Background of the Study
Unable to live without her, Orpheus spent the rest of his days in sorrow until his death “Orpheus and Eurydice”.
Those stories show how people respect marriage. Unfortunately, more marriages break easily nowadays. People are not able to save their marriage.
According to the World Divorce Statistic in 1996, the divorce rate was so high in some countries. For example, in France the divorce rate reached 41 as of
marriages. United States Departement of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, noted that in 2005 United States’ divorce rate reached
3.6 per 1000 population, while marriage rate reached 7.5 per 1000 population ”Americans for Divorce Reform”
. This number shows that the number of
divorce is almost a half of the number of marriages. We then question the ability of couples in maintaining their marriages. What happened to the love that brought
the couple together in the beginning? This phenomenon of broken marriage is seized well by Paulo Coelho in
his novel, The Zahir. He expresses the meaning and values of marriage through his beautiful paragraphs. It shares a story about a bestselling novelist who lives in
France and enjoys all the privilleges his money and celebrity bring. One day, he discovers that his wife, a war correspondent, has disappeared without any trace.
He does not have any answer but he has plenty of questions of his own though he does not know where to start looking for his wife, Esther. All the memories of
Esther cannot be erased from his mind and becomes an obsession that almost leads him into madness. To answer the question “Why”, he traces back and
explores his moments with Esther; all the things that happen to their mariage until her leaving.
In his searching, he meets Mikhail, a young man who once was Esther’s translator in Kazakhstan and also the person with whom he believes his wife
dissapeares. Mikhail promises to reunite him with his wife if the time is right. He also says that Esther is fine and waiting for him. His searching for her and his
attempt to recapture his lost love takes him from France to Spain, Croatia and, eventually, the beautiful landscape of Central Asia, Kazakhstan. The journey takes
him from the safety of his world to a totally unknown path, searching for a new understanding of the nature of love. He finally reunites with his wife and starts to
have a happy marriage with new way of thinking. The writer regards that it is a very interesting topic to be discussed since
nowadays there are many divorce cases. Many reasons for it, but still it seems like people do not appreciate the values of marriage much. In this novel, the author
shows that marriage is worth to maintain. The narrator in Paulo Coelho’s The Zahir, whose name is not mentioned in the novel, has everything in life;
popularity, stability and wealth. Those things can be strong reasons to end his marriage with his wife, Esther, when she left him. On the contrary, he searches for
her and prefers to continue his marriage life with his wife. Analyzing one’s motivation in maintaining his or her marriage is the idea that the writer will
discuss in this study. Based on that fact, the writer wants to analyze the narrator’s motivation in finding and bringing back his wife.