METHOD OF CHARACTERIZATION AND THREE DIMENSIONAL ASPECTS OF MAIN CHARACTER IN BRONTË’S JANE EYRE
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METHOD OF CHARACTERIZATION AND THREE DIMENSIONAL
ASPECTS OF MAIN CHARACTER IN BRONTË’S JANE EYRE
Komang Alit Sawitri
Jurusan Sastra Inggris Fakultas Sastra Unud
ABSTRAK
Judul skripsi ini adalah Method of Characterization and Three dimensional Aspects of Main Character in Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Judul tersebut dipilih untuk mengetahui karakter tokoh utama dalam novel terutama metode apa yang digunakan penulis untuk menunjukkan karakter tokoh utama dan pengaruh tiga aspek dimensi dalam membentuk karakter tokoh utama. Data dikumpulkan melalui penelitian pustaka. Metode yang digunakan dalam menganalisis karakter adalah metode deskriptif. Dalam menganalisis karakter menggunakan teori dari William Kenney (1966) dan teori pendukung yang diperkenal oleh Lajos Egri dalam buku I Made Sukada (1978).Metode yang digunakan penulis untuk menggambarkan karakter tokoh utama dalam novel Jane Eyre adalah mixing method yaitu perpaduan dramatic method dan character on other character. Tiga aspek dimensi yaitu dimensi fisik, dimensi sosial, dan dimensi kejiwaan dipergunakan oleh penulis untuk membentuk karakter dari tokoh utama.
Kata Kunci : Metode karakteristik, tiga aspek dimensi, and tokoh utama.
Prose can be divided into two classes, fiction and non-fiction. Novel is one of those literary works which belongs to fiction. It is a story long enough to fill a complete book, in which the characters and events are usually imaginary (Hornby, 2006:999). Novel has two elements; they are intrinsic and extrinsic element. The intrinsic elements of novel are theme, setting, plot, character, point of view, style and tone, structure and technique (Kenney, 1966) The extrinsic elements include history, biography, society, psychology, ideas and arts. The extrinsic elements is needed in order to learn the external aspects of prose which bear relationship to its creation process, such as biography of his writer, his idea, the feelings and etc.
Character, as a part of intrinsic elements, is one of important aspects because it carries the author’s message that can bring various values in human life such as morality, education, and many others. In order to understand the character’s attitude
and behavior, it is important to understand physiology, psychology, and sociology aspect of the character itself. However in this study sociology and psychology of the main character are give more emphasize. Sociology is the study of human beings in their group relationship.
In this writing, “Jane Eyre” was chosen to be analyzed because it was one of famous novels by Charlotte Brontë in Victorian era. Charlotte Brontë, an English female author, who was regarded as an author whose works were mostly written based on her life and experiences. Her first published novel, Jane Eyre in 1847. The novel is a reflection of the author’s life. It has a strong main character from naughty and uneducated became an independent woman, educated and smart although unpretty. This study was focused on Jane Eyre as the main character. The reason in analyzing the main character was it takes an important part in the story and appears continually from the beginning until the end of the story which makes it occupy the central position in the story.
This study was emphasized on the sociology and psychology of the main character in the novel. By analyzing them, the sociology and psychology condition could be seen the writer present the main character Besides, this study analyzed the method of characterization used by the author to present the main character in the novel because the main character could build such atmosphere that affected the emotion and the feeling of the readers.
Based on the background, there are two problems which were analyzed in this study:
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1. What methods of characterization were used by the author to present the main character?
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2. How does the writer present the main character in term of three dimensional aspects?
In general, the aim of study was to fulfill the requirements of S1 degree. Based on the problems mentioned previously, the aim of the study can be formulated as follows:
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1. To explain the methods of characterization used by the author to present the main character in the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë.
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2. To describe the main character in term of three dimensional aspects.
Research method is the scientific research to produce a good writing. There are three aspects of the methodology, which is required; there are:
The data source refers to the object from which the data are taken, for example: book, novel, and various kinds of documents. The data were taken from an English novel by Charlotte Brontë entitled Jane Eyre. In this study, the novel’s “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte was chosen to be analyzed. It was one the famous novels which was published in 1847.
