The Tears of Empu Mburing

importance of social status in the society. The social status might cancel or raise consideration in conducting actions, even the actions of other customs. In relation to the plot, the evidences taken from the lines in the story are in causal relationship. 2 “… ‘that’s as may be, but this is the custom of my people that when a woman enters the home of an unmarried man, she must consent to be his wife ’” A12218 The quotation shows the reason why the woman, Siti Fari, must agree to be taken as Empu Rencak’s wife. The main reason is none but because it is the custom of the people. In addition, Siti Fari is a total stranger to Empu Rencak. They never meet before and never get engaged in a conversation previously. Thus, the motive of marriage evidently must not be caused by any result of love. The social status is depicted by the mention of the characteristics of Empu Rencak and Siti Fari. The characteristics are significant to give motives in the causal motives in the story. In other words, the story develops due to the social status of the characters. 3 “… ‘…I am of royal blood and I cannot live in a shack like this. You must build me a home and also a boat so that you can catch us fish ’” A12221 The saying is by Siti Fari to acknowledge herself as the one with a high social status. Being a royal member, she cannot live in a simple shack. She must live in a palace. A shack is not a home for a princess. Therefore, Empu Rencak should build a palace for Siti Fari. In a bigger picture, the custom does not allow a royal blood be married by a common people. In the other hand, the folktale also depicts the ideology of human dependency to supernatural being or power. As a party opposing the supernatural beings, human characters are in need of supernatural helps. They need the help to satisfy their desires, which are not in line with the customs of the society. For instance, Empu Rencak asks the help from the djinn in order to acomplish the tasks and then to marry Siti Fari. The tasks are so impossible to accomplish by human power that Empu Rencak needs to ask the djinns. The other human character, Siti Fari, also employs supernatural helps to fulfill her desire. She does not want to marry Empu Rencak anymore. Thus, she summons the supernatural beings to fail Empu Rencak ’s efforts. The plot type falls into the Tragedy. The events are possible to be classified into the elements of the type. The causal relation between the events shows the sad fate of the characters in the end. Table 4.3. The Plot Development in The Siti Fari and Empu Rencak No Stages Highlighting Events 1. Anticipation Stage Empu Rencak is introducedby his general characteristics and habits 2. Dream Stage Empu Rencak and Siti Fari meet and Empu Rencak ’s desire to take Siti Fari as his wife rises. 3. Frustation Stage Both Empu Rencak and Siti Fari call and ask for supernatural help. 4. Nightmare Stage Empu Rencak fails to meet the condition set by Siti Fari. 5. Destruction or Death Wish Stage Empu Rencak lives alone in the palace that he builds for Siti Fari The anticipation stage of the story reveals the general characteristics of the main human character, Empu Rencak. He is, similarly to Empu Mburing in the previous story, characterized by being the one living far from the neighbors. He is a simple farmer who needs to struggle to continue his life. In this stage, the character’s desire is commonly introduced. However, in this story the desire of Empu Rencak is not clearly pictured. The most possible desire is to live in a prosperous condition, the state in opposition to his life now. In the dream stage, Empu Rencak meets a beautiful woman who finally turns out that she is a princess. The name is Siti Fari. The motive that brings her to Empu Rencak’s house is simply to find a shelter in the middle of her journey. In this stage, further, the desire to live in a better condition raises and seems to find its way. Empu Rencak wants to marry Siti Fari. This desire gets a gratification from the customs in the society that if a woman comes entering a man’s house, she must be taken as the man’s wife. The marriage proposal is accepted with a condition. This condition comes out since Siti Fari must have a pride of being a royal family member. She thinks that a royal family member cannot marry common persons. In this stage, Empu Rencak is characterized as a simple farmer. The condition is that Empu Rencak should build a home and a boat for Siti Fari. Another motive that comes to Siti Fari ’s consideration is that building a house and a boat in a night will be impossible, moreover for a simple farmer. The frustration stage indicates Empu Rencak’s frustration in accomplishing the tasks set by Siti Fari. In this stage also, the ideology that human being is powerless before the supernatural beings is delivered. Because the task is impossible, Empu Rencak asks for help from the djinns, supernatural beings. The djinns have strong and powerful power. 4 “Through the night they toiled-first tearing out great chunks of rock from the earth an hammering them into bricks and beams using only their bare hands ”A12230 The djinns do not take order from Empu Rencak with no cost. They agree to help Empu Rencak since they want to possess and take control over Siti Fari once she becomes Empu Rencak’s wife. Possibly, this is the reason why Empu Rencak does not ask help to the djinns for daily life business. Somebody needs to give some offerings to the supernatural beings to ask their help. The frustration comes also to Siti Fari that she knows that Empu Rencak manages to accomplish the condition. Interestingly, Siti Fari is said to keep the custom even though actually she does not want to marry Empu Rencak. 5 “Now Siti Fari had no intention of marrying this scheming farmer, but custom was custom , so she could not refuse outright his claim ” A12235 In her frustration, Siti Fari calls upon supernatural helps also. She uses magic to create a cockerel. This conduct is meant to fail Empu Rencak ’s effort. The cockerel crows and the djinns stop working since they think that the morning has come. Different from Empu Rencak ’s frustration, Siti Fari’s frustration does not develop into a nightmare. The nightmare stage of the story is actually the nightmare of Empu Rencak, the main human character. This signifies that the human characters suffer from sad and deprecated fate. The nightmare is caused by Empu Rencak’s failure to build the house and the boat asked by Siti Fari. The house and the boat have not finished yet and, therefore, Empu Rencak struggles to finish them. In this stage, then, Empu Rencak suffers from his despair. He cannot fulfill his desire to marry Siti Fari and gain a better life. In the last stage of the story, Empu Rencak lives alone in his little shack. He does not live in the palace. Siti Fari continued her journey. Living alone as a characteristic of Tragedy becomes the fate of Empu Rencak. In a general view and as a recap, this sad ending is caused by the big desire of Empu Rencak to marry Siti Fari, the one who does not belong to the same social status to Empu Rencak. Therefore, this story and the plot want to emphasize that the custom is an obligation to the members of a society.

4.1.1.3. The Mesa Itch

The Mesa Itch employs a plot, different from the previous two stories, namely Voyage and Return in More importantly, the ideology of submissiveness to custom by employing supernatural power exists through the plot. The custom being delivered is about eating Ikan Layar. The supernatural being in the story in the form of Ikan Layar is being used as the tool to give reasons not to eat this kind of fish. The based of the custom is the causal relationship in the plot that Ikan Layar has helped human beings to overcome the miserable itch. It is also mentioned that the people of Mesa island do not eat Ikan Layar until now. 6 “But the ikan layar remain sacred to the people of Mesa and none will let its meat pass their lips ” A12366 The use of supernatural being in the story also shows the powerless state of human being before the supernatural being. The captain in the story bears the terrible itch since he disobeys the condition sets by the supernatural being. In other words, the society should not eat Ikan Layar for two reasons. First, the society should be thankful to the Ikan Layar for the help that it has done in the