her husband without too much demanding such as making friends, and walking outside the house. However, women inferiority in Javanese society is greater than
in American society. Lorna is still able to go out the house for party or visiting a friend, while Mas Nganten must stay inside the house unless her husband asks her
to go.
4.1.3 Expressing Feelings and Ideas
Becoming a woman during the period of time is not easy. Women’s position is inferior and they are banded to rules that restrict them. Everything
begins with society consideration on women. The same thing happens to Lorna. She lives as inferior woman. It is because the society have their own opinion
about women’s position. “You know my father,” she said, squeezing his sleeves in appeal. “You
know how he is about us girls. We’re nothing to him but fluffy empty- headed matrimonial material to whom he gives orders which he expects to
have obeyed without incident….75” The sentence above shows us Gideon Barnett’s opinion about woman. He
thinks that woman is dumb who can never learn any discipline. Therefore, he does not think that Lorna needs to attend college. Woman is also regarded as material
of matrimony. Lorna’s father’s consideration represents society’s consideration on
women at the time. Women are material to complete men’s life. A man will marry a woman he wants to, so that the particular woman can take care of him and his
needs. The woman can also give him children. Women are merely ornament for PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
the house. They do not have the same right to express their feeling and aspirations. Women’s feeling and aspirations are considered do not exist.
Lorna experiences the same situation. It is clearly seen when Lorna falls to Jens. She tries so hard to express her feeling that she does not love Taylor, a man
her parents want her to marry to, but Jens. ‘“I don’t love him, Father.” Gideon’s eyes narrowed to pinpoints while he stared at her in derision. Then he snorted and
spun away. “That is the singularly most asinine statement I’ve ever heard.”208’ Lorna have tried to explain her feeling to her parents, but because women’s
feeling is considered does not exist, Lorna’s statement gains no respond from her father.
“I haven’t any feelings for him, Mother.” “Feelings What have feelings to do with it...201”
The evidence above shows us how Lorna tries to express her feeling to her
mother. She hopes that as a woman, her mother will understand her feeling. She does not directly tells her mother that she loves Jens. She starts the explanation by
telling her feeling to Taylor. Unfortunately, she gets a bad respond. Her feeling is ignored. Even her feeling is regarded as useless and brings no help to Lorna’s
future. We can also say that Lorna is asked to neglect her own feeling. It is a horrible thing when someone’s feeling is considered does not exist
and even is not allowed to exist. Killing someone’s feeling will be the same with kill the person psychologically. Women at that time are not allowed to care so
much to their feeling. From Lorna experience, we can see that women are even not allowed to express what they may feel. Women’s feeling seem to be priceless.
“We’re nothing, Phoebe – don’t you see? What we want, what we feel, who we love is dismissed simply because we’re women, and worse yet,
women who belong to rich men. If I wore trousers I could say marry me or don’t marry me and nobody would bat an eye. Instead, look what they do
to us—parcel us off as social chattel. Well, I won’t be parcelled off You’ll see, I won’t 203”
The evidence says that Lorna is angry as well as distraught. She has the
thought that being a woman at that time is being nothing. They cannot have any freedom for what they feel. While men have the total freedom, women have
almost nothing. A man can choose to whom he marries to, and also have the right to do anything they want including expressing their feeling. Meanwhile, women
must step aside their feeling and desire. They must obey and do everything they are told to. This is one more aspect that keeps women as inferior.
As Hinsley’s 1967:197 statement that during the period of time, sex distinction meant everything, Lorna suffers from it. Men rule the world where
they can get the freedom and power. Men may do everything to satisfy their feeling. Their words must be heard and followed by women, and women must
stand as matrimonial material. Men do not have to pay any attention to women’s feeling. We can see how hard to live as a woman during the time. They must step
aside their feeling and obey the rule. It is said that this will be the best way for them to live their live. Feeling is not to be expressed, but to be killed. But women
at that time even suffer for more. Women must accept that their feeling counts for nothing, and they must also accept that they are considered as empty-headed
people whose idea and aspirations will not be heard. Lorna’s experience show us how women ideas are considered nonsense.