This study used library research to collect the data by note taking. The working procedure was divided into several steps. The first step was reading the novel repeatedly and intensively to understand the content of the novel. Then, the second step was reading the theory book and browsing to the internet, in order to get more information that are relevant to the topic.
The technique of analyzing data is the process to find and arrange the data systematically, by organizing the data into categories, describing the data into units, arranging the data into pattern, and making conclusion. Qualitative method was used in the analysis and it was descriptively presented.
In analyzing the data, a research needs theory. The collected data of his study was analyzed using the theories of characterization, how the main characters in novel are presented based on the categories of methods of characterization, proposed by Kenney (1966) in order to find out how the description the three dimensions of the main character. However this analysis emphasized sociological and psychological condition that shaped the main character.
The data collected from the data source through the data collection was analyzed by using the theory of William Kenney “How to Analyzed Fiction” (1966). The supporting theory is three dimensional aspects proposed by Lajos Egri in Sukada “Beberapa Aspek Tentang Sastra” (1987). Three dimensional aspects are physiological, sociological and psychological dimension.
The main character for the novel is Jane Eyre. Since she was a child she got careless treatment from her family. After she was an adult, she could be an independent woman and find her true love Mr. Rochester. They love each other. The author used mixing methods of characterization; the combination of dramatic, in which the main character imparts her own characteristics through the thing she said and did, and character on other character methods, in which the main character’s characteristics are revealed by other characters in the story. The analysis is as follows:
In the dramatic method, the characterization of the main character, Jane Eyre, is presented through her own words, thoughts and actions. These quotes about Jane’s economic life shown through dramatic method:
I availed myself fully of the advantages offered me. In time I rose to be the first girl of the first class; then I was invested with the office of teacher; which I discharged with zeal for two years.
(Brontë,1847:115-116)
School rules, school duties, school habits and notions, and voices, and faces, and phrases, and costumes, and preferences, and antipathies: such was what I knew of existence. (Brontë,1847:117)
This testimonial I accordingly received in about a month, forwarded a copy of it to Mrs Fairfax, and got that lady’s reply, stating that she was satisfied, and fixing that day forthight as the period for my assuming the post of governess in her house. (Brontë,1847:121)
The characterization of the main character, Jane Eyre, is presented through what other characters say or think about her. These quotes about Jane’s economic life shown through character on other character method:
‘If J.E. who advertised in the-shire Herald of last Thursday,possesses the acquirements mentioned; and if she is in a position to give satisfactory references as to character and competency; a situation can be offered her where there is but one pupil, a little girl, under ten years of age; and where the salary is thirty pounds per annum. J.E. is requested to send references, name, and address, and all particulars to the direction: “Mrs Fairfax, Thornfield, near Millcote, -shire.” (Brontë,1847:120)
‘It is a village school: your scholars will be only poor girls-cottagers’ children-at the best, farmers’ daughters. Knitting, sewing, reading, writing, ciphering, will be all you will have to teach.’
(Brontë,1847:381)
Lowood was a charity school for orphans like her. After Jane graduated from
Lowood School, she worked as a teacher and stayed there. She taught in the school for two years. As a teacher, she had to fulfill her duties in teaching her pupils and obeying the school’s rules. Then Jane resigned from Lowood, she worked for Mr. Rochester to teach Adèle in Thornfield Hall. She also became a teacher in a Vilage School in Morton in which taught girl from poor family.
Physiological dimension of a character is observed through sex, age, physical appearance such as shape of body, whether or not a person is beautiful or handsome, color of skin and hair. From that aspect, the reader can imagine how the character looks like and what clothes he or she wears to help to convey the personality, (Sukada, 1987:65). Hence, the physiology of the main character was analyzed on the physical appearance.
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A. Physical Appearance
Jane Eyre’s physical appearance is presented through the application of mixing methods; the “dramatic” and “character on other character” methods. There are quotes from the novel, as follows:
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1. Dramatic method
In the dramatic method, the characterization of the main character, Jane Eyre, is presented through her own words, thoughts and actions. These quotes about Jane’s physical appearance shown through dramatic method:
I sometimes regretted that I was not handsomer: I sometimes wished to have rosy cheeks, a straight nose, and small cherry mouth: I desired to be tall stately, and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and so marked.
