CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Human beings as one
of the three alive-creatures besides animal and plant have a particular
ability, which makes him so special, that dominates the others. They are
able to adapt, to survive and to analyze the universe phenomenon, which
make their quality of life better and better since the past. They have
the whole ability because God has granted them brain. Their curiosities
are so great that they learn more and more.
Besides, something that makes them more special than the others is they
know the way to express their feeling, thought, and emotion. Something
to provide “a place” for all of the people’s expression is literature.
Literature,
according to Moleong as quoted by Spadlex (2000:13), is the knowledge
which is earned by human beings arise conduct and it is used to reflect
and express experience. Another opinion said that literature is one of
the great creative and universal means of communicating the emotional,
spiritual, or intellectual concerns of mankind (The Encyclopedia of
Americana, vol. 22:559). It seems that something human being does deals
literature, especially in communicating. To communicate to each other
may be done by a means, such as by a letter, speaking directly, by phone
etc. Even something they wrote or said, no matter what its content,
could be called a literature. Well, in this life, in purpose or not in
purpose, they have involved in a literature.
By using their mind they
produced an expression of their feeling, emotion and thought to
communicate with others. And this result of literature is called a
literary work. Literary work consists of two types, namely imaginative
and non-imaginative. Both literary works are basically the same, that is
both are expressed aesthetically, but they have a different in
expression. Imaginative type is commonly using connotative sentence to
express an idea, while non-imaginative type is more realistic than the
imaginative one. It uses denotative sentence.
Non-imaginative type
consists of essay, criticism, biography, autobiography, history, memoir,
diary, and letters. And imaginative type consists of poetry, fiction,
and drama. In this paper, the writer takes a drama as an object that
will be further analyzed. Drama may be defined as a work of literature
or a composition which delineates life and human activity by means of
presenting various actions of – and dialogues between – a group of
characters (Reaske, 1966:5).
Drama was firstly introduced by a Greek
philosopher Aristotle. He also identified six elements of drama that
enhance not only the story telling, but also the instructive and
aesthetic values of a play. The first four of the elements is plot,
character, thought, and diction (relate to drama / written script). And
the last two elements are music and spectacle (relate to theatre / the
play in performance). (http://www.appendix%20C%20elements.html, accessed
on December 21st 2004).
To analyze a drama in a study or paper there
must be minimally two elements that support each other, such as plot
and character. Plot and character are two significant elements and very
needed in a story. Plot is the arrangement of the incidents or events in
a story, which are interconnected each other, that makes a story more
interesting and easy to be comprehended. Meanwhile, character is the
player in the story; it may be humans, animals, or other imagination
creatures created by the author. The story contains problems appearing
within the actions that make the character struggle to overcome the
problems. Therefore, the writer takes a topic “The Influence of the Main
Character’s Conflicts towards Plot in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of
Being Earnest”. The writer utilizes the characteristic of the main
character and is supported by the plot to find out the influence the
character’s conflicts towards the plot in the play.
1.2 Objective of the Study
After
reading the story of the drama, the writer concludes that there are
many conflicts found which dealing with the main character. And of
course the conflicts may influence the main character. Therefore, the
writer can illustrate the objective of the study into four objectives.
First, to find out the Earnest Worthing’s and Algernon’s characteristics
and their characterization in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being
Earnest. Second, after analyzing the main characteristics, the writer
tries to find out the conflicts dealing with them, either internal or
external conflicts. Then third, the writer will try to elaborate the
plots one by one. And finally, the writer will try to find out how far
the influence of the main character’s conflicts toward the plots in The
Importance of Being Earnest.
1.3 Scope of the Study
As there are
many aspects in the Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, the
writer makes a limitation of discussion to assure the theme of this
thesis’ analysis, namely the main characters, Earnest Worthing and
Algernon, and the characterization of the main characters by Oscar
Wilde; the internal and external conflicts which deal with the main
characters; the plots; and the influence of the main character’s
conflicts toward the plots.
1.4 Method
Methods are needed to
analyze the drama. In this paper the writer applies library research as
the method of the study and applies psychological approach to analyze
the main characters’ characteristics in order to find out the conflicts
and then relate them to plots, hence the influence of the main
characters’ conflicts toward the plots will be revealed.
1.4.1 Method of the Study
The
library research was applied to support the analysis of the drama,
collecting some data and information needed from the relevant books or
other resources. Then reading and comprehending the data, making some
notes until making conclusion. According to Atar Semi, library research
is a method of doing a research in a working room or library, where the
needed data and information about the subject matter are required
through books or other audiovisual means. Library research is done to
collect the data by finding some books related to the research as
references (1993:8).
1.4.2 Method of Approach
Semiotic approach is
employed in analyzing the drama. As Nurgiyantoro said that semiotic is a
science or analysis method to examine signs. The signs could be a body
language, mouth, eyes movement, color, and other things around our life
(2000: 40). In this paper the writer utilizes psychological approach to
analyze the main characters in the Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being
Earnest. It seems those approaches very close to analyze the aspects,
especially the main character’s conflict and the plot, found in the main
characters’ characteristic and the setting which influences the main
characters. The analysis of the main characters is made by unfolding the
character through actions and dialogue.
Literary works manifest
social life and have a close relation with social community, as commonly
literary works discuss the human life. Based on that statement the
writer uses psychological approach to analyze the main characters.
Psychological approach is an approach that is applied since literary
works are frequently study events or phenomenon about human’s life
(Atarsemi, 76:1993). Psychic conflicts are caused by psychological
problems. It is natural, as humans’ character that desire something more
and more which actually their ability and capability are limited.
Therefore, humans’ life is just like a drama, which containing plots of
life that may be due to humans’ characteristics and their interaction to
surroundings in their social life or interaction to them selves, their
mind or heart, in this case is internal conflicts. The psychological
approach here includes the main characters’ characteristics and is used
to analyze the main characters’ conflicts. The psychological approach is
appropriate, because it can be used to explain the plot aspect and the
characteristic of the main characters.
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