BINARY OPPOSITION BY WILLOW CATLIN

WHAT IS BINARY OPPOSITION?

Binary Opposition is a system in structuralism, where a word or concept has a pair that opposes it. It’s used in narrative and literature to express a level of dominance and submission of two oppositions, and how this difference in power carries the plot. The term was coined by Claude Levi Strauss in which binary refers to it being grouped as a two, and opposition to a word and its antonym. The system is commonly used in narrative, especially when hand-in-hand with Narrative Theory (Tzvetan Todorov) in that the equilibrium is set by X and is disrupted by Y (X being one of the opposites, Y being its pair). We can see examples of this through soaps e.g. with the use of “good and bad”; a town of friendly folk live a good/happy life when someone enters the story with a bad/disruptive agenda. In soap this constant pendulum to keep the storyline open-ended and continuous so the equilibrium cycle is in a loop forever until the show gets cancelled.

HOW WILL WE USE BINARY OPPOSITION?

STORYLINE

 Our storyline is ambiguous in the intent to leave the conclusion of whether the wife is dead or not open and keep the continuation needed for the show to be a soap. Therefore we are going to express the binary opposites “life and death” in our trailer to express this theme. The editing will aid this as some scenes will have a sepia, washed-out look on scenes that suggest the wife is dead/a ghost, and brighter scenes that suggest that she’s alive. The cause of her death is due to the domestic violence and abuse in the relationship so it could be said another binary opposite fragrant in the show is love/hate displayed in their relationship which will carry the narrative.

CHARACTERS

The leading characters in the microcosm we’re creating will be the antitheses to one another. Their traits will be binary opposites to cause a disequilibrium in themselves. The wife is a small framed, petite woman who exudes fragility, whereas the husband is much taller and broader in shape and overbears the wife’s size which portrays the victim/attacker binary opposition. This pair is interesting because it immediately leads the audience to believe the husband is the one with power, however as the plot continues, we find that the guilt that overcomes him makes him the weaker of the pair.

SETTINGS

Binary opposition was considered even in the choice of location, as we wanted to create a division in where was safe and where was dangerous. All the scenes outside were very loving and sheltered, meaning that anyone else who were to see them both together wouldn’t guess there was any hiccups in their relationship. However in the family home, the acts of abuse occur between the couple which would show the audience that inside the house was the place of danger. In using the location this way, we can set up red-herrings and anticlimactics to through the audience off, as they already assume how things will pan out due to the safety/danger binary opposition we have put in place. In also giving an accurate representation of domestic abuse, we have decided to show the “safe zone” being outside in front of others and the place where the act happens being away from the public eye, because for a lot of victims this is how it happens and it goes unnoticed; portraying it in this way will make the viewers more aware.

THEMES

Time and chronology will be a key feature in our soap. In order to display the mixing of events in a non-sequential way without the audience becoming too confused and unable to follow the plot, we will use the washed out filter for the present and the high-key lighting for the past in order to show where the scene fits in the timeline. This will show binary opposition of the present and anything other than the present (i.e. the past, the future) in a way that wont lose the audience.