Tolerant and Understanding Madame Wu’s Personality Development under the Influence of Priest Andre

some country across the sea whose waters and winds she would never know.’ p. 264 When she was talking with priest Andre, she let him to tell his honest opinion about her. Willing to open her heart to a foreigner that she knew not long, who was not a member of her family, to listen to his admission of her mistakes is a modest attitude, showing that she wanted to learn and change to be a better person. She let Priest Andre to tell what her mistakes were and what she had to do. ‘…. “It has been shown me that I did you a great wrong, my sister. It is true that you were brought here as I might have bought a pound of pork. How could I dare so to behave toward a human being? I see now that I had no thought for your soul. What can I do to make amends?”’ p. 267 Ch’iuming was only a concubine, but Madame Wu never saw her as a lower status person. She even dared to admit her mistake to Ch’iuming. She was not afraid that what she did would break her self-respect. Madame Wu is a wonderful woman. She even asked Ch’iuming what she could do to correct her mistake. She realized that she was wrong because she had bought Ch’iuming as a concubine for her husband without considering Ch’iuming’s feeling. She forgot that human has feeling and to match a couple needs love. Being strict, Madame Wu could be said as an arrogant person who thought that what she thought about and decided was the right one. But from the two conversations of Madame Wu with Priest Andre and the concubine, it is shown that Madame Wu started to change. She started to change when she wanted to open her heart, listen to other people’s opinions no matter who they 44 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI were, and admit her mistakes. She truly put off her arrogance. That is also an attitude of a true student, being humble and willing to learn to be better. Her loving attitude also changed her relationship with her family. She became a more tolerant woman. Her changes recovered her relationship with her sons. She wanted to listen to her sons’ opinion and what they felt, as a mother should actually do. ‘’What do you call freedom?” she inquired. “Tell me and I will give it to you.” “I should like to go away out of this house,” he said. ….. To this she said nothing. She sat mute and thoughtful. Then she sighed, “Very well, my son,” she said at last. “Go free.”’ p. 223 She used to be so strict. None had ever broken her order. At that time her third son, Fengmo, asked her to let him go away out of her house. In that house everything went as she wanted and none had ever decided hisher own way, including her sons’ marriage. Surprisingly, Madame Wu permitted her son to go away. Becoming a more tolerant woman, she made her relationship with other people and other members of her family better. Her sons became braver to share what they thought or felt with Madame Wu, which they had never done before. They used to do what Madame Wu said, no matter they liked it or not. Madame Wu’s changes also recovered her relationship with her husband. Although she had done a mistake by choosing a concubine for her husband without thinking about his feeling which caused her husband unhappy, she tried to do something to make him happy. She did not think about releasing herself from a duty as a wife any more. 45 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI ‘She opened her long and lovely eyes. “Can it add to my cares if you are happy?” she asked in her most silvery voice. “Let her come and live under your own roof. Why should your house be divided?”’ p. 270 When Mr. Wu told Madame Wu the truth of his feeling, that he fell in love with a woman from a prostitution place, Madame Wu permitted him to bring the woman to her house to be his husband’s wife. She did it because she cared about her husband’s happiness and she had never seen Mr. Wu so excited in telling about someone. She realized that her husband was happy with that woman and he loved her much. She did not take selfish decision for her own sake but a decision that other people might think that she was crazy by permitting a woman from a prostitution place to a house of a highly regarded family for her husband’s happiness. She tried to compensate for her act making her husband unhappy and choosing a concubine for him without considering his feeling by an act to make him happy, permitting him bring a woman he loved to that house, no matter from what level of status she was and who she was. She was also kind and tolerant to other people. ‘“Your milk has dried because you are sad,” she said. “What is your trouble?”…. “It is strange you have water enough for your own tears and not for milk for my son,” Meng said distractedly. “Hush,” Madame Wu said. “She is a human being. Speak, good soul.” …. “I have not seen my own child. I do not know how she does–I have been here nearly a month…..” …. Madame Wu said again.” Let her child be brought here.”’ p. 233 The way she reacted to what happened to her grandson’s condition and to the servant’s admission shows that she was a tolerant, understanding, and wise woman. Her tolerance made her a wiser one. She permitted the servant to 46 bring her daughter to her house to be breast fed together with Madame Wu’s grandson. It is a very wise decision. It is hardly possible for a rich woman to decide such a great decision. It also shows that Madame Wu was a very kind woman with gentle heart. The author shows Madame Wu’s personality development through the way she reacted to some situations and events. We can see it from her reaction to her husband’s and her son’s honest opinion of what they thought and felt, and also to the condition of the servant whose milk had dried because she longed for her son. Whatever she did, she did it with love and she also thought about other people’s happiness.

3. Open Minded

Understanding and experiencing love, Madame Wu did not try to match male and female any more. She appreciated other people’s feeling. She wanted everyone in her house to be happy and to find their own love and way of life. She did care about other people, not because it was a responsibility that had to be done, but because she had changed and known how to love someone sincerely. Love had changed her. ‘“She will not marry again, surely?” Fengmo asked. “If she will, I will help her,” Madame Wu said. This astonished Fengmo a good deal. He would not have imagined that his mother could put a woman above the family. Seeing his surprise, Madame Wu continued in her soft way. “I have learned as I have grown older,” she said. “…. And this is the right to its own true happiness.”’ p. 378 Tsemo, Madame Wu’s second son, had passed away, and her wife, Rulan became a widow in her very young age. Commonly, a mother-in-law 47 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI will not care much about her daughter-in-law, especially if she has been a widow. It seems that the relationship between them had gone as the woman’s husband passed away. But Madame Wu was a wonderful mother-in-law. From her conversation with Fengmo, her third son, we can see that Madame Wu cared much about Rulan’s happiness. She wanted the best for her. Therefore, she permitted if Rulan wanted to get married again, and even she would help her. It is an impossible thing that will be done by other mother-in-laws. She did not care anymore about what people would think about her decision as long as she was doing good things and they were for other people’s happiness. ‘…. Ch’iuming then asked for Rulan also. “Since the family mourning is over, and since her own mourning can never cease, she wishes to ease her sorrow by good works,” Ch’iuming said. “She wishes to make a school for the children of the farmers.” …. “Then you have my permission to go, you and Rulan also,” Madame Wu said. “I will call the steward in a few days and bid him find suitable houses for living and school, and you shall go when you like after that…. Decide what you need, and I will tell Ying to prepare it….”’ p. 384 When Ch’iuming told Madame Wu that she and Rulan wanted to go away out of her house to live in the village of Wu’s family, she permitted them to go. She knew that in her house they felt like strangers because they had no husbands to rely on anymore and they needed activities to fill their life and to replace their loneliness. From the conversation above, we can see that Madame Wu did not only permit them, but she also tried to give them the best. She cared about the place where they would stay in and the condition of their life in the village. She even asked her personal servant to prepare everything for them. If she were like she had been before she met Priest Andre, she would 48