The Life of Lesbian Portrayed in Sarah Waters Novel Fingersmith

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THE LIFE OF LESBIAN PORTRAYED IN SARAH WATERS’ NOVEL FINGERSMITH

A THESIS BY:

EVCIS SONIAMIAR L.R REG. NO. 110705091

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA MEDAN 2015

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THE LIFE OF LESBIAN PORTRAYED IN SARAH WATERS’ NOVEL FINGERSMITH

A THESIS BY:

EVCIS SONIAMIAR L.R REG. NO. 110705091

SUPERVISOR CO-SUPERVISOR

Dr. Siti Norma Nasution, M.S Mahmud A. Albar, S.S, M.A. Submitted to Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara Medan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from Department of English.

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA

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MEDAN 2015

Approved by the Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara (USU) Medan as thesis for The Sarjana Sastra Examination.

Head, Secretary,

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Accepted by the Board of Examiners in parial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from the Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara, Medan.

The examination is held in Department of English Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara on October 9th, 2015.

Dean of Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara

Dr. H. Syahron Lubis, MA NIP : 19511013 197603 1 001 Board of Examiners :

Dr. MuhizarMuchtar, M.S ... RahmadsyahRangkuti, M.A. Ph.D. ...

Dr. Martha Pardede, M.S ... Dr. Siti Norma Nasution, M.S ...

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AUTHOR’S DECLARATION

I, EVCIS SONIAMIAR L.R DECLARE THAT I AM THE SOLE AUTHORS OF THIS THESIS EXCEPT WHERE REFERENCES IS MADE IN THE TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS CONTAINS NO MATERIAL. PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE OR EXTRACTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FROM A THESIS BY WHICH I HAVE QUALIFIED FOR OR AWARDED ANOTHER DEGREE. NO OTHER PERSON’S HAS BEEN USED WITHOUT DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS HAS SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF ANOTHER DEGREE IN ANY TERTIARY EDUCATION.

Signed :

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COPYRIGHT DECLARATION

NAME : EVCIS SONIAMIAR L.R

TITLE OF THESIS : The Life of Lesbian Portrayed in Sarah Waters Novel Fingersmith

QUALIFICATION : S-1 / SARJANA SASTRA

DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH

I AM WILLING THAT MY THESIS SHOUL BE AVAILABLE FOR REPRODUCTION AT THE DISCREATION OF THE LIBRARIAN DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH , FACULTY OF CULTURE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT USER ARE MADE AWARE OF THEIR OBLIGATION UNDER THE LAW OF REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

Signed :

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to give my biggest gratitude praise and honor to Almighty God, Jesus Christ for blessings and endowments in my life especially during the process of finishing this thesis. Nothing is impossible happen without His power, I believe He always in my side and enlighten my way.

I am also grateful to The Dean of faculty of culture studies, University of Sumatera Utara, Dr. H. Syahron Lubis M. A. The Chief of English Department Dr. H Muhizar Huchtar, M, S and the secretary of English Department Radmadsyah Rangkuti, M. A. for their advice and encouragement during my study in this faculty and also thanks to Dra. Siti Norma as my academic supervisor who always give me support, share times and suggestions in doing this thesis. Then, I would like to thank my co-supervisor Mahmud SS, M. A who helps me to read and check& re-check this thesis. I also express my sincere gratitude to all of my lecturers for their valuable knowledge, guidance, and advance during my study.

In this opportunity, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my lovely father Jason Lumban Raja who always gives me motivation, material, prayer and spirit to life. Get well soon dad, I already miss you. God leads your life dad and hopefully you can attend my graduation ceremony in the next month. I would like thank to my adorable oldest sister Rinawaty Lusiana, my brother in-law Fricles Alexander and of course not forget my lovely nieces Stevany& Ivana and my nephew Chistjansen. I would like to thank my second adorable sister Estaviana Merlinda A.md also my one and only adorable brother Seven Adinata M. Kom. Thank you for your kindness cares and supports. I love you all. I would like to thank Hana nababan, Fitri pandiangan, my vice parent Mr. & Mrs. Napitupulu, my beloved little brother Michael Wiggles (mekel), Junifer and all of my friends in the Bethel Church for you prayers. God Bless you all.

Great thanks also go to my incredible friends Nia Tumorang (Niplo), Ruth Marta (maru), Greacia Febrianis (bulek), Erlita Artanita (simba), Raja Guntar (apara), Renatha

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making my day more colorful and my friends in the campus, Anna Simbolon, Rinova, Nova, Aida, Donna, Cristine, Febby, Rinnah and for the whole my friend whose not mention in this thesis I do give thanks for you all. Thanks for being such nice friends and supporting me. Let’s keep our friendship forever. Saranghaeo ~

Finally, I dedicate this thesis to my beloved mother, Alm. Ruslan Sihotang. I’m so sad that you can’t see my graduation next month. This is for you, mother. You know how much I love you and I really miss you. I believe that God has good plans for all of your children.

I realize that this thesis is still far from being perfect. I was trying my best to complete this thesis by having knowledge from my academic study. Therefore, advice, constructive criticism and suggestions aimed for this thesis will be warmly welcome and highly appreciated.

Medan, October 9th, 2015

The Writer,

Evcis Soniamiar L.R

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ABSTRAK

Skripsi ini berjudul “The Life of Lesbian Portrayed in Sarah Waters Novel: Fingersmith”. Skripsi ini membahas tentang gambaran kehidupan lesbian dan penyebab-penyebab terjadinya lesbianisme yang terdapat dalam novel Fingersmith yang di tulis oleh Sarah Waters. Skripsi ini menganalisis masalah lesbian dan kelainan seksual dari pasangan lesbian dilihat hanya dari penggambaran pengarang tentang perilaku tokoh di dalam novel ini.Teori yang digunakan dalam pengerjaan skripsi ini adalah teori sosiologi sastraoleh Warren dan Wellek dan teori feminisne dari Rosmarie Tong. Dengan menggunakan metodologi kualitatif deskriptif dan teori dari Warren dan Wellek, Davis dan Soekanto, dapat diketahui bagaimana gambaran kehidupan lesbian yang merupakan tokoh utama dalam novel ini. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menyampaikan himbauan bagi masyarakat untuk hidup saling mengasihi serta untuk tidak mencintai sesamajenis di dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis entitled “The Life of lesbian Portrayed in Sarah Waters’ Novel Fingersmith”. This thesis explains about the life of lesbian and the causes of lesbianism which found in the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. Analyzing the problems of lesbian and their sexual disorder are only seen from the author’s portray in the character in this novel. The theories applied in this thesis are theory of literature by Warren and Wellek and feminism theory from Rosemarie Tong. By using descriptive qualitative by Davis and Soekanto can be seen how are the depiction of lesbian lives as the main character in this novel. This study is expected to the awareness society to love others and do not love the same sex in public live.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUPERVISOR’S APPROVAL SHEET i

DEPARTMENT’S APPROVAL SHEET ii

BOARD OF EXAMINER’S APPROVAL iii

AUTHORS DECLARATION iv

COPYRIGHT DECLARATION v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi

ABSTRACT viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS x

CHAPTER IINTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the Study 4

1.2 Problem of the Study 4

1.3 Objective of the Study 4

1.4 Scope of the Study 4

1.5 Significance of the Study 5

CHAPTER IIREVIEW OF LITERATURE 6

2.1 Sociology of Literature 6

2.2 Postmodernism 8

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2.2.1.1 Radical Feminism 12

2.2.2 Lesbianism 14

2.2.2.1 The factors causing Lesbian 18

2.2.2.2 Abnormal Sexuality 20

CHAPTER IIIMETHOD OF RESEARCH 22

3.1 Research Design 22

3.2 Data Collection 23

3.3 Data Analysis 24

CHAPTER IVANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 25

4.1 The Life of Lesbian Portrayed in Sarah Waters’ Novel

Fingersmith 25

4.2 The Factors Caused the Character Become a Lesbian Portrayed

in Sarah Waters’ Novel Fingersmith 33

CHAPTERVCONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 42

5.1 Conclusion 42

5.2 Suggestion 43

REFERENCES 44

APPENDICES

i.Author’s Biography ii.Summary of the Novel

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ABSTRAK

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ABSTRACT

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Study

There are many ways to express ideas and choices as well as the human’s lives in society. Every person will has her story to be told. Each story she has will show her identity. There are many things can make us depressed, confused or tired. That is why we need something to entertain our life. We need someone to share our story with or some stories to read where both of which can be found in literature. Literature can be a colour of one imagination in an attempt to make sense of someone’s life. It is one of the universal and great creations in term of communicating emotion, spirit or intellect which concern of mankind. The basic material of literature is experience. Through literature, many authors try to express their ideas about what they have ever experienced in their lives or what is happening around them and the lives of people in their society. Literature helps people to grow, both personally and intellectually as it provides an objective base of knowledge and understanding.

