The Background of Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of Study

The word ‘literature’ is derived from the Latin ‘littera’ which means letter. It refers to the written or printed works. This word was used to mention every kind of writing generally. The word literature has different meanings depending on who is using it and in what context. It could be applied broadly to mean any symbolic record, encompassing everything from images and sculptures to letters. In a more narrow sense the term could mean only text composed of letters, or other examples of symbolic written language. However, now, the term ‘literature’ is focused more and restricted to merely imaginative works, which comes up from the imaginative mind of the person who had talent to create stories. Literature is creative and an art implies a process of creating artistic writing that colors human life history through medium language Wellek, 1951:15. Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, literature is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction. Literature is more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience. Learning about books and literature, can increase knowledge about literary works, such as tragedies of poems, stories, and plays. Literature has three general genres. Those are poetry, prose, and drama. Each of them has its own characteristics. Poetry etymologically Universitas Sumatera Utara derived from the Greek word poiein means ‘to make’ or ‘to construct’. Poietis means the maker, and the word poet and poetess, the writer. Poietis means the making and it became poetry, the art of poet. The word ‘prose’ is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translate to ‘straight forward’. Drama is the object that I am going to analyze. Drama is a form of literature intended for performance by actors. Play is a literary work written for performance on the stage or a drama. A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed or read. The term play can refer to both the written works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance. In this thesis I want to discuss about gender inequality that contained in Tennessee Wiliams’s The Glass Menagerie. During 1944-1945, his memory play The Glass Menagerie was produced in Chicago and was widely accepted as a success. It moved to New York where it had a successful Broadway run. The play tells the story of a young man Tom, his disabled sister, Laura, and their controlling mother Amanda, who tries to make a match between Laura and a gentleman caller. Many people believe that Tennessee used his own familial relationships as inspiration for the play. Elia Kazan who directed many of Williams greatest successes said of Williams: Everything in his life is in his plays, and everything in his plays is in his life.”The Glass Menagerie won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play of the season. Universitas Sumatera Utara The play is centered around the theme of family starting with the father of Laura and Tom abandoning the family when they were just children and finally Tom’s selfish abandonment of his family who is entirely dependent on him. In The Glass Menagerie, family means obligations. This play raises questions of duty and responsibility to your other family members, and for the most part in gender specific roles. We see that it is the job of the male to bring home money, and the daughter to look pretty and get married. Gender is a social construction with important consequeces in everybody life. Social role theory proposes that the social structure is the underlying force for the gender differences. Social role theory proposes that the sex-differentiated behavior is driven by the division of labor between two sexes within a society. Division of labor creates gender roles, which in turn, lead to gendered social behavior. Gender inequality is the social construct that results in women not having the same rights, opportunities, or privileges as men . The gender-based violence against women theory emphasizes the importance of educating women and men as to the dangers and limitations of gender role conditioning and the supporting belief systems specific to those roles. The violence against women perspective connects all forms of male violence against women such as child sexual abuse, rape, sexual harassment, workplace violence, beatings, and homicide across the age spectrum of women’s lives. It also acknowledges a connection between male violence against women and other forms of domination based on race, sexual orientation, class, and other social constructs. This perspective implies an intimate interrelationship between women’s freedom from violence and their freedom from Universitas Sumatera Utara political,economic, and social exploitation. Thio 1985:242, said that there are basic differences in what societies expect of men and women. Even when men and women hold the same jobs with the same status, they may face different expectations. According to the explaination above, I am interested in analyzing about Gender Inequality as Reflected in Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie because in this play the issue of gender is dominant and the play portrayal differences of male and female in terms of gender inequality. Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie is great play and it was best play of the season and in this play there are many gender differences that occurred. Although they resist the roles prescribed to them, Laura and Tom both eventually assimilate to the gender inequality cast by their mother Amanda.

1.2 The Problems of Study