EYOLF’S SELF - ACTUALIZATION IN HENRIK IBSEN’S LITTLE EYOLF
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1
EYOLF’S SELF - ACTUALIZATION IN HENRIK IBSEN’S
LITTLE EYOLF
Fafan Sujarwo, Meilia Adiana, Imam Basuki.
English Department, Faculty of Letters, University of Jember (UNEJ)
Jln. Kalimantan 37 Jember 68121
E-Mail: learner10@hotmail.com
Abstrak
Little Eyolf adalah drama karya Henrik Ibsen yang berasal dari Norwegia. Eyolf adalah seorang anak cacat yang
sulit untuk memenuhi kebutuhan hidupnya karena kurang perhatian dari kedua orang tua dan lingkungan sekitarnya.
Untuk mengkaji kasus ini metode induktif dapat diterapkan untuk memunculkan masalah atas aktualisasi diri sebagai
kebutuhan hidupnya. Dengan lingkungan yang kurang mendukung, Eyolf lari dari kenyataan yang dihadapinya dengan
mencoba memenuhi kebutuhan pada aktualisasi diri di wilayah imajinasinya. Semangat Eyolf untuk memenuhi
kebutuhannya sangat terkait erat dengan teori Maslow tentang kebutuhan manusia. Tragisnya, tidak tercukupinya
kebutuhan Eyolf berujung pada kematian. Orang tuanya akhirnya sadar dan menyesal karena telah mengabaikan
kebutuhan Eyolf secara fisiologis, kenyamanan, percaya diri, rasa memiliki dan cinta. Keseluruhan cerita menggambarkan
perjuangan manusia untuk memenuhi kebutuhan utamanya, serta pentingnya peran serta orang tua terutama dalam
memberikan perhatian terhadapa anaknya di masa kecil.
Kata kunci: aktualisasi diri, kebutuhan dasar manusia, kebutuhan fisiologis, kebutuhan keamanan, kebutuhan percaya diri,
kebutuhan akan rasa kepemilikan dan cinta.
Abstract
Little Eyolf is written by Henrik Ibsen from Norway. Eyolf is a handicapped boy who finds it hard to find selfactualization since his parents and neighborhoods do not support him to do so. To study this phenomenon, the inductive
method is employed to manifest the discussion of the self-actualization. By this unsupportive environment, Eyolf escapes
from the reality and lives in his world of fantasy to fulfill his own need. The spirit of Eyolf to find his own redemption is
closely related to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Eyolf’s last spirit of self-actualization ends with tragedy. This final scene
leaves his parents nothing but regrets and remorse since the needs for physiological, safety, self esteem, belongingness and
love are not given during Eyolf’s childhood time. However, in the end of the story, Eyolf gains acceptance and affection
from his parents after his death. The story demonstrates the struggle of human to fulfill the human needs during the
childhood time and awareness from the parents to take a good sense in giving affection to the children since the early age.
Keywords: self-actualization, hierarchy of needs, physiological need, safety need, self esteem need, belongingness and love
need.
Introduction
Little Eyolf (1894) is a drama by Henrik Ibsen that
portrays Norway society. It is a tragedy play. Tragedy play is
a play that the main character makes blunder or gets tragic
events in his/her life. Sometimes tragedy is not only death in
ending, but also in sorrows, such Stanford (2006: 74) states
that, “Tragedy which focuses on life’s sorrows and serious
problems”. It portrays the life of a child who suffered in his
life. It tells about the child craving affection from his
parents.
Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
Affection is a warm gentle feeling of caring for or
loving (Hornby, 2000: 20). The children are made by their
parents at home, the development, and the decline of their
personalities most depend on affection, care, and love of the
parents. Moreover, many children get bad treatment from
their parents or other caretakers. Most of their parents do not
care of their children, and most of them do not know that the
lack of affection gives negative impacts to their children’s
personality.
Based on the fact above, it is interesting to analyze
the personality of Eyolf as the main character, and to know
how he gets self-actualization in his life. This drama tells
2
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about an intelligent boy who lives miserably. The name of
the child is Eyolf. He lives with his parents and family;
Allmers, Rita, and Asta’s family. He is an unlucky boy,
because he must live with paralyzed in one of his legs and
Asta’s family never loves him. Therefore, his parents and
family do not give the affection to Eyolf. It causes bad effect
to his personality.
Hence this thesis discusses the personality of Eyolf
deeply as the child craving affection from his parents. The
relationship between personality and the needs of human
daily life are very interesting to discuss. The main character
is also a description of human needs. Parents are created
together as a unity; it is an impossible thing to separate each
other. The main point the writer wants to analyze is about
Eyolf’s motivation to get self-actualization need in Henrik
Ibsen’s Little Eyolf.
Little Eyolf is interesting to discuss because there are
so many problems in his life; such as, his efforts to solve his
problem, getting his needs until the achievement to get his
self-actualization. The main character, Eyolf, is showed as
the child craving affection done by the adults, the parents or
the other caretakers. Most plays are not only entertained to
watch or read, but it also gives moral values to the readers.
