CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A.
Background of the Study Living in a
society is never without problems. Life will become more complicated as more problems appear. Social,
political, and economical problems cannot
be avoided. Neither can the problems exist in society. Social problems may appear and become a burden which creates and
reveals many other problems. It is even
not impossible that the problems can cause a decrease in the morality of the people in society.
All these problems need
solutions; they need at least to be minimized. For this, some appropriate tools are needed. The
tools are to make a just and peaceful society
and make people live in morally-better life or, in short, to enlighten the “sick society”. The tools can be religious
improvement, educational development, moral
teaching, message and wisdom conveyance, etc.
Literature may be one of the
tools which can be used to make the society live in a better condition. Basically, it does
not only offer pleasure to enjoy but it is
also often made or written with an objective. A literary work, very often, contains many messages, moral values, or even
a philosophy of life which has great
values to be taken. Intelligent readers who want to get such content must read understand the work firstly. They may get
benefit from reading a literary work by
using these messages to improve their way of life.
According to Koesnosoebotro
(1998:4) literature is not only written to be read for pleasure but also to broaden, deepen,
and sharpen the readers awareness of
life. It enables them to understand their troubles. The purpose of literature
is not only for furnishing entertainment
but also for seeing, feeling, and understanding
life, human being and nature better. It is not impossible, for example, that after reading a novel, readers
can get many advantages such as a message,
wisdom, or a good philosophy of life which can bring them a better life.
As the objective is pleasure and
understanding, therefore, literature makes the readers understand the reality of life better.
People may prefer novels to poems
or plays. One reason may be that to read
and understand novels is easier, than poems or plays. The way the writer expresses the ideas, issues, and the
languagesused is also easier and, therefore, novels are more understandable. Besides, a
novel often describes the life of certain
people at certain time which makes it challenging and interesting to know.
It gives not only amusement to
enjoy but also reflection of life to understand. As Gray (1996: 317) states, “it necessarily
follows that novel, which makes good its pretension of giving a perfectly correct
picture of common life, becomes a far more
instructive work than one of equal orsuperior merit of the other class. It guides the judgment and supplies a kind of
artificial experience.” Then novel is
more interesting and useful as one of the tools to make people live in a better condition based on the
novel’s descriptions of life or novel’s
influence and the experience which was given by the author in the novel.
Jane Austen is one of the
well-known novelists whose novels have a distinct modern character through the
treatment of ordinary people in every day life (Gwinn, Norton, and Goetz, 1989: 709).
From artistic view, her novels are interesting
because Jane Austen is very good at using her language to describe reality, expressing her ideas. Besides, her
being an ironist in using language and a realist in depicting life adds their being
artistic.
Her novels includeSense and
Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion.
Her novels that belong to the Victorian Age are important because they demonstrate many social problems in her
society at her time around 1800s.
Her novels are suitable to improve
the morality of society. They are didactic novels which can educate people in how to be
better.
The writer is interested in
analyzing social problems and moral values for some reasons. Firstly, in the novel Pride and
Prejudice, there are many problems presented.
The social problems are some of the problems most often discussed.
The social problems which are
found in the novel are related to women’s position, racism, class distinctions in society, etc.
They are the social problems faced by the society in the eighteenth century or at the
time when the novel was written.
Secondly, in the novelPride and
Prejudice, some moral values can be found.
The moral values may be useful for people to improve their morality. As a moralist, Jane Austen implicitly conveys moral
values to readers. With this reason as a
basis, the writer intends to reveal the moral values in the novel Pride and Prejudice.
Thirdly, it is because the
problems presented in the novel, including the social problems. It may be the same as the
ones faced by people in the real society now in this era. The moral values conveyed to
the readers through the characters in
the novel will be useful to be realized in real life at the present time.
It is based on the above
considerations that the writer of this study is taking the topics. She intends to analyze
Pride and prejudicefocusing on social problems
presented in the novel and the moral values conveyed by its author.
There are many problems that can
be taken up, analyzed, or discussed from
Pride and Prejudice. There are also many ways in which these problems can be handled. Limitation can be made so that the
discussion can be more focused.
In writing a novel, an author may
have aims or intentions to convey to the readers. The intentions may be various and
expressed in many ways based on the background
and the experience of the author (Koesnosoebroto, 1998: 5). In writing the novel, he/she may intend to give
knowledge about something or to instruct
people how to be better in life. Didactic novels fulfill the need of people, that is, to get some instructions or lessons
from the work. The aims of this novel are
usually in the form of giving advice, suggestion, alternative way of life, etc.
They are conveyed implicitly
through the characters in the story. A novel sometimes also persuades someone to do
something. After reading the novel, the readers
are influenced and persuaded to do something which is done by the characters in the novel. Explaining something
about a new discovery in science and
technology, for instance, can be also the aim of an author in writing a novel.
As an effect of it, readers get
more knowledge, information, or experience.
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