Literature has been widely known and used by many people all around the world. The term literature refers more closely to imaginative works. It also has a direct relation of actual life. It reflects an actual experience such as social, philosophical and moral

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factual event. Literature itself has been traditionally classified into three genres; prose, poetry, and drama. Each genre still has subgenres and one of the subgenres of prose is novel. In Mastering English Literature, Richard Gill states that a novel is a world specially made in words by the author (1985:77). Peck and Coyle state that novels present a documentary picture of life.

Alongside the fact that novels reflect the people in society, the other major characteristic of the genre is that novels tell a story. Most novelist focus on the tension between individuals and the society they live in. They also tell and describe the social life and society. Novel is process story telling with a great amount of detail on every page, and usually reveals human values (Peek and Coyle, 1986:102).

Basically, novels can portray the reality of daily life, hence they can be used as a document to study issues in society. The novelists themselves might have inherited a recording of reality that haveimpressed them which later expanded it to a literary work of art.

In relation to the focus, the phenomenon of lesbianism has become a major subject in today’s society ever since it rose up in the nineteenth century becausebefore that period, lesbianism is a taboo thing. There are some definitions about lesbians

females. In another definition, some authors give explanation about lesbian. Simon Salomon (1971:29) states “Lesbian is a female of homosexual or a female who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other females.”

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Zimmerman (1853:453) explains “The term lesbian is also used to express sexual identity or sexual behavior regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterized or associate nouns with female or same sex attraction.”

Fingersmithis one of novels that discuss about lesbianism. Fingersmithis a fiction novel written by Sarah Waters. This novel was published in 2002. It is a kind of Victorian-inspired crime fiction novel, which mostly takes place in London in 19th Century. Actually, the meaning offingersmith is a petty thief. The word “fingersmith” may also refer to someone who has mastered a skill involving the use of fingers. This novel tells about two women from different world who are brought together by hard life and forbidden desires in this period-drama.

In the novel Fingersmith, Waters wants to show how the lesbian exists in that era. Literature identifies lesbians in such different ways, many authoresses have taken great license with their description of women who are suspected of having sexual interest in other women. The power of literature is to define and describe the common terms and ideas in society. It can keep groups of people invisible.

Lesbians may face a distinct physical or mental health arising from discrimination, prejudice, and minority stress. Political conditions and social attitudes also affect the formation of lesbian relationships and the families.It is a new topic in literature and reality. Through this topic we can find out the reason why lesbianism happens and how it grows in society. This topic isanalyzed under postmodernism and feminism that celebrate diversities and new problems in society.

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1.2 Problems of the Study

There are several problems to discuss in this novel which are summarized into two main problems. They are:

1. How is the life of lesbian portrayed in Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith? 2. What are factorsthat cause the character to become lesbian in Sarah

Waters’ novel Fingersmith? 1.3 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this thesis are tofind out the answers of the questions dealing with the problems of the study by giving interpretation and analysis of lesbianism towards Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, they are:

1. To describe and analyze the lesbian life in Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith. 2. To explain the factors that causethe character to become lesbian in Sarah

Waters’ novel Fingersmith.

1.4 Scope of the Study

In doing this analysis, this thesis needs a scope of study to limit the field which is going to be analyzed in order to avoid excessive discussion. Thus, this thesis focuses on exposing the lesbianism found in Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmithand how is implied in the society.

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1.5 Significances of the Study

Every literary work has significance in it for it contains the messages that the authors try to express. This thesis provides the significance of the analysis, they are:

1. For writer

Expected to general information that can be used as references for developing literature and additional knowledge for English Department University of Sumatera Utara

2. For readers

To get information about the life of lesbian and the factors that cause the characters in becoming a lesbian. Through this thesis, the writer hopes that young generation or the readers be more aware about environment, family with whom they are associated.

3. For further research

This research is expected to increase knowledge about lesbianism for people who are interested in studying sexual abnormality.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In doing an analysis, it is important to review theories that are related with the subject of discussion to support the study.

2.1 Sociology of Literature

Sociology of literature is derived from two kinds of knowledge that are related to each other: sociology and literature. Rene Wellek and Austin Warren in their book entitled Theory of Literature (1977) gives explanations about the definition of literature, and its relation to sociology. Wellek (1977:89) said that literature is a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. It “imitates” “life”; and “life” is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world andthe inner or subjective world of the individual have also beenobjects of literary "imitation."In practice, literature can obviously take the place of many things—of travel or sojourn in foreign lands, of direct experience, vicarious life; and it can be used by the historian as a social document. Much the most common approach to the relations of literature and society is the study of works of literature as social documents, as assumed pictures of social reality. Used as a social document, literature can be made to yield the outlines of social history (Wellek 1977:98-99).

Elizabeth Burns and Tom Burns in their book entitled Sociology of literature and drama: selected readings(1973) give the explanation of sociology of literature and its

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relations to literary works such as novel. This is a compilation of several experts’ journals who explain the relationshipof literaturetosociologywhichmeansdealingwiththe society. Burns (1973:9) says, “Literature is an attempt to make sense of our lives. Sociology is an attempt to make sense of the ways in which we live our lives.” Lenvin in Burns (1973:31) says, “Literature is not only the effect of social causes but also the cause of social effects. Burns also said that sociology is a critical activity which its purpose is to achieve an understanding of social behavior and social institutions which is different from that current among the people through whose conduct the institutions exist.

Novel is one of many ways to share the ideas, opinion, or feeling through literary work. Taine in Burns (1973:66) said that the novel as ‘a kind of portable mirror which can be conveyed everywhere, and which is most convenient for reflecting all aspects of nature and life.’ This statement can be accepted because it is true that novel can be taken anywhere and shared to everyone. It contains and also portrays all aspects of nature and life, such as society in a certain time as Reeve in Wellek (1977:223) says, “The Novel is a picture of real life and manners, and of the time which is written.”

Novel has a close relationship to society and also history. Novels often represent the era or period when they are written. Zeraffa in Burns (1973:35) said that novel derive more closely from social phenomena than do those of other arts…; novels often seem bound up with particular moments in the history of society. He also added that that the novel is directly concerned with the nature of our situation in history, and with the direction in which that situation is to move. The novel’s emergence as an art form

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affirms, essentially, that there was no society without history, nor history without society. The novel is the first art to represent man explicitly as defined historically and socially (Zeraffa in Burns 1977:38-39).

James in Burns (1977:36) said that the novelist analyses the data of social life, interpret them, and tries to determine their essential features in order to transmit them in writing. Zeraffa in Burns (1977:45) said that the novel has for long had rules and laws which emerged from the history of society itself, since novelists wished to show that society was both cause and consequence of human nature.

2.2 Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a rejection of totality, of the notion that planning could be comprehensive widely applied regardless of context, and rational. In this sense, postmodernism is a rejection of its predecessor: modernism. Postmodernist ideas in the entire Western value system such as with the term opinion or movement.

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Postmodernism has also been used interchangeably with the term post-structuralism out of which postmodernism grew, a proper understanding of postmodernism or doing justice to the postmodernist thought demands an understanding of the poststructuralist movement and the ideas of its advocates. Postmodernist describes part of a movement; Postmodern places it in the period of time since the 1950s, making it a part of

In this study, another theory was used to support this assumption. Feminism movement be born under the auspices of postmodernism. Feminism theory was one of movement that rejected about woman oppression from wickedness of men which rejection by others but this movement believes that it works.

2.2.1 Feminism

Feminism consists of ideas and beliefs about what culture is like for women just because they are women, compared to what the world is like for men just because they are men. However, feminism is actually a transformation movement and not a movement to seek revenge towards the male. It can be said that feminism is a process that aims to create a better relationship between both genders to improve and better the society (Nugroho, 2008:61). It is the women’s movement for political and social freedom that began in the nineteenth century; firstly gaining strength in the protest for the right to vote also known as the first wave of feminism. It was reborn in 1960’s and1970’s in the women’s movement for sexual equality which is the second wave. From the 1990’s the movement has expanded into every discipline and activity in many

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A study analysis about lesbian state that throughout history men have oppressed women, as they have not had the same employment opportunities, educational opportunities, or even the right to vote. Indeed women have been treated like second-class citizens, and still are in many countries where the ideologies of feminism are not generally accepted. Dorothy Smith a linguistic feminist quotes that, “women have been largely excluded from the work of producing forms of thought and the images and symbols thought which are expressed and realized, and feminist would state unequivocally that has been no accident” (Smith, 1961:167). Feminism assumes that such treatment of gender inequality is actually a cultural factor and they are possible to be changed. Feminism looks and works towards activism in groups, to make personal and social change towards that more desirable culture. The changes achieved in activism can be different depends on the groups. The most changes achieved are about having equal treatment of men and women, equal respects in any roles desired by men and women, fighting against unfairness, discrimination or oppression of women, respects to women of different races, classes, age group, and experiences and so on.

