CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF EDDARD STARK IN A GAME OF THRONES NOVEL
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CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF EDDARD STARK
IN A GAME OF THRONES NOVEL
BY
I GEDE PUTU EKA PUTRA JAYANTARA ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
2013
Abstrak
Judul penelitian ini adalah “Analisis Karakter Eddard Stark di Novel A Game of Thrones”. Karakter adalah salah satu dari aspek terpenting dari sebuah novel. Baik atau buruknya suatu novel dapat dilihat dari baik atau tidaknya suatu karakter dibuat. Dengan memahami karakter, secara tidak langsung dapat dilihat pola pikir penulis dalam menulis novel tersebut. Oleh karena itu, analisis karakter dipilih sebagai topik dalam penelitian ini karena pentingnya peran karakter dalam suatu novel. Penelitian ini diambil dari sebuah novel A Game of Thrones karya George R.R. Martin. Data dikumpulkan dengan melakukan studi pustaka. Metode kualitatif digunakan dalam menganalisis data. Terdapat satu teori yang diterapkan dalam penelitian ini yaitu Teori Dimensi Karakter oleh Lajos Egri ( 1942 ). Teori Dimensi Karakter ini digunakan untuk menganalisa karakter Eddard Stark dalam novel A Game of Thrones dari sisi Fisik, Sosiologi dan Psikologi. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa Eddard Stark merupakan karakter yang dibuat dengan sangat kuat dan memenuhi sisi Fisik, Sosiologi dan Psikologi dari sebuah karakter.
Kata kunci : karakter , tiga dimensi karakter dan novel .
A literary work will not come to live without the character. Character is one of the most important aspects in literary works. It is an imaginary character that a writer creates to live in the novel that the novelist writes. Well-written fictional characters are characters that come alive for us while we read and real enough to live in our memories long after the stories have ended.
Morner and Rausch, in their book NTC’s Dictionary of Literary Terms (1991:31) state that characters are living people who live in literary work. They limit the fictional characters in literary work by their design to fit the plot. This idea is supported by Kenney (1996:24) who states that character is a part of an artistic whole that must always serve the needs of that whole.
Characters are often being complex and difficult to be understood. Stanford (2003:32) states that some characters may capture the minds and hearts of their readers because they are people that readers can relate to. He states that characters are difficult to analyze as the concept of character is rather ambiguous and complex.
According to Di Yanni, in his book Literature (2001:55), fictional characters are to be approached with the same concern with which to approach people as we will need to observe their actions, listen to what they say and how they say it, notice how they relate to other characters and how other characters respond to them.
Meanwhile in The Art of Dramatic Writing (1946) Lajos Egri begins his section on character by pointing out that every object has three dimensions: Depth, Height, and Width. People are no different. They have three extra dimensions namely: Physiology, Sociology, and Psychology.
Physiology aspect of a character is the physical aspect of the character. The appearances, texture, height and other physical aspect affect his/her sociological experience and behavior. The physicality of a person makes the first impression, which dictates how a person will be treated, and this, in turn, affects a person’s life experience and behavior. A character in a novel is no different. A character has a physical description somewhere in the text.
The Sociology aspect is sociological aspect of a character, which affects his/her behavior. This is not only a character's physical surroundings, but his or her
interactions with society. The environment and the society of where a character belongs affect the behavior of the character.
Meanwhile, Egri describes Psychology as the way a character behaves, which is the culmination of that character’s physiological and sociological aspects. This is the part of character analysis that involves labeling the character as a “type” or using adjectives to describe that character. Egri alsos states that Psychology aspect is not only the most complex of the three, but it is the product of the other two. It "Rounds out the character."
Based on the background stated above, the problem of the study was “What are the three dimensional aspects of Eddard Stark in the novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin?”
Based on the background and problems stated above, the aim of the study was “To describe the three dimensional aspects of Eddard Stak in the novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin.”
Research method is a method used in a process of how people approach the problems and seek the answers through finding, collecting and analyzing the data. In this writing, there are three steps formulated as follows:
Data source is the source from which the data to be analyzed is obtained in order to support to study validity. The data were taken from the A Game of Thrones novel by George R. R. Martin. This study focuses on three dimensional aspects of the protagonist character Eddard ‘Ned’ Stark.
The data were collected through library research. There are no respondents involved as data in information for this study. There were three steps done in collecting the data. First, the novel downloaded from internet, for the comprehensive data, was read. Second, the data in the form of utterances that emerged as object of this study, aspects of character Eddard Stark, were noted down to abridge which one from the data would be analyzed and picked as the main data. Last, the character aspects which were found in accordance with their categories were classified.
The collected data were analyzed descriptively. Analyzing means examining the data in order to understand them better or discover more about them and descriptively means the data were described as clearly as possible. The method used was qualitative research.