One evening, Lorna’s family invite some friends to have a dinner together. During PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
the meal, Men go on discussion about yachting race. They try to find new strategy to beat their opponent. Lorna actually has a bright idea about it, but she knows she
cannot tell them her idea. “Gideon’s daughter Lorna had been biting her tongue long enough. 3” there is a restriction that women should not be invo lved in
every men discussion. Sometimes, Lorna is allowed to express her idea even though it may not be heard. Lorna’s father usually makes her, her sisters and
mother stay out of the discussion. “If he had his way she would sit through this entire meal biting her tongue, as a lady ought. 4”
A woman is considered as a lady when she shows he interest on unladylike things not more than men do. Telling a woman’s idea or aspiration on something
may provoke a new problem. Even though her idea may result a better condition, expressing it is considered threatening men’s position in the society as higher and
smarter people. Women stays under the length of men’s shadows Hinsley, 1967:81. Therefore, a woman may not do anything that make her look any
smarter than man. Women must satisfy with their men’s achievement, and their photograph beside their men.
It is so poor, because women may have great potency to build better circumstances. “Why, any fool knows a woman’s place is in a drawing room4”
Women’s place is in the drawing room or maybe the veranda. This revels women inferiority when women are considered as fool. Women do not have to and may
not learn anything, because men think that they will never able to learn. After underestimating women’s ability, men put women into more inferior position by
forbidding them in gaining knowledge, and expressing their idea. Women have been unable to experience our own experience Eagleton: 1991.
From the analysis, I can conclude that women are inferior. Women are not allowed to feel their own feeling and express it. They must focus on men’s
feeling. Women also cannot join any discussion out of ladylike things because it is considered as threatening men’s position. Their thought and ideas cannot also be
expressed because a lady should live under her man’s shadow. Women are merely material of matrimony who do not have any feeling and thought.
Mas Nganten’s condition also clearly shows how women, at that time, were inferior. Women lives under the authority of men, and women were not
allowed to do things for their own benefits, but their husbands’. All of these rules depress not only Mas Nganten’s activity but also her feeling.
Pressure on Mas Nganten’s feeling has started since her departure to the house. “”Your daughter must remember that the Bendoro’s consort has to be
strong and to always wear a smile no matter what she might be feeling.” 38” On that time, Mas Nganten’s personal servant told Mas Nganten’s mother to advice
Mas Nganten to never show her feeling, even though she feels sad, she must have smile on her face. Sadness on Mas Nganten’s face will draw the Bendoro into
curiosity, and may create problems for everyone in the house. In the opposite, happiness on Mas Nganten’s face will please the Bendoro, and may bring safety
for everyone. The big house has different condition and circumstances than Mas
Nganten’s home in the village. She must be able to adapt to the new situation very PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
quickly. She must also be able to follow all of the rules and do her duties and tasks well. Sometimes, it is disturbed by Mas Nganten’s feeling. She often misses
her family and village very much. It makes her sad, but Mas Nganten must always remember and do her duties despising her own feeling.
“Then what am I supposed to do here?” “Only two things, Young Mistress, nothing more: serve the Master and
command the servants and other people who live here. 52” In that big house, Mas Nganten’s duty is to please the Bendoro, her
husband. One of her tasks is to wait her husband for coming home. Sometimes, Bendoro will come into Mas Nganten’s chamber, and on that time, Mas Nganten
must be in perfect condition. Mas Nganten must greet her husband happily and wear beautiful dress and nice make up to please him. Mas Nganten is obliged to
appear perfectly in front of her husband despite her true feeling. She is not to show any feeling to her husband except happiness of her devotion to him.
Because the rule forbids her to show her real feeling, Mas Nganten encounters problems with her feeling. She keeps too much feeling inside her heart
that she actually needs someone to talk to for her self-recovery. Since only happiness pleases the Bendoro, there is no space for Mas Nganten’s other feeling
than happiness. Worse, no one in the house is able to accept her sadness as natural thing.
In the village, she had been able to say whatever she wanted to say, to cry when she wanted cry, and to scream with delight when she felt happy. But
now, in this house, she had to be silent; there was no one willing to hear the sound of her voice 31.
There is a big difference Mas Nganten feels since her departure to the
house. Her freedom to express her feeling is taken away. She cannot laugh, cry, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
scream or anything freely. Mas Nganten seems to have no one beside her. No one is willing to listen to her. Maybe there servants care for her feeling, but they are
too afraid to the Bendoro, Mas Nganten’s husband. Finally, Mas Nganten suffers of her sadness alone. “Here, in this house, all she could do was cry. 130” The
only way for he r to release her sadness is to cry. It becomes the solution of all of Mas Nganten’s problems.