Research Methodology
Since this research is the qualitative research, the
data obtained is the qualitative ones. The qualitative data is
non numeric data. It is used in order to comprehend the
meaning of verbal words in the story. The data are collected
from the analyzed story. In this case the data will be in the
written verbal form. Some supportive literary criticism
books, especially the ones that are related to the theory of
Hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow are also taken.
The research is in the form of qualitative
description. As the literary works revolve in many elements,
for example, characters and setting, the center of the analysis
focuses on the character. Hence, the description of the
research will only involve the surrounding environment
which is closely related to this particular character. In
relation to descriptive analysis, the sorted data are analyzed
using Maslow’s theory to perform a plausible descriptive
analysis.
Since the problem of self actualization on the main
character is discussed, hierarchy of needs by Maslow is truly
relevant to put forward. The theory is able to explain the
basic needs of human which are crucial in the development
of character’s psychology to get a better understanding of
human’s needs.
Thus, the approach used is psychological approach.
The psychological approach is employed to study the
phenomena and problems related to the character’s mind in
relation to his acts and his personality development. The
discussion on Eyolf as the main character is essential since
he could not fulfill his needs during his childhood. The
blame is on his parents who are lack of giving more
affection and love to Eyolf.
This research is indeed inductive. It is started with
the analysis of the play in conjunction with the issue occurs
in Eyolf as the main character who experiences lack of
Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
affection during his hardest moment as a handicapped boy.
Next, Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs will give a
result in how far the needs have been violated. In short, the
analysis will show how could possibly a human react to the
lack of needs such as physiological, safety, self esteem,
belongingness and love and self-actualization. The lack of
self actualization may possibly end with tragedy as it
happens in the main character.
Result
From the data of Eyolf’s self-actualization in Henrik
Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, it is found that Little Eyolf portrays the
efforts of Eyolf, the main male character, to achieve his selfactualization. The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is
established, it is covering physiological needs, safety needs,
belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs and the last
one is self-actualization.
Eyolf does not get fully physiological needs since his
father Mr. Allmers loves travelling over town and his mother
Mrs. Rita does not care of Eyolf at home, even he does not
feel welcome at home. Second, it is safety needs. Eyolf’s
childhood experiences no safety because he has to see
everyday the quarrel over his parents. He escapes outside
with his book to calm himself. The third needs of Eyolf is
belongingness and love needs which has never been on the
first priority. This happens because Eyolf’s mother sees him
as a curse for the family. The fourth needs of Eyolf is esteem
need which is also impossible for Eyolf to posses. His
parents, however, never trust him of doing great things in the
future. The last needs of Eyolf is self actualization. This
needs is indeed impossible to get like any other needs since
his parents never give a chance to Eyolf to act like he wants
to.
This thesis concludes that there are many motives for
individual to achieve his self-actualization but
if
physiological, safety, self esteem, belongingness and love
needs are not given to him so Eyolf ends up with committing
suicide.
Discussion
Loneliness plays a big role in Eyolf’s mind because
in real world he can not get self actualization. His
environment never supports him to do so. Her mother is
never patient to deal with Eyolf’s fantasy, it is not only
because she is not patient but she even does not love Eyolf at
all. Her mother sees Eyolf as a hinder between her and her
husband. More to the self actualization, Eyolf has gone too
far with his own fantasy making himself delusional. He
cannot differentiate the difference between reality and
fantasy. In the end of the story, he has to live with his
outmost challenge of life. He has lost everything; his
loneliness and disability lead him to the indiscretion. He was
following his loneliness of life by going to the sea. Noticing
he could not swim, Eyolf is dragged into the depth of the
ocean and drowned with his memory of wonderful life.
Tragedy is indeed in the end of the story. Eyolf has
found its own redemption by going to the sea. This is
another interesting assumption, that Eyolf must have
experienced a mental disorder, or it is just another
Penulis1 et al., Template untuk Penulisan Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa UNEJ.........
symbolism of helplessness of having no genuine love from
her parents or people around him. Living in fantasy and
imagination brings him peace, only in that place he could
gain acceptance. However this kind of acceptance does not
come easily. His death might also his endless effort to show
his existence to the people around him and he succeeds. This
discussion explores on how the relation of self-actualization
could possibly be functional if the physiological needs and
affection meet the subject.
Maslow puts forward a theory that there are five
levels of human needs which have to be fulfilled in one's
life. Those are physiological needs, safety needs,
belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs, and the
need for self-actualization. All of the needs are structured
into a hierarchy of human needs.
Physiological needs are awfully crucial to the
understanding of human behaviour. It is the biggest effect
compared with all needs. It must be contented before the
individual motivates to the higher order of needs. For
instance, somebody who is deficient in food, safety, love,
and esteems would be most starving for food more strongly
than for other needs.
Parents have very important role to teach their
children about the love, they must be taught about it as well
as how to apply this love in their life. The children will
follow what they see and hear from their parents, every act
which they do will be known and followed by their children.
