Character as seen by another

Langland noted the common assumption about this kind of problem is always “society is society, a novel is a novel” which means people always treat these two things differently. Society is being constructed by “abstract concepts, ideas about human relationships” and is not a “concrete, codified thing,” so it can be difficult to portray a real-life society in a novel due to its “language limitations in referring to any reality outside itself.” Therefore, many people were skeptical about the idea that the society in the novel can portray real-life societies. People also distrust the assumption that studying society in the novel can reflect its real-life counterpart, because man creates literature, so a chance of individuality and subjective portrayal of society can happen. Besides, they keep on believing the language will be limited in portraing the reality and hold the assumption that real-life society is too abstract to be portrayed in the novel. Langland has given the background to how most people feel and think about literature and society based on the assumption that we cannot simply judge a real-life society based on a novel’s or any literary works portrayal of society. However, as time goes by, many experts disagree with this view as they think that a literary work’s society can portray a real life society. Among them are Wellek and Warren. They note that: Literature is a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. Such traditional literary devices as symbolism and metre are social in their very nature. They are conventions and norms which could have arisen only in society. But, furthermore, literature ‘represents’ ‘life’; and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of individual have also been objects of literary ‘imitation.’ The poet himself is a member of society, possessed of a specific social status: he receives some degree of social recognition and reward; he addresses an audience, however hypothetical. Indeed, literature6 has usually arisen in close connexion with particular social institution; and in primitive society we may even be unable to distinguish poetry from ritual, magic, work, or play. Literature has also a social function, or ‘use,’ which cannot be purely individual Wellek Warren, 1956: 94 Here, Wellek and Warren at first acknowledge the truth about the existence of some norms that could only happen or “arise” in real-life society. They also admit that literature is sometimes subjective in addressing the society it portrays. However, Wellek and Warren note that literature represents life and life in larger measure is “a social reality.” Therefore, literature is a social reality and the society inside it can represent real-life society, making literature a “social institution” and a “social creation.” Wellek and Warren add that the poets are part of society and thus their works represent the society in which they live. Toward the assumption that literary works’ society is subjective, Wellek and Warren claim that literature has also a social function that cannot be purely individual. This means that society in literature can somewhat represent real-life society as its poet is a member of the society and the fact that a literature has a social use. Langland, in her book, also agrees with Wellek and Warren that literature or works of fiction in her terms can portray real life society. She notes Studies of society must acknowledge, then, that society is a concept and a construct in fiction… ...If society is a concept and construct in art, it is also a concept and construct in life. Society in novel does not depend on points of absolute fidelity to an outside world in details of costume, setting, and locality because a novel’s society does not aim at a faithful mirror of any concrete, existent thing. So, too, our everyday experience of society is not of a particular, existent thing. In life as in art, society emerges from patterned, formal relationship among aspects of our existence Langland, 1984: 4-5. Langland’s view of society provides interesting insight here. She states that if society is a concept and a construct in real life, it is also a concept and construct in