The Analysis of the Main Character Based on the Physiological, Sociological, and Psychological Aspects in the Novel Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
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ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 19.1 Mei 2017:52-59
The Analysis of the Main Character Based on the Physiological, Sociological, and Psychological Aspects in the Novel Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Delannoy Belin1*, Ni Made Suwari Antari2, I Wayan Mulyawan3 [123]English Department Faculty of Arts, Udayana University 1[[email protected]] 2[[email protected]] 3[[email protected]] *Corresponding Author
ABSTRACT
This undergraduate thesis is entitled The Analysis of The Main Character based on Physiological, Sociological, and Psychological Aspect in the Novel Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket. This study is intended to analyze the physiological, sociological, and psychological aspect of the main character. It also analyzes the method of characterization used by the author in the novel Bad Beginning.
The data were taken from the novel Bad Beginning published in 1999. This study was library research which applied documentation method to collect the data. The data of this study were analyzed using the qualitative method. This study applied the theory proposed by Warren and Wellek (1976) in the book Theory of Literature and the theory by Lajos Egri in Sukada’s (1987) book Beberapa Aspek Tentang Sastra.
The result of this study shows that the method of characterization applied in the novel, the author applied more than one method in characterizing the characters in the novel. The discursive method is the most frequently used in this novel. From this study we can conclude that the Baudelaire children are the main characters in this novel. From the physiological aspect it is described that Violet Baudelaire is the oldest of the three siblings, Klaus is the only boy and the second child of the family, following with the youngest sibling, Sunny Baudelaire. The author did not describe a lot on their physical appearances, but more on the sociological and psychological aspects of the characters. The Baudelaire children were well behaved, intelligent and kind hearted children. They are from a loving and well educated family.
Key words: Physiological, Sociological, Psychological, Main character, Baudelaire children
Prose is a piece of creative writing. Its language is not in verse form, but it has a similar value. The literary work in prose is sometimes long as in novels, sometimes short as in essays and short stories. Poetry, on the other hand, is a piece of "prose"
writing in an elevated style. Literary work provides us with enjoyments and intellectual delight. It gives opportunities to know much more about life. It tackles human concerns, emotions, behaviors, dreams, etc. Literary work is really exciting to read. By reading or better analyzing a literary work, one widens his scope and knowledge about people in terms of their thoughts, their way of looking at different issues, their experiences, and their beliefs in general.
Out of all the different kinds of literary work, novel interests the most. The way an author could capture their imaginations and pour it into words and bring the readers in is beyond great. It is well known that novel is one of the most famous forms of literary work, and it is what most of the people enjoy. A novel describes characters and introduces more than one impression effect or emotion. It is usually about the conflict of a main character with other characters in the story and culture of the society.
Any scientific writings of study should have aims which relate to the writing and the aims of this writing are to find the answer to the previous problems. Firstly, the aim is to describe the main character through sociological, physiological and psychological aspects. Secondly, the aim is to find out the methods of characterization used to describe the main character. The aims are as follows:
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1. To describe physiological, sociological, and psychological aspects of the main character in Snicket’s novel The Bad Beginning.
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2. To find out the methods of characterization used by the author to describe the main character physiological, sociological, and psychological aspects in Snicket’s novel The Bad Beginning.
Considering that the scope of discussion of literary work is very wide, the discussion in this study is limited to:
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1. The physiological, sociological and psychological aspects of the main character in Snicket’s novel The Bad Beginning.
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2. The method of characterization that presents the main characters’ physiological, sociological, and psychological aspects in Snicket’s novel The Bad Beginning
In producing scientific writing there must be an application of systematic steps called research method. Research method is defined as a systematic framework of structure and steps used to guide and conduct research. The methodology in this analysis is categorized into three; Data Source, Method and Technique of Collecting Data and Method and technique of Analyzing Data.
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5. The Analysis of The Main Character based on Physiological, Sociological, and Psychological Aspects in The Novel Bad Beginning By Lemony Snicket This analysis presents the Main character based on Physiological, Sociological, and Psychological aspects.
The main character of this novel is the Baudelaire children, they unite as one spirit. They are considered the main character because the story revolves around them and is the central character in the story of this novel. The main character will be analyzed in three individuals. The way the author presented the method of characterization for the character was through discursive method. The author used simple or flat characters; it merely shows good or bad side of a person throughout the story.
Physiological dimension of the character can be observed through age, gender or sex, posture, appearance, height or weight, heredity, defects, skin, hair, color of the eyes and the way he or she dresses up. The purpose of portraying a character is to illustrate and create a picture on the physical appearance of the character; therefore, the audience can recognize and interpret the character in the story. The description of the characters physiologically could be seen in the lines where it mentions how the characters look like. The first individual that will be analyzed physiologically is the character Sunny Baudelaire, the youngest out of the Baudelaire children. It is shown here through this line, quoting from the book how her appearance is like.
“Sunny Baudelaire looked like, she was an infant, and very small for her age, scarcely larger than a boot.” “What she lacked in size she made up with the size and sharpness of her four teeth.”(Page 14)
We can conclude from what the narrator tells us that what we can imagine from the character Sunny is that she is very small and that she has four teeth, explains a lot about Sunny who is only an infant. And although she was very small there was other aspects of her that was great, in this case her set of teeth, which is useful and comes in handy further on in the story.