At home, the parents teach to speak, to eat, to sleep and to
behave because the first education for children begins from
their house and it will influence their future life. However,
the only physiological need that is given by the parents is
limited. Hence, Eyolf is the symbolism of the unwanted
child. His paralyzed legs make his life even worse. To get
the best of his life, he sits in the beach, and thinks of fantasy
to escape from the torturing reality. Eyolf however should
find his own ecstasy.
He tries to fulfill the physiological needs on his own.
The moral message is for the parents, it is essential for the
parents to provide a good affection to his children. The
parents are the mirror for his children. Every act which they
did will be known and followed by his children. They speak,
eat, sleep at home, but Eyolf does not get the physiological
needs from his parents.
Childhood experiences are memorable. Whatever
happened in the last time when he was a child, it will be
always kept in his mind until he grows up. It is really
essential for all parents to give a good education to their
children, especially in their childhood. It will much influence
to their growth of manner. Hence, it is the basic knowledge
for them to become a good boy.
The next level is safety needs. When physiological
needs have been gratified, somebody may move to the
higher order need that is often called the safety needs. Safety
needs are the needs when the individual yearning for
physical, safety and shelter, freedom from threat or security,
calmness, certainty, order. Safety and Security needs
include: Personal security, financial security, health and well
being, safety needs against accidents or illness and their
adverse impacts.
Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
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In the drama Little Eyolf, the main character, Eyolf
has fulfilled his physiological needs and he will fulfill his
next needs, safety needs. Eyolf’s safety need has not been
fulfilled because he is an unlucky boy. His father Mr.
Allmers and his mother Mrs. Rita always do not give
suggestion whether Eyolf asks it or not. He thinks that his
problem is not so hard. As the result, it is unhappy and bad
experiences for Eyolf’s development.
Eyolf’s childhood experiences shape his character
when he is an adult, all of bad treatments from his
surrounding makes him become cruel, vengeful and hottempered. When he has a power, he realizes to do his
vengeance. He does not get the safety need when he was a
child.
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the
third layers of human needs are social and involve feelings
of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy
involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as
Friendship, Intimacy, and Family. Hjelle and Zielger say that
an individual motivated on this level longs for affectionate
relationship with others, namely for a place in his or her
family on reference groups (1976:259). Accordingly, the
person will feel keenly the pangs of loneliness, social
ostracism, friendlessness, and rejection, especially when
induced by the absence of friends, relatives, a spouse or
children. From the explanation we can conclude that this
need involves emotionally relationship.
Mrs. Rita has turned into an evil mother, she could
barely think of something logical. Her saying of her son as
the worse being is the ultimate symbolism of hatred and
jealousy. Rita only spends a little quality time with her
husband and by the time her husband comes from a long
journey, she wants more affection for her and nothing for
Eyolf.
Speak of evil, Mrs. Rita has entirely devoured by her
madness. To think the son as the gap between her and
Allmers is the summit insanity that can not be put into logic.
It is crystal clear that Rita does not care about Eyolf, her
son. She demands her husband as she has the right to do so.
Given this situation, Mr. Allmers is put into inconvenient
situation. He loves both Eyolf and Rita, as the readers could
see that the Allmers love is not in balance. Mrs. Rita puts
herself into conditional questions, where Eyolf’s existence
was never existed what it would be. Mr. Allmers
unexpectedly answers to this question that he will only have
her to love. Mrs. Rita is more assured that Eyolf should not
be around.
Mrs. Rita is indeed mad. She could not use her logic
or her senses back. Rita is a mother, but in the story, she is
quite contrary. Eyolf is left alone, with only a little affection
of his father and no love from his mother. As the result,
Eyolf needs of love can be assumed as a failure.
The last but not the least, the fourth level of needs is
the need for self esteem. When one needs for being loved
and for loving others have been completed, they can move to
the higher order needs. Maslow classifies these needs into
two subsidiary sets. These are, first, the desire for
competence, confidence, personal strength, adequacy,
achievement, independence and freedom. It means that all
human have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem.
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Esteem needs present the normal human desire to be
accepted and valued by others. People need to engage
themselves to gain recognition and have an activity that
gives a person a sense of contribution to feel accepted and
valued by others. They may seek fame or glory, which again
depends on others. It may be noted, however, that many
people with low self esteem need will not be able to improve
their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect,
and glory, but must first accept themselves internally.
More to the self-actualization, Eyolf could only sit
nearby the house or the sea since he does not have any
supportive motive from his parents. Eyolf is the
representation of a loner. Eyolf tries to fulfill the desire to
respect and to be respected. His childhood had created a
desire to be accepted and valued by parents. He needs the
parent’s attention because his father Mr. Allmers and his
mother Mrs. Rita do not care of giving affection to Eyolf.
Hence, he escapes from the reality and lives in his world of
fantasy. In the world of fantasy he could do as he wants and
gets what he needs.
Unlike any other boys Eyolf has the problem to
perform self actualization, even when he wears new clothes.
