16 occupations and daily manner of living of the characters, 3 the time or period in
which the action takes place, 4 the general environment of the characters, for instance religious, moral, mental, social and emotional conditions through which
the people in the narrative move p. 465.
3. Character
Character is one of the main elements needed in a novel. Without the existence of characters, the story will not be meaningful and interesting.
Characters make the story alive. They help the readers to imagine and feel the atmosphere of the story through actions and dialogues. Abrams 1969 defines
characters as “the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and
emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying the dialogueand from what they do” p. 33.Abram believes that
dialogues and actions which are presented by each character in the story help the readers to find out the motives and the values lay behind what they say and do.
There are nine ways of describing the characters according to Murphy 1972. The nine ways will be shed in the paragraphs below. The first way is by
analyzing the character’s personal description. In this way, the writer characterizes the character by seeing a character from his physical appearance like
his build, his face, his skin, his eyes, his hair or his clothes. The second is by analyzing from other character point of view or character as seen by another.
17 Next, a character can be characterized by character’s speech. The readers can have
an opinion about the character by paying attention on the character’s speech. The next is by considering the characters’ past life. It can be described by
the author’s direct comment, through the character’s thoughts, through the character’s conversation, or through the medium of another person. Fifthly, a
character could be analyzed from conversation of others. Sixthly, by perceiving the character’s reactions to various situations and events, an author shows his
character’s tendency, and this tendency gives the readers a clue about the character’s personality. Seventhly, a character can be characterized by the
author’s direct comment and description on the character. Eighthly, the thought of the character can be used to characterize the character. The author shows the
character’s personality by letting the readers understand the deepest thought of the character in a novel. The last is the author characterizes the character by
describing the character’s mannerisms, habits, or idiosyncrasies pp. 161-173. Theory on characters in the present study is utilized complementarily to
support the main intrinsic analysis i.e. the setting of the novels. It is impossible to analyze elements of the setting i.e. social circumstances, the occupations and daily
manner of living of the characters, the general environment of the characters such as their religious, moral, mental, social and emotional conditions without referring
to the individuals characters that construct them. The utilization of the theory is inevitably integrated.
