The Settings of Events
happiness is pursued for the sake of the others, e.g. when the officers arrested the killer, it makes not only the officers happy, but also the neighbor who reported the
case. If there is more than one happy individual, then social happiness is achieved. In the story both kind of goals exist.
In The Tell-Tale Heart, some characters also have their own goals. The first character is the main character in the story that is the narrator. He used I-
narrator in telling his story. It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once
conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had
never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye yes, it was this He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film
over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees - - very gradually
– I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. p. 277
From the adjunct of purpose above, it is clear that the narrator was disturbed by the eye and the only way to free from it was by killing the old man.
This is a personal goal because the narrator wanted to achieve his goal for himself. The statement of the goal is mentioned by the narrator, which is also the character,
it increases the anticipation of the reader. It creates the expectation on the reader whether the narrator would successfully kill the old man or not. This is the main
point of adjunct of process, increasing the expectation of the story plot. Another character that has goal in the story is the officers. The goal of the
officers is the opposite of the narrator. It can be said that the officers’ goal is the anti-climax for the narrator.
When I had made an end of these labors, it was four oclock --still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street
door. I went down to open it with a light heart, --for what had I now to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
fear? There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbor
during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they the officers had been deputed
to search the premises. p. 280
The adjunct to search the premises is the goal of the officers. They were asked to find clues about the report from the neighbor. This is a social goal. The
officers wanted to achieve the goal for someone’s else good, in the story that is the neighbor
. The goal is to counter the narrator’s action. This adjunct is also significant to develop the complexity of the story. Without the offic
ers’ goal and action, the story would be boring because there would be no anti-
hero. The officers’ goal also adds the
expectation to the reader about “Will they capture the culprit?” or “how they will arrest the narrator”.
In order to achieve a goal, a certain action has to be done. Van Dijk points out that “an analysis of action sequences requires a concept of
SUCCESSFULNESS, and an action is FULLY SUCCESSFUL if the final result of the action is identical with the purpose” 1977: 175. It means in a story, a
completed purpose has a certain degree of accomplishment, and if a character did his action and met his expectation, it is called fully successful. In sentence 30, it
shows that the narrator’s purpose was to kill the old man, and he did it. Thus, it is a fully successful action.
… His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself --It is
nothing but the wind in the chimney --it is only a mouse crossing the floor, or It is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp. Yes, he had been
trying to comfort himself with these suppositions: but he had found all in vain
… p. 279 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
The example above is the opposite of the previous. The adjunct shows that the old man wanted to comfort himself, but it was futile. When the action was
conducted and the result did not meet the purpose, thus it is an unsuccessful action. Adjunct of purpose in The Tell-Tale Heart can give significant effect to
the reader. The effect is to increase the anticipation of the story plot. It describes what the characters want to achieve in the story. Contrast goals between two
characters usually are the things that make a story interesting. Additionally, it leads to the readers’ presumption about how the story will flow. Thus, if the adjuncts are
success in inviting the reader to make expectation, then the story plot will be easy to be followed by anyone.