His existence is never accepted by his surroundings. Since
he has no complete legs then his dream of becoming a
soldier becomes a subject of mockery to other boys on the
beach. Eyolf is better off with the books. However, his
parents never give a solution of motivation to build his self
esteem. Eventually, Eyolf must face his own problem all
alone.
Inside the house he only sees madness and outside he
can not go with other boys. His aunty Asta rarely talks to
him and the uncle never genuinely cares him because his
uncle purpose is only to get Rita’s attention. Here, through
the process, Eyolf does not successfully achieve his selfactualization. He will succeed when all the layers of
Maslow’s hierarchy of human (physiological needs, safety
needs, belongingness and love needs, and esteem needs) are
well gratified, so she/ he can achieve this highest level. From
this last level someone can prove her/ his capacity in the way
of reaching his willingness but Eyolf is not.
Next, there is a shocking event from Eyolf as he has
grown tired to see madness inside his family. The event is
also a sign of his final act to draw attention from his parents.
Last, his desperate need of acceptance leads him into
an epic end. Ignorance makes his family blind. They never
really know and care to Eyolf. In the final subchapter there
will be more clearly explanation about Eyolf’s death as the
symbolization of his endless effort to get attention from his
family, from people whom he knows. Eyolf’s death makes
his parents Mr. Allmers and Mrs. Rita unhappy. Eyolf is
sinking down in the sea and he has passed so far the sea.
Eyolf is suffering over there. Mr. Allmers and Mrs. Rita
want to help his child Eyolf, they also want to see his child
Eyolf before his death and say sorry for do not care of him in
his whole life.
His father Mr. Allmers and his mother Mrs. Rita have
neglected their child. They have played with life and death.
Mr. Allmers egoism has prevented him from really loving
the child but himself. He was badly affected by his ambition
and his cruel wife.
Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
4
Conclusion and Suggestion
The readers know from the analysis on the needs of
Eyolf’s self-actualization in Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf,
Little Eyolf portrays the efforts of Eyolf, the main male
character, to achieve his self-actualization. The theory used
to analyze the discussion is hierarchy of human needs by
Abraham H. Maslow. There many levels to get selfactualization. Those are physiological needs, safety needs,
belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs and the last
one is self-actualization.
The first need of Eyolf is physiological needs. He
suffers in his childhood because his father Mr. Allmers loves
travelling over town and his mother Mrs. Rita does not care
of Eyolf at home. Eyolf is unhappy at home because his
parents ignore him. The second need of Eyolf is safety
needs. Eyolf’s childhood experiences unusual childhood
including his handicapped leg. Hence, it is really essential
for his father Mr. Allmers and his mother Mrs. Rita to give a
good affection to Eyolf, especially in his childhood but it
never happens.
The third need of Eyolf is belongingness and love
needs. He does not get belongingness and love need from his
father Mr. Allmers, his mother Mrs. Rita. His father Mr.
Allmers never gives affection because he is busy writing
Human Responsibility book at his room. The fourth need of
Eyolf is esteem needs. He tries to fulfill the desire to respect
and to be respected from his father Mr. Allmers, his mother
Mrs. Rita but they always put no respect and affection to
Eyolf in his life.
The last need of Eyolf is self actualization. His
father, Mr. Allmers, has been a restless and half reluctant
slave to Mrs. Rita imperious temperament. Mr. Allmers has
dreamed and theorized about responsibility and has kept
Eyolf poring over his books. Mr. Allmers goes up into the
infinite solitudes, yearning towards selfless love and filled
with a profound and remorseful pity for the lot of poor
maimed humanity. He will help Eyolf to bring his desires
into harmony. Mr. Allmers will create a conscious happiness
in his mind but he fails in the end.
This thesis concludes that there are many motives for
individual to achieve his self-actualization. Firstly, he has to
be able to fulfill his needs and to solve the problems by
believing and struggling for his self actualization. Secondly,
it is crucial to convince ourselves that we can do what we
want to be, as long as it is suitable with our talent and tries to
actualize to make it true. The true happiness never comes if
people do not work together to make it happen.
Acknowledgements
My sincere affection to the following people who
always in favor for giving hands until this thesis is
completed: Dr. Hairus Salikin, M.Ed, The Dean of Faculty
of Letters, Jember University and Drs. Albert Tallapessy,
M.A, Ph.D, The Head of English Department who has given
me a chance to start writing this thesis. Prof. Dr. Samudji,
M.A, Prof. Dr. H. Sutarto, M.A, Drs. Hadiri, M.A, Drs.
Syamsul Anam, M.A, Dra. Supiastutik, M. Pd, Reni
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Kusumaningputri, S.S, M. Pd for the never ending guidance
and patience throughout the entire process of writing the
thesis. My dearest father, Hidayat and my mother, Hj.
Saedah who always encourage me in every step of my study;
mentally, financially and always pray for my success.
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Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
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1
EYOLF’S SELF - ACTUALIZATION IN HENRIK IBSEN’S
LITTLE EYOLF
Fafan Sujarwo, Meilia Adiana, Imam Basuki.
