It is noted from their conversation that when Portia early needs are prominent in a relationship, she becomes a prisoner to these needs. As a consequence, Portia
finds difficulty to leave the relationship with Eddie because of her basic need for love. Portia is wrenched off unconsciously from her personal conviction and she
is controlled by Eddies authority. Portias relation and dependency on Eddie indicate the danger of ego-ideal which let others oppress her freedom.
Since Portia‟s ego-ideal leads her to be kind to others‟ demands, there will be chance from others to impose certain value to Portia‟s life. In Windsor Terrace,
Portia must follow feminine value that should be possessed by girls. Portia starts to recognize this feminine value while she decides to “join symbolic realm” or to
immerse in social life. Before joining the symbolic realm, Portia is immune to the differences between her self and others. Therefore, while separation from mother
occurs, Portia who has to live and interact with others in symbolic realm must admit the existence of others and their differences.
To bridge the differences, Portia needs a language of communication. In symbolic realm, there is symbolic language that functions as the universal
language used by society. For its universality, the symbolic language, which is materialized through symbolic order or social rule, must be shared and used by all
people. Thus, for the function of the symbolic language, Portia must fuse with it and use the same social rule shared by society. In this novel, the use of symbolic
language makes Portia fall into the social construction of womanhood or formation of gender identity. Since symbolic language consists of social order, it
imposes certain feminine gender model that should be obeyed by women in society.
As the consequence, Portia‟s identity as a woman is determined by the imposition of feminine gender identity from the society.
The symbolic order found in The Death of the Heart is when people in Windsor Terrace ask Portia to behave in a certain feminine way. They want Portia
to be a grown-up woman who can behave in a good feminine manner and control her childish behavior. The imposition of feminine gender identity is followed by
the repression of Portias original desire. Symbolic father limits the revisiting toward maternal realm and pleasure. Actually, Portias pleasure is to keep herself
free from peoples control and to get the sense of mothers love. Meanwhile, in Windsor Terrace, Thomas and Anna want her to leave her childish manner. So,
for the restraining of this pleasure, Portia gets hesitancy toward other peoples virtue.
To conclude this part, it is to note that maternal attachment becomes a gate for the imposition of symbolic order. The existence of others encourages Portia to
build unity with them. Through the emergence of ego and ego-ideal, Portia is trapped into imaginary unity with others in which she attempts to make others as
the part of her self. This imaginary unity with others then allows the imposition of feminine gender model by symbolic father or society. In Portia‟s relation with
Anna and Eddie, for instance, her need for their attention and love encourage her to follow some orders which are actually oppressed her self-freedom. It finally
constructs gender identity for Portia and restrains her self-freedom. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3.2.2 The Forbidden Pleasure
While pleasure is controlled, contained within boundaries mapped out by the ego, desire cannot be held in place.
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When the symbolic father or social law forbids the pleasure, Portias desire for constructing the relationship with other
people is decreased. It stimulates her desire to deteriorate herself from the relation with society. The inability of society to provide pleasure for Portia constructs the
image of society as a lacking subject that cannot accomplish Portias self-identity. This circumstance then triggers Portias retreat from the symbolic father and
stimulates her return toward maternal attachment. In the beginning of this discussion, it is argued that earliest self-
identification to mother makes Portia equal to Irenes reflection; they have similarity in manner and emotional condition. Symbiotic relation with the mother
has constructed Portias high self-esteem where she feels so secure with her own identity and considers the relationship with others as the less important thing to
do. For that reason, Portia is unable to let herself out from desire to mothers love. It is found in this novel that Portias return toward maternal attachment is
influenced by her unsuited feeling to the social relationship. In the beginning of her socialization process with Thomas and Anna in Windsor Terrace, she feels
disrupted by their rules and demands. This disruption then stimulates Portias feeling to miss her relation with Irene.
Importantly, there are two difficulties found by Portia during her first socialization process with Quayne‟s family; the surrounding and other people‟s
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Easthope, p. 94
characters. In her past, she always feels a convenient surrounding with Irene although she just lived in a small hotel and village. In contrast, Portia does not
find that convenience in Windsor Terrace, as it is narrated below: Everywhere, she heard an unloving echo: she had entered one of those
pauses in the life of a house that before tea time seem to go on and on. This was a house without any life above-stairs, a house to which
nobody had returned yet, which, through the big windows, darkness, and silence had naturally stolen in on and begun to inhabit. Reassured,
she stood warming her hands. The, 15
Quayne‟s house becomes a comfortless place for Portia because she does not find the sense of wholeness and self-freedom there. There is the lack of self-
gratification of life compared to her past. Even though Quaynes house is bigger and luxurious from a flat or small hotel, Portia still feels the emptiness. People in
Thomas‟ house mind their own business and do not have much time to talk to each other and to give attention to Portia. There is an absence of attention and
love from Thomas and Anna which makes Portia miss Irene‟s nurturance. Secondly, Portia‟s experience to live independently without other people‟s
intervention does not only make her unfamiliar to new surrounding but also to people‟s characters. Living in Windsor Terrace has forced Portia to accept the
existence of Quayne‟s family and other relatives with all of their different characters and demands. In Windsor Terrace, Portia meets many people, such as
Anna, Thomas, St. Quentin, Eddie, and Matchett. All of those people have their own characteristics which have not been realized by Portia. Since she never makes
direct contact with other people, Portia does not know how to deal with their characters and demands.
