9 Literature that means acquaintance with letters comes from Latin word,
littera “literature”. In Western culture, the most basic written literary types
include poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Wellek stated that literature or letters were understood to include all writing of quality with any pretense to
permanence, while Mc Fadden stated that literature is a canon which consists of those works in language by which a community defines itself through the course
of its history as cited in Ali, 2008.
2. Theory of Character and Characterization
When reading literary work, reader wants to get understand in-depth what he is being read. That is why reader should know the elements that could help
reader to understand the idea in the story. The elements that could help the reader are plot, characters, dialogue, time, and place. In this section of the study, writer
explains the theory of character and characterization so that reader could get a better understanding of the character when reading literary work.
a. Theory of Character
This section is divided into two. The first is the definition of character and the second one is the classification of character.
1 Definition of Character
Character is one of important elements in literary works. Richard Gill in his book Mastering English Literature 1995 stated that characters in books may
have all sorts of links with the people we meet everyday but we only meet them in books p. 127. Based on his statement, it can be concluded that a character is
created to introduce reader to living world.
10 Rober
t Stanton 1965 divided the use of term “character” into two ways. First, character designates the individuals who appear in the story. The number of
characters created in a novel can be the sample of it. Second, character refers to the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that makes up
each of these individuals. p. 17
2 Classification of Character
There are some experts that explain the term “character”. They also classify the term “character” using their own terms that are different one and
another. Here, it will be explained some of them. Based on the role in the story, Stanton, in his book Introduction to Fiction
1965, p. 17- 18, classifies the term “character” into two. They are central major
character and minor character. Central or major character is a character that may dominate the whole story and presented frequently to develop the main story and
it will never be developed without herhim. Minor character is presented to explain and to help the other characters especially the major character. as cited in
Baskoro, 2006, p. 7 Perrine 1974, p. 71 classifies the term “character” into two categories.
They are static and dynamic character. Static character does not undergo any changes in his or her outlook or personalities during the course of story as at the
beginning, while dynamic character is a character that undergoes many changes in some aspects of the character in terms of personalities, ways of thinking, or
outlook from the beginning until the end of the story. as cited in Wijaya, 2008, p. 10-11
11 Forster 1972, p. 18 uses different classification from Perrine’s. He
classifies the term character into flat and round characters. A single idea or quality represents a flat character. It means that a flat character has only a monotonous
event or problem in the story. The representation of flat character does not give too much individuality detail. A flat character can be fairly described in a single
phrase or sentence because in flat character, the personality is not described in details. On the other hand, a round character is complex in temperament and
motivation. A round character is represented with subtle particularly. It is hard for reader to guess such character. Round character usually may change in significant
way when he is facing a conflict. Holman and Harmon use the same terms with Perrine. Holman and
Harmon 1986, p. 81 divide it into static and dynamic character. Similar to Perrine, a static character is a character that has little changes or does not change
at all when a thing happens to herhim. On the other hand, a round character based on Holman and Harmon explanation changes whenever a thing happens as the
result of the action. as cited in Wijaya, 2008, p. 11 In this study, the theory of character is needed to analyze Lynette as the
main character in Some Other Summer.
b. Theory of Characterization
