CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE ANALYSIS
Drama is one genre of literature. Although
drama shares many similar characteristics
with fiction and poetry, the difference is that plays are written to be presented by actors on a stage before
audiences. Roberts and Jacob in An Introduction to Reading and Writing(1995: 1015) says that the
actors perform the various actions and also
mimic or imitate the emotions of the major characters in order to create a
maximum impact on the audience.
Drama necessarily embodies issues
and ideas.
Even story written for entertainment
alone is based on idea or position. The idea will bring the readers into a message. Then that message will make the
readers easier to understand the story. The idea or what we call theme sometimes talks
about social life. In fact, the literary work reflects society, real life or social
condition.In this case, the idea that I
would like to analyze is Marx’s theory. This idea provides a theoretical basis for the struggle
of the working class to achieve a higher form of human society. This concept is really
contradictory with the capitalism which places the capital owner or the money owner as the
policy regulator. Karl Marx in Damono: Sosiologi
Sastra Sebuah Pengantar Ringkas (1279:27) says that fungsi uang adalah untuk membuat manusia menjadi materialistik,
sehingga manusia itu akan terasing baik dari
dirinya sendiri ataupun masyarakat. The function of money is making human become materialistic so he will be alienated
from himself and society (my own translation).
The idea of Materialism becomes the topic of the analysis.
Then as the objects of my
analysis, I choose one play which indicates this idea. It is Arthur Miller’s Death of a
Salesman. I am interested in choosing this play because first, the unique combination of words
death and salesman. Etymology, death is a state of being death and also the ending or
destruction of something. And the word Salesman
is a man whose job is to sell goods.A salesman needs to be very enthusiastic, full of desire and charismatic in plays his
role. A Salesman takes the front position in the success of a company. So these combination
raises my curiosity to study about the destruction
which happens to that enthusiastic man. Another reason is, because it is about self-delusion and about families .It lets us
know how it feels to be a father and how it feels to be a son if there is no understanding
between one another.
I have read Arthur Miller’s Death
of a Salesmanand learned about Marxism in
literary sociology. And I can see in this play, Arthur Miller put the ideas of
Marxism, it is all about material or
money. The main character named Willy Loman, is such a good model to indicate Materialism. Willy Loman is
a salesman, who struggles to live the American
dream. He places great importance on looks and materialistic world where success and wealth are the most important. But
finally, Willy Loman is unsuccessful and going to be the victim of bad luck from his
adored world.
Finally, all those explanations
that I mentioned become my reasons to have this analysis which entitled The Marxism as
Reflected in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
1.2.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM I have read
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesmanon the whole and learned about Marxism, I can see in Death of a
Salesman, Arthur Miller puts the ideas of Marxism about material, so the problem of the
analysis may be recognized as : How are the
materialism as one of Karl Marx’s theory reflected in Arthur Miller’s Death of
a Salesman? 1.3.OBJECTIVE OF THE ANALYSIS The objective of a study is a statement about
the activities and objects that are going
to be analyzed based on the problem of the analysis. In this research, the
objective is based on the statement of
the problem, toprove that materialism as the Karl Marx theory is reflected in Arthur Miller’s Death
of a Salesman.
1.4 THE SCOPE OF ANALYSIS To avoid the vagueness, it is necessary to
make a clear limitation into a narrow
scope, so the analysis can be clearly interpreted and understood. Moreover, the
analysis of this thesis should be more
specific. The focus of the analysis will be limited only to discuss the materialism as Karl Marx
puts in theory, is reflected in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
1.5
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANALYSIS This thesis
is entitled The Marxism as Reflected in Arthur Miller’sDeath of a Salesman.In accomplishing this analysis, I
hope my analysis will enrich the knowledge about literature especially drama. This
analysis is expected to make the readers are more interested in understanding drama.
Hopefully, the readers can get
better understanding about Marxism. In accomplishing
this analysis I wish it can help readers in getting better knowledge about how Marxism deals with their life. And it
inspires the readers in discussing Marxism in further analysis.
1.6 THEORITICAL APPROACH There are two approaches in analyzing the
literary works. They are intrinsic and
extrinsic approach. Intrinsic approach analyzes literary works based on the
text and structural points of literary
works; characters, plot, theme, setting, style, and point of view.
Wellek and Warren inTheory of
Literature (1956:75-135) state that extrinsic approach is a kind of approach which analyzes
the relationship between the content and the other disciplines of knowledge such as
economics, politics, psychology, biography, sociology, etc.
1 In
this analysis, I use extrinsic approach because I think it is suitable to analize the play by using sociology as point
of view. I use Marx’s idea about the impact of materialism on people to analyze Arthur
Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar