CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
The present chapter deals with
background of the study, problems of the study, objectives of the study, scope and
limitation, significance of the study, research
method, and definition of the key terms.
A. Background of the Study Andre Lefevere states in Pengantar Teori
Sastrathat Literature is inspirable from
human being's life since it describes the events which happen in a society (Taum, 1997: 15). Literature is
identical with life; it, moreover, deals with feelings, ideas, experiences, passions, and
imaginations. Literature helps people to understand human sentiments, interests, and
problems. Besides, studying foreign literature
brings people closer to human beings of other nationalities, cultures, and races. By reading literary works of other
nations, people's understanding of the world
will be deeper and their sense of humanity and interrelationship will increase although they live in distant places,
under different climates, and within distinctive
cultural conditions.
The reason for learning
literature is that it includes emotion, imagination, feeling, and creativity as well as knowledge.
It isnot like other subjects which involve
only knowledge. Above all, literature mightbe very interesting for some students who have high sensitivity and
imagination because they will enjoy the beauty
of literature.
1 Literature consists of two genres; they are
non-imaginative literature and imaginative
literature (Jakob & Saini, 1991: 16-19). Non-imaginative literature covers literary works which are based on fact
or reality that really happens in human
life. The genres of non-imaginative literature are an essay, a critic, a biography, an autobiography, a history, a
memoir, adaily record and a letter.
Imaginative literature includes
literary works in which factual element is not so important because its purpose is not to give
factual information to the reader but provide
a new sense about reality. The genres of imaginative literature are poetry, prose and drama.
Prose is a literary genre which
uses more denotative language rather than connotative one. H. B. Jassin says that prose
is prose is pronouncing with mind which
different from poem which is pronouncing withfeeling. (prosa adalah pengucapan dengan pikiran yang berbeda dengan
puisiyang merupakan pengucapan dengan
perasaan) (in Suroto, 1989). The forms of prose are novel, novelette, and short story. The term
"novel" is derived from Latin word novellas or novieswhich means new.
"Novel" is also taken from Italian language, novella which means little new thing. Novel is the
modern version of long narrative which depends
on the characters.
The researcher has decided to
choose a novel as theobject of the study because it concerns with life. By reading the
novel, she not only may get the enjoyment
but also might increase her knowledge perspective about human problems.
The researcher is interested in
analyzing one of popular novels, i.e. David Copperfieldby Charles Dickens.David Copperfieldis
Dickens' eighth novel, which was
published in monthly parts by Bradbury and Evans on May 1849-November 1850 and
illustrated by Phiz (Paul Davis, 1999: 105). Besides, David Copperfieldis still Dickens' favorite novel.
In the preface of David Copperfield Edition,
Charles Dickens states that "Of all
my books, I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child of my fancy,
and that no one can ever love that
family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child.
And his name is David Copperfield"
(David Copperfield, 1994).
David Copperfieldtakes the form
of David’s autobiography: it is narrated by David, who is, like Dickens, one of the
great English novelists of the Victorian era. Like Dickens, David Copperfield is a
novelist who starts out his career as a political
report. It seems that Charles Dickens could manage writing about his own life under pseudonym of David Copperfield.
In his childhood, Charles Dickens
had two major traumatic experiences, i.e.
Dickens' work at Warren's Blacking Factory topaste labels of bottles of boot blacking (a kind of shoe polish) and his
father's imprisonment in the Marshalsea Prison.
When Dickens was sent to school at Wellington House Acadamy, he was run by a cruel headmaster, Mr. Jones, who
liked to bead boys-much. Then, when he
was seventeen, Dickens fell in love with Maria Beadnell, but their love was disapproved by Maria's father. Than he felt
crushedwhen Maria showed her lack of
interest to Dickens. Hurt by Maria's rejection, Dickens threw himself into hard
work as a journalist. By the time
Dickens married sweet Catherine Hogarth. He pursued his career as a journalist and later
as a novelist. He had won fame as a journalist
and many his works which published, for example Pickwick Papersand Oliver Twist, were best seller, and David
Copperfieldwas an autobiography novel of
Dickens' life. In the end Dickens and his wife were divorced. He became melancholy, restless, and irritable. He tried
to stake off depression with more and more
work. However, this frenzied activity only hastened his death of a stroke in 1870. It is clear that his path to maturity is
fullof memorable characters, his father,
and many more which are too painful, but Dickens could hold out.
David Copperfieldby Charles
Dickens is an interesting novel. The main character of this novel is David. In this
novel, Charles Dickens portraits his hunting
past: David' work at Murdstone and Grinby'swarehouse, and Mr.
Micawber's imprisonment in the
King's Bench Prison.Then, David is sent to school at Salem House, where he begins his
school. David is run by a cruel headmaster
who calls himself as a Tartar like Mr. Creakle. Then, a few years later, David falls in love and gets married to Dora
Spenlow. Unfortunately, his wife, Dora,
is sick and last she dies. In fact David is not so much desperated of it although he loves his wife. He tries well to
keep standing. He keeps writing and at last
he becomes a great writer. To put a great ending to the novel, Dickens confesses his love to Agnes Wickfield, raises
a family, and David writes his autobiography.
From the above explanation,
Dickens portrays his experiences in David Copperfield. A close examination of David's
work, of Mr. Micawber's prison, of his
education, of his love, and of his career may enable the researcher to evaluate
how far Dickens achieved his aim of
narrating his past under the pseudonym of David Copperfield. To see whether this is
really an autobiography ofDickens or not
is the purpose of this research.
There is another researcher who
has ever analyzed the same novel as the researcher's
but within different area. She is Mentik Indah Wati (1997) who wrote a thesis entitledDavid’s Conflict Leading to
His Success in CharlesDickens’ David
Copperfield. She focused her study on the conflicts faced by David as the main character in the novel David
Copperfieldby Charles Dickens. The result of her study is that David Copperfieldhad
undergone many conflicts but he had never
been frustrated. He faced his problem bravely. When he had a rest time, he tried to kill it by writing. Finally, he
became a great writer.
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