Character The Psychopaths in Caroline Roberts’ Novel the Lost Girl

like Theory of Literature by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren and an introduction of psychopathology by Derek Russell Davis has become the basis in analyzing and writing this thesis. Also, the Teori-teori Kepribadian by Koswara and Psikologi Edisi Kesembilan by Carol Wade and Carole Travis help the writer in understanding the term and the description of Psychopath itself. Character is an important element because the actor is human, so the definition of character will be explained in the next point.

b. Character

Kennedy 1991:47 said that character is an imagined person who exists in the story. Moreover, characters in a novel have been specially created by the author. Characterization is the author’s way of describing his characters in a literary work or the author’s means of differentiating one character to another. Characters are closely related to plot because character means actions, while actions from the plot of literary work. An author may presents his characters in two general ways, they are: 1 directly, telling his readers the characters’ qualities and 2 through actions, showing the characters’ deeds by which his characters may be revealed. It has often been assumed that characters in a literary work can be judged from four levels of characterization. They are helpful for us to see the very basic description of characters. The four levels are: a. Physical: physical level supplies such basic facts, as sex, age, and size. It is simplest level of characterization because it reveals external traits only. b. Social: social level of characterization includes economic status, profession, religion, family and social relationships. Universitas Sumatera Utara c. Psychological: this level reveals habitual responses, attitudes, desires, motivation, like and dislike-the inner workings of the mind, both emotional and intellectual which lead to action. Since feeling, thought and behavior define a character more fully than physical and social traits and since a literary work usually arises from desires in conflict, the psychological level is the most essential parts of characterization. d. Moral: moral decision more clearly differentiate characters than any other level of characterization. The choices made by a character when he is faced with a moral crisis show whether he is selfish, a hypocrite, or he is the one who always acts according to his belief. A moral decision usually causes a character to examine his own motives and values, and in the process his true nature is revealed both to himself and to the readers. A character who stands as a representative of a particular class or group of people is known as a type. Some types of characters are: Stereotyped characters do not represent individuals but a group of people, profession, etc they act according to a set of pattern; Stock characters appeared from dramatic situation such as triangle love affair; Allegorical characters are usually not given human names but they represent human attitudes and emotions and author uses names taken from the characters’ role representing their attitudes, behavior, etc; Full-dimension characters usually described at greater length, more detail and capable of greater individuation. E. M Forster 1990:73-80 distinguishes two kinds of characters, those are: Flat character is constructed round a single idea or quality, unchanging and static, at the end of the novel he is essentially what he has been throughout, his response is predictable and Round character is a character portrayed in the round, profoundly Universitas Sumatera Utara altered by his experiences, he does not embody a single idea or quality but it much more complex, his responses take us by surprise. From the explaination about character above, the character of Fred and Rose West are type of round character because the portrayal of their character is described with more detail and complex through the whole story of the novel. Her thoughts, feelings, actions and attitudes are changed and also his responses take us by surprise. Fred and Rose West suddenly become cruel people when they attack and torture their victim but for a while they also can become very nice people.

c. Psychopath