(Brontë,1847:130)
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2. Character on other character method
In the character on other character method, the characterization of the main character, Jane Eyre, is presented through what other characters say or think about her.
He stood considering me some minutes; then added, ‘She looks sensible, but not all handsome.’ ‘She is so ill, St. John.’
‘Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of beauty are quite wanting in those features.’ (Brontë,1847:366)
The quotes above show that the main character in the novel, Jane Eyre, was unpretty with a plain faced woman, thin figure and so small. She wished that she was
a beautiful girl with pretty cheeks and a nice little mouth and tall because she felt that she was not beautiful and regret about that.
.....that my father had been a poor clergyman; that my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends..... that after my mother and father had been married a year, the latter caught the typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent; then my mother took the infection from him, and both died within a month of each other. (Brontë,1847:58)
Bronte creates her main character as a poor orphan girl. Jane’s father is a poor clergyman. Her mother is the Reed’s daughter that come middle class family. A year after their marriage, Jane’s father caught typhus while visiting the poor in a large manufacturing town and both of her parents soon died within a month of each other and left Jane orphaned.
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a. Child in Gateshead Hall
Jane was a child got harmed from her family in Gateshead Hall. It made Jane become a rude girl. Her cousins always disturb her; however, she got the punishment from her aunt.
“Wicked and cruel boy!” I said. “You are like a murderer-you are like a slave-driver-you are like the
Roman emperors!”
“What! What!” he cried. “Did she say that to me? Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana?
“Dear! dear! What a fury to fly at Master John!” (Brontë,1847:43)
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b. Young Woman in Moor House, Whitcross
After Jane leave the Thornfield Hall. She became hard worker, responsibility to her job, and independent.
“You would not like to be long dependent on our hospitality. You desire to be independent of us?”
“I do: I have already said so. Show me how to work, how to seek work. I will be dressmaker; I will be a plain-workwoman; I will be a servant, a nurse girl, If I can be no better,” I answered. “Right,” said Mr. St. John, quite coolly. “If such is your spirit, I promise to aid you, in my own time and way.”(Brontë,1847:374-375)
Based on the problems, the author used a mixing method to present the main character. They are dramatic method and character on other character. The author describes the character of Jane by her mind. Besides that comments from other characters also affect the character of Jane in the story.
Based on the second problem, the three dimensional aspects could shape the main character in the novel. But the analysis gives more emphasize on sociological and psychological dimension. Jane Eyre, physiologically, was unpretty with a plain faced woman, thin figure and so small. She wished that she was a beautiful girl with pretty cheeks and a nice little mouth and tall because she felt that she was not beautiful and regret about that. Sociologically, there are many things related to this character. They are socialization and personality, cooperative, competition, and conflict. Jane was a poor orphan girl. Jane’s father is a poor clergyman. Her mother is the Reed’s daughters that come from middle class family. Jane’s father caught typhus while visiting the poor in a large manufacturing town and both of her parents soon died within a month of each other and left Jane orphaned. Jane’s character describes a social life indicated by helping people, she also has a great responsibility for his job, Jane loved Mr. Rochester even though she knew she had to compete with Miss Ingram. Jane’s life when her childhood was fill of conflicts with her family, it made Jane become mature and forgive their mistakes. Psychologically, the elements analyzed in psychological aspect was human motivation such as attitude, wants, emotion as motives, feeling and attitude and feeling and emotion since Jane was a child until young woman. It analyzed using influence of setting time and place to determine the mental development of Jane. When Jane was a child she got harmed
from her family in Gateshead Hall. It made Jane became a rude girl. Her cousins always disturbed her. However, she got the punishment from her aunt. After she studied in Lowood School, she was polite to other people. While Jane was young woman, Jane struggled to fulfill every duty, she became work hard and it made proud people in her surrounding. Jane became independent woman after Jane worked in Thornfield Hall and Whitcross because there she found her loved, Mr. Rochester and her family, Diana, Maria and St. John.
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