In Windsor Terrace, Portia hates St. Quentin, Anna‟s friend, for his talkative character, as she says: “He talks so much”. The, 12 She also dislikes Anna who
always enters her room without permission, as she says to Matchett: “All I mean is,” went on Matchett, “don‟t give her more to pick on.
Not for a day or two, till it passes off.” “But what was she doing in my room?”
“I suppose she just took the fancy. It‟s her house, like it or not.” “But she always says it‟s my room…Has she touched things?” The,
17 Portia‟s dislike toward Anna‟s intervention and St. Quentin‟s character shows the
beginning process of her rejection toward other people‟s intervention in her life. She also has fewer friends, and the only close friend in school is Lilian. Thus for
the others‟ intervention, Portia‟s pleasure seems to be stolen from her. She finds no freedom and love in Thomas‟ house. She feels like an outsider in Windsor
Terrace. Further, it can be argued that Portia
‟s feeling of being an outsider in Windsor Terrace is caused by her feeling of not being valued and accepted for
what she really is. In Windsor Terrace, Portia cannot behave in her own way. Her habit of doing anything in her own way; without being controlled by certain rules
and demands, is seen as a disturbance toward others, as it is claimed by Anna: “How annoying” said St. Quentin again.
“It was indeed. Because if only—However … Well, that wretched little escritoire caught my eye. She had crammed it, but really, stuffed
it, as though it were a bin. … “When you opened the desk?”
“Well, it looked so awful, you see. The flap would not shut—papers gushed out all round it and even stuck through the hinge. Which made
me shake with anger —I really can‟t tell you why. So I scooped the
papers all out and dropped them into the armchair —I intended to
leave them there, then tell her she must be tidy. … The, 7 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Anna‟s argument shows rejection to Portia‟s nature. For Anna, Portia‟s nature makes her just like an animal, as she says:
“In ways, she‟s more like an animal. I made that room so pretty before she came. I had no idea how blindly she was going to live. Now
I hardly ever go in there; its simply discouraging. The, 6 Intervention toward Portia‟s pleasure is also done by her teacher in school.
Portia, who is unused to sit calmly in class, keeps behaving in her nature. She could not keep her thoughts at face-and-table level and she is not good in
concentrating at class like the other girls. The, 36 Her nature characteristics cannot be accepted by society, as it is reflected from narration below:
One professor would stop, glare and drum the edge of the table; another would say: “Miss Quayne, please, please. Are we here to look
at the sky?” For sometimes her inattention reached the point of bad manners, or, which was worse, began to distract the others. The, 36
From the rejection above, it can be noted that others compel her to perform proper manner as it is constituted for all girls in society. She is forced to follow social
demand which aims to oppress her self-freedom. Cori explains that to grow in new surrounding needs unconditional acceptance “I accept you just as you are”,
respect, and value.
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This argument proves that a rejection toward Portias natural characteristics will evoke her resistance from the social relationship with others.
Susan Anderson in Cori‟s book The Emotionally Absent Mother: A Guide to Self- Healing and Getting The Love You Missed states that:
As a young child, you needed to connect in order to move forward. As an infant, you depended on your mother to give the nurturance you
needed, and your attention focused almost exclusively on that relationship. When you were a toddler, she became a background
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Cori, p. 55
object as you began to develop and function more independently. . . . If something interfered with that development
—if Mommy had to go to the hospital for a long stay
—your ability to function independently may have been delayed.
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The previous statement can be related to Portias condition in which strong bond
relation with Irene stimulates her desire to keep in touch with Irene. Irene has become the best companion for Portia, and when she loses Irene, it will evoke the
emergence of insecure attachment. Cori explains that the insecurity of attachment to mother‟s figure can be associated with emotional rigidity, difficulty in social
relationships, impairments in attention, difficulty in understanding the minds of others, and risk in the face of stressful situations.
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Insecure attachment describes the inability to adapt and socialize self with new surrounding and people‟s
characters. Portia faces this insecure attachment in which she is unable to make herself convenient with new surrounding and people.
The forbidden pleasure makes Portia no longer see other people as effective figures who can accomplish her needs for love. Lacan asserts that the
forbidden pleasure will raise a question, such as: why should I desire anyone of associated signifier?.
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The forbidden pleasure stimulates Portias awareness toward other peoples interest in her. After sometimes, Portia feels uncomfortable
with Anna‟s manipulation. Anna‟s effort to show her attention to Portia actually bothers Portia‟s private life. Portia feels so terrible while Anna checks her room
when she is not in. For her, it is a kind of infraction for her private life:‟ But she always says it‟s my room…Has she touched things?‟ The, 17
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Cori, p. 41-42
115
Cori, p. 42
116
Easthope, p. 94