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5. Analysis of Three Dimensional Characters of Eddard Stark in the novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
The analysis is presented by categorizing the character into three dimensions namely Physiological, Sociological and Psychological. Each dimension was presented by showing the data in the form of the passage from the novel related to the aspect and later they were analyzed using Egri’s theory of Three Dimensional Character.
The physiological dimension of Eddard Stark could be found in the following passages:
Bran’s father sat solemnly on his horse, long brown hair stirring in the wind. His closely trimmed beard was shot with white, making him look older than his thirty-five years. He had a grim cast to his grey
eyes this day, and he seemed not at all the man who would sit before the fire in the evening and talk softly of the age of heroes and the children of the forest.
(Martin, 1996:12)
His father took off the man’s head with a single sure stroke. Blood sprayed out across the snow, as red as summerwine. One of the horses reared and had to be restrained to keep from bolting. Bran could not take his eyes off the blood. The snows around the stump drank it eagerly, reddening as he watched.
(Martin, 1996:12)
From the passage above, we can conclude that Eddard Stark, the father of Bran, is a male of thirty-five years who has grey eyes and trimmed beard. He is a strong warrior who is able to take off a man’s head with just a single strike.
The sociological dimension of Eddard Stark can be classified into two categories as follows: Occupation and Place in Community and Race.
His father peeled off his gloves and handed them to Jory Cassel, the captain of his household guard. He took hold of Ice with both hands and said, “In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, by the word of Eddard of the House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I do sentence you to die.” He lifted the greatsword high above his head.
(Martin, 1996:12)
For days, Bran could scarcely wait to be off. He was going to ride the kingsroad on a horse of his own, not a pony but a real horse. His father would be the Hand of the King
(Martin, 1996:32)
“You are the King’s Hand,” Varys said. “We serve at your pleasure, Lord Stark.”
(Martin, 1996:68)
From the passages above we can conclude that in the beginning of the novel, Eddard Stark is the Lord of House Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and the Warden of the North. Then in the middle of the novel as he accepted the honor to be King’s Hand, he is then the Hand of the King, Lord of House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North.
In the beginning of the novel he acted as the lord of the north, meanwhile in the middle of the novel he acted as the second in command of the Kingdom. He has a very important role in the society as the society knows that he is highborn, noble and much respected by many houses. Many houses believe that Eddard Stark is supposed to be the King of the Kingdom, even King Robert said himself. He is considered suitable in ruling a kingdom as he has proven ruling the north well.
The Stark words. Every noble house had its words. Family mottoes, touchstones, prayers of sorts, they boasted of honor and glory, promised loyalty and truth, swore faith and courage. All but the Starks. Winter is coming, said the Stark words. Not for the first time, she reflected on what a strange people these northerners were.
(Martin, 1996:15)
From the passage above we can learn that Eddard Stark is a Stark, the lord of the north. He is the second son and second heir of his father and brother who died from previous war.
He lifted his head to look at her. “Catelyn,” he said. His voice was distant and formal. “Where are the children?”
(Martin, 1996:15)
“Go to her,” Ned urged. “Take the children. Fill her halls with noise and shouts and laughter. That boy of hers needs other children about him, and Lysa should not be alone in her grief.”
(Martin, 1996:16)
“We both did.” Ned paused a moment. “Catelyn fears for her sister. How does Lysa bear her grief?”
(Martin, 1996:16)
From the above passages, we can take conclusion that Eddard Stark loves his family. He is willing to protect his family at any cost. He does not only love his family, he also loves his sister-in-law that he urges his wife to company her sister as she just lost her husband.
From the analysis that is previously presented there are three points that could be concluded related to the problems formulated in the beginning.
The physiological dimension of Eddard Stark shows that he is a strong man at his 35 age that has grey eyes and trimmed beard. The sociological dimension shows that he is highly respected by the society as he is the lord of the north, lord of winterfell, hand of the king. Lastly, his psychological dimension shows that, even though he has a lot of power and respected by people, he loves his family very much. He is considered a family man. From the whole three aspects, we can take a broader picture that Eddard Stark is honorable, wise, loving, caring, strong, highborn and a respected man.
DiYanni, Robert. 2001. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Singapore: McGraw Hill
Egri, Lajos. 1946. The Art of Dramatic Writing. New York: Simon and Schuster
Kenney, William. 1966. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press
Martin, George. R. R. 1996. A Game of Thrones. New York: Bantam Books
Morner, Kathleen and Ralph Rausch, 1991. NTS’s Dictionary of Literary Terms. America: NTC Publishing Groups
Stanford, Judith. A. 2003. Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays and Essays. New York: McGraw-Hill
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