Besides being a cultural movement, feminism is also one of the leading literary theories to the study of literary analysis that focuses on women's issues. Feminist literary criticism is expected to bring new perceptions and expectations in literary analysis. Feminist criticism focuses on reading as a woman. The term does not refer to a biological female but more to the approach and ideology. It is reading from women’s perspective at the same time putting their selves in the minds of the women, feeling their struggles and approaching a move from that point. Awareness of the role of gender and the social construction of culture is what a feminist strategy socialized in their struggle.

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But a person’s view in literary works is still being differentiated, especially in describing women and men’s character in the literary work. Sometimes the description is not equal and it is still influenced by patriarchal view and gender discrimination.

Feminist criticism might seem only to be concerned with demonstrating that literature is sexist in the portrayal of women, or with showing how texts reveal the injustices of a male society where women are regarded as inferior. (Peck & Coyle, 1984: 152).

Feminist theory was blown up to deconstruct the opposition of men or women and the oppositions connected with it in the history of western culture. To understand literature properly, requires a broad knowledge of the social culture and history. Similar to those expressed by other literary critics that the analysis of literary works cannot be separated from the social and cultural context in which it was originally created.

In a general sense, feminism is an ideology that drives women to reject patriarchal culture that have marginalized, subordinated, and degraded the position of women in the political, economic, and social life. Feminism grew as a movement and an approach that tries to change the existing structure because it has been regarded to cause inequality towards the female gender (Nugroho, 2008:62). There are many flow of feminism that have evolved with the modern culture, such as liberal feminism, radical feminism, Marxist and socialist feminism, multicultural feminism, existentialist feminism, postmodern feminism and so on. In this novel, Sarah Waters have included issues that surround radical feminism.

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2.2.1.1 Radical Feminism

Radical feminist theory centered on the biological aspect. They argue that gender inequality resulting from biological differences between men and women themselves. The point is that women feel exploitation by men in matters of biological women-owned, for example, is the role of pregnancy and motherhood is always played by women. Therefore, radical feminists often attack the institutions of family and patriarchy system which they consider is the source of oppression. They regard these institutions are one of the institutions that gave birth to male-dominated system that oppressed women. "Patriarchy is not only historically become structures of domination and submission, but he continues to be the most powerful system of inequality and durable, which is the basic model of domination in society" (Ritzer and Goodman, 2013: 506).

The members of radical feminism avoid the institution of marriage. They have a goal to be achieved that is to end the tyranny of the biological family. If the institution of marriage cannot be avoiding that they made the technology to reduce the oppression of women is to make contraception and in vitro fertilization. By using IVF women do not have to experience pregnancy as usual and can perform usual activities. Radical feminism tends to hate men. In fact, they assume women can live independently without the presence of men. Radical feminism seeks ways to defeat this patriarchal system. They believe that by knowing the weaknesses of women and overcome it, and then the patriarchal system can be defeated. The main way to reveal the radical feminism is a lesbian affair. "Lesbian feminism as the main movement in radical feminism is a

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practice and believes that women emotional indicating the part of resistant to patriarchal domination” (Ritzer and Goodman, 2013: 508).

Sexual relation between man and woman is considered as a kind of enslavement toward woman. That relation must cause difference of roles and classes in society. Radical feminism followers can be such a model in fair and equal life. Besides proposing lesbianism, feminists also propose being single parent and divorce. This feminism movement spreads out until Indonesia. This movement is applied through electronic media, printed media, and spreading propaganda about feminism. Nowadays, there are many magazines which are purposed only to women.(Agustina,2005:56)

Achieving equal rights for women was the paramount goal of these reformers, and the fundamental tenets of liberal political philosophy were a comfortable fit for these reformers. Unlike reformist feminists, who joined fundamentally main- stream women’s rights groups, these revolutionary feminists did not become interested in women’s issues as a result of working for government agencies, being appointed to commissions on the status of women, or joining women’s educational or professional groups.

Dubbed “radical feminists,” these revolutionary feminists introduced into feminist thought the practice of consciousness-raising. Women came together in small groups and shared their personal experiences as women with each other. They discovered that their individual experiences were not unique to them but widely shared by many women.

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According to Valerie Bryson, consciousness-raising showed how the trauma of a woman who had been raped or who had had to resort to an illegal abortion seemed to be linked to the experiences of the wife whose husband refused to do his share of housework, appeared never to have heard of the female orgasm or sulked if she went out for the evening; the secretary whose boss insisted that she wear short skirts, expected her to “be nice” to important clients or failed to acknowledge that she was effectively running his office; and the female student whose teachers expected less of the “girls,” refused requests to study female writers or even traded grades for sexual favours (V Bryson, 1999:20).

Empowered by the realization that women’s fates were profoundly linked, radical feminists proclaimed that the personal is political and that all women are sisters. They insisted that men’s control of women’s sexual and reproductive lives and women’s self-identity, self-respect, and self-esteem is the most fundamental of all the oppressions human beings visit on each other.

But just because radical feminists agreed in principle that sexism is the first, most widespread, or deepest form of human oppression did not mean they also agreed about the nature and function of this pernicious or the best way to eliminate it.

2.2.1.2 Lesbianism

Lesbianism is known by Sappho who lived on the island of Lesbos in the 6th century BC. She is a figure who fought for the rights of women, she has so many followers. However, she later falls in love with some of her followers and wrote poems

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which talking about love. According to Sappho, the beauty of women is impossible to separate from sexual aspect. Therefore, sexual satisfaction may also be obtained from other women (Lewiston in Soekanto, 2004: 103). “Saat inisiapasajayanglahirdipulauitunamabelakangnyaakan diikutikatalesbian, namuntidak semua orangyangmemakainama tersebutadalahlesbian.Merekameneruskan kebiasaan tersebutuntukmenghormati leluhursebelumnyadan agarkebiasaanitu tidakhilang oleh

waktukarenasemakinzaman terusberkembang orang-orangpun

lebihmengenalistilahlesbiansebagailesbian”. (In this time, anyone born on the island would last name followed by the word lesbian, but not everyone who wears the name is lesbian. They continue these habits prior to honor ancestors and that the habit was not lost by the time the days continue to grow as more people were more familiar with the term lesbian as lesbian).

In Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI), a lesbian is a woman who loves to feel sexual stimulation or lesbian; female homosexual ". (KBBI second edition, 1995)“lesbian adalah wanita yang mencintai atau merasakan rangsangan seksual sesama jenisnya; wanita homoseks”.Lesbian is a term for women who directs the women's choice of sexual orientation or also called the women who love women physically, sexually, emotionally, or spiritually. Lesbians are women who lovingly. (Agustina, 2005: 18). In general, progress to homosexuality, occurs in girls adolescence. Its development is usually a mere one stage of sexual development actually. Furthermore gradually the young girl will find the real date in heterosexual relationships.

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Lesbianism can be caused by both mental and physical reasons. Many a times a person develops lesbian traits at the early childhood itself. Certain physical conditions back lesbian mentality. Lesbianism is no more concerned a mental disorder but it is proved that lesbianism is more a mental orientation than a physical disorientation. Psychology says that a great number of lesbians have developed homosexual desires as a regression to the earlier stages of development.If a girl experiences the company of other girl or girl more than that with a boy, she may possibly become a lesbian. On the other hand, if a girl, by whatever reasons, happened to hate a boy or boys, she may become a lesbian. In fact, lesbianism can be derived from uncommon attachment to a girl or from hatred to boys. The physical reasons include sexual disabilities of different kinds.In general, the development of homosexuality did not last too long and become sedentary pattern, then this event has led to abnormalities. At such events, also on a more serious incident, should one ask for medical advice and spiritual guidance in a psychiatrist or psychologist. So lesbian is healthy mentally / psychologically, they just have a different sexual orientation. But of course the psychological health of lesbians is strongly influenced by social life. The term lesbian was influenced by the pressure in the recognition or acceptance of her identity. Pressure can come from themselves, their families, communities, workplaces and society. That's why many lesbians who feel pressured psychologically because of their sexual orientation. There are feeling of shyness, insecure, feeling guilty, feeling insignificant, feel different, and others.