English Department, Faculty of Letters, University of Jember (UNEJ)
Jln. Kalimantan 37 Jember 68121
E-Mail: learner10@hotmail.com
Abstrak
Little Eyolf adalah drama karya Henrik Ibsen yang berasal dari Norwegia. Eyolf adalah seorang anak cacat yang
sulit untuk memenuhi kebutuhan hidupnya karena kurang perhatian dari kedua orang tua dan lingkungan sekitarnya.
Untuk mengkaji kasus ini metode induktif dapat diterapkan untuk memunculkan masalah atas aktualisasi diri sebagai
kebutuhan hidupnya. Dengan lingkungan yang kurang mendukung, Eyolf lari dari kenyataan yang dihadapinya dengan
mencoba memenuhi kebutuhan pada aktualisasi diri di wilayah imajinasinya. Semangat Eyolf untuk memenuhi
kebutuhannya sangat terkait erat dengan teori Maslow tentang kebutuhan manusia. Tragisnya, tidak tercukupinya
kebutuhan Eyolf berujung pada kematian. Orang tuanya akhirnya sadar dan menyesal karena telah mengabaikan
kebutuhan Eyolf secara fisiologis, kenyamanan, percaya diri, rasa memiliki dan cinta. Keseluruhan cerita menggambarkan
perjuangan manusia untuk memenuhi kebutuhan utamanya, serta pentingnya peran serta orang tua terutama dalam
memberikan perhatian terhadapa anaknya di masa kecil.
Kata kunci: aktualisasi diri, kebutuhan dasar manusia, kebutuhan fisiologis, kebutuhan keamanan, kebutuhan percaya diri,
kebutuhan akan rasa kepemilikan dan cinta.
Abstract
Little Eyolf is written by Henrik Ibsen from Norway. Eyolf is a handicapped boy who finds it hard to find selfactualization since his parents and neighborhoods do not support him to do so. To study this phenomenon, the inductive
method is employed to manifest the discussion of the self-actualization. By this unsupportive environment, Eyolf escapes
from the reality and lives in his world of fantasy to fulfill his own need. The spirit of Eyolf to find his own redemption is
closely related to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Eyolf’s last spirit of self-actualization ends with tragedy. This final scene
leaves his parents nothing but regrets and remorse since the needs for physiological, safety, self esteem, belongingness and
love are not given during Eyolf’s childhood time. However, in the end of the story, Eyolf gains acceptance and affection
from his parents after his death. The story demonstrates the struggle of human to fulfill the human needs during the
childhood time and awareness from the parents to take a good sense in giving affection to the children since the early age.
Keywords: self-actualization, hierarchy of needs, physiological need, safety need, self esteem need, belongingness and love
need.
Introduction
Little Eyolf (1894) is a drama by Henrik Ibsen that
portrays Norway society. It is a tragedy play. Tragedy play is
a play that the main character makes blunder or gets tragic
events in his/her life. Sometimes tragedy is not only death in
ending, but also in sorrows, such Stanford (2006: 74) states
that, “Tragedy which focuses on life’s sorrows and serious
problems”. It portrays the life of a child who suffered in his
life. It tells about the child craving affection from his
parents.
Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
Affection is a warm gentle feeling of caring for or
loving (Hornby, 2000: 20). The children are made by their
parents at home, the development, and the decline of their
personalities most depend on affection, care, and love of the
parents. Moreover, many children get bad treatment from
their parents or other caretakers. Most of their parents do not
care of their children, and most of them do not know that the
lack of affection gives negative impacts to their children’s
personality.
Based on the fact above, it is interesting to analyze
the personality of Eyolf as the main character, and to know
how he gets self-actualization in his life. This drama tells
2
Penulis1 et al., Template untuk Penulisan Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa UNEJ.........
about an intelligent boy who lives miserably. The name of
the child is Eyolf. He lives with his parents and family;
Allmers, Rita, and Asta’s family. He is an unlucky boy,
because he must live with paralyzed in one of his legs and
Asta’s family never loves him. Therefore, his parents and
family do not give the affection to Eyolf. It causes bad effect
to his personality.
Hence this thesis discusses the personality of Eyolf
deeply as the child craving affection from his parents. The
relationship between personality and the needs of human
daily life are very interesting to discuss. The main character
is also a description of human needs. Parents are created
together as a unity; it is an impossible thing to separate each
other. The main point the writer wants to analyze is about
Eyolf’s motivation to get self-actualization need in Henrik
Ibsen’s Little Eyolf.
Little Eyolf is interesting to discuss because there are
so many problems in his life; such as, his efforts to solve his
problem, getting his needs until the achievement to get his
self-actualization. The main character, Eyolf, is showed as
the child craving affection done by the adults, the parents or
the other caretakers. Most plays are not only entertained to
watch or read, but it also gives moral values to the readers.
