On The Binary Oppositions In Donne’s Songs And Sonets

John Donne is one of the most original and controversial poets in Englishliterature. Since the17thcentury, Donne has experienced repeated praising andcriticizing. His best representative work is his Songs and Sonets in which there arefifty-five lyrics. These poems not only show his view on love, but also present hisidea on death, science, etc, which greatly display his talents and knowledge.Binary opposition has become an important concept in literary criticism. Thisthesis analyzes three pairs of binary oppositions, man and woman, life and death,body and soul in Songs and Sonets to show Donne’s special view on man, death andlove. Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis includes three chapters.Chapter One deals with the relationship between man and woman. In Donne’sopinion, men are strong and powerful. They are the dominator of the society, whilewomen are fragile, inferior and even defamed as wantons. Donne’s biased attitudetowards man and woman is caused by the influence of male chauvinism and his ownspecial experience.Chapter Two discusses Donne’s view on life and death and the reasons of hisspecial idea of death. To him, life is perplexing, so he gradually turns to death for help.But when he really faces death, he is afraid and refuses to admit that death means endof life.Chapter Three focuses on the relationship between body and soul. Donne thinksthat body and soul are two components of love and no one can be missing. Bodilylove is the basis of love, giving lovers sexual satisfaction. Spiritual love is thesublimation of physical love and brings lovers inner peace and happiness.