a. Personal description
The author directly describes the character’s physical appearance and clothes in the way telling an accurate description.
b. Character as seen by another
Instead of describing a character directly, the author describes the character through the eyes and opinion of the others, so that the reader can get a
reflected image. c.
Speech We can understand the characters by the way they speak. Whenever they
speak, or in a conversation with the others, they give us a clue to their characters.
d. Past life
The author lets the readers learn something about character’s past life by giving them clues through his comment, conversation or through the medium
of another character. e.
Conversation of others The author can give the readers clues about the character through the
conversations of other characters and what they say about himher. f.
Reaction The author lets the readers know about the character’s personality through his
reaction toward various situation and events. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
g. Thoughts
The author gives the readers a direct knowledge about character is thinking about.
h. Mannerism
The author explains about his character by describing the character manner or habits.
Different from M.J. Murphy, Perrine in his book Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense divides character into two categories, based on ‘motivation’ and
based on ‘development’. Based on ‘motivation:
- Flat character Character which is characterized by one or two traits.
- Round character Character which is usually complex and many sided.
- Stock character Character as the stereotyped figure who occurs very often in fiction that his
nature is immediately known. Based on ‘development’:
- Static character Character which usually does not undergo a change or in other words at the
end he is still the same as he was in the beginning. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
- Dynamic character Character which undergoes a permanent change in his character personality or
outlooks. In relation with character, it is important to understand the
characterization, because both of them are undivided. According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature
characterization is a character which has particular personalities and physical attributes that differs them from other characters, that is shaped by the process of
an author creates a characters themselves Rohrberger and Woods,1971:20. 2.
Feminism
There are many arguments about what feminism is. Feminism in general is the ideology of woman’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief
that women suffer injustice because of their sex Humm, 1990: 74. Maggie Humm adds that feminist theory reveals the importance of women as individual. It
analyzes how sexual differences are constructed within any intellectual and social world and build accounts of experiences from these differences Humm, 1990: x.
Sexually, human being divides into two, male and female. The biological differentiation between two kinds of human being is called gender. Talk about
feminism will be never far away from the matter of gender classification. The problem of gender classification of human being into men and women
always arises in society. The differentiation between men and women resulted by the social construction or social culture causes unfairness
toward women Glover and Kaplan, 2000: 207. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
There is a kind of unpleasant feeling to know that women are often treated unfair because in fact, gender is destiny, it is not the matter of choice of picking up and
discarding identities at will. Despite their diversity, feminist critics generally agree that their goals are
to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices, to promote discovery and re-evaluation of literature by woman and to examine social, cultural and
psychosexual context of literature and literary criticism. Feminist critics therefore study sexual, social and political issues once thought to be “outside” the study of
literature Guerin, 1999: 197. In his further statement, Guerin states that in its diversity, feminism is concerned with the marginalization of all women, that is
with their being relegated to a secondary position Guerin, 1999: 196. Jo Freeman in her book Women, A Feminist Perspective states that there
are discrimination between men and women. It has been for a long time that the society considers men as superior and women as inferior. This paradigm was
started by the traditional thought and up to now, it is still strongly embedded to the way of thinking of the society.
The traditionalist view looks at the many ways in which women differ from men concludes that these differences reflect some basic intrinsic
differences that far transcend reproductive capacities. The traditionalist notes that historically, women have always had less power, less influence,
and fewer resources than men, and assumes this must accord with some natural order Freeman, 1975: xiii.
Feminism is closely related with the idea of universal equality between men and women. It can be said that behind all differences, there is some
characteristically human nature by virtue that all men are equal. The aim of equality is to avoid some existing unequal treatment.
Freeman divines the ideas feminism into several points, some of them are:
a. Equality
The idea of equality is that behind all the differences, basically men are all the same in the matter of to have rights and to do their duties.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain
inalienable rights, that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness Freeman, 1975: 439.
God creates people as men and women in order to complete each others, to help each others to fulfill their needs and, in the most basic aim is to get
happiness.
b. Freedom of Argument
The feminism reacts against belief which is exists on the society that a woman is placed under men’s control.
“Woman feels she is not made for command, and finds her truest happiness in submitting to those who wield a rightful scepter in justice,
mercy and love” Freeman, 1975: 421.