“Now when you cry you must learn to cry alone. Nobody else is going to see or hear you. You have to stop thinking about yourself and learn how to
make other people happy. 61” Every pressure on her feeling has not gotten into climax. When cry finally
becomes the only way for Mas Nganten to relieve herself, Mas Nganten must encounters the fact that she has no right to please herself. Whenever she is sad or
depressed, Mas Nganten has to cry secretly. She may not let anyone know her crying. She can cry whenever she is alone in her room, or when she prays. After
that, she must appear happy for everyone in the house, especially the servants. They will get no trouble if Mas Nganten appears happy, and Bendoro is pleased.
Mas Nganten’s feeling is hurt. She is so depressed but she has no chance or freedom to express her feeling. She starts to be so introvert and more
depressed. “She suddenly felt incredibly tired and drowsy and wanted nothing more than to lie down on the soft mattress in her bedroom, alone. But she didn’t
have the courage to speak. 36”She has no courage to speak and tell her own husband what she might feel physically or psychologically. It finally draws new
problem. As a wife, Mas Nganten wants to know everything about her husband. Though the Girl from the Coast didn’t realize it, all of her questions were,
in fact, an expression of her jealousy. She wanted to know everything PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
about the Bendoro, her master and husbands, but lacked the courage to ask him herself 83.
Mas Nganten really wants to give special attention to her husband as every
wife does. An expression she wants to give to her husband is a full understanding toward her husband. She never knows many things about the Bendoro. She never
knows where the Bendoro go for days on end, whom he saw, and what he talked about, and also what he thinks about herself. Mas Nganten wants to find answers
to those questions, but knowing her having no right to ask, Mas Nganten never has courage to ask those questions to the Bendoro.
Mas Nganten encounters not only difficulties in expressing her feeling and thought, but also her feeling and desire toward her own husband. Like every wife,
Mas Nganten has certain hopes to her husband. “…They eat together, sit together, drink together. And when the husband isn’t off the sea, they talk about things
together.84” Mas Nganten wants the harmony with the Bendoro where they can spend the spare time together like sit and talk together, having meal together, and
take a walk together. Unfortunately, as a woman, Mas Nganten is not allowed to have such desire, not even to her own husband.
…, the girl felt terribly lonely; she longed to sit beside her husband, to spend time with him; but what right did she have to expect that 252?
Mas Nganten has been forced to be a person without feeling who may not
have any feeling other than happiness for full devotion toward her husband. Mas Nganten encounters all of those pressures, but she cannot hide from her
loneliness. When she is lonely, all she wants to have is her husband’s presence. She really wants to stay near him, and share the time with him, but the Bendoro
has different opinion. He comes to Mas Nganten only when he needs her or wants to. He does not really care about Mas Nganten’s feeling for being left for days by
her husbands. However, Mas Nganten has no right to tell her actual feeling. She must keep it, and pretend nothing happens to her.
All of the pressures send her down where she cannot get her courage to speak. She cannot express and show what she feels and thinks.” The girl released
a mournful sigh. She still didn’t have the courage to tell him what she felt. 132” There are times when Mas Nganten sleeps alone for days, whe n she cannot meet
her husbands because of her duty. Sometimes, the Bendoro himself does not want to see Mas Nganten. On times like that, Mas Nganten must be able to control her
feeling. Even though she really misses her husband, she cannot ask for her husband’s presence. As the result, Mas Nganten never has the courage to speak
even when her husband asks her about how she feels. The rules that oblige her to show only happiness has made her afraid of telling her true feeling.
It is tragic that women who dedicate their life to serve their husbands are not allowed to express what they feel or think. It seems that women are just
machine that provide their husbands’ needs. Woman as such does not exist Eagleton: 1991. Their feeling is not considered exist. Their thought is considered
silly. Women is inferior so that they cannot express their feeling. From the evidence above, I can conclude that Mas Nganten is inferior in
expressing her feeling and thought. The restrictions require her to show only happiness, therefore she always feels afraid to speak her feeling up, and she never
find her courage to speak. This makes her even more inferior. However, American PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
women, even though cannot demand for more, still have the chance to speak what they feel and later have also the chance to struggle for that. Meanwhile, in
Javanese society, women feeling is not considered exist. Javanese women are more inferior than American women.
4.2 The Influence of Culture toward Lorna’s and Mas Nganten’s
