Object of the Study

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

In this paper, a classical novel entitled The Old Wives’ Tale is used as the object of the study. The novel was written by Arnold Bennett. The Old Wives’ Tale was first published by Chapman and Hall publisher in 1908, London. The story comes with 624 pages with 4 chapters consisting 27 parts. The novel is adapted into a film The Old Wives’ Tale in 1921. This film is produced by Ideal and directed by Denison Clift. Then, in 1988, BBC made a drama film entitled Sophia and Constance adapted from The Old Wives’ Tale. Furthermore, The Old Wives’ Tale made it to rank in 87 for 100 best English- language novels of the 20 th century in Modern Library list. England and France in the middle ages are the main setting in the novel. The story starts with the life of Sophia in her younger days at her parents’ house. The story tells the closeness and rebellion of Sophia and her sister, Constance. In her younger age Sophia does many reckless things with Constance. Sophia and Constance help their mother to manage the family shop. Sophia is the one who does not like the idea of managing the shop. For this, she wants to be a teacher in school to avoid the shop which makes her mother to get really mad. Her father also disagrees with So phia’s idea because he needs her to manage the family shop. There is a day when her mother gives Sophia a duty to take care of her father. Sophia then leaves the duty for stalking an interested man occasionally coming by at their shop. She successfully makes a conversation with the man whose name is Gerald. By the time she comes back at her father’s room, she finds it that her father has been died. Sophia acknowledges that Gerald is a traveler. Gerald never comes again until three months later he shows up a t Sophia’s house. Sophia and Gerald get closer to each other. They are even in love. Sophia thinks that Gerald is the best man she has ever met. At the same time, Sophia goes against her mother’s rules. She often goes out without permission. She even runs off with Gerald. The elopement changes Sophia so much. She is in her early twenty when she has the elopement with Gerald. She follows Gerald to Paris, France. Sophia faces a high-end community in Paris. She struggles to encounter the different cultures, language, and also the people in Paris. Sophia has many fights with Gerald, generally because of the money he spends on. At that time, Sophia often feels dizziness. She also has tics, which is a habit in pushing in her lips tightly. Gerald eventually leaves Sophia alone in Paris. After Gerald leaves Sophia, she gets really sick. She is then nursed by a kind woman, Madame Foucalt. It takes nine weeks for her to get better. B. Approach of the Study This study uses a psychological approach to analyze the work of literature. Psychological approach is an approach in treating human’s mind and behavior. Human’s mind is the central source to determine human’s action. The psychological approach tries to observe the mind that influences people’s behavior. Wilfred L. Guerin defines in his book A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature : A brilliant creative genius, Freud provided convincing evidence, through his many carefully recorded case studies, that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control. He demonstrated that, like the icerberg, the human mind is structured so that its great weight and density lie beneath the surface below the level of consciousness 2005: 154. The approach is expected to reveal the ch aracter’s mind and behavior from a novel. Analyzing the caharacter’s behavior is important because the character from literary work is the reflection of human’s life. Learning human’s behavior is equal to understanding the human deeper. The psychology has a branch field which is abnormal psychology. The abnormal psychology is used to examine people with abnormal personality. There are many kinds of abnormal personality. An individual can suffer from psychosis, neurosis, psychomatic disorders, sociopathic reactions, psychopathic personality, and also mental deficiency. A psychological approach is used in this paper to analyze how far a person might respond in encountering anxiety triggered by the conflicts. Each person has their own anxiety for sure. The way a person faces the anxiety is also different from one to another.

C. Method of the Study