The idea of feminism is to give women awareness that they have a freedom in revealing ideas and thought. Feminism brings a thought that women are free in
giving argument and finding happiness as long as they follow the legal rules of law.
c. Opportunity
Feminism demands for the woman equality of education and access to the profession. In other words, feminism help woman to fulfill their ambition to have
an equal right as man in achieving a satisfaction through her own abilities. A husband has some roles in his position. He is the man who works
outside home. His primary obligation is to provide financial support for PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
the family. He plays an important part as a head and a master of the family Freeman, 1975: 73.
It is true that man is the leader of family, but he should give a wife woman her right to develop her abilities and to go work or to have a job. A wife is a
homemaker, but she has a right to work because as same as man has, God gives abilities to think or to do some valuable things.
W.L. Guerin
in his
A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature stated that the domination of male characters toward female characters appears
much more in the novel written by male writer and makes an ‘image of woman’ which is sometimes stereotyping woman and make a gender bias in the work
itself. The consciousness gives an important from of literary point of view that has com to be called feminist literary criticism Guerin, 1999: 245-249. Feminist
criticism tries finding the equality for woman to speak about their needs and their consciousness on the gender equality as man can do.
As Sargent in his book Contemporary Political Ideology said, feminist argue that men socialize women to accept both physical and mental mistreatment,
and that legal system has traditionally treated women as offender Sargent, 1987: 220 it seems that there is a stereotype in society that there are two parties .The
first party is women, and the second party is society which consists of general society, parents and men. There is such a rule that women in the first party have to
obey what the second party wants them to do as woman especially as wives, that leads women become oppressed party.
There are some points to be fulfilled by feminists. Thomas Gramstad in his article says that “The feminist ideas are those that lead a social progress
concerning gender relations at a given time and place”. He adds that there is a form of equal worth between the ideas and activism. Thus without a commitment
to action and social change, she is not a feminists, even if she holds feminist ideas Gramstad, 2007.
Deborah L.
Madsen in
Feminist Theory and Practice has an argument that feminism is women’s struggle to obtain an equality between women and men
stems from the premises that both sexes have the same human rights as well as opportunities to advance themselves in many aspects of life Madsen, 2000:2.
Still in the same book, she divides feminism in America into some points. First Wave of American Feminism which began in the 1840’s and is
commonly marked by the first Women’s Right Convention, held in Seneca Falls in 1848. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other women who had
been denied a place at the international anti-slavery convention in London in 1840 Madsen, 2000: 3-4. Women need to fulfill their personal and national destinies,
but they also need to fulfill the spiritual destiny of humanity and it is men who have historically placed obstacle in their way Madsen, 2000: 5.
The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the political struggle for women’s right; the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled ironically of
Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, was drafted primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Together with Susan B. Anthony, Stanton founded the National
Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869, and Lucy Stone established the American Woman Suffrage Association, to promote a suffrage amendment to the
Constitution this became the 19
th
Amendment only in 1920. The two PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
organizations merged in 1890 to become the National American woman’s Suffrage Association, which later became the League of Women Voters Madsen,
2000: 6 Number pro-suffrage groups sprang up in the pre-war years: Elizabeth
Cady Stanton’s daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch, founded the Equality League in 1907 and Alice Paul, who had been active in the British suffrage struggle,
founded the more militant Congressional Union, which later became the Women’s Party. It was the Women’s Party that first proposed the Equal Right Amendment
to Congress in 1923 – ‘Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction’- and although this move
was unsuccessful, it did lay some of the intellectual groundwork for the second wave of American Feminism in the 1960s Madsen, 2000: 6.
The Second Wave of American Feminism emerged in the early 1960s and focused upon an indictment of male sexism and the domestic oppression of
women. Betty Friedan’s the Feminine Mystique called for women to renew the struggle of the first wave which had culminated in female suffrage in 1920, but
now feminist attention was focused on the exclusion of women from the public sphere and sex-based discrimination in the work place Madsen, 2000: 7.
