1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1.
Background of The Study
Novel is
a story of
book length written
in prose. Novel
is about imaginary people that live in a particular time and
place, caught up in a series of events. Most novels
are concerned with
ordinary people and
their problems in
the societies in which
they find themselves. Novel is classified as one of literature genres.
Literature itself is an interpretation
of man’s mind.
People need literature because it teaches and entertains,
besides, it provides
knowledge whether it
is a history,culture, or
social life. Roberts
(1995:51) defines character
as one of
the elements of
the novel, is a reasonable human being, with all good and bad
traits of being human. Characters are the
persons in a narrative who are interpreted by reader as being enclosed with
moral and dispositional qualities that
are expressed in their action. Since novel deals with the real life of the society, it reflects the
condition and situation of the human in the real life and then illustrated by the author
in written form.Literary work such as novel has
some intrinsic elements that build the story into coherent union of beginning, middle, and
end structure. One of those elements is character
or people who participate in the work. Character is supposed to be living persons
whose actions are
showing their identities.
These actions could
be judged morally whether they are good or bad, right or
wrong, appropriate or inappropriate in 2 terms of social interactions. The word ‘moral’
itself comes from Latin which means manner,
custom, or habit.
As an individual and social
being, a character may be valued from what she or he has done or what she or he has said in
his or her interaction both individually and socially. Other’s reaction of one
character has said is a kind of value upon who or what she or he is. Thus, a
kind of value that relates to something good or bad is concerning with moral values. According to
Goode (1977:4) values mean standards that
group members share. These standards are used to judge whether something is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, right or
wrong, moral or immoral.
The Class is
one of the
most famous novel
written by Erich
Segal (1937-2010), published
in 1985. The
title refers to
the Harvard Class
of 1958, and particularly refers
to five fictional
members of this
class: Andrew Eliot,
Jason Gilbert, Theodore Lambros,
Daniel Rossi and George Keller. The Classfollows their different
fates as the
members of Harvard
Class of 1958,
recording the way
their lives tied,
and coming to
a dramatic conclusion
at their class
reunion, the next twenty-five
years later.
The writer chooses The Class to
be analyzed from the point of view of moral values
because in The
Class there are
two bad attitudes
which are marriage
and friendship disloyalty
portrayed by Daniel
Rossi, Ted Lambros,
and George Keller.
These kind
of attitudes can
defect social system
and caused human
social’s degradation. But there are also good
attitudes showed by Andrew Elliot and Jason Gilbert with the humility and consistency
which can inspire the reader to be a good 3 person. Besides,
in literary work
the character portray
the human being
which has mind and behaviour.
Becoming a
‘star’ in their
own field does
not mean Daniel
Rossi and Ted Lambros
are away from marriage problem. Though they
have a perfect and happy family does not make both of Ted Lambros and
Daniel Rossi satisfy. Ted Lambros cheated
his wife because he was tempted with a young girl who joined his class in Cambridge
University. He was happy with his
family, but then he realized that he was bored
with his wife.
Taking the risk,
he spent a
weekend with the
student.
Unluckily, his wife found it out
and clearly ask him to get divorced. The same with Daniel Rossi, instead of spending his time
with family, he chose his own sparkling career
and travel around the world. Being far away from home, he pleased himself by sleeping with other famous women. Knowing his ‘adventure’, his wife keep
herself in silence because as a good
Catholic she did not want them to get divorced.
Still focusing
on his career,
Daniel Rossi also
betrayed his partner
Stuart Kingsley. They
were doing a
musical project which main
idea came from
Stuart.
They found the agent and producer
and work together. But the public opinion was bad
and Stuart was
fired. Daniel Rossi
saved because he
was known as
a famous musician but he did not try to help Stuart
because he still want to be in the project.
George Keller also betrayed his
‘saviour’ Henry Kissenger by slandering him as if he was
selling a gadget
for enhancing photographic
images from weather
satellites to Russian. George did it because he was told
that his father has contracted lung cancer.
Since his
father lived in
Hungaria there was
no sufficient facility
to help the medicinal
treatment so he need to help the Russian to get the photographic filter and his father can get the treatment.
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