One of the factors that cause lesbian loveis a painful and inhumane treatment from the man which is resulting psychological trauma continuously to the women. As the effect, the women tend to decide to be a lesbian. Usually women who received

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sexual violence from men and not at all appreciated its existence, resulting in them no longer believe in the men and when confronted with the environment in which there are individuals who are also instilling hatred against men, then the feeling of kinship that causes feelings of two women more closely.

A symptom of lesbianism is partly because women are concerned too easily saturated with hetero sexual relation, for example, a husband or male lover, a lesbian who has never had an orgasm. Another cause is a traumatic experience for a man or husband is cruel, causing deep resentment and antipathy against every man. Then he prefers to perform sex relations and life have sex with someone other women. Lesbian women assume a heterosexual relationship can not make him happy, his sexual relationships with other women regarded as compensation for the sense of unhappiness.

Generally, a lesbian regard that her love is very deep and more powerful than heterosexual love. Even though, the relation of lesbian and sexual satisfaction is foundunreasonable. Usually, lesbian love is also more severe than homosexual love escorted men. Today lesbian more or less want to be recognized. Socially, they are also not limited in enclosed spaces that are not widely known by the community alone, but this time they hang out in public places to simply unaccounted for by the public. They (lesbians) have dared to do things that can seize the attention of the general public, in places they normally eat casually holding hands, hugging, and be spoiled each other like a pair of men and women that in fact they go round a pair of women. According to Maccoby, the differences in behavior for women and men actually arise not because of innate but rather due to socio-cultural society that differentiates treatment of women and

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People who become lesbians do not always have strong characteristics that distinguish them from people who are not lesbian. Characteristics that often arise as to position themselves as a man, her appearance is very masculine, masculine hobby, possessive, showing interest in women, having specific characteristics which become a deal for others. Instead characteristics that act as lesbian feminism, usually looks stiff, high dependence on partner, not independent, often anxious, keep a distance with a woman other than their partner, sentimental, and act normal in men. But this is not an absolute characteristic, or does not always appear.

2.3.1 The Factors Causing Lesbian

Many theories have been put forward continues to be extracted and re-examined because of a lot of criticism that followed, but the cause is uncertainly well known. This is due to the uniqueness of life for human and reciprocal relationship with the background, and environment and social development. But in general people reviewing the causes of some facets of life, among others, is (Tan, 2005: 56-60).

A. The Relations of Family and Economy Condition

A family should be the community where the children get the accepted about their selves. All the situations in family influence their life, like their psychology and personal. In the other hand how they grow up influenced based on how their family is. Based on this assumption, we find some the psychology disorder in our society which caused by the rejection and accepted situation and relation in family. They are like the relation between a father and a mother which frequently bicker, relation between parents

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andtheir children whichis not harmonious or problematic and also, mothers who are too dominant in family relationships thereby minimize, the rejection of the mother toward her presence e.g. denial of a mother for a child born out of wedlock and also the in-harmonious between father and son also often considered to be the cause of children becomes homosexual and lesbian. (Tan, 2005: 58)

Social status and economy condition cannot separate from the family relations. The economic problem makes some people looking for many ways to get money. They do thieve, plunder and sometimes prostitute their body to get everything they want.

B. Violence

Some people say that sexual harassment and violence experienced by women in childhood will cause the child to become a lesbian at the time adult. (Tan, 2005:63). But the results of research which conducted by Lauman in Chicago shows that people have experienced sexual violence and then being gay is only 7.4% and3.1% of women become lesbians ( Lauman, 1999:122).

C. Environmental Influences

The old notion that is often say "a person's character can be recognized from whom his friends" or environmental influences that may adversely affect a person to behave like those in which it is located. Human lives in many environments such as neighborhood, campus and office if they were work that can affect their personality included people who become lesbianism. There are several factors of environment

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romantic friendship between women. It means that some woman too easy to become bored in a heterosexual relationship with a man or their husband or boyfriend, and she never felt happiness (Kartono, 2009: 250). A romantic friendship makes them feel comfort only with woman. The second factor caused lesbianism is the women only interact with people who have same sex with her. This situation caused them afraid try to speak and make relationship with man. Woman who become lesbianism have different lifestyle. Some lesbian not act over in their society indeed their appearance seemed simple and mediocre but others who come from upper class seemed glamour. Another factor of environmental influences which caused lesbianism is a bad love story from friends or called trauma. (Tan, 2005: 71)

The theory of human needs for affiliation come from Maslow who state that every people in this world still need others to express their feeling and feel comfort as long as their lives. People who have a need for affiliation prefer to spent time creating and maintaining social relationships, enjoy being a part of groups, and have a desire to feel love and accepted. People in this group tend to adhere to the norms of the culture in that work place and typically do not change the norms of the work place for fear of rejection. This person favors collaboration over competition and does not like situation with high risk or high uncertainty. People who had a need for affiliation work well in areas base on social interaction like customer service or client interaction positions. (Abraham Maslow on an article Need Theories)

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2.3.2 Abnormal Sexuality

Sexuality is a complex interplay of multiple facets, including anatomical, physiological, psychological, developmental, cultural, and relational factors. All of these contribute to an individual’s sexuality in varying degrees at any point in time as well as developing and changing throughout the life cycle.

Sexual problems are common in both women and men and can occur at any age. Sexual dysfunction is a term used to describe difficulties in libido (sex drive), arousal, orgasm, or pain with sex that are bothersome to an individual. Sexual dysfunction may be a lifelong problem or acquired later in life after a period of having no difficulties with sex. Women are most likely to be satisfied with their sex lives if they are physically and psychologically healthy and have a good relationship with their partner. Although a host of changes in hormones, blood vessels, the brain, and vaginal area can affect a woman's sexuality, relationship difficulties and poor physical or psychological well-being are the most common causes of sexual problems. (Richard Halgin, 2011:213)

Gender identity, orientation, and intention form sexual identity, whereas desire, arousal, and orgasm are components of sexual function. The interplay of the first six components contributes to the emotional satisfaction of the experience. In addition to the multiple factors involved in sexuality, there is the added complexity of the corresponding sexuality of the partner. The expression of a person’s sexuality is intimately related to his or her partner’s sexuality.

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Sexual desire disorders are under-recognized, under-treated disorders leading to a great deal of morbidity in relationships. A thorough history and physical examination are critical to properly diagnosis and determine the causative agent(s). With appropriate treatment, improvement can be made but continued research in sexual dysfunction is critical in the sensitive yet ubiquitous area. By becoming more familiar with prevalence, etiology, and treatment of sexual desire disorders, physicians hopefully will become more comfortable with the topic so that they can adequately address patients’ sexual problems and to implement appropriate treatment.

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CHAPTER III

METHOD OF RESEARCH

3.1 Research Design

In doing this thesis, the writer applies the descriptive qualitative method. Bodgan and Blinken (2007:4) state qualitative research is descriptive and data collected in the form word or picture rather than number. This method attempts to understand and interpret the meaning of an event interaction of human behavior in certain situation according to the writers’ perspectives. Qualitative research is subjective, open, contextual and rational. Besides the descriptive qualitative method, the library research method is also applied to support the validity of the data. Nawawi (1993:30) says “Penelitian kepustakaan dilakukan dengan cara menghimpun data dari berbagai literatur baik dari perpustakaan maupun tempat tempat lain.” (Library research is done by collecting data from books in the library or any other places). All the information about this thesis is also collected from internet, dictionary, and any other sources.The resource data of this research is the novel Fingersmith, written by Sarah Waters. This novel was published in 2002 by Riverhead Books consist of 582 pages. The data of this research is words, phrase, sentence which indicate the social condition of lesbians through the main characters.

After collecting the necessary data, the data is interpreted and analyzed by applying qualitative methods psychological approach. By doing so, the final step is to make the conclusion and suggestions obtained from the study as a result. 'Research

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Design' is a depiction of the structure of the planning and execution of this study in order to facilitate researchers to undertake a study in accordance with the correct sequence. These steps are described as the chart below:

Internet Book

Novel

DATA COLLECTING :

Socio. Lit Postmodernism

RESEACHER INTERPRETATION

RESEARCHER

FIND & DECIDE : READ NOVEL :

Fingersmith

SUPPORTING THEORY :

Sociological Approach

QUALITATIVE METHOD ANALYZING DATA

Feminism

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3.2 Data Collection

The primary source of the data is the novel itself, and the data is the sentences in novel, but not all the sentences are considered as data. Before analyzing the data, the first step which should be done is determining which sentences that would become the data. After collecting all the data which have been found in the novel, the next step is selecting the most significance data which are related to the analysis to make the analysis clear.

