The Structure of Dichotomies in Čapek’s Drama The Mother

The Mother is Karel Čapek's final play. The work, written in 1938, reveals a departure from the usual scientific and fantastical themes heretofore employed by the writer, such as robots, immortality, terminal illness and so on. This play, resembling a classical drama, is framed by a series of dichotomic conflicts. Of the various conflicts presented in the play, including life versus death, the visible versus the invisible space, the older generation versus the younger generation, the most fundamental conflict is that between the world of women and the world of men. Through the framework of these confliction dichotomies, we see the gradual change in the mother's views by the end of the play. This is almost certainly the writer’s intention. Like the grandly dramatic endings of past classical dramas, the playwright creates the utmost impact with the mother’s final words, ‘Go!’ The meaning of confrontation by Čapek in his work is not to emphasize that they are at odds with each other. The open confrontation between man and woman in everyday life has been taken for granted over a long period of time, just as black and white oppose. This difference does not mean that we should exclude each other and one should prevail. Just as Čapek did not say that either of the opposite things was right, he shows that we need to recognize that they co-exist and acknowledge each other’s differences. What sets this play apart from previous works is the author’s attitude. Each idea or issue has its own principles and logic, so Čapek, who does not say that a particular one is correct, chooses one in this work.