4.1.3.3 Decisive
The good point in Whit is that he is daring enough to make a choice about his life. When he knows Jessie and he falls in love with her, he doubt whether he would
take his Solemn Vows or not. He cannot think clearly, his head is fulfilled with Jessie. However, he is bold enough to tell the truth about what he feels about God
and his condition right now. Although at the first time he chooses Jessie over his vow but later in the end of the story he chooses his own freedom
. ‘I can’t because I don’t know if the desire of my heart is God’ p. 259
This character is analyzed by analyzing the reaction of the character in facing a situation, Murphy 1972: 168. In the novel, Whit is asked to do the solemn vow
but he refuses that vow. He does not want to lie to himself that his desire in that moment is not God but Jessie. I leave the monastery February 1
st
. I took solemn vows last august, hut, ironically enough, decided at Christmas that I would not stay
after all. p. 376 After some considerations, Whit decided to leave both the solemn and his
feeling about Jessie. He accepts the reality that Jessie is another man’s wife and is still engaged in marriage. Moreover, he realizes that he is a man who looks for
peaceful heart not merely a relationship. He has tried to find it in the monastery but he cannot find it. Finally, he decides to leave the monastery and starts a new life. It is
shown from his letter to Jessie.
4.2 How Jessie’s Personality Develops
This part describes Jessie’s personality and its development after she is influenced by other characters. Furthermore, this part also discusses how those
people make Jessie aware of her dominant character, which is selfish. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Jessie is a middle age married woman. She feels something is missing in her happy marriage and she feels it more after she arrives at her home land, Egret Island.
Egret Island is located along the coast of South California. Egret Island is a place where she spent her childhood and a place where she tried to leave her past about her
father’s death. In the story, Jessie returns to her hometown to take care of her mother, who is suffered from strange mental attitude. Her mother deliberately cuts her own
finger. In her days in her hometown, she meets a monk who opens her mind and she is falling in love with him.
In Egret island there is a holy spot named the mermaid chair. The people there believe that the chair is very sacred. It protects the people in Egret Island who
mostly work as fisherman. Mermaid chair is a holy chair that represents oppression and freedom. Mermaid chair is a metaphor of Jessie life, mermaid chair is
symbolized as freedom because it is part of the sea. In the novel, Jessie is described as a woman who is searching freedom from her monotonous daily life as a wife.
Jessie is a woman who needs to release her boredom as a housewife and mother. She believes that she has to do something for her life, something that she
never dares to do. At forty-two I’d never done anything that took my own breath away, and I suppose now that was part of the problem- my chronic inability to
astonish myself. p. 2 In reality, a woman in the age of 41-47 years old is the crisis that most
individual undergoes. It is called mid-life crisis or mid-life transition. For example, in a real life, there are many broken marriages happen in the celebrity’s life. The
main problem is in each individual, which is an affair. Once again, the main problem is in each individual personality.
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