Application of post structuralism on

Frost’s “Fire & Ice”

This short poem, “fire and ice” by Robert Frost outlines the familiar question about the fate of the
world, wondering if it is more likely to be destroyed by fire or ice. The central tension in the poem
structured around the preference of fire over ice. The narrator first concludes that the world must end
in fire after considering his personal experience with desire and passion, the emotions of fire. Yet, after
considering his experience with “ice,” or hatred, the narrator acknowledges that ice would be equally
destructive.

Poet takes ‘fire’ as a symbol of emotions, passion, desires and life. On the other hand he takes ‘ice’ for
coldness, death, harshness of emotions and frigidity. Thus the binary opposition in the poem occurs
between frigidity and emotions. This binary opposition is presented by the poet’s internal conflict while
deciding the fate of the world. As the narrator selects the fire first so, we can establish that it holds the
privileged end in the binary opposition. In the beginning of the poem poet uses ‘some’ instead of ‘I’
through which Frost asserts that the distinction between the two elements is a universal truth, not just
an idea promoted by an individual. In addition to the unavoidable contradiction between fire and ice,
these first lines also outline the claim that the world will end as a direct result of one of these elements.
The idea of perishing twice is of utmost importance. The world cannot perish twice. It has to perish only
once. It is unclear which element will destroy the world, but it is significant to note that fire and ice are
the only options. Towards the end of the poem poet is quite confident that he knows enough of hatred
and is sure that it has the capacity to destroy the world. He also expresses his conviction that there is ice
in the world sufficient to destroy the world thoroughly.

Binary opposition collapses when the poet brings the under privileged half parallel to the privileged one.
Thus, we see that the elements of both the opposite ends are merged into each other; they contain
traces of each other establishing their evenness and equality. Binary opposition is between the emotions
and frigidity and the poet deconstruct the binary through comparing ice with hate, which is also an
emotion. We see that the poem is deconstructed with the aid of contradictory elements present within
it and the deconstructive process continues with every new reading of the text.