion
would cause him to hate her. Especially
when the one character says "A decent, straightforward guy comes to a place
like this and marries the town floozy, and nobody'll tell him. Everybody just watches."(Touch of Nutmeg
17). All the little things add up in
this relationship for the characters to believe that the doctor would kill his
wife. The ridicule of the townspeople
would lead one to want to escape from such an irrational relationship. If it was not for the observation of the
neighbors here in this story this relationship would most likely not be in
jeopardy. In the story these two men
approach the doctor one day to see if he would like to go fishing. When they find the doctor at his house they
discover that he has been doing some concrete work in the basement, the men
thinking that he was possibly burying his wife. From that this story has all
the details to turn the relationship into horror. His wife shows up at the top of the stairs while
the doctor is working in the basement.
The ending in this totally exemplifies an unpredictable ending when the
doctor says to his wife when she is at the top of the stairs, "I'm afraid
I'll have to take it all up again."
Then he says "Come down here, my dear, and I'll show
you."(Collier 18). One is left to
ponder the question: so Does the doctor really bury his wife in the basement
later or not?
In the story "Little Momento" the
old and young are once again drawn together. We have the relationship between
the husband and the wife being questioned by both the husband and the old man
who is an observer. The young couple in this story is from the East and have
moved to a much more homely environment which is the countryside. The problem with the relationship is that
the wife is always taking trips. The
husband has no real idea where she could be going but does not really think
twice about until the old man brings it up.
It is the hobby of the old man that is bit of a surprise. He collects items that may seem as junk or
just plain odd but they all represent human characteristics. The old man's
hobby of collecting items that represent human characteristics is what brings
the attention of this relationship that is in possible turmoil. This relationship is in question due to the
old man asking the younger man how his wife enjoys her new setting. When the old man says "I thought you and
Mrs. Gaskell were very great friends of Captain Felton." (Touch of Nutmeg
30). This has the young man thinking
about his wife and her little trips. The
young husband does not really know except that she is always leaving to get
away. After hearing from the older that
"Felton is one for the ladies" and how he likes to amuse himself he
proceeds to think more about his wife's little trips and where she may really
be going (Collier 31). Then the man asks
if the captain is in town or out. The answer is that he is in town. We then discover that the old man says that
he saw the captain pass by no more than an hour ago in his red car which was so
obviously noticed in this town but he also states that there was another red
car following. The young man who so
dearly wants to have his dream of the perfect family life puts two and two
together and leaves the old man to possibly find out what is going on with his
life. We are left not knowing whether
there is another guy or does she just take these trips to ease herself from
these new surroundings which she is not used to due to the countryside being
much slower then the East. It may just
be that the wife has the dream of keeping her East coast lifestyle alive no
matter where she is. Is this
relationship of husband and wife doomed like the man's dreams of a more quiet
life. Most likely it is doomed.
"Ah, The
University" is a story that is once again based on the diverging
relationship between the young and old.
The father and son have different points of view on attending the
university. The father knows how great of an experience the university is but
feels that it can be surpassed for it is not as important to him as sacrificing
his own luxuries. The son on the other
hand just wants the opportunity to attend the university as his father
did. If the father did not speak of the
university so highly then maybe the son would not feel as bad by not attending
but since the father did basically overdue how great of an experience it
was. Therefore the father teaches the
son the game of poker instead of sending him to the university for schooling
which is what the boy intended to do with his life. The reason for this is that the father states
"My expenses have mounted abominably and I shall have very little to leave
you..." basically he wants to save his money for his own luxuries (Touch
of Nutmeg 201). So the boy learns the
game of chips from his father over the time period of two years. He then sets out and finds himself in a game
with a pot of huge value one that he cannot afford. The boy calls his father from Paris to ask
his advice on the game. The father
hearing of how definite the win will be and how much of a profit he will make
decides to fly over and join in for his son.
What turns out is that the father does join in and he does not even look
at the cards and proceeds with betting some large sum that is basically all the
old man has. The old man loses due to
the son mistaking a lower suit card for a higher suit card which causes them to
lose. Therefore the father asks if the
son is now going to go to the university which the son answers yes. Then the father storms out not knowing that
they were playing high-low. So in that
case the son actually wins and makes out with half the pot which is a very
large sum of money in itself. The ending
when the father says "curse the day that I ever became the father of a
damned fool!" is ironic since the son is know fool (Touch of Nutmeg
203). The son set up his father, since
his father was being such a selfish cheap skate by not sending him to the
university in the first place. The
father's dream of having his money for his own luxuries and to have his son
become a card player is the wrong one for his son's dream is to go to the
university and that should have therefore been the father's as well. The son, who is no fool, uses the winnings to
enroll in the university.
John Collier was
a very versatile writer. In every story
there are surprises, in details, symbols, and subtleties of plot and
outcome. In the story "De
Mortius" is the involvement of irony and a trick ending. It has been described as "a kind of
extended joke, on everybody in the story." (Critical Survey 1170). Collier
persuades us not of the reality of his tale but of the probability that real
men and women might feel and do such evil things. Not all of Collier's critics who have
recognized his antifeminism judge him so harshly. He has been largely ignored by scholars and
reportedly predicted his own literary extinction. I feel that the realism of his characters'
dreams which always seem to be right for the character but seem to be the wrong
one in the long run is the dominant plot that is worked upon in these four
short stories that were written by John Collier.
Bibliography
Contemporary Authors. Ed. James G. Lesinak, 54
vols. Detroit: Gale Research
Company,1983. Vol. 10.
Collier, John.
"The Chaser." 75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World's Literature. Ed. Roger B. Goodman. New
York: Bantam Books, 1961.
Collier, John.
The Touch of Nutmeg and More Unlikely Stories. Ed. Clifton Fadiman, New York: The Press of the Reader's Club, 1943.
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