CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter explains the
backgroundof the study, statement of the problems, objectives of the study, scope and
limitation, significance of the study, research
method, and definition of the key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study Everyone longs for beauty in life. Anyone can
create something which she or he recons
beauty. One of the beautiful creations is literature. Literature is human experience dealing with human thought,
feeling, and attitude toward life, appealing
from emotion and imagination (Learners, 1960:94). In literary works, we may find various kinds of problem taking
place in our daily life and the emotional
sense and individual. We may say that literature is identical with life.
However, literature does not only create a
private imagination but also a report of
reality in a certain periods and place. Literary work contains human expectation, fear, and joys and so on,
incontrary, unpleasant one such as anger and sadness (Rees in Adi’s thesis, 2002:1).
These kinds of emotion are experiences.
From that statement above, literary work is not only an imagination but also a true picture or reflection of human
life. It describes what and how life is and
the event that happens inthe society in the past orthe present time. Peck and Coyle states” one characteristic of novel is
that novel tells a story, and the writers have, of course, always been interestedin the
world around them, because most novels
are concerned with ordinary people and their problem in the societies in which they find themselves”. It can be
concluded here that, literature is not only imagination trough its word but also a
portrait of social reality of a certain time.
Related to this Long (1945:8)
confirms,” literature is the expression of human life in words of truth and beauty It is the record
of man spirit of his thought, emotion, and
aspiration. It is the history and the only history of human soul.” Furthermore,
Griffith in Palupi’s thesis states
that,” apart from being fictional, literary work have the capacity for being truthful in
conveying the reality of human experiences and interpreting the real world, even when
they alter fact.
Literature has two broad categories.Perrine
divided it into two parts (Soenariyono,
1988:4), literature of escape and literature of interpretation. Escape literature is that written purely for
entertainment, to help us pass the time agreeably,
it takes away from the real world; it enables us to forget our troubles.
While interpretative literature
is written to broaden and deepen and sharpen our awareness of life. It takes us through the
imagination, deeper into the real world it is enables us to understand our troubles, and
its object is pleasure plus understanding.
Based on the interpretative literature,
literature helps us to have deeper understanding
about our life. Itcan increase human quality oflife. It also gives us way to learn the meaning of personal struggles
in which they are engaged.
Interpretative literature help
human to feel and understanding their life better, while the escape literature just entertains us.
Literature should not only provide enjoyment
for its readers but should also give
something more important to our life understanding. Literature, as we know expand or refine our minds or sharpen our
sense of life. We have already known,
although not to define, but at least we understand a little more clearly the object of our present study. Literature is the
expression of life in words of truth and
beauty; it is the writtenrecord of man’s spirit, of his thought, emotion, and aspiration.
The first category will not be discussed in
this thesis, because the writer emphasizes
on the interpretive literature which besides giving pleasure, it can be very useful to enrich people’s life and helpto
face the world wisely. In this thesis, the
writer emphasizes her study on prose, and to be more specific on novel by considering that a novel has many incident and
conflict thanother works of literature
since it contains a number of characters. Moreover, a novel can reveal life more vividly although it is just a
fictional piece of writing. According to Seeung in Huda’s thesis,” a literary work is
not built upon its intrinsic structure but
also influenced by a socio cultural background in which it is produced”. Scoot also states the same argument” literature asan
artistic work is not created in a vacuum,
it is the work not simple of person, but of an author fixed in time in space”. To go further in analyzing literary
work especially a novel, here the writer uses sociological approach. Aboutthis
Lawrenson and Swingwood (in Endraswara,
2003:79) classifies perspective of sociological approach into three categories, they are 1). a research which was
focused on a literary work as a social document
which reflect to the situation when a literary work was being created, 2). a research which was focused on the
author’s social background, and the last 3). a research which was focused on a literary
work as a manifesto of historical incident
and social cultural background.
From the three perspectives above, here the
writer will interpret and analyze the
novel using the first perspective that is, a research which is concerning about literary work as a social document which
reflect the situation when that literary
work was being created. The writer chose the first perspective because, in this study the writer will analyze the Poverty
and Social Stratification of Victorian Society
in Charles DickensOliver Twistwhether it reflect the real condition of Victorian society, especially a society when
this novel was being created.
According to Glickberk (in Endraswara,
2003:77), “All literature, however,
fantastic or mystical in content is animated by a profound social concern and this is true or even the most flagrant
nihilistic work”. One fact that we can not deny is that the man of letter him selves is a
member of society, and she or he exists
in certain space and time which will influence much to his or her point of view in creating a literary work. The same
statement is also stated by Levin (in Endraswara,
2003:79)”Literature is not only the effect of social cause, but also the cause of social effect” it means that, society
or social condition actually can influences
many aspects including a literary work.
In this study the writer is interested in
analyzing poverty and social stratification
of Victorian’s society in Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twistbecause, first, the writer admires Charles Dickens so
much. Charles Dickens is the greatest novelist
in Victorian age whose novel is about social commentary and he was also a fierce critic over poverty and social
stratification. About this, Peck and Coyle also stated that” Dickens is a novelist with
social purpose who writes to reform the
society such in attitude to novel existsbecause of the feeling that story must have a point (Peck and Coyle,
1984:103).Secondly, as the writer read through the text, the text is appropriate to be analyzed
in its poverty and social stratification.
As revealed through the fiction
that”…England nineteenth century was an epoch of much poverty and great social problems
which resulted of two opposing class, the
wealthy and the poor”.
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