Research Methodology
Since this research is the qualitative research, the
data obtained is the qualitative ones. The qualitative data is
non numeric data. It is used in order to comprehend the
meaning of verbal words in the story. The data are collected
from the analyzed story. In this case the data will be in the
written verbal form. Some supportive literary criticism
books, especially the ones that are related to the theory of
Hierarchy of needs by Abraham Maslow are also taken.
The research is in the form of qualitative
description. As the literary works revolve in many elements,
for example, characters and setting, the center of the analysis
focuses on the character. Hence, the description of the
research will only involve the surrounding environment
which is closely related to this particular character. In
relation to descriptive analysis, the sorted data are analyzed
using Maslow’s theory to perform a plausible descriptive
analysis.
Since the problem of self actualization on the main
character is discussed, hierarchy of needs by Maslow is truly
relevant to put forward. The theory is able to explain the
basic needs of human which are crucial in the development
of character’s psychology to get a better understanding of
human’s needs.
Thus, the approach used is psychological approach.
The psychological approach is employed to study the
phenomena and problems related to the character’s mind in
relation to his acts and his personality development. The
discussion on Eyolf as the main character is essential since
he could not fulfill his needs during his childhood. The
blame is on his parents who are lack of giving more
affection and love to Eyolf.
This research is indeed inductive. It is started with
the analysis of the play in conjunction with the issue occurs
in Eyolf as the main character who experiences lack of
Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
affection during his hardest moment as a handicapped boy.
Next, Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs will give a
result in how far the needs have been violated. In short, the
analysis will show how could possibly a human react to the
lack of needs such as physiological, safety, self esteem,
belongingness and love and self-actualization. The lack of
self actualization may possibly end with tragedy as it
happens in the main character.
Result
From the data of Eyolf’s self-actualization in Henrik
Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, it is found that Little Eyolf portrays the
efforts of Eyolf, the main male character, to achieve his selfactualization. The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is
established, it is covering physiological needs, safety needs,
belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs and the last
one is self-actualization.
Eyolf does not get fully physiological needs since his
father Mr. Allmers loves travelling over town and his mother
Mrs. Rita does not care of Eyolf at home, even he does not
feel welcome at home. Second, it is safety needs. Eyolf’s
childhood experiences no safety because he has to see
everyday the quarrel over his parents. He escapes outside
with his book to calm himself. The third needs of Eyolf is
belongingness and love needs which has never been on the
first priority. This happens because Eyolf’s mother sees him
as a curse for the family. The fourth needs of Eyolf is esteem
need which is also impossible for Eyolf to posses. His
parents, however, never trust him of doing great things in the
future. The last needs of Eyolf is self actualization. This
needs is indeed impossible to get like any other needs since
his parents never give a chance to Eyolf to act like he wants
to.
This thesis concludes that there are many motives for
individual to achieve his self-actualization but
if
physiological, safety, self esteem, belongingness and love
needs are not given to him so Eyolf ends up with committing
suicide.
Discussion
Loneliness plays a big role in Eyolf’s mind because
in real world he can not get self actualization. His
environment never supports him to do so. Her mother is
never patient to deal with Eyolf’s fantasy, it is not only
because she is not patient but she even does not love Eyolf at
all. Her mother sees Eyolf as a hinder between her and her
husband. More to the self actualization, Eyolf has gone too
far with his own fantasy making himself delusional. He
cannot differentiate the difference between reality and
fantasy. In the end of the story, he has to live with his
outmost challenge of life. He has lost everything; his
loneliness and disability lead him to the indiscretion. He was
following his loneliness of life by going to the sea. Noticing
he could not swim, Eyolf is dragged into the depth of the
ocean and drowned with his memory of wonderful life.
Tragedy is indeed in the end of the story. Eyolf has
found its own redemption by going to the sea. This is
another interesting assumption, that Eyolf must have
experienced a mental disorder, or it is just another
Penulis1 et al., Template untuk Penulisan Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa UNEJ.........
symbolism of helplessness of having no genuine love from
her parents or people around him. Living in fantasy and
imagination brings him peace, only in that place he could
gain acceptance. However this kind of acceptance does not
come easily. His death might also his endless effort to show
his existence to the people around him and he succeeds. This
discussion explores on how the relation of self-actualization
could possibly be functional if the physiological needs and
affection meet the subject.
Maslow puts forward a theory that there are five
levels of human needs which have to be fulfilled in one's
life. Those are physiological needs, safety needs,
belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs, and the
need for self-actualization. All of the needs are structured
into a hierarchy of human needs.
Physiological needs are awfully crucial to the
understanding of human behaviour. It is the biggest effect
compared with all needs. It must be contented before the
individual motivates to the higher order of needs. For
instance, somebody who is deficient in food, safety, love,
and esteems would be most starving for food more strongly
than for other needs.
Parents have very important role to teach their
children about the love, they must be taught about it as well
as how to apply this love in their life. The children will
follow what they see and hear from their parents, every act
which they do will be known and followed by their children.
