Binary Oppositions in John Bull’s Other Island

Abstract

John Bull’s Other Island is George Bernard Shaw’s a rare play set in Ireland, which is doomed to reflect the problems between England and Ireland. According to Homi Bhabha’s theory, it can be found that Shaw not only reflects the conflicts between colonizers and the colonized through the construction of the binary opposition but reveals how the colonized weakens the dominant power of colonizers by deconstructing the hierarchical power scheme and building a hybrid identity. Meanwhile, by virtue of Keegan and Doyle, Shaw expresses his cosmopolitan viewpoints, reveals that independence is not a panacea for the problems of Ireland and accurately predicts the future of Ireland in the coming postcolonial era, which gives an important warning to Irish and reference to other countries.