1、,analysis,Structure,Alan Austen, a young man who is passionately in love with Diana who is indifferent to him, comes to the room of a mysterious old man who deals in magic potions. Alan Austen has been told that he can buy a kind of love potion that will make the object of his affection fall madly i

2、n love with him. The old man shows litter interest in the financial profit to be gained from selling Alan a love potion which is only priced at one dollar.,Instead, he devotes most his sales talk to recommending a potion that he calls a life-cleaner, a powerful poison that is undetectable in an auto

3、psy, but more expensive than love potion. He believes that his clients will visit him repeatedly to buy expensive mixtures once they start to get one kind of potion from him. Finally, Alan Austen is convinced that the love potion can bring him deep love and takes it with joy.,Part1:Para 1 In this pa

4、rt, severs as an introduction to the protagonist( prutgnist主人翁), Alan Austen. Part2:Para. 2-12: The old man is trying to sell his mixture. Part3:Para. 13-45: This part is mainly developed through the dialogue between the old man and Alan Austen. Austen got to know about the love potion and in the en

5、d bought it.,Text analysis,This short story, which combines elements of horror and love, is built almost entirely through dialogue between a young man, Alan Austen, who is deeply in love and wants to possess his lover entirely, and an unnamed old man who believes in a life free of romantic involveme

6、nt. As the dialogue develops, Austens attitude towards the potion changes from skeptical and hesitant to excited and overwhelmed. Readers have been kept in suspense of what will happen to the young man when the story comes to the last line “Au revoir”.,rhetorical features of the text,The dialogue be

7、tween the young man and the old man reveals their essential differences, one being green and passionate and the other being experienced and profound. One of the effective techniques employed here to present the image of the old man as an experienced and profound man is that he sounds somewhat philos

8、ophical, hither and thither in his talks. Here is one example. “one might call it a life-cleaner. Lives need cleaning sometimes”. The underlined part in the quotation is used to present an idea one is likely to feel to be nearer to the heart of human experience. By analyzing and generating some specific incident to discover the fundamental truth, the old man impresses one as a wise and sophisticated man.,What have you learned from the text?,conclusion,All the precious things,including love may come to an end.People can easily fall in love