CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
There are some subchapters covered in this
chapter, they are background of the
study, problems of the study, objectives of the study, scope and limitation, significance of the study, research method.
The subchapters are explained as follows.
1.1 Background of the Study Human being is not passive creature.They
always try to create and discover
something new in their life. They have high intelligence to think and create everything better for this life. They
have the way to think, the way to communicate
each other and the way to express what they want. One of the expressions they create in their life is
literature. William J. Long in English of Literature says: “…Literature is expression of
life in word, of truth and beauty, it is
the written record of man’s spirit, of his thoughts, emotion, aspiration, it is
the history, and the only history, of
the human soul.”(1945:8) It means that
literature describes the events, which happen in life. It points clearly that the materials of literature are
gained from the aspects of life that are seen, felt and thought by the writer. The
writer or other people can also gain the material of literature from the experiences of
life. Therefore, it is clear that literature
is expression of life.
Literature consists of three main genres. They
are poem, drama or play and prose. In a
poem we usually encounter personal feelings, the personal feelings of the poet as he faces up the life problems.
Drama or plays, however, are public things
acted on a public stage, and focus on public questions of the social and political organization of society. The novel,
on the other hand, tends to explore the intricate
relationship between individuals and their society. So, it does not present a documentary picture of life. Alongside the
fact that novel looks at people in society,
the other major characteristic of this genre is that novel tell a story. And in fact, novel tends to tell the some few
stories time and time again.
As human being, we are always
curious about each other, and usually we are also curious about ourselves. Weask
question about the reason for our behavior
or action. Although literature does not intend toprovide answer to the questions, at least literature does offer
hints, suggestions, and flashes of insight.
Literature offers these things in
such a way to refresh and encourage our thinking, and so leads us to insights of our own. The
use of language in certain piecework of
literature has power to create a powerful emotional impact to the readers’ mind.
By the power of the written word,
it is ableto make us hear, fell—it is before all, to make us see. It means that reading novel
may improve the quality of human life.
It is possible for human to gainvariety of knowledge by reading novel.
Besides we can study linguistic
skill, we canalso appreciate the work of literature.
As we know that where we grow
mature, we need to know about the problems of daily life. And these phenomena can be learnt
from, among other things, the study of
literature.
Studying literature that deals with a
distinction between appearance and reality
(Maurize Z. in Stevick, 1967:14), novel gives human some contributions in life. As Thomas De Quincy (1965:347) said that
literature has power, humid light which
clothes itself in the mists and glittering iris of human passions, desires and genial emotions, so that literature enrich
human’s knowledge about internal, or psychological
aspect in their life.
Novel however, improves human
quality of life. As we know that human cannot
live alone without another. It means that in their life, human always interact and communicate with others in
society. This is the reality that cannot be denied. In fact, that happened in their life.
And while communicating and interacting
with the other, human always face some problem, or conflicts in their life. These have very close relation to their
emotion. Therefore by reading novel, human
can learn how to face and solve the problem, or conflicts they face especially from the conflicts that appear in
the novel.
There are some important things
to study a prose, they are reading the whole
of the story and also understanding the elements of the novel such as plot, setting, theme, character, point of view and
conflicts in order to know what the author
tells about. Conflict is one of the significant elements of novel, and a major function of conflict is to clarify the issue
or problem. At moments of great conflict,
characters reveal themselves more clearly, plot moves through its most significant action, and theme arises most
evidently from its context. In a good story,
conflict may be external or internal. A conflict may variously be physical, moral, psychological, intellectual, or
spiritual contest between antagonist forces – internal conflict between aspects of
individuals, or externalconflict between a person and an external force (another person,
society, environment, nature, the universe,
God). In Koesnosoebroto, in Perrine words (1959:62),it is a clash of actions, ideas, or wills. The main character
may be pitted against some other person
or group of persons. This is called a conflict of man—against⎯man.He may also be
confronted against some external forces⎯physical
nature, society, or ‘fat’. This
is called a conflict of man—against⎯environment.
He may also have a conflict of
man⎯against⎯himself⎯the
internal conflict, when he is confronted against some elements in his own nature.
Another writer mentions a conflict of man---against⎯nature, example: a conflict of character against the forces outside himself as nature, God, or fate, and calls the
conflict of man⎯against⎯environment
as a conflict of man⎯against⎯environment as a conflict
of man⎯against⎯circumstances.
Conflict is one of the important
elements of novel; in a story it comes and appears one by one till the problem solving is
found. And it is very important in order
to give real impression for the readers and create certain situation like a
real event in a society. Without
conflict, a story will be uninteresting and lifelike, because it is one of element to develop plot.
Nurgiyantoro (1998:116) states that event,
conflict and climax are three aspects, which are very essential in developing plot in the story. Those three
aspects have a close relationship in the story; otherwise a story cannot be enjoyed.
One of the novels that is The
Scarlet Letter, it is the most famous of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novels. It tells about a
settler in New England; Hester Prynne
has waited two years for her husband, an ageing English scholar, to join her. He arrives to find her in pillory, a
small baby in her arms. She must, as a punishment
for her adultery, wear a scarlet ‘A’ embroidered on her breast and is consequently ostracized by her contemptuous
neighbors. The conflict of this novel is
not only very interesting but also very powerful. It can lead the main
character to an unstable internal state.
In thisnovel the author describes the conflict especially internal conflict so vividly, that
the reader can read what is going on the mind of the characters, such as, the conflict
of Hester as one of the main female character,
which are described in some chapters in this story. It is described that Hester is a woman with a strong personality.
She commits adultery. In her Puritan society,
her condition is miserable. She becomes a symbol of immorality, the object of mockery way and a living sermon
against sin. She lives in a solitary way because no one is brave enough to be her
friends. In this condition there is struggle
within Hester’s mind, she suffers from internal aspect, so she is confused, she gets dilemma to make decision, whether
toreveal her adulterous affair or not.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar