If binary opposition applies to character, then the nurse and the friar are opposing forces, as are Romeo and Juliet. The nurse should represent the base, earthly emotions while the friar should represent the higher intellectual and spiritual aspects of man. Shakespeare reveals flaws in each character, so in that they are equal and opposite, but I would argue that he is harder on the friar, for Shakespeare reveals him to be something of a hypocrite, for though he says Romeo should go "Wisely, and slow", he has already consented to perform the marriage ceremony, knowing full well that Romeo's love has literally happened overnight.
Shakespeare may have used binary opposition to expose the flaws in thinking that things can be unproblematically opposed. Or, he may have used it to expose the flaws in (or complexity of) his characters.
Consider the following, all from Act 2 Scene 3:
The friar argues that "grace" and rude will" operate as binary opposites:
Two such opposed kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs,--grace and rude will;
And where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.
but shows that sometimes the dichotomy is a false one (or gray):
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
Now we have two sets of oppositions: the nurse (base/sexual) vs the friar (enlightened/chaste), and "grace" vs "rude will", and none of them are "pure."
No comments:
Post a Comment