The raising
of women’s
consciousness of gender oppression and raising as a political issue the personal experience of that oppression were central to the
efforts of early second wave feminism Madsen, 2000: 9. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
B. Theoretical Framework
The theory of character and characterization is very important to answer the first problem in the problem formulation about how is the character of
Francesca Johnson represented in this novel. Since the second problem in the problem formulation is deal with
feminism issues that lies behind the main character of this novel, it is needed the theory which concern with the same topic, that is feminism. The theory feminism
is the theory that is applicable in order to answer the second problem formulation that is to find how Francesca Johnson reflects the life of women in the middle of
the emerging feminist movement. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The Bridges of Madison County is a novel written by Robert James Waller. Robert James Waller was born in August 1, 1939 in Rockford, Iowa. He is
an American author who is also known for his work as a photographer and musician. He received his Ph.D. in business from the Kelley School of Business at
Indiana University Bloomington in 1968. Waller later taught at the University of Northern Iowa where he was also dean of the business school. He made a seven
figure donation to his alma mater, Indiana U. Several of his books have been on the New York Times bestseller list including 1992s The Bridges of Madison
County which is the largest selling novel in history. This novel is firstly published in1992 and has been made into motion pictures.
The publication of this novel acquires a good response from the novel lovers. The story derived from the affairs which usually happen in daily life
situation. The story is about the meeting between two lonesome people, Robert Kincaid, a widower from Washington working as a photographer for National
Geographic; and Francesca Johnson, an Italian wife of local Iowan. They make affair behind Richard Johnson, Francesca’s husband which leads them to have
emotional and sexual relationship. The major theme in this novel is about the internal conflict of Francesca as
woman who is facing the situation in which she has a chance to decide her way of
20 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
life by herself, which in fact it will be the starting point for her to get freedom and happiness. The conflict arouse when Francesca should make a decision whether
she will leave her family for Robert or decide to stay in her family with all the consequences she would face. As the final decision, Francesca prefers to stay with
her family rather than to run away with Robert. Francesca and Robert keep their love feeling until they both die. Their ashes are scattered around Roseman Bridge,
one of the covered bridge in Madison County, Iowa- as the symbol of their re- union.
Adapted from the ordinary life story in a small country with all the pleasantness, this novel successfully arouses a big attention from the readers.
Years after it’s firstly published, the movie of The Bridges of Madison County was made. Almost the same with the novel which was best sold, the movie which
has the story adapted from the novel was also won for some award categories. Generally, the story in this novel is about adultery for the sake of true love
between two lonesome people. They can not bring their relationship into marriage because the main character, Francesca does not want to leave her husband.
Francesca has a reason why she can not leave her husband and her to children, because if she does it, all people in Iowa will consider her as a woman with a bad
reputation. This novel shows the representations of female stereotypes in 1960’s.
B Approach of the Study
Since the analysis in this paper is focused on Francesca’s character and the value of feminism portrayed in it, the writer take Feminist Literary Criticism.
Wilfred Guerin in his book A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature stated that Feminist Literary Criticism is an approach which concern on women
and their position.
Unlike the other approaches, feminist literary criticism is often a political attack upon other modes of criticism. It its diversity feminism is concerned
with the marginalization of all women, that is with their being relegated to a secondary position Guerin, 1999: 196
The writer thinks that this approach is the most appropriate approach to the
problem formulation. Feminist criticism uses to highlight gender stereotyping in literary form. It examines the ways in which literature has been shaped according
to issue of gender. In other words, feminist criticism is used to bolded the stereotype of gender matter in literary form.
C Method of the Study
In finishing this paper, the type of study that is used by the writer is library research. It means that the writer collects all the sources that are available, like
books of literature, criticism and dictionary. Besides that the writer also used internet as the media to collect the supporting data.
There were several steps in analyzing this novel. The first step, the writer read the primary source the novel entitled The Bridges of Madison County in
order to understand the content of the story in order to be able to make a right interpretation about this novel.
In the second step, the writer collected references that may be helpful and could be related with the study. These references were books of literature,
criticism, dictionary and also from the internet. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
In the third step, the writer applied the theories appropriate to be adjusted to answer the two problem formulation. Since the first problem formulation is
about how the character of Francesca Johnson was represented in the novel, the writer used the theory of character to answer it. The second problem formulation
was related with feminism issues portrayed through Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County; therefore, the writer used the theory of feminism to
answer it. Those two problems formulation were discussed in the analysis. The last step was drawing the conclusion. After the writer discussed the
two problems formulation in the chapter of analysis, the conclusion was drawn. There was a report about how is the character of Francesca Johnson and the
important information related with this character. There was also the brief report about feminism issues portrayed through Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of
Madison County. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