At home, the parents teach to speak, to eat, to sleep and to
behave because the first education for children begins from
their house and it will influence their future life. However,
the only physiological need that is given by the parents is
limited. Hence, Eyolf is the symbolism of the unwanted
child. His paralyzed legs make his life even worse. To get
the best of his life, he sits in the beach, and thinks of fantasy
to escape from the torturing reality. Eyolf however should
find his own ecstasy.
He tries to fulfill the physiological needs on his own.
The moral message is for the parents, it is essential for the
parents to provide a good affection to his children. The
parents are the mirror for his children. Every act which they
did will be known and followed by his children. They speak,
eat, sleep at home, but Eyolf does not get the physiological
needs from his parents.
Childhood experiences are memorable. Whatever
happened in the last time when he was a child, it will be
always kept in his mind until he grows up. It is really
essential for all parents to give a good education to their
children, especially in their childhood. It will much influence
to their growth of manner. Hence, it is the basic knowledge
for them to become a good boy.
The next level is safety needs. When physiological
needs have been gratified, somebody may move to the
higher order need that is often called the safety needs. Safety
needs are the needs when the individual yearning for
physical, safety and shelter, freedom from threat or security,
calmness, certainty, order. Safety and Security needs
include: Personal security, financial security, health and well
being, safety needs against accidents or illness and their
adverse impacts.
Artikel Hasil Penelitian Mahasiswa 2012, I (1): 1-5
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In the drama Little Eyolf, the main character, Eyolf
has fulfilled his physiological needs and he will fulfill his
next needs, safety needs. Eyolf’s safety need has not been
fulfilled because he is an unlucky boy. His father Mr.
Allmers and his mother Mrs. Rita always do not give
suggestion whether Eyolf asks it or not. He thinks that his
problem is not so hard. As the result, it is unhappy and bad
experiences for Eyolf’s development.
Eyolf’s childhood experiences shape his character
when he is an adult, all of bad treatments from his
surrounding makes him become cruel, vengeful and hottempered. When he has a power, he realizes to do his
vengeance. He does not get the safety need when he was a
child.
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the
third layers of human needs are social and involve feelings
of belongingness. This aspect of Maslow's hierarchy
involves emotionally based relationships in general, such as
Friendship, Intimacy, and Family. Hjelle and Zielger say that
an individual motivated on this level longs for affectionate
relationship with others, namely for a place in his or her
family on reference groups (1976:259). Accordingly, the
person will feel keenly the pangs of loneliness, social
ostracism, friendlessness, and rejection, especially when
induced by the absence of friends, relatives, a spouse or
children. From the explanation we can conclude that this
need involves emotionally relationship.
Mrs. Rita has turned into an evil mother, she could
barely think of something logical. Her saying of her son as
the worse being is the ultimate symbolism of hatred and
jealousy. Rita only spends a little quality time with her
husband and by the time her husband comes from a long
journey, she wants more affection for her and nothing for
Eyolf.
Speak of evil, Mrs. Rita has entirely devoured by her
madness. To think the son as the gap between her and
Allmers is the summit insanity that can not be put into logic.
It is crystal clear that Rita does not care about Eyolf, her
son. She demands her husband as she has the right to do so.
Given this situation, Mr. Allmers is put into inconvenient
situation. He loves both Eyolf and Rita, as the readers could
see that the Allmers love is not in balance. Mrs. Rita puts
herself into conditional questions, where Eyolf’s existence
was never existed what it would be. Mr. Allmers
unexpectedly answers to this question that he will only have
her to love. Mrs. Rita is more assured that Eyolf should not
be around.
Mrs. Rita is indeed mad. She could not use her logic
or her senses back. Rita is a mother, but in the story, she is
quite contrary. Eyolf is left alone, with only a little affection
of his father and no love from his mother. As the result,
Eyolf needs of love can be assumed as a failure.
The last but not the least, the fourth level of needs is
the need for self esteem. When one needs for being loved
and for loving others have been completed, they can move to
the higher order needs. Maslow classifies these needs into
two subsidiary sets. These are, first, the desire for
competence, confidence, personal strength, adequacy,
achievement, independence and freedom. It means that all
human have a need to be respected, to have self-esteem.
Penulis1 et al., Template untuk Penulisan Artikel Ilmiah Mahasiswa UNEJ.........
Esteem needs present the normal human desire to be
accepted and valued by others. People need to engage
themselves to gain recognition and have an activity that
gives a person a sense of contribution to feel accepted and
valued by others. They may seek fame or glory, which again
depends on others. It may be noted, however, that many
people with low self esteem need will not be able to improve
their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect,
and glory, but must first accept themselves internally.
More to the self-actualization, Eyolf could only sit
nearby the house or the sea since he does not have any
supportive motive from his parents. Eyolf is the
representation of a loner. Eyolf tries to fulfill the desire to
respect and to be respected. His childhood had created a
desire to be accepted and valued by parents. He needs the
parent’s attention because his father Mr. Allmers and his
mother Mrs. Rita do not care of giving affection to Eyolf.
Hence, he escapes from the reality and lives in his world of
fantasy. In the world of fantasy he could do as he wants and
gets what he needs.
