B. The Binary Opposition of the Characteristics of Male and Female Characters
The concept of binary opposition which means “in every center, there exists its opponent” is reflected in Glaspell’s play entitled Trifles. Here, the reflection of the
binary opposition concept becomes clearer when the discussion is concerned on the way Glaspell writes this play. Glaspell creates the female characters as the center, the
protagonist, in which it takes readers’ interest. The presence of female characters in this play has a certain meaning since the female characters are significant because
they are the root of all the actions and the events that happened in this play. However, in binary opposition concept, it is said that the establishing of one
center means that there is another which is automatically decenter. Based on that concept, it is concluded there exist the opposite center female characters’ opponent
in this play. Here, Glaspell puts male characters as the antagonist in order to complete the binary that needs a pair of opposite things. In this case, a pair of opposite things is
needed because the binary opposition concepts will not operate if there is only one element. The fe
male characters become male characters’ opponent since they are the characters that und
ergo much male characters’ actions, so that the story in this play looks like male characters’ actions toward female characters. By knowing that fact, it
is obvious that male characters’ presence in this play is used to help in describing female characters
. Female’s characteristics in this play become easily understood by the readers because their characteristics are well explained with the help of male
characters’ existence. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Related to the discussion about the characteristics of male and female characters, it is also clear that female characters can be defined as the inferior by
comparing female’s characteristics and male’s characteristics, in which male characteristics are closer to superiority. Glaspell creates male and female characters
as binary oppositions, superior vs. inferior. Here, female characters represent the inferior and male characters represent the superior, since the female characters are
featured with powerless attributes and the male characters are featured with powerful attributes.
Such a kind of thought “How male characters can be defined as superior if
there are no female characters as the inferior that undergo the male characters’
domination” is just like in the case of ‘smart’ and stupid. As in the binary opposition concept, the meaning of smart will be easily defined by understanding the meaning of
stupid. In this case, the understanding of stupid will find out the meaning of smart. Based on the concept of binary opposition, it can be concluded that male characters in
this play will not be portrayed as superior without female characters’ help as the
inferior , the characters that have to be dominated because of the male characters’
attitude which is dominating. In other words, by ana lyzing female’s characteristics
will help to find out m ale’s characteristics.
In previous subchapter, the characteristics both male and female characters are already analyzed. Based on that analysis, there are some characteristics of male and
female characters which are opposed one to each other as a binary opposition. Those characteristics are listed and compared, so that the binary opposition on the
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