Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literary work can be viewed as a portrait of human life. Both fiction and non-fiction will capture some aspects of human life. The story of human life basically can be found in some literary works; like poetry, play, drama, play- script, and novel. Some stories contain human feelings such as sadness, happiness, anger, gloom, and many more. Moody in Literary Appreciation: A Practical Guide to the Understanding and Enjoyment of Literature in English, states that literature brings us back to the realities of human situations, problems, feelings, and relationships. 1968:3 R elated with Moody‘s perspective that literature serves the reality based on human life, William J. Grace in Response to Literature, also states that Literature gives us a special knowledge of life that is not identical with that of real experience but provide a provitable supplement in terms of intellectual and critical values. It is actually possible for a well-read person to make a mature evaluation of life without having had a great deal of direct experience. 1965:7 The quotation above means that literature is the mirror of life. Since literary work is a reflection of human life, it may bring the readers to the reality of the human situation without having its experience. In other words, the readers could understand life through literature on the first hand. Another theorist, like Hudson in An Introduction to the Study of Literature also states that literature is a representation of human life, with its own problems and solutions. Literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have experienced of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us. It is thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language. It is important to understand; to begin with, that literature lives by virtue of the life which it embodies 1958: 10. According to Rohrberger and Woods, there are four modern literary genres. They are the short story, the poetry, the novel and the play or drama. Each genre has its own form 1971: 19. The play or drama is a literary work, which is written to be played on the stage. In other words, drama is not only the representative object of human life by its story but also gives pleasure and mentality amusement by its performance. As Reaske states, a drama is a work of literature or a composition which delineates life and human activity by means of presenting various actions of a group of characters. 1988:5 Drama has some elements in its story; there are characters, plot, setting, and stage direction. Characters are the most important element in drama; when people see a play; their attention will focus on the character. In Drama and Performance: An Anthology, Gary Vena and Andrea Nouryeh say that drama requires imagination to understand the content more than in most other forms of literature. In drama, we can see what is explicitly said and done. Therefore, the explication of the implied and the unspoken are understandable. Dramatically fiercely extends the characters‘ action and conflict through time and space, either active or passive with its completed of what has happened. In understanding drama, we have to understand how dramatic scripts work in setting the stage, developing the characters, and advancing the story. It is also described that ―most plays move forward through the resolution of conflicts that develop between characters. These conflicts create tension and become the catalysts for further physical or psychological action‖ Vena and Nouryeh, 1996: viii-ix. Drama is a special and unique form of writing in the world of literature. It is different from other literary works like poetry, novel, or fiction. Drama has different processes in telling the story by using stage directions and dialogue to describe the environment or the characters in the story. Drama is meant to be more than language on a page. It needs not only to be read but also to be performed. Through its performance, the audiences will be helped to understand more about the story Vena and Nouryeh, 1996: viii. Drama is a type of literary work that is usually created for a play performance. The advantage given by a technical performance, however, requires the limitations of the material it can present. A play must be able to hold the attention of a group audience. A higher demand than in prose fiction is placed for a well-defined plot, swift exposition, strong conflicts, and dramatic confrontation. Unless the play is very brief, it must usually be divided into parts separated by an intermission or intermissions, and each part must work up to its own climax or point of suspense. It must be written in such a way that its central meanings may be grasped in a single hearing Perrine, 1969:9Il-2. In drama characters are the implementation of human being in real life with their emotions and behaviors or it can be said that drama is the imitation of life. Barranger writes in Understanding Plays that Dramas characters are images of active human beings. To be credible, their manner and dress must fit their period, place, and social class. Their speech must suit their age, sex, personality, class and circumstances. Their actions must be rooted in situation. The playwrights success depends on skill in developing characters and events together in believable and convincing patterns of choice and behavior 1994:339. The above quotation also means that drama cannot be separated from human life. In drama the author tries to comprehend the character‘s life with the human life in some aspects. In Understanding Plays, drama is described as the reflection of ourselves; it leads us to discoveries and reflections about our personalities, circumstances, desires, anxieties, hopes, and dreams. It is able to show the ways in satisfying our willingness in relationships or confronting despair in death. The characters in the play have struggled to show love and affection to one another. ―Great plays confront us with life‘s varieties, conveying the hope, courage, despair, compassion, violence, love hate, exploitation, and generosity experienced by all humankinds ‖Barranger, 1994:7. Barranger also states that drama is unique among the representational arts in that it represents reality by using real human beings -actors- as characters- to create its fictional universe 1994 :338. It means that drama is a reality‘s manifesto. According to Reinert in Drama: An Introductory Anthology , ―Drama is distinguished from the other forms of literature not just by performability but also by the objectivity and externality that performabi lity implies‖. The above quotation means that drama is diverse in how it‘s performed, how to characterize the characters, and how the message of the play infiltrates the audiences. In the analysis, the writer wants to find the theme. The focus of the analysis is to find the identical relationship between characters and plot in ways to find the theme of the story. Theme is the interesting element in which it can show what the story is about and it gives the reader the deep understanding and taught about hu man‘s life. According to Stanton in An Introduction to Fiction, at finding the theme, the readers must go deeper to the characters‘ characteristics and the plot. 1965:21 As the subject of the study, the writer analyzes the major characters and the plot t hrough Arthur Miller‘s A View from the Bridge. A View from the Bridge is one of Arthur Miller‘s masterpieces and Arthur Miller was an excellent playwright. He produces some great plays and biography such as The Man Who Had All the Luck, opened in 1944 and his next play, All My Sons, received the Drama Critics Circle Award. His 1949 Death of a Salesman won the Pulitzer Prize. Among his works are A View from the Bridge, The Misfits, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, The Price, The American Clock, Broken Glass, Mr. Peters Connections, and Timebends, his autobiography. Millers writing has earned him a lifetime of honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, seven Tony Awards, two Drama Critics Circle Awards, an Obie, an Olivier, the John F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish prize. He holds honorary doctorate degrees from Oxford University and Harvard University. http:www.neh.govaboutawardsjefferson-lecturearthur-miller-biography The writer is interested in reading this play, because of the dramatic figure of the story. The major characters of the play, Eddie Carbone, Marco and Alfieri are the main attention to the story. How their relationship is the main object of analysis. Therefore, the writer wants to analyze the theme of the play based on the major characters‘ life. Moreover, by analyzing this play in ways to find the theme through the major characters‘ characteristics and the plot, hopefully the readers noticed the message that can be learned in this thesis.

B. Problem Formulation