History Literature / DeBinocle

* MixedAncestry: The protagonist is Indo-Dutch. As was a stereotype in the early 20th Century, this duality is implied to be at the root of the protagonist's psychological struggle. That is, his rational European side prevents him from listening to his hotblooded Asian side's warnings that he is going to act on his lethal compulsion.

-->En brulde beneden, waar naast een duivegrijze dame een kaalschedelige heer zat, een ander, een, schoon nooit gemikt of opgemerkt, noodlottig getroffene, zijn leven uit, terwijl de hersens spatten.[[note]]And roared down below, where next to a dove-grey lady sat a bald-headed gent, another, a, although never targeted or noticed, misfortunate stricken man, his life out, while the brains splattered.[[/note]]

-->En brulde beneden, waar naast een duivegrijze dame een kaalschedelige heer zat, een ander, een, schoon nooit gemikt of opgemerkt, noodlottig getroffene, zijn leven uit, terwijl de hersens spatten.[[note]]And roared down below, where next to a dove-grey lady sat a bald-headed gent, another, a, although never targeted or noticed, misfortunate stricken one, his life out, while the brains splattered.[[/note]]

Because "De binocle" is short, suspenseful and laden with motif, it's a go-to inclusion for literary study in the Netherlands. Many are introduced to the story in high school. In 2018, "De binocle" was turned into a short movie by the same name as a graduation project by students of the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Any of the people who facilitate the protagonist getting to attend the opera from the front row of the fourth balcony with binoculars qualifies. There's the optician who sells the protagonist the binoculars. Then there's the clerk who five years later gets the protagonist back in his fated seat. And then there's the usherette who took the binoculars when the protagonist left them, renting it out to opera-goers for five years until she hands it back to the protagonist.

"De binocle", Dutch for "The binoculars" in the sense of an opera glass, is a ShortStory by Louis Couperus that was published in 1920. The seed of the story goes back to 1897, which is when Couperus, Indo-Dutch like the protagonist, lived in Dresden himself. Another source of inspiration proposed is the 1894 drawing ''The Wagnerites'' by Aubrey Beardsley, which depicts a bald man and a grey-haired woman amidst a crowd opera visitors. "De binocle" falls under PsychologicalHorror as shaped by fatalism, with the protagonist narrowly escaping the circumstances to commit manslaughter only for that very same situation to arise five years later.

Five years ago, the protagonist visited the Semperoper in Dresden, Germany, to finally catch a performance of ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung Die Walküre]]''. He has a seat in the front row of the fourth balcony and while on his way to the Semperoper he buys binoculars to have a better view. Once seated, two things happen. One, he becomes afraid he'll drop the remarkably heavy binoculars onto some unfortunate soul below. Two, he takes note of a man some rows further whose bald head stands out among the crowd.

Because "De binocle" is short, suspenseful and laden with motif, it's a go-to inclusion for literary study in the Netherlands. Many are introduced to the story in high school.

* AnimalMotifs: Birds are either a guiding or warning element to the protagonist's eventual act of murder. It starts with the optician who sells the protagonist the binoculars, whom the protagonist thinks resembles an eerie bird. Next is the woman with dove grey hair who like a bird grabs for a program that flutters down, thus drawing attention to her and therefore the bald man sitting next to her. Five years later, the clerk at the Semperoper that informs the protagonist a seat just became available is also described as looking like an eerie bird. Curiously, the bird motif isn't applied to the usherette who returns the binoculars to the protagonist.

* YouCantFightFate: Could be played straight, could be averted depending on whether act or victim is the focus of fate. The protagonist knows from the moment he walks into the optician's store that something is wrong and that he shouldn't buy the binoculars. He does so anyway and once seated at the Semperoper he becomes consumed by the thought of dropping or throwing the heavy object at one of the other visitors, in particular a man whose shiny bald head is like a taunting target. The protagonist leaves before the temptation overcomes him, but five years later he laughs at his silly behavior and visits the Semperoper again. Everything is the same: it's autumn, ''Die Walküre'' plays, he's seated in the front row of the fourth balcony, he gets his own binoculars he left five years ago handed back to him, and the woman with the dove grey hair and the bald man are seated once more amidst the audience below. This time, he throws the binoculars, but he doesn't hit the bald man presented as the target. The person killed is someone seated nearby them, whom the protagonist hadn't ever noticed.