Method of the Study

32

B. Approach of the Study

In this study, I will analyze Mark Twain’s The Prince and The Pauper which reveals the social life of England in sixteenth century. The novel tells the contrasting life of the common people and the life of the higher level, the royal family life and the nobles’ life. I believe that by this novel Mark Twain would like to reveal the social life to convey his criticism through the major characters. It is necessary to analyze the background of the society of the novel. In order to have a better understanding about the story, including the society of the story, I will use the socio-historical approach to answer the second question as stated in the problem formulation part. I use the socio-historical approach to describe the society and the historical background related to the story. By using this kind of approach, I can give a description about the socio-historical background of England in the 16 th century, and also the social life at that time in order to give the insight and the information on the condition at that time. I use the socio-historical approach because I believe that Mark Twain inserted a criticism to the England social life in the 16 th century through his novel, and also based on the fact that some references state that Mark Twain was a realist and humorist writer Mark Twain Biography. Therefore, he usually wrote the things he knew about from the firsthand experience and inserted his criticism in it Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835-1910.

C. Method of the Study

33 The method which was applied in gathering the data for the analysis in this study was the library research. There were some steps which were applied in this analysis. First, I selected the literary work which would be analyzed in this study. Therefore, after reading some novels I decided to use Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper as the primary data in this study. The first impression that I got when reading this novel was the title. I was interested in the depiction of the two characters that revealed the strong contrasting life. I studied the novel in order to gain deeper understanding about the novel and the meaning that I wanted to reveal. First, I focused on the context. I believe that understanding the context of the novel would influence the interpretation of the novel. Second, I kept on further reading for a better understanding on the novel, including the characters, the setting and some important events in the novel related to this study. After further reading, I got an implicit meaning from the story of the novel. Therefore, I could decide the best topic for my study. I decided to take the topic about criticism of the nobles’ life. Then the next step, I formulated two problems. The first dealt with the two main characters, that was to describe the life of the two major characters, Tom Canty and Prince Edward Tudor. The second was about how Mark Twain criticizes the English nobles’ life through the characters of Tom Canty and Prince Edward Tudor. In the fourth step, I focused on studying the theory of the critical approaches to get the appropriate approach for my study. I read A Glossary of Literary Terms; The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms which 34 concerned on the theory of critical approach.. I also read Reading and writing about literature; An Introduction to Fiction; Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing; How to Read and Write about Fiction; Reading the Novel: An Understanding to Techniques of Interpreting Fiction. Fifth, after studying the theory of critical approaches, I decided to use Psychological and Socio-Historical Approach in analyzing the novel. I also read Character and The Novel and some handouts about literature. Then I decided to use some theories which would help me in digging out the novel including character theory and setting theory. In the sixth step, I started to collect some references that can be used to answer the questions as stated in the problem formulation part related to the study. In this step, I collected the sources and articles about Mark Twain’s life, works, and criticism both from books and also from the electronic source or internet. I also started to find some books related to the History of England in the 16 th century, the English culture and society in the 16 th Century. In the seventh step, I tried to analyze the collected data to answer the two questions which are stated in the problem formulation. I chose the references that can support the study.

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS