CHAPTER I INRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study Literature is
personal expression of feeling including experiences, ideas, spirit,
motivation, and confidance in a concrete description by using language as its
medium. Literature is a means of expressing all of life experience, the emotion
we experience, and the expectations appear of human life. Literature has relationship
with all aspect of human life as well as its environment in the world.
Therefore, we can express our
experience and thoughts in a creative process in the form of literary
work. Literature is closely related to life because
it is the work created and enjoyed by human being. According to Wellek
(1965:15), literary work is a result of literature, a creature activity, and a
work of art. The term Literature, according to Wellek and Warren, seems best if
we limit to art of literature that is to imaginative literature as a work of
art that uses a language in its medial expression. It has stood in such
important position in life whether it is the western or eastern culture.
Studying literature is one of exciting activities that give us some new
experiences because it contains human feeling, love, human life, etc. In other
word, literature is one subject dealing with inner and outer factors of human life,
which are depicted through the imagination of the author.
Literary work is human reflection
in art. Hudson (1985:10) states that literature is the expression of what
people view, face, think, and feel in life. As human being, we have different
attitude and behavior. We may say that literature make our lives more colorful. Literature has
function that is to entertain the reader in which the story told about reality
or imagination. Besides, it is written to give the reader insight of life that
function to broaden, deepen, and share opinion.
Furthermore, W. J. Long (1945:8)
states that literature is the experiences of life in the world of truth and
beauty. It is the written record of man’s spirit of emotion, thought, and
inspiration, it is the history of human soul. Literature helps us to understand
human sentiment, human interest, and problem. Also, literature can be defined
as the way of reacting or expressing life experienced by mean of language as
its media. Jones (1968:1) states that literature is a work of art that uses
language as its media as simply another way, we can experience the world around
them through imagination. Literary works are created by author in order the
readers can get deeply enjoyable comprehension, and some picture of society or
human life. It is supported by Darmono that literature reflects life and the
life itself is social reality (1979:19), it means that literature is expression
of author that uses language as its media to express her idea that can be a
tragedy and event happened in or outside of the author.
Therefore, reading a work of
literature enable us to learn how to behave in society. In addition, the work
of literature can be an expression of society, for they frequently mirror the
writer’s social situation (Wellek and Warren, 1965:95).
Because of these, the quality of
being life like should be possessed by the literary work. There
are many kinds of literary work, they can be divided into three kinds in form
namely; drama, poetry, and prose. Each of them has its own characteristics.
Poetry is composition that is concerned with rhyme, verse, language, and sentence; it can be good work
when it is in front of audience.
Drama is a work of literature
that uses language in the form of act and dialogue; it also gets the same
process of enjoyment. In drama, the performance on the stage is more important
than script. Script is kind of blueprint that can be changed every time
according to where, when, and how the performance is made. Prose is a free composition
ignoring the amount of syllables or line of sentence; it is divided into fiction
and nonfiction. Here the writer would like to present drama as
the thesis because drama is one of the literary works that expressed an idea,
emotion, and feeling. As we know, drama has different values in every work of
literature besides poetry, short story, novel, and others. Drama is the
specific mode of fiction represented in performance. Reaske (1966:5) states
that a drama is a work of literature or competition, which delineates life and
human activity by means of presenting various actions of dialogues between
groups of characters. It means that drama presents the satisfaction for the
reader through action and dialogue between characters in the play. Drama is a
literary form designed for the theater in which actor take the roles of the
character, performed the indicated actions, and utter writen dialogue.
Moreover, Brian Way in
Development Through Drama considers that drama in education is chiefly
concerned with personal development. In drama, the instrument of expressions is
perfomer’s own body and voice with all kinds of defect, skill, and impulses
already established (1967). A play or drama offers another classical literary
form that has continued to evolve over the years. It generally comprises chiefly dialogue between
characters, and usually aims at dramatic or theatrical performance rather than
at reading.
Then, according
to Edgar (1977:10-11),
character is human
being and literary figure
related to an
individual’s personal qualities.
Each character has different
personality. Mischel (1976:2)
defines personality as
the distinctive pattern of
behavior, including thought
and emotion that
characterize each individual’s
adaptation to the situation of his life.
Reaske (1966:9) says that to
analyze a drama is to break the work into piece of information to give unity
and coherence to the whole. To study and analyze a drama, the reader needs to
learn psychology of human life. By psychology, we can understand what people
feel, think, or do because psychology is science of human behavior (McNeil,
1974:5). According to Atkinson (1987) psychology study touches all aspect of
life and has an important role in solving human problem. Therefore, it is the
fact that drama and psychology have close relationship.
The Proposal is very interesting
to be analyzed, as an object of the study based on some considerations. First,
Russian playwrights are among the greatest work of literature in the world
which describes about life and their conflict exquisitely. In this study, the
writer chooses a drama written by Russian author, Anton Chekhov. Second, Anton
Chekhov is one of Russia’s important literary figures, and one of the greatest
playwrights of modern times, he won the Pushkin Prize and he is known for his
short stories and his plays, works which often combine elements of both comedy
and tragedy.
Anton Chekhov is a major Russian
short story writer and playwright.
Many of his short stories are
considered the apotheosis of the form while his playwriting career, though
brief, have had a great impact on dramatic literature and performance, and also
he is better known in modern-day Russia for his several hundred short stories,
many of which are considered masterpieces of the form. His playwriting career
produced four classics, while his best short stories are held in high esteem by
writers and critics. Yet, his plays are also major influences on twentieth –
century drama. In this study, the writer chooses one of Chekhov’s works, The
Proposal. The analysis of this drama emphasizes the story on the main character
of young man, named Ivan Vassilyevitch Lomov (Lomov).
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar