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Poetry and the Play Othello based on the Binary Opposition

There is a connection between the three literary forms studied, and the play Othello. For

instance, regarding the story “The story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and Othello, a commonality

can be seen in the characters. In this context, Othello is similar to Louise Mallard since both

characters engaged in taking in overwhelming information without viewing all the possibilities.

This led to their deaths. In the play Othello, Othello allows jealousy to control all his actions

upon being convinced by Iago that his wife Desdemona and Cassio the lieutenant are lovers. Due

to this, Othello murders Desdemona and commits suicide after realizing what he had done and

that his wife was innocent. The main character Louise Mallard in The Story of an Hour after

receiving news of her husband’s death in a train accident, she considers locking herself in the

bedroom. In the bedroom, she is bombarded by a feeling of relief and repeats the words, “free,

free, free” upon realizing that her husband’s death is the best scenario to ever happen to her, and

her happiness has never been that extreme before. Louise was overjoyed until she realized that

her husband was still alive. She goes into shock and ends up dying of a heart problem. The most

prevalent binary opposition in this case is love and hate, since despite showing love to her

husband by crying over his supposed death; Louise is overjoyed due to the hate she feels inside

towards her husband.

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Regarding Othello and To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvel, the play and poem

exhibit the theme of love, which leaves a deep mark. In both, the view of love is stereotyped.

Based on Othello, Othello is not seeing his wife as she actually is. Instead, he is fooled into

accepting the fictional assessment of Iago. In To His Coy Mistress, the stereotype view of love is

based on the line, “Two hundred to adore each breast.” This type of love seems to be

exaggerated than the realm.

Shakespeare’s play Othello and The Three Little Pigs exhibit a commonality in regard to

inconsistency with readers’ expectations of the world. This inconsistency is what makes both the

play and poem appealing. For instance, The Three Little Pigs would not have been appealing if

the wolf ate all the three pigs. Based on such an ending, the expectations induced in the first part

of the story would have been accorded to the readers, thus maintaining consistency with reality.

However, the story would be dull, and unappealing if consistency had been maintained.

Inconsistency in Othello can be seen when Othello becomes jealous over what he assumes to be

his wife’s behavior, thus ends up killing her and himself. Presumably, a consistent story would

have been characterized by Othello accepting the explanation of Desdemona’s behavior. In this

context, then tragedy would emerge as averted, and Shakespeare would have lacked a story to

tell.

The binary opposition in William Shakespeare’s Othello is based on the difference

between Othello’s blackness and Desdemona’s whiteness. Also, other binary oppositions

prevalent in the play include Love/Hate, Order/Chaos, Sanity/Madness, and

Confidence/Insecurity. Shakespeare employed these binary oppositions towards describing the

racial differences, and character transitions as well as prejudices subjected to Othello. The

Binary Oppositions in The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin include Male/Female, Love/ Self-
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assertion, and Joy/Grief. Kate Chopin ironically describes the binary opposition of Love/Self-

assertion, as Louise’ thoughts are that she loved her husband sometimes, and presents that “often

she had not.” The author employed these binary oppositions to depict the forbidden happiness of

Louise Mallard based on her new independence, upon receiving the news about her husband’s

death.

The Binary Oppositions in the poem To His Coy Mistress are Present/Non-present,

Subject/Object, and Consumer/Consumed. A significant point in this poem involves persuasion

of the speaker’s beloved towards yielding herself to him. Based on the poem, there is not time to

wait, and unity is depicted in the entire poem through the constant consideration of time issue.

Finally, the binary oppositions in The Three Little Pigs include children/parents, younger/older,

and home/away. The author’s main intention for using these binary oppositions is to permit the

young towards identifying with heroes who end up winning in the end. Based on this, confidence

is offered to children that if they put in time, patience, and hard work in, whatever they do just

like the third little pig did in building his house, they will eventually achieve their goals. Also,

through the binary oppositions, the author offers reassurance to the young that children will

ultimately grow up towards achieving independence from parents despite being small and

insignificant.
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Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The story of an hour. Joe Books Ltd, 2018.

Galdone, Paul. The three little pigs. No. 14. Hinkler Books, 1993.

Marvell, Andrew. " To His Coy Mistress" and Other Poems. Courier Dover Publications, 2016.

Shakespeare, William. othello. Vol. 6. Classic Books Company, 2001.