She dismissed thoughts of the Thief lying on the floor of his cell, but found herself thinking instead of her favorite amphora, broken, and the oil
spilled. p. 35 He lay on his side in a corner of the cell with his injured arm cradled
against his chest and a knee pulled up to protect it. He sweated in the damp cold of the cell and didn’t move until Attolia prodded him with one
slippered foot. p. 33
She starts to feel pity for him. She starts to feel sympathy and empathy for him. She hears the thief crying in his cell, she can feel his pain, which is different
from what she feels for the other prisoners. Even, she has never cried for herself, or at the time of her father’s death.
“The second night you repeated the same words over and over. I think the fever had set in by then. Do you remember what you said?”
“No” She knew every one of them. His voice, broken and stumbling, had filled
her dreams until she had wept in her sleep, crying tears for him that she’d never been able to cry for her father or for herself. p. 245
She really feels pity for him, so she goes to his cell. This is the process of how the queen started to fall in love with the thief, Eugenides. It is due to her
feeling pity for him.
4.2.2 Deeper meaning of Queen Attolia’s love
Elkrief says that “Love is what we experience with someone without having or believing any judgements about him.” The writer finds that Queen
Attolia really loves the thief, Eugenides, is proved in the answer to problem formulation number one that by doing cruel things, she can cut the thief’s right
hand but then she feels different about the thief that she starts to care about him
and while she feels sympathy and empathy for him. It makes queen Attolia do something, which shows that she really cares about him.
Stendhal notes that is “Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will, there are no age limits for love.” She starts to love him
by accepting the thief who is already brave enough to steal from her palace. She can accept him by feeling pity first. She also feels pity for Eugenides because his
queen sends him in her power while he is still so young to stand against her power. Moreover, he is younger than Queen Attolia but still she can accept it that
she loves him. She does not care about the age gap between them that she is older than him, because she feels comfortable with him. She feels something different
through looking at Eugenides’ eyes, she has never found it in her other prisioners’ eyes. She can feel Eugenides’ pain by looking into his eyes.
She felt pity and started to care for him. In fact, it is because she feels guilty for what she has done to the thief, Eugenides. She regrets all of the cruel
things she has done, especially when she cuts the thief’s right hand. Then, at the end she wants to love the thief, because she feels that she is due to redeeming and
paying for her feeling guilty, cutting the thief’s right hand. This is called consummate love of Queen Attolia; passion, intimacy, and
commitment, which is the complete form of love. Consummate love is theorized to be that love associated with the “perfect couple.” She has intimacy of love, the
initial infatuation in which she can cry for Eugenides. She has the strong emotion about that. It is so crazy that as a queen she can cry for her prisioner, the only
prisoner and she never cried for herself nor at her father’s death. Since Eugenides
and Queen Attolia live in different palaces, there is no communication and closeness between them. Then, she feels intimacy with Eugenides which can
make her close with him when he is locked in his cell in Queen Attolia’s palace. Usually, she cannot feel closeness because the thief is in his palace and he goes to
Queen Attolia’s palace only for stealing. Now, Eugenides, by being punished, it makes the connectedness in which Queen Attolia always goes to Eugenides’ cell
to check him. Actually, this is something unusual for a queen to go to the cell of her prisioners, but she feels something different for Eugenides. She always feels
something for Eugenides, she wants to know the condition of Eugenides in the cell.
Queen Attolia has the passion with Eugenides in which she can find something different in Eugenides by looking into his eyes. This is phsycal
attraction of Eugenides which can make Queen Attolia feel the passion and love for him. Then, she has the commitment with Eugenides that she can accept
Eugenides’ proposal to be her husband. Marriage is a commitment, the decision to take steps to maintain the love and the relationship.
In Javanese philosophy that Herujiyanto 2007 wrote, “Positive thinking produces a better understanding of things including that “giving means receiving”.
Here, to have attitude of Katresnanism is good because we really could think positively.”
The novel tells that Queen Attolia can care more about Eugenides after what she has done to him. She can think positively after cutting off Eugenides’
right hand, she can feel guilty. During that time, she can receive Eugenides’ love
and give him her love by feeling guilty first for cutting off his right hand. There are three principles of the meaning of Queen Attolia’s love in Javanese
philosophy. They are mulat sarira being considerate, nyamleng creating enjoyment, and pas just right. She is being considerate when she starts to care
about Eugenides, she cries for him. She is creating enjoyment when she starts to feel so close in Eugenides’ cell which is actually something unusual for a queen to
go to her prisioners’ cell. For Queen Attolia, it is different on Eugenides, she can enjoy what she does in Eugenides’ cell. She is just right to do all those things, she
reedems and pays her feeling guilty by loving him. It is even just right she will get married with Eugenides.
Based on Maslow, there are five motives and needs. Queen Attolia already gets two needs but not for the social needs yet. She has wealth from her father. It
is also because as a queen, she has everything all material needs, except social needs. In a palace, as a queen, she has also many guards who protect and maids
who serve her. Inside the tent, for her comfort, there were rugs and cushions on a low
sleeping cruch. She was left alone. The guard waited outside. p.257
From this situation, we can see that she has a comfortable bed, which explains that she has a good life. She has also many guards to keep her safe by
being protected, and she has maids also who serve her. It means that she also has the ability to pay the guards and maids. Even, she has the freedom of her throne in
her palace after her father’s death. The response had its calculated effect. In the stunned silence that followed,
she divided the property of the dead laron among his competitors and informed them that the next king of Attolia would be her choice, not theirs.
She then retired to allow them time to absorb the new reality of her rule: the guards around them, the hostages she held, and the army she
controlled. p.203
Her choice to choose who will be the next king of Attolia, is she who makes herself queen. It is because she has a freedom for that, she thinks that she is the
one fit to control her palace. Over the previous year she’d learned all she needed to know about her
father’s most powerful barons, and while they squabbled about who might be the next king, she’d made herself queen. p.204
What is her motivation to love Eugenides is because she wants to fullfil her social needs. She wants to accept everything which is done by Eugenides is
stealing her things. That is nothing for Queen Attolia, something she needs now is love and affection. She loves Eugenides because she wants to pay and reedem her
feeling guilty for cutting off his right hand and because she loves her people. The last thing is she receives Eugenides’ love because she can feel comfortable with
him. She can feel something different in his eyes than in the eyes of her other prisioners’. Then, she gives her love to Eugenides in which she receives his
proposal to be her husband, a King of Attolia.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS
The last chapter consists of two parts. The first is conclusions and the second is suggestions. The first part shows the findings of this study. However,
suggestions part shows the input or recommendation for the next researcher.
5.1 Conclusions
The novel titled The Queen of Attolia. In this study, there are two underlined points. They are the characteristics of Queen Attolia and the meaning
of Queen Attolia’s love. There are two meanings, surface meaning and deeper meaning.
