CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study Literature is one way to express the
creativity that reveals the interest and values of the society and frequently gives
intimate and unique glimpses of how people
live. Literature preserves the memory and fame of men and women who shape society. Literature also shows how
people worked, played, relaxed, suffered,
etc. and every work of literature or every part of literature has a meaning and has something of its own to say.
Moreover, to cover and understand
literature Endraswara said “literary criticism
in that way becomes an important point of view that will reveal to the whole content and purpose of the workof
literature” (Endraswara, 2003:10).
Literary criticism explains what
a work of literature means. It has important role for human life and the development of
literature itself. It means that literary criticism is important in developing knowledge
and understanding the values out side
literary itself such as religion, philosophy, and moral and so on. The purpose in analyzing a literary work is to understand
what it tries to communicate.
Furthermore, analysis helps us
through reading and through reflection, understands
the way ideas and feelings are talked in the works.
If we pay attention, at present
time,to the progressive discourse on gender equality – the equality on the right between
men and women – besides the issue on
human right, we will find that it is the most influential and contextual issue taking most attention from the intellectuals,
social scientists, politicians etc. This might prove that the issue on women is the
controversial and complex one that needs
profound discussions.
For along time, women have been considered
live rely on man’s power.
Patriarchal culture in the
society became deeply rooted and dominant in social life. Moreover, in smaller environment,such as
family, men’s domination was very strong
especially in rural society. The label was given to women as a week person, useless etc. it shows that women are
usually percept as the second class person
that should stay at home and be lulled consumerism, hedonism of capitalism. This describes that there were
much discrimination toward women, such as
the oppression and violence against women. In the case of oppression and violence, women were always being the object.
Women never had a force to fight against
the oppression and violence becausethey were often classified as second class and it made the condition worse.Women,
as the body creation is very susceptible
to all kinds of violence and oppression. It is because their position was very weak or who was expressively weakened in
the society, economic, or politic (Subhan,
2004:5). The complex problem of oppression and violence against women has an impact on the presence of another
oppression and violence toward women,
children and society.
The oppression situations and
violence against women are found in a great number of women personal experiences
throughout their lives. There are a lot of prove that show women were victims of sex
industry without their humanity values
as prostitute, but in the end, the exploitation left suffering, defeat, and despair, event death for women. The great
number of women violence victims which
occur to most servants, women labors or commercial sex workers, are susceptible with sexual despising; of risks
which they have to face. That condition was
a form of the vanishing of self authority to establish and to decide the choice
of life. In general, women want justice
and equal roles in all of dimension of their behavior, such as justice of politic,
economic, and social. Psychologically a woman
who works in consolation places is very susceptible in getting critique and alienation from their society. Whereas,
biologically women are susceptible in getting
sexual infected disease, narcotic addicted abortion etc.
There is a long-standing
tradition of feminism issue whether is it about the women struggle toward emancipation,
marginalization, and oppression or stereotyping
as second level toward men. Therefore, there are many works that record and cover those conditions in several
years. The feminist literary criticism of
today is the direct product of “women’s movement” of the 1960s. This movement was in the sense that it realized the
significance of the images of women
promulgated by literature, and shows it as a vital one to combat them and question their authority and their coherence
(Barry, 2002: 121).
Ann Veronicawritten by H.G Well
considered as a work purposed to blow up
the Violence and oppression. It talks muchabout a women’s struggle to be free from marginalization or oppression from men.
In other side, the writer will reveal this
gender issue as a main point that is purposed in the novel. Therefore, the feminist literary criticism is a relevance
approach to elaborate, cover up and catch the whole thought of feminism that is
described based on the story in the novel.
The novel is about a story of a
woman the name Ann Veronica Stanley who
wants to be determined to rule her own life. When her autocratic father forbids her, via formal letter, from attending
a fashionable art-school ball, and even
further refuses to allow her advanced study of science, she decides she has no choice but to leave her family home and
make a fresh start alone. She escapes the
stodgy suburbs to London, enrolling as a student of biology and immersing herself in a world of intellectuals,
socialists, and suffragettes. Soon, however, she finds that freedom comes at a price, whenshe
meets the brilliant Capes, a married academic,
and falls hopelessly in love.
Here, the novel full of
patriarchal culture and full of men’s domination against women. The writer tries to describe
another value thatcovered the women interest
and women emancipation in the form of mind set movement to the readers. As if the writer wanted to say that
all of woman creation have own life, reach
and get anything in this life with her idea.
In addition, to deepen this study
the researcher takes several previous studies
that have relevance point as a comparative study in order to get some important matters to help this study. One of
them from Deka W’s thesis “The portrayal
of feminism in the main character of Jane Eyre”and “Woman’s struggle against the patriarchal Chinese
family in Pearl’s Buck Pavilion of woman”by
Ika Kurniawati, they talk about women’s position and how the women faced the patriarchal culture. Ika
focused her research on patriarchal Chinese
family and how the main character in the novel struggle against the culture. She based her study on social culture
in the novel. She saw that most of finding
stated the power of culture oppressed the women and brought the women in the bad condition.
As the result of study, she found
that the patriarchal culture especially Chinese
family subordinated and oppressed the women at their little home. Here, most of finding stated that a family asa
crucial unit limited the roles of women.
Therefore, Ika, by using feminist
literary criticism, analyzed the novel by exploring and describing the elements
ofculture and what had been done by the main
character at home to struggle against these phenomena.
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