their husbands. Their sole purpose in life is to find a husband, reproduce and then spend the rest of their lives serving him. If a woman were to decide to
remain single,
she would
be ridiculed
and pitied
by the
community http:staff.washington.educgiacomicoursesenglish200historica
lbriefswomen.html .
In Women and Prostitution : A Social History book, Vern and Bonnie
Bullough stated that the upper class women were probably came to the profession as a mistress or whore for reasons of economic hardship, they were able to turn beauty
or talent to advantage 1987: 38. Donna J. Guy writes about the history of prostitution worldwide in her article
entitled Stigma, Pleasures, and Dutiful Daughters1998: 181, Guy states that prostitution is linked to religious beliefs, family survival, and patriarchy authority.
However, women choose prostitution to find independence, provide an income or control their own sexuality.
From Guy‟s statement, the writer sees that structural classes marginalize women. Family is based on patriarchy system. The husband is
more dominant in the family. The upper class or lower class women have low status so that many of them enter into prostitution. For helps the family economically, an
upper class woman chooses to be a mistress or courtesan. The reason for an upper class woman who is left by her husband is to find an independence and control own
sexuality.
D. Theoretical Framework
This part provides the foundations to answer the three problems in the Chapter I. From the theoretical framework, the writer tries to define on how the related study
and theories are applied to analyze the object of the study.As stated in the previous subchapter, the theories that will be used are the theory on character, characterization,
and the feminism. The theory of characters and characteristics in the literary works is needed to
investigate who the character is, what kind of person she is, how the character behaves in the society and how her personalities are shown through her actions,
thought and speech. By analyzing each of her characteristics, there can be found how she acts toward reality, making decisions and build her own identity in the society.
The theory on feminism, review of socio-cultural historical background of Victorian era, and feminist approach are important to focus on the perspective of
feminist about women in the society. To get understanding why Roxana acts in such a way, the knowledge on the feminism is needed. The review of the socio-cultural
historical background of Victorian era is aimed for the understanding of the women‟s lives in the Victorian era. By understanding the women‟s lives in the Victorian era
and the women character‟s characteristics in the play, the writer will able to analyze what women‟s hardships are reflected in the characteristics in those women
characters.
20
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of the study is a novel written by Daniel Defoe entitledRoxana or The Fortunate Mistress
. This novel published in 1998. The novel takes the setting of the 1800s century in England, although the main character goes to some other
countries in Europe, which become part of the story. Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress
is one of Defoe’s literary works which tells us about woman
’s experience and her struggle toward hardship, society, and her attitude toward man, being a wife, and her comparison between wife and mistress.
There are five characters in the story of novel. They are Roxana as the main character, Amy as her house cleaner, and the names of other characters who involved
in Roxana’s life cannot be mentioned obviously in the novel except their status. They are the Landlord or the Jeweller, The Prince, Dutch merchant, The King, and The
Merchants, the Duke, and some other men. Roxana
is a very interesting novel because it gives us an insight to marriage and women’s state in the 1700s-1800s century. Marriage in the 1700s-1800s century
was a very precarious matter, even with the passing of the Marriage Act of 1753, a wise marriage was still difficult to get. A woman’s property can be owned and spent
by her husband, as the same case of Roxana. She finds her husband abandons herself with five children, and no means of financial, so she becomes a mistress and cleverly
seduces some rich men. This novel shows the uncertainty of women’s life; Roxana’s
situation is much better as a mistress than in her legalised marriage, for this reason the title of this novel
; she is a ‘fortunate mistress’ but to be a wife she is unhappy.
B. Approach of the Study
The approach of this study is feminist approach. Feminist approach is an approach that is concerned with marginalization of all women: that is in relation with
their placed to a secondary position. Most feminists believe that our culture is a patriarchal culture: that is, one organized in favour of the interest of men. Feminist
literary critics try to explain how power imbalance due to gender in a given culture is reflected in or challenged the literary texts Guerin, et al, 1999: 196. It is appropriate
to use feminist approach because the writer wants to analyze the reflection of feminism that can be seen in woman character in Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress
namely Roxana. Guerin also states that the feminist approach allows the writer to study how society shapes a woman’s understanding of herself, her society, and her
world Guerin, et al, 1999:197. Therefore, the writer includes the social background where the play takes place to see how the life of women in Victorian era. Then, the
writer can relate the description life of women in Victorian era and the characteristics of woman character in Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress.
C. Method of The Study
The study is done through reading and analyzing the main source, which is the novel itself. The writer applies a library research because all materials or sources that
used are taken from the library, not through questionnaire or laboratory research. There are two important sources used in this study; the primary source and the
secondary source. The primary source is the novel itself that is Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress
, which is written by Daniel Defoe. The secondary sources are the theories that are needed from the books and other references, including the internet.
Books that are related to the theory of character, characteristic, also the theory of feminism. However, the writer admitted that it is still need to take other references
such as articles from internet by accessing some relevant articles. The writer gets more information about the author, the socio-cultural historical events in 1800s in
England, the women position and movement in the Victorian era to support the analysis of the topic, and some criticism about the novel itself.
There were four steps that the writer did to make the analysis. The first step was reading the whole story for several times. It was done in order to make the writer
has deep understanding of the story. The second step was reading some books or papers related to the study from
the library. Books like A Glossary of Literary Terms by Abrams, An Introduction to Fiction
by Robert Stanton, A Handbook to Literature by Hugh Holman and William Harmon, Understanding Unseens: An Introduction to English Poetry English
Novel for Overseas Students by M. J. Murphy wereused for this study. Other than