Unlike any other boys Eyolf has the problem to
perform self actualization, even when he wears new clothes.
His existence is never accepted by his surroundings. Since
he has no complete legs then his dream of becoming a
soldier becomes a subject of mockery to other boys on the
beach. Eyolf is better off with the books. However, his
parents never give a solution of motivation to build his self
esteem. Eventually, Eyolf must face his own problem all
alone.
Inside the house he only sees madness and outside he
can not go with other boys. His aunty Asta rarely talks to
him and the uncle never genuinely cares him because his
uncle purpose is only to get Rita’s attention. Here, through
the process, Eyolf does not successfully achieve his selfactualization. He will succeed when all the layers of
Maslow’s hierarchy of human (physiological needs, safety
needs, belongingness and love needs, and esteem needs) are
well gratified, so she/ he can achieve this highest level. From
this last level someone can prove her/ his capacity in the way
of reaching his willingness but Eyolf is not.
Next, there is a shocking event from Eyolf as he has
grown tired to see madness inside his family. The event is
also a sign of his final act to draw attention from his parents.
Last, his desperate need of acceptance leads him into
an epic end. Ignorance makes his family blind. They never
really know and care to Eyolf. In the final subchapter there
will be more clearly explanation about Eyolf’s death as the
symbolization of his endless effort to get attention from his
family, from people whom he knows. Eyolf’s death makes
his parents Mr. Allmers and Mrs. Rita unhappy. Eyolf is
sinking down in the sea and he has passed so far the sea.
Eyolf is suffering over there. Mr. Allmers and Mrs. Rita
want to help his child Eyolf, they also want to see his child
Eyolf before his death and say sorry for do not care of him in
his whole life.
His father Mr. Allmers and his mother Mrs. Rita have
neglected their child. They have played with life and death.
Mr. Allmers egoism has prevented him from really loving
the child but himself. He was badly affected by his ambition
and his cruel wife.
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4
Conclusion and Suggestion
The readers know from the analysis on the needs of
Eyolf’s self-actualization in Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf,
Little Eyolf portrays the efforts of Eyolf, the main male
character, to achieve his self-actualization. The theory used
to analyze the discussion is hierarchy of human needs by
Abraham H. Maslow. There many levels to get selfactualization. Those are physiological needs, safety needs,
belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs and the last
one is self-actualization.
The first need of Eyolf is physiological needs. He
suffers in his childhood because his father Mr. Allmers loves
travelling over town and his mother Mrs. Rita does not care
of Eyolf at home. Eyolf is unhappy at home because his
parents ignore him. The second need of Eyolf is safety
needs. Eyolf’s childhood experiences unusual childhood
including his handicapped leg. Hence, it is really essential
for his father Mr. Allmers and his mother Mrs. Rita to give a
good affection to Eyolf, especially in his childhood but it
never happens.
The third need of Eyolf is belongingness and love
needs. He does not get belongingness and love need from his
father Mr. Allmers, his mother Mrs. Rita. His father Mr.
Allmers never gives affection because he is busy writing
Human Responsibility book at his room. The fourth need of
Eyolf is esteem needs. He tries to fulfill the desire to respect
and to be respected from his father Mr. Allmers, his mother
Mrs. Rita but they always put no respect and affection to
Eyolf in his life.
The last need of Eyolf is self actualization. His
father, Mr. Allmers, has been a restless and half reluctant
slave to Mrs. Rita imperious temperament. Mr. Allmers has
dreamed and theorized about responsibility and has kept
Eyolf poring over his books. Mr. Allmers goes up into the
infinite solitudes, yearning towards selfless love and filled
with a profound and remorseful pity for the lot of poor
maimed humanity. He will help Eyolf to bring his desires
into harmony. Mr. Allmers will create a conscious happiness
in his mind but he fails in the end.
This thesis concludes that there are many motives for
individual to achieve his self-actualization. Firstly, he has to
be able to fulfill his needs and to solve the problems by
believing and struggling for his self actualization. Secondly,
it is crucial to convince ourselves that we can do what we
want to be, as long as it is suitable with our talent and tries to
actualize to make it true. The true happiness never comes if
people do not work together to make it happen.
Acknowledgements
My sincere affection to the following people who
always in favor for giving hands until this thesis is
completed: Dr. Hairus Salikin, M.Ed, The Dean of Faculty
of Letters, Jember University and Drs. Albert Tallapessy,
M.A, Ph.D, The Head of English Department who has given
me a chance to start writing this thesis. Prof. Dr. Samudji,
M.A, Prof. Dr. H. Sutarto, M.A, Drs. Hadiri, M.A, Drs.
Syamsul Anam, M.A, Dra. Supiastutik, M. Pd, Reni
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Kusumaningputri, S.S, M. Pd for the never ending guidance
and patience throughout the entire process of writing the
thesis. My dearest father, Hidayat and my mother, Hj.
Saedah who always encourage me in every step of my study;
mentally, financially and always pray for my success.
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