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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Life is full of emotions and experiences. Those emotions and experiences could be good or bad and those emotions and experiences are gathered in the
human mind. In supporting the point, Ryan states that ―The life of the mind is a
mixture of cognition and emotion, conscious awareness and unconscious awareness, rational and self-directed behavior and instinct
–driven action 2012: 43.‖
Unconsciously, everyone must have something that makes them feel threatened. Deep down, everyone must have something that they really want and
in some conditions, because of some reasons they cannot have the things that they really want or they have an unexpressed feeling due to the society
‘s construction that prevents them from expressing it, and they have no choice but to repress their
feelings. As stated by Michael Billig ―Freud believed that people repress, or drive
from their unconscious minds, shameful thoughts that, then, become unconscious 1999: 1.‖ Michael Ryan also said more or less the same thing
Some feelings and thoughts are repressed or pushed permanently out of consciousness because we find them threatening. Some experiences, such
as traumatic events of abuse in childhood, must also be pushed out and repressed because they are too upsetting. They evoke feelings of
helplessness and harm that the conscious self cannot tolerate 2012: 44. The reasons why human feel threatened to something can be various.
Sometimes, it is because of a traumatic experience that happened in the past. There is also another reason for it, for example, because it is really shameful for
himher to express their feelings. Like the reasons why someone feels threatened, things that threaten them also could be anything. It could be about love, about
fear, or about hatred. The concern about this thesis is the defense mechanisms that Sherlock
Holmes does to himself and his relationship to another people. Since in the elementary school people taught that humans are social being. It means that
humans cannot live without another human being, thus people need each other is presence in life. For example, students need teachers to teach them about
something that they might need or useful for them in the future. On the other side, teachers also need the student so they have a job to get some money to fulfill their
needs. Humans will have an interaction with other humans in order to communicate what their needs in life. Through that interaction and
communication, a relationship can be constructed, for example: friendship, partnership, or love relationship.
Since it is human nature that needs other human being to live, there is quite impossible for humans to against their nature so they do some defense
mechanisms their feelings. It can be because they are shy or maybe it is because of the demand of their job. The feelings that are repressed also can be anything.
For examples, hatred, love or hobby. Besides human nature, society also has some norms that might prevent
someone express something that they want. The norms in the society also can make someone do a defense mechanism to their feelings.
In this undergraduate thesis, the object that is discussed is the main character named Sherlock Holmes in all Sherlock Holmes stories that written by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes is chosen as the character that is analyzed because in some movies and TV series, he is described as an anti-social
person. He does not like to have an interaction with other people if it the interaction is not related to his case.
Defense mechanisms are the main foci of this study. To find what defense mechanisms that Sherlock Holmes does in the stories are, The writer had to find
Sherlock Holmes ‘ unusual action.
B. Problem Formulation