In other hand, the analysis of this thesis focuses on the main character Susan Trinder who has a sexual deviation. The writer also collects data from other books such as the extrinsic approach as the one of approaches in analyzing literary works, and the descriptive method. Besides taking data from books, this thesis also gets several other resources as references related to the topic being analyzed.

3.3 Data Analysis

After collecting and selecting all the data, then the next step is starting to analyze all those selected data to prove what are being written in the objective of this thesis and finally the writer can draw the conclusion for this thesis. In analyzing all the data which support this research, the descriptive method is applied. Descriptive research is used to describe the main data from the novel. Those main data are given in a quotation form to prove the analysis.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

In social life, there are so many problems which cause something that occurs in our daily life or daily activity. One of them is interaction. God makes people in couples, man and woman, to make a good communication, and then they build a happy family after they get married, but in fact, some people do something which is considered unnatural. A number of people from the same sex have a love relationship called female homosexual or lesbian. Lesbian’s love story which is portrayed in Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmithdoes not only focus on the romantic love but also focuses on the complicated life and complex problems of life in that era. Two women from different worlds are brought together by strange circumstances and forbidden desires in this period-drama. It's a thriller and also a love story that contains a sexy, passionate and startling one. The writer hesitates to call it lesbian, because that seems to marginalize it far more than it deserves. Suffice it to say that, it is erotic and unnerving in all the right ways. The problems that happen in this novel are commonly caused by social indication such as social status, violence and romantic friendship so what are told in this novel is related to lesbianism.

The various meanings of lesbian since the early 20th century have prompted some historians to revisit historic relationships between women before the wide usage of the word was defined by erotic proclivities. Discussion from historians cause further

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question of what is qualified as a lesbian relationship. As lesbian-feminists assert, a sexual component was unnecessary in declaring oneself as a lesbian if the primary and closest relationships are with women. If we consider past relationships within appropriate historic context, there are opportunities in which love and sex are separated and unrelated notions. In 1989, an academic group named the Lesbian History Group wrote:

Because of society's reluctance to admit that lesbians exist, a high degree of certainty is expected before historians or biographers are allowed to use the label. Evidence that would suffice in any other situation is inadequate here... A woman who never married, who lived with another woman, whose friends were mostly women, or who moved in known lesbian or mixed gay circles, may well have been a lesbian. ... But this sort of evidence is not 'proof'. What our critics want is incontrovertible evidence of sexual activity between women. This is almost impossible to find. (Koedth on BBC News,1999:34)

Lesbianism’s symptom can happen because the involved women are fed up with their hetero sex relationship, such as their husbands or boyfriends. A lesbian cannot experience orgasm. Other causal factor is traumatic of mean husbands or boyfriends that cause hatred and antipathy toward every man. She then prefers being with other woman. A lesbian assumes that relationship with man gives no happiness to her; she takes her relation with other women as compensation of her unhappiness.

Lesbianism in literature which has been existed since the 14th century can be found in any poetries. In London, lesbianism-thematic poetries are written by Sappho who were banned and vanished by the government. After a few centuries, the writers re-found and recreate lesbianism-thematic poetries and inspired the modern poet to write

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poetries with the same theme. This thesis discusses about Lesbianism which is derived from a novel by Sarah Waters.

4.1 The Life of Lesbian Portrayed in Sarah Waters’ Novel Fingersmith

The main character in Fingersmith, Susan Trinder is an example of lesbian. Female homosexual experienced by this character is not genetic but come from other factor. Susan Trinder who is called as Sue, experiences hard life among thieves that makes her a skilled thief. Due to her quick and skilled hand, she is called Fingersmith. Sue lives with her two brothers who are taken under her adopted mother. The bitter experience felt by Sue makes her strong in facing the reality. Since she is a kid, her mother has created her as money machine. She does everything to get money that makes Mrs. Sucksby likes her better than her brothers. In Fingersmithit can be found three point of views. The first part is Susan Trinder’s point of view.

My name, in those days, was Susan Trinder. People called me Sue. I know the year I was born in, but for many years I did not know the date, and took my birthday at Christmas. I believe I am an orphan. My mother I know is dead. But I never saw her, she was nothing to me.

(Waters, 2002:3)

The condition of the main character has been described by the author. It is described that she doesn’t know her born date. She chooses Christmas eve as her birthday as many people are happy at the moment. It is also known that her mother has died. She doesn’t wonder about her real parent. She doesn’t event care, as she considers Mrs. Sucksby as hers. In the early part, it is informed that Sue’s mother is dead by hanging herself. She is involved in a scandal with a London Nob, Lant Street, Borough.

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At that time, there are no cops or judges, so death penalties will be given to those who make such a fatal fault. She leaves Sue with Mrs. Sucksby. This tragedy is told to Sue by Mrs. Sucksby when she is a teenager.

For I knew she was a thief.—'What a thief!' Mrs Sucksby would say. 'So bold! And handsome?'

'Was she, Mrs Sucksby? Was she fair?'

'Fairer than you; but sharp, like you, about the face; and thin as paper. We put her upstairs. No-one knew she was here, save me and Mr Ibbs—for she was wanted, she said, by the police of four divisions, and if they had got her, she'd swing. What was her lay? She said it was only prigging. I think it must have been worse. I know she was hard as a nut, for she had you and, I swear, she never murmured—never called out once. She only looked at you, and put a kiss on your little head; then she gave me six pounds for the keeping of you—all of it in sovereigns, and all of 'em good. She said she had one last job to do, that would make her fortune. She meant to come back for you, when her way was clear…' (Waters, 2002:8)

Waters explains in her novel that Sue’s mother is a skilled thief and it is found in Sue. Sue’s mother kiss her before giving her to the baby caretaker signifies her love towards her daughter, but due to their economic background, she must leave Sue. Waters does not explain about Sue’s origin family. She doesn’t talk about Sue’s father at all. Ironically, it can be concluded that she is a kid from illegal relation. Sue may miss her real mother, but the hatred she keeps is even bigger since she assumes that her mother abandon her. So what makes her involved in homosexual love? It will be discussed in next sub chapters.

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Some source state that the life of lesbian which portrayed in the novel Fingersmith might be generally different with people’s expectation (Smhoop analysis :Fingersmith, 2005:14). In this novel, lesbian love story is started from the relationship of a maid with her master. From the statement above it can be concluded that lesbian love doesn’t consider social status and class. It is the opposite of the reality in the Victorian Age. In that era, a woman will only get married with a man with same class as her. A lady will only marry a gentleman. Generally, lesbian love is purer than a love between man and woman. As discussed in Chapter II, lesbianism can happen because of togetherness factor even though it is not the only factors. In this sub chapter, the writer tries to explain the first time the two women meet until they are in love. Sue works as Maud’s personal maid. Maud is a high class young lady who will inherit her family’s wealth after getting married. The first reason why Sue work in that house is the big salary and she wish to own much money. Those are changed after Sue meets Maud. Everything she needs are provided and prepared by Sue, such as removing her dress or pants and accompanying her wherever she goes. Since she is child, Maud is taken care and accompanied by nurses in Mental Asylum. It makes her become dependence with someone. She feels comfortable when there is someone beside her.

Day by day, their togetherness makes them close and even closer as if they are siblings. Moreover, the feeling is changed from sisterhood to passionate love just like man to woman. They are afraid of losing each other. Secretly, Sue takes care of Maud, and so does Maud. Maud admires Sue’s caring towards her. Sue always treats her differently. Sue who combs her hair, changes her dresses off, accompanies her and makes her feel being loved. The more days the more she loves Sue, and so does Sue who

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admires Maud’s beauty and body shape. Until one midnight, Maud gets nightmare. Sue whose room is beside Maud’s room hears Maud’s scream and directly comes to Maud. Being frightened, Maud begs sue to accompany her sleeping in that room. Sue follows what Maud says though she is afraid of Maud’s uncle that will be surely furious knowing that. As he assumes that a Maid is does not deserve to sleep in a room with her mistress. The changes of Maud’s behavior towards Sue make Sue keeps distant with her. Maud persuades her to talk and talk more often, ask her to dance together, lend Sue her beautiful dress. Until in one night, Sue asks her to touch her. Maud asks Sue to explain how a man touches a woman in their first wedding night.

She wet her mouth. 'Do you think me good?' she said.

'I wish you would tell me,' she said, 'what it is a wife must do, on her wedding-night!'

Then I felt her make herself steady. 'I think,' she said, in a flat, unnatural voice, 'I think he will kiss me. Will he do that?'

Again, I felt her breath on my face. I felt the word, kiss. Again, I blushed.

