Background of the Study

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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW

This chapter discusses theories that support the analysis of the thesis. This chapter is divided into three parts. They are review of related studies, review of related theories, and theoretical framework. Firstly, review related studies discuss some related comment and criticism on the same topic with this research. Secondly, review of related theories discusses some related theories used in this research. Thirdly, theoretical framework explains how the theories in this research support the analysis.

A. Review of Related Studies

There are some criticisms addressed to Daniel Defoe‟s Roxana or The Fortunate Mistress . The first criticism that will be discussed is a comment of Anna Fioravanti, on Review on Lady Roxana, She gives a reason why this novel is a special book for her. Obviously, prostitution is not to be encouraged men and women would be agree that It‟s the way Defoe deals with his character that makes the book “special”. A man whose description of a woman is based on being positive all time. She is as beautiful as an gel. She is pure it‟s others who make her guilty She is intelligent and able to improve her abilities Roxana becomes very good in administrating her fortune, ability which is particularly important considering her century and the central role given to economics. www