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Deconstruction the Discourse of Black and White in Shakespeare’s Othello

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Submitted By keallie16
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Pages 9
Marcus Green
English 4090
Mr. Michael Parker
November 29, 2004

Deconstruction the Discourse of Black and White in Shakespeare’s Othello

The complex and confusing values of “black” and “white” are used to reinforce the theme of man’s tragic blindness of good and evil in Shakespeare’s Othello. Thus, one will exam the use of the binary opposition “black” and “white” and the “différance” of these words within the content of the play. Therefore, the “absence” of the meaning of words is what makes a word differ from itself, and opens discourse to its true meaning within the content of the text. Within Othello, the repeated use of the terms “black” and “white,” has various polarized meanings. Hence, the relationship of these terms within the play requires a full explication of Shakespeare’s use of binary opposition in Othello. Deconstruction is a method of textual analysis and philosophical argument involving the close reading of works within literature. Therefore, a deconstructive reading examines the use of binary opposition within the content of a text. Binary oppositions focus on the words of the text; thus, reveal the meaning of the words that are hidden within the content of the language. As a result, words within the structural discourse of language can be used to displace and reassert meaning within the relationship of “différance” (Douglas 185). According to Derrida: différance is what makes the movement of signification possible only if each element is said to be “present,” appearing on the stage of presence, is related to something other than itself but retains the mark of a past element of a past element and already lets itself be hollowed out by the mark of its relation to a future element. (Murray 306)

The key point in the idea of différance as the source of meaning is not merely that two words differ but also that each word

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