'Will he?' she said. 'Yes, miss.'

I felt her nod. 'On my cheek?' she said. 'My mouth?' 'On your mouth, I should say.'

'On my mouth. Of course…' She lifted her hands to her face: I saw at last, through the darkness, the whiteness of her gloves, heard the brushing of her fingers across her lips. The sound seemed greater than it ought to have done. The bed seemed closer and blacker than ever. I wished the rush-light had not burned out. I wished—I think it was the only time I ever did—that the clock would chime. There was only the

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silence, with her breath in it. Only the darkness, and her pale hands. The world might have shrunk, or fallen away.

(Waters, 2002: 147)

The weird thing is that Sue doesn’t refuse. She does it well. Biologically, it can be concluded that Maud and Sue take act as man and woman. Maud asks Sue to act as a man who loves her woman. Their passions are always seen from the way they look at each other and the way they laugh. The safest place to enjoy their closeness is the garden. It is a place where Maud is used to paint and look for any inspiration. That place is also out of sight of Maud’s uncle and chief of maids. Not only in the garden, they also express their passionate love in Maud’s room.

'My lips?' she answered, in a tone of surprise. 'They are here.' I found them, and kissed her.

'Don't be frightened,' I said at once.

That's what I thought. So, I kissed her again. Then I touched her. I touched her face. I began at the meeting of our mouths—at the soft wet corners of our lips—then found her jaw, her cheek, her brow—I had touched her before, to wash and dress her; but never like this. So smooth she was! So warm! It was like I was calling the heat and shape of her out of the darkness—as if the darkness was turning solid and growing quick, under my hand.

She began to shake. I supposed she was still afraid. Then I began to shake, too.

(Waters, 2002: 149)

The happiness they feel makes Sue forget about herself and her first purpose of being a maid at the Briar. A few weeks later, a young artist, a man named Richard

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Rivers proposes Maud to be his wife. Maud who doesn’t like him at all rejects the proposal. Richard Rivers doesn’t give up, he suggests Maud’s uncle, Christopher lily so his beautiful niece accepts him as husband. Considering River’s family background, Christopher Lily pushes Maud to accept Rivers’ proposal. Maud can do nothing but follows what her uncle asks her to. She accepts Rivers’ proposal that makes Sue broken heart. She feels hurt.

If I had said, I love you, she would have said it back; and everything would have changed. But if I did that, she'd find me out for the villain I was. I thought of telling her the truth; and trembled harder. I couldn't do it. She was too simple. She was too good. If there had only been some stain upon her, some speck of badness in her heart—! But there was nothing. Only that crimson bruise. A single kiss had made it. How would she do, in the Borough?

(Waters,2002: 245)

Maud has not told this thing to Sue yet. She is afraid of disappointing Sue. The passion of their flaming love has faded. Maud stays in morrow and doesn’t focus on reading novel to her uncle’s guests. Then, she plans to explain all the matters to Sue. She wants to tell Sue that it is not her will. A few days before her wedding, Maud comes to Sue and tells her that she will get married. Maud tells her that it is not her will and asks her to understand her position. Hearing that story, Sue feels that she is betrayed by her beloved one. She pretends to be happy in front of Maud. They smile but their minds are still working on what will happen next. Sue thinks her life should be back to her home which has almost been forgotten by her. She imagines that her mother will be disappointed knowing her returns without any pennies on her hand. As her early will is to get much money by working and stealing, Maud tries to tease her and entertain her.

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Maud is more aggressive in making love as Sue consider herself as a servant and Maud as her Mistress.

“But then she did this. She kept her fingers upon my head and pushed my mouth too hard against hers; and she seized my hand and took it, first to her bosom, then to where the blankets dipped, between her legs. There she rubbed with my fingers until they burned.

The quick, sweet feeling her kiss had called up in me turned to something like horror, or fear. I pulled from her, and drew my hand away. 'Won't you do it?' she said softly, reaching after me. 'Didn't you do it before, for the sake of this night? Can't you leave me to him now, with your kisses on my mouth, your touch upon me, there, to help me bear his the better?—Don't go!' She seized me again. 'You went, before. You said I dreamed you. I'm not dreaming now. I wish I were! God knows, God knows, I wish I were dreaming, and might wake up and be at Briar again!'

(Waters, 2002: 169)

Both of them are tortured by the feeling of afraid of being separated. Along the night, they embrace each other as if the death angel would pick them up.

After Maud getting married with Richard Rivers and leaving her uncle, Sue returns to London, to her adopted mother, Mrs. Suksby. A year later, an issue spreads out that the marriage of Maud doesn’t work. She is cheated by her husband. Rivers proposes Maud since he knows that Maud will inherit all the wealth of her family. He leaves Maud after taking all of Maud’s properties. A terrible thing happens on Rivers, he is dead caused killed by a baby day care in London. This accident makes Maud come back to Briar.

Maud later finds out that her uncle has died, since she is still the heir of Lily’s family, she prefers to stay there with her maids. Hearing that Maud has returned to Briar,

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Sue comes to meet her. Maud is very surprised seeing Sue, the one she loves and misses standing exactly in front of her.

I looked at her, not understanding. I looked at the paper in her hand. Then my heart missed its beat.

'You are writing books, like his!' I said. She nodded, not speaking. Her face was grave. I don't know how my face seemed. I think it was burning. 'Books, like that!' I said. 'I can't believe it. Of all the ways I thought I'd find you— And then, to find you here, all on your own in this great house—'

(Waters, 2002: 527)

Actually, the meaning of Sue’s question is why that she is not remarried and build a new family. Maud who understands it honestly admit that she is in waiting for someone. Maud is waiting for Sue.

'I am not alone,' she said. 'I have told you: I have William Inker and his wife to care for me.'

'To find you here, all on your own, writing books like that—!' Again, she looked almost proud. 'Why shouldn't I?' she said.

I did not know. 'It just don't seem right,' I said. 'A girl, like you—' (Waters, 2002:520)

Sue behaves flatly. Her expression tells Maud that she is really disappointed with Maud. She hates Maud.

'Hate you!' I said. 'When I have fifty proper reasons for hating you, already; and only—'

Only love you, I wanted to say. I didn't say it, though. What can I tell you? If she could still be proud, then so, for now, could I… I didn't need

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to say it, anyway: she could read the words in my face. Her colour changed, her gaze grew clearer.

(Waters, 2002:582)

The citation above shows that Sue still loves Maud. Though disappointed and hatred covers her heart. She loves Maud. Her affection is pure to her. For a while they just keep silent, looking at one another. A few minutes later they hugged and kissed, releasing all the longing feeling. Maud Lily and Susan Trinder tell the maids that they are lovers. They believe that their love will be last forever. And they decide to live in Briar, live escorting one each other till the death come picked them up.

4.2 The Factors Caused The CharacterBecome a Lesbians Portrayed in Fingersmith Novel

4.2.1 Social Status and the Relation of Family

Victorian Age demonstrates the social class system and the social divisions of English people in certain terms and conditions in a pre-defined specific ladder of pattern, but there are some changes in social class system during this era as compared to the traditional social class system of England. For an example the aristocrat class gets changed to upper class. Some of the increasing powerful upper middle class categories secure their places in this upper class. Education in nineteenth-century in England is not equal - not between the sexes, and not between the classes. Gentlemen would be educated at home by a governess or tutor until they are old enough to attend the school or university; also it depends on their social class and family background. As for woman, they have education at home. There are boarding schools, but no university, and the studies are very different. Women study languages, reading, painting and how to be a

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real lady. They expect ethic from a woman for the Victorian Age holds their social classes highly. They, who belong to upper social class, get education since their birth to know how a woman should behave. Maud learns much as she lives with her uncle at Briar. She learns how to read, paint and play music instruments.

Middle class women have more freedom, but their parents used to motivate them to learn about the proper ethics. The woman who comes from lower class is not aware of education. Sue for instance, she only learns what she needs. She can’t read and can only write her name.

“I believe I learned my alphabet, like that: not by putting letters down, but by taking them out. I know I learned the look of my own name, from handkerchiefs that came, marked Susan. As for regular reading, we never troubled with it.”

(Waters, 2002:29)

Sue who comes from lower class assumes that education is not really important for them. In this novel, Waters explains that economic reason becomes the main factor. Water also portrays that the life condition of lower class is being a servant or slave.

Maud who comes from upper class after being taken by her uncle does the same activity in her daily life such as painting, reading and being a secretary of her uncle. She lives under her uncle’s maid. Everything she needs always served by her personal maid. Most of her agenda is doing the task burdened by her uncle in his library. Maud lives under the authority of her uncle. She has no time to be relax. She is saturated and sick of that situation.