The author described the character Sunny using the discursive method as the method of characterization, the author simply describes to the readers how the said character is. The second individual is the middle child Klaus Baudelaire, his physical appearance is explained in the line quoted below; appearance is explained in the line quoted below;
“Klaus Baudelaire, the middle child, and the only boy, liked to examine creatures in tide pools. Klaus was a little older than twelve and wore glasses, which made him look intelligent”. (Page 13)
Although the narrator didn’t specify much about Klaus’s physical appearance we can conclude that Klaus is a boy and that he wore glasses. Perhaps he has trouble with his eyes causing him to wear glasses and so we as readers know that Klaus has difficulties in seeing because he reads plenty of books that affected his sight. This line shows that the author used the discursive method as a method of characterization, by simply telling us readers about the said character.
And last but not least, the narrator explains about the character Violet Baudelaire who is the first child out of the Baudelaire siblings, making her the eldest. It is shown in the line quoted below;
“Violet Baudelaire, the eldest, liked to skip rocks. Like most fourteen year olds, she was right handed, so the rocks skipped farther across the murky water when Violet used her right hand than when she used her left.” (Page 12)
“Anyone who knew Violet well knew she was thinking hard because her long hair was tied up in a ribbon to keep it out of her eyes.”(Page 12)
“You’re a pretty one,” he said, taking her face in his rough hands. “If I were you I would try not to anger Count Olaf, or he might wreck that pretty little face of yours.” Violet shuddered, and the bald man gave a high pitched giggle and left the room. (Page 61)
This explains a little on the appearance of the character, Violet Baudelaire. First of all we know that for a fact Violet is the oldest, we can already imagine that her appearance differ from the other siblings. Another fact that is shown is that the character Violet Baudelaire had long hair; this is presented in the way the narrator says that the said character ties her hair whenever she is thinking of something that requires more work than other things, such as inventing. Violet is also known for having a pleasant looking face. Although normally people is right handed there are some cases where a person is left handed; the narrator describes that the said character is although right handed likes to sometimes try doing things with her left hand.
Sociological dimension of a character is anything from the environment which gives us a better view on one’s character such as their social class status, education, occupation, religion, home life, race, nationality or even political affiliation. And in this case all three individuals share more or less the same things, such as home life, race, nationality, and education. The Baudelaire children is known for being intelligent and although it is not mentioned where they go to school or if they did go, we can conclude that they are indeed knowledgeable from the fact that the author mentioned how they had a private library filled with all kinds of books in which the children read from time to time. The Baudelaire children nationalities or origin are still a mystery, from what we can gather from the story is that the places or settings mentioned are made up by the author and are illusions. Names are usually a way of us knowing or getting an idea of where they are from and, therefore, know where the story is situated , but the names that the author uses for the character are each very different from the other. According to Snicket, “There are all sorts of antecedents for those names that people have picked up on, but I also thought it will be interesting to devise a setting for the book that is ambiguous. Violet is a fairly British name; Klaus is a fairly German name; Sunny is a
fairly American name, and Olaf is a fairly Scandinavian name, and that creates a certain amount of confusion”. The author purposely wants to create confusion and adds even more mystery to the identities of the said character.
Psychological dimension is related to your psychological condition and how you are on the inside. The condition of the character such as their abilities, their temperaments their qualities and their attitude towards life; whether the character is an extrovert or introvert and what their ambitions are. To say that the children was an introvert might not be exactly true as they do go out on several occasions such as to the beach, and they do like to join in on conversations whenever their parents held dinner parties at their homes. This shows that the children are sociable. Although it is not mentioned clearly if the Baudelaire children had any friends their age. The Baudelaire children are well mannered kids, despite going through one of the hardest things a child go through they still handled their emotions quite well. There are certain times where they had to rant but nothing more than usual.
After analyzing the main character based on physiology, sociology and psychology on the novel Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, it can be concluded that the Baudelaire children is the main character, a character which supports the author’s idea and has much more portrayal than the other character of the story. Physiologically, Sunny Baudelaire was described as an infant with a set of sharp teeth. She was small and scarcely larger than a boot. Klaus Baudelaire was described as boy with glasses, with this we can conclude that he has troubles with his eyesight. Violet Baudelaire was described as a girl with long hair and beautiful face. Through psychological aspects, the Baudelaire children was described as good and well - mannered kids. They are charming and intelligent. They are the type of kids who listen to their parents and never create problems. They obey their parents and try to make them happy however they possibly can. They have a good bond with each other as siblings and as well as with their parents. The children have a strong heart in going through their challenging and unfortunate lives, although sad and angry they still had hopes in a better future. Despite
being treated badly by their legal guardian they still intend to do the best they could so that they could make their legal guardian happy. The Baudelaire children are such loving kids, they took care of each other, especially Violet who is the oldest and felt the need to always protect her younger siblings. Sociologically, the Baudelaire children lived with their parents in a mansion located in the heart of a busy city. They had a good life, their parents are wealthy and so they were well taken care of. Although it all changed after the terrible fire mishap that happened at their house, which burned their whole house down and killed their parents in the process. After this incident the Baudelaire children lived with their legal guardian in a terrible dirty and unpleasant house. The way the author described each character helped determine the main character in the novel. This analysis explains how the main character is being described based on their physiological, sociological, and psychological aspects and what method of characterization is being used in the novel. From the analysis it can be concluded that the author applied mixing method, which means applying more than one method.
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