THEME AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S “SONNET XCI”
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THEME AND CONNOTATIVE MEANING IN WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE’S “SONNET XCI”
Ni Putu Winda Pramitha
Non- Regular Program of English Departement Faculty of Letters and Culture Udayana University
ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini difokuskan pada keterkaitan tema dan makna konotasi yang digunakan dalam puisi William Shakespeare “ Sonnet XCI” yang bertujuan untuk mengetahui tema puisi dan peran konotasi dalam membangun tema.
Data diambil dari puisi "Soneta XCI" ditulis oleh William Shakespeare. Metode dan teknik pengumpulan data terdiri dari dua tahap. Pertama, data dikumpulkan dari naskah puisi dengan membaca puisi secara menyeluruh. Metode kualitatif digunakan dalam menganalisa data. Teori yang digunakan untuk menganalisa data adalah teori dari Smith (1985) untuk menganalisa tema dan teori dari Geoffrey Leech digunakan untuk menganalisa makna konotasi.
Berdasarkan hasil analisa, ditemukan bahwa makna konotasi merupakan ekspresi yang memiliki makna lebih dari satu.Tema adalah pola makna yang muncul secara bertahap dari pemahaman seluruh puisi. Tema dari puisi adalah menggambarkan bahwa cinta sejati merupakan hal utama dari segalanya. Ada hal – hal utama yang menjadi perhatian manusia yang tampak pada tema puisi. Orang pertama dalam puisi menyadari bahwa keberhasilan cinta akan membawa kebahagiaan dan kegagalannya akan membawa ketidakbahagiaan.
Kata kunci ;sonnet, makna konotasi, tema
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1. Background
Poetry is an art of much consideration and implication. In this case the readers need to explore its elements thoroughly, both the intrinsic and extrinsic elements (Knickerbockers, 1963:367). In addition, the readers also have to consider the content or meaning of poetry.
According to (Chandles, 2002:57), the most remarkable element in a poem is the connotative meaning which will be the focus of attention in this study. Connotative meanings are developed by the community and do not represent the inherent qualities of the thing or concept originally signified as the denotative meaning.
The connotative meaning found in a poem has a function to attract the reader to read a poem and it is also the important thing in a poem. In addition it has an ambiguous meaning because in this case we must correctly know or understand the sentence in order to find the intended meaning. Therefore, it is very interesting to choose this phenomenon to be the topic of this study.
Two problems can be formulated for this study, namely the following :
The aim of this study is to reveal the meaning (theme) of the poem “Sonnet XCI” by William Shakespeare. More specifically, the aims of this study
are as follows :
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1. To reveal the theme of the poem.
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2. To figure out the help of the connotations in shaping the theme.
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4. Analysis and Result
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4.1 Analysis of Theme
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After reading the poem as many times as needed, and the after helping our understanding of the poem by paraphrasing the poem as done above, it can be concluded that the meaning or theme of the poem is that the value of love is supreme over everything. However, above all people with their respective prides, the persona love cannot be compared to all of those things. The value of his love remains superior to all of those excellent things.
In this case, it is perhaps good to compare the situation to a pendulum. The swing movement of pendulum to right is same with its swing movement to left. And love is like that. The deep happiness when successful can cause deep unhappiness when failure. This is the feeling of the persona in poem “Sonnet XCI” by William Shakespeare.
So, the conclusion about the theme of the poem “Sonnet XCI” is that the value of love is superior to values of other things possessed by human beings. However, the suffering brings by love is most deep in comparison to loss of other kind of precious things in human possession. When the theme of the poem is found already, now let us see some expression in the poem “Sonnet XCI” with
connotative meanings.
This part was analyzing the connotative meaning in helping to shape the poem’s theme. Based on William Shakespeare; “Sonnet XCI” (1609), some expression found containing connotative meaning which are found to help in shaping the theme of the poem.
Line 1: “Some glory in their birth, some glory in their skill”
According to line 1, the word “birth” has positive connotative meaning. Denotatively, the word “birth” meant the emergence of a baby or other young from the body of each mother. Besides, connotatively the word “birth” means brings glory to the brethren in a royal family or nobility as a high social status was given from births as a pride to be born in nobility family.
According to line 1 also, the word “skill” has positive connotative meaning. Denotatively, the word “skill” means the ability to do something that comes from training, experience, or practice. Besides, connotatively the word “skill” means some people tried to achieve the high social status by using their skill or abilities, by becoming a famous person, or a successful person respectable to others. In conclusion , the first line bring very positive connotation by the word “birth” and “skill” which bring “glory” to people. The evaluative word “glory” is itself very positive in connotation.
In this study is more specific since the point of discussion is focused on the analysis of theme and connotative meaning based on the theories proposed by Smith and by Leech as the main theories. In this study the poem which isusedin “Sonnet XCI” written by William Shakespeare.
Connotative meaning as the general point in this analysis is the expression which has more than one meaning. So in analyzing the connotative meaning we should understand the sentence meaning. The kinds of expression with positive connotative meanings are found in the poems including: their birth, their skill, their wealth, bodies' force, their garments, their hawks and hounds, their horse, every humour, adjunct pleasure, and thy love. However, of all these expressions with positive connotations, love is felt to be superior. The personais most happy of all men possessing those other precious things.
Theme is a pattern of meaning which emerges gradually from a grasp of the whole poem. Theme is the value of true love is supreme over everything else. There are main areas of human concern to which themes seem to relate. They are as the following: the effect of time, human relationship, human consciousness and human circumstances. The persona in conscious that when success of love bring greatest happiness, its failure brings greatest unhappiness.
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