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“Still, the library is kept warmer than my own room, to ward off mould from the books; and I find I prefer to write, than to sew. He gives me a pencil with a soft lead that moves silently upon paper, and a green-shaded reading-lamp, to save my eyes.

My work itself is of the most tedious kind, and consists chiefly of copying pages of text, from antique volumes, into a leather-bound book. The book is a slim one, and when it is filled my job is to render it blank again with a piece of india-rubber.”

(Waters, 2002:209)

4.2.2 Violence

Mistreatment makes woman no longerbelieve in men. When two women share the same hatred towards men, the feeling and relationship between them will be must likely to grow.

Woman tends to use feeling than logic and she seldom do such a rebellion. In this novel, Water tries to tell the readers that in Victorian Age, it can be some violence found done by man towards woman also the otherwise. Sue, as the main character in the novel gets a physical violence from adoctor named Doctor Cristy. She is tortured when she is in mental asylum. A tragedy makes her sent in to that rehabilitation.

I tried to speak. 'Help!Help!' I tried to say. But the spoon made me gobble like a bird. It also made me dribble; and a bit of dribble flew out of my mouth and struck Dr Christie's cheek. Perhaps he thought I had spat it. Anyway, he moved quickly back, and his face grew grim. He took out his handkerchief.

'Very good,' he said to the men and the nurse, as he wiped his cheek. 'That will do. Now you may take her.'

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Sue gets that kind of violence not only from the doctor, but also from the nurse. Besides that, she also gets mental violence. As she is forced to be taken care of Mental Hospital while she suffers no disease or any disorder.

“She put her foot to me. 'Now, does Dr Christie have you here to give us all bruises? Eh, my lady?…and she picked me up about my waist; and she dropped me. You could not say she threw me, but she lifted me high and let me fall; and me being just then so dazed and so weak, I fell badly.”

(Waters 2002: 422)

Violence, both mental and physical are also experienced by Maud. Since she is in 10 years old, she lives with her uncle at Briar. She is disciplinarily and hard educated. Her uncle will not think twice to hit her if she makes any mistakes. Christopher Lily uses hard method in educating and teaching Maud. He will give penalties by hitting her if she makes any mistakes or breaks the rules he makes. Maud is jailed with rules and regulation. The servants in that house are given opportunity to hit her if she does any mistakes. The pressure is higher and higher on her.

“I feel i, and suck harder. Then the women pluck me from her. And when I weep, they hit me…._{But I could not want a lover, more than I}

want freedom.” (Waters, 2002 : 261)

Mentally, Maud also gets violence when she lives in mental hospital since she’s born until she is brought by her uncle to Briar. Her mother is a mental patient and dies for giving birth to her. Her life changes after she moves to her uncle’s house. Being a personal secretary of his own uncle gives pressure to her. She has to read many book to

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'Make yourself neat tonight, Maud,' he says to me, as I stand in his library buttoning up my gloves. 'We shall have guests. Hawtrey, Huss, and another fellow, a stranger. I hope to employ him with the mounting of our pictures,'

(Waters, 2002:289)

All of things experienced by Maud make her sick of her uncle, but there is nothing she can do but to keep it in her heart alone. She tries to escape from that house, but Sue, as her maid tries to calm her down and asks her not to do it.

“'My happiness is nothing to him,' she said. 'Only his books! He has made me like a book. I am not meant to be taken, and touched, and liked. I am meant to keep here, in a dim light, for ever!'

She spoke more bitterly than I had ever heard her speak before. I said,

'Your uncle loves you, I'm sure. ' “ (Waters, 2002:381)

Maud’s daily activity is reading and mastering her uncle’s books. She is responsible for reading those books to his uncle’s guests. She used to read pornographic book and homosexual books. In this novel, it is said that Lily Christopher marries no body indicating that he is a gay.

“My passions are met with punishments, each fiercer than the last. I am bound about the wrists and mouth. I am shut into lonely rooms, or into cupboards.

When Mrs Stiles comes to release me I have made myself a kind of nest and cannot be uncurled, and am as weak as if they had drugged me.” (Waters, 2002:278)

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Mentally, Maud get more pressure from her uncle more then what she has experienced in Mental Hospital. She feels tortured because her uncle’s bans her from doing everything she wants. She can’t release her biological passion to her husband. So, she releases it to her personal servant.

4.2.3 Environment & Romantic Friendship

For many years, the intense and passionate friendships between women in the Victorian Era are unexplored as a form of female same-sex desire. However, many exchanges among women in romantic friendships show that passion, love, intimacy, and quite likely sex do occur in these kinds of relationships. According to Carol Smith-Rosenberg, romantic friendships ranged from the supportive love of sisters, through the enthusiasms of adolescent girls, to sensual avowals of love by mature women(Smith, 1975: 2). Often, women in romantic friendships would write ardent love letters to each other, express their devotion and admiration for one another. Girls’ play is cooperative and most of them are indoor.(M. Elly,2011:575)

According to Elly, the difference of behavior for woman and man is not genetically but socially and culturally. Society distinguishes treatment to girls and boys since the beginning of their development or child age. (M.Elly, 2011:578)

Another expression of female same-sex desire includes what Vicinus calls, the occasional lover of women. These “free women” choose a highly varied sexuality, one that vacillated between women and men. Regularly, their appearance might signal an erotic interest in women, while at other times they might look for male when playing the role of mistress, courtesan, or prostitute. However, they were also the first to be seen as a social problem by the vice and moral reformers, because of their gender deviance and

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their possible influence on male political leaders (Vicinus 1993, 438). Taken together, these examples encompass a wide range of female same-sex desires, and should be seen less as distinct types of women, but rather as embodying general themes from the 19th century. We cannot possibly detail or know all the articulations of same-sex desire among women, but we can point to patterns and cultural scripts visible during this time. These women formed loving and passionate relationships with other women during a period when their behavior was increasingly becoming pathologized. In a very real way, they are images of early lesbian desire, as well as highly courageous and often unrecognized.

A romantic friendship or passionate friendship is a very close but typically beyond that which is common in the contemporary exampl fingersmith novel show that both of character who became a lesbian do that.

I don't know how long we lie, then. She sinks beside me, with her face against my hair. She slowly draws back her fingers. My thigh is wet from where she has leaned and moved upon me. The feathers of the mattress have yielded beneath us, the bed is close and high and hot. She puts back the blanket. The

night is still deep, the room still black. Our breaths still come fast, our hearts beat loud—faster, and louder, they

seem to me, in the thickening silence; and the bed, the room—the house!—seem filled with echoes of our voices,

our whispers and cries. (Waters, 2002: 363)

Intercommunication in society greatly affects a person's character. In chapter two, it has been explained that one of the causes of lesbianism love is environmental

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up the latter half of the book. The Observer said: "The inimitable Sarah Waters handles a dramatic key change with aplomb in her new novel set in 1920s south London". The Telegraph described it as "eerie, virtuoso writing".

Academic work

• Waters, S. (1994). "'A Girton Girl on a Throne': Queen Christina and Versions of Lesbianism, 1906-1933". Feminist Review (46): 41

• Waters, S. (1995). ""The Most Famous Fairy in History": Antinous and Homosexual Fantasy". Journal of the History of Sexuality6 (2): 194–230.

•

(PhD thesis)

Adaptations Television

•

Two

•

Awards

Sarah Waters was named as one of Granta's 20 Best of Young British Writers in January 2003. The same year, she received the South Bank Award for Literature. She was named

Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards

"Writer of the Year" at the annual

Each of her novels has received awards as well.

Tipping the Velvet

•

• Library Journal's Best Book of the Year, 1999

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• New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award, 1999

• Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction (shortlist), 2000

•

Affinity

•

Award), 2000

• Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year Award (shortlist), 2000

• Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction, 2000

• Lambda Literary Award for Fiction (shortlist), 2000

• Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (shortlist), 2000

•

• The Best Translated Crime Fiction of the Year in Japa

Fingersmith

• British Book Awards Author of the Year, 2002

•

• The Best Translated Crime Fiction of the Year in Japa

The Night Watch

• Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006

• Orange Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2006

•

The Little Stranger

• Man Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist), 2009

• Nominee for

The Paying Guests

•

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Part One

Sue Trinder, an orphan raised in 'a Fagin-like den of thieves' by her adoptive mother, Mrs. Sucksby, is sent to help Richard 'Gentleman' Rivers seduce a wealthy heiress. Posing as a maid, Sue is to gain the trust of the lady, Maud Lilly, and eventually persuade her to elope with Gentleman. Once they are married, Gentleman plans to commit Maud to a madhouse and claim her fortune for himself.

Sue travels to Briar, Maud's secluded home in the country, where she lives a sheltered life under the care of her uncle, Christopher Lilly. Like Sue, Maud was orphaned at birth; her mother died in a mental asylum, and she has never known her father. Her uncle uses her as a secretary to assist him in compiling an Index of Erotica, and keeps her to the house, working with him in the silence of his library.

Sue and Maud forge an unlikely friendship, which develops into a mutual physical passion; after a time, Sue realizes she has fallen in love with Maud, and begins to regret her involvement in Gentleman's plot. Deeply distressed, but feeling she has no choice, Sue persuades Maud to marry Gentleman, and the trio flee from Briar to a nearby church, where Maud and Gentleman are hastily married in a midnight ceremony.

Making a temporary home in a local cottage, and telling Maud they are simply waiting for their affairs to be brought to order in London, Gentleman and a reluctant Sue make arrangements for Maud to be committed to an asylum for the insane; her health has already waned as a result of the shock of leaving her quiet life at Briar, to Gentleman's delight.

After a week, he and Sue escort an oblivious Maud to the asylum in a closed carriage. However, the doctors apprehend Sue on arrival, and from the cold reactions of Gentleman and the seemingly innocent Maud, Sue guesses that it is she who has been conned: "That bitch knew everything. She had been in on it from the start."

Part Two

In the second part of the novel, Maud takes over the narrative. She describes her early life being raised by the nurses in the mental asylum where her mother died, and the sudden appearance of her uncle, who arrives when she is eleven to take her to Briar to be his secretary.

Her induction into his rigid way of life is brutal; Maud is made to wear gloves constantly to preserve the surfaces of the books she is working on, and is denied food when she tires of labouring with her uncle in his library. Distressed, and missing her previous home, Maud begins to demonstrate sadistic tendencies, biting and kicking her maid, Agnes, and her abusive carer, Mrs Stiles. She harbours a deep resentment toward her mother for abandoning her, and starts holding her mother's locket every night, and whispering to it how much she hates her.

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Shockingly, Maud reveals that her uncle's work is not to compile a dictionary, but to assemble a bibliography of literary pornography, for the reference of future generations. In his own words, Christopher Lilly is a 'curator of poisons.' He introduces Maud to the keeping of the books—indexing them and such—when she is barely twelve, and deadens her reactions to the shocking material. As she grows older, Maud reads the material aloud for the appreciation of her uncle's colleagues. On one occasion, when asked by one of them how she can stand to curate such things, Maud answers, "I was bred to the task, as servants are."

She has resigned herself to a life serving her uncle's obscure ambition when Richard Rivers arrives at Briar. He reveals to her a plan to help her escape her exile in Briar, a plan involving the deception of a commonplace girl who will believe she has been sent to Briar to trick Maud out of her inheritance. After initial hesitation, Maud agrees to the plan and receives Sue weeks later, pretending to know nothing about the plot.

Maud falls in love with Sue over time and, like Sue, begins to question whether she will be able to carry out Gentleman's plot as planned. Though overcome with guilt,

Maud does, and travels with Gentleman t

claiming to the doctors that Sue was the mad Mrs Maud Rivers who believed she was a commonplace girl.

Instead of taking Maud to a house i

takes her to Mrs. Sucksby in the Borough. It was, it turns out, Gentleman's plan to bring her here all along; and, Mrs. Sucksby, who had orchestrated the entire plan, reveals to a

stunned Maud that a lady, Marianne Lilly, had come t

earlier, pregnant and alone. When Marianne discovered her cruel father and brother had found her, she begged Mrs. Sucksby to take her newborn child and give her one of her 'farmed' infants to take its place.

Sue, it turns out, was Marianne Lilly's true daughter, and Maud one of the many orphaned infants who had been placed on Mrs. Sucksby's care after being abandoned. Marianne revises her will on the night of the switch, entitling each of the two girls to half of Marianne Lilly's fortune. By having Sue committed, Mrs. Sucksby could intercept one share; by keeping Maud a prisoner, she could take the other half. She had planned the switch of the two girls for seventeen years, and enlisted the help of Gentleman to bring Maud to her in the weeks before Sue's eighteenth birthday, when she would become legally entitled to the money. By setting Sue up as the 'mad Mrs. Rivers', Gentleman could, by law, claim her fortune for himself.

Alone and friendless, Maud has no choice but to remain a prisoner at Lant Street. She makes one attempt to escape to the home of one of her uncle's friends, Mr. Hawtrey, but he turns her away, appalled at the scandal that she has fallen into, and anxious to preserve his own reputation. Maud returns to Lant Street and finally submits to the care of Mrs. Sucksby. It is then that Mrs. Sucksby reveals to her that Maud was not an orphan that she took into her care, as she and Gentleman had told her, but Mrs. Sucksby's own daughter.

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Part three

The novel resumes Sue's narrative, picking up where Maud and Gentleman had left her in the mental asylum. Sue is devastated at Maud's betrayal and furious that Gentleman double-crossed her. When she screams to the asylum doctors that she is not Mrs. Rivers but her maid Susan, they ignore her, as Gentleman (helped by Maud) has convinced them that this is precisely her delusion, and that she is really Maud Lilly Rivers, his troubled wife.

Sue is treated appallingly by the nurses in the asylum, being subjected to beatings and taunts on a regular basis. Such is her maltreatment and loneliness that, after a time, she begins to fear that she truly has gone mad. She is sustained by the belief that Mrs. Sucksby will find and rescue her. Sue dwells on Maud's betrayal, the devastation of which quickly turns to anger.

Sue's chance at freedom comes when Charles, a knife boy from Briar, comes to visit her. He is the nephew, it turns out, of the local woman (Mrs Cream) who owned the cottage the trio had stayed in on the night of Maud and Gentleman's wedding. Charles, a simple boy, had been pining for the charming attentions of Gentleman to such an extent that Mr Way, the warden of Briar, had begun to beat him severely. Charles ran away, and had been directed to the asylum by Mrs Cream, who had no idea of the nature of the place.

Sue quickly enlists his help in her escape, persuading him to purchase a blank key and a file to give to her on his next visit. This he does, and Sue, using the skills learnt growing up in the Borough, escapes from the asylum and travels with Charles to London, with the intention of returning to Mrs. Sucksby and her home in Lant Street.

On arrival, an astonished Sue sees Maud at her bedroom window. After days of watching the activity of her old home from a nearby boarding house, Sue sends Charles with a letter explaining all to Mrs. Sucksby, still believing that it was Maud and Gentleman alone who deceived her. Charles returns, saying Maud intercepted the letter, and sends Sue a playing card—the Two of Hearts, representing lovers—in reply. Sue takes the token as a joke, and storms into the house to confront Maud, half-mad with rage. She tells everything to Mrs. Sucksby, who pretends to have known nothing, and despite Mrs. Sucksby's repeated attempts to calm her, swears she will kill Maud for what she has done to her. Gentleman arrives, and though initially shocked at Sue's escape, laughingly begins to tell Sue how Mrs. Sucksby played her for a fool. Maud physically tries to stop him, knowing how the truth would devastate Sue; a scuffle between Maud, Gentleman and Mrs. Sucksby ensues, and in the confusion, Gentleman is stabbed by the knife Sue had taken up to kill Maud, minutes earlier. He bleeds to death. A hysterical Charles alerts the police. Mrs. Sucksby, at last sorry for how she has deceived the two girls, immediately confesses to the murder: "Lord knows, I'm sorry for it now; but I done it. And these girls here are innocent girls, and know nothing at all about it; and have harmed no-one."

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Mrs. Sucksby who is ‘a baby day care’ is hanged for killing Gentleman; it is revealed that Richard Rivers was not a shamed gentleman at all, but a draper's son named Frederick Bunt, who had had ideas above his station. Maud disappears, though Sue sees her briefly at Mrs. Sucksby's trial and gathers from the prison matrons that Maud had been visiting Mrs. Sucksby in the days leading up to her death. Sue remains unaware of her true parentage, until she finds the will of Marianne Lilly tucked in the folds of Mrs. Sucksby's gown. Realizing everything, an overwhelmed Sue sets out to find Maud, beginning by returning to Briar. It is there she finds Maud, and the nature of Christopher Lilly's work is finally revealed to Sue. It is further revealed that Maud is now writing erotic fiction to sustain herself financially, publishing her stories in The Pearl, a pornographic magazine run by one of her uncle's friends in London, William Lazenby. The two girls, still very much in love with each other despite everything, make peace and give vent to their feelings at last then they declare their relationship to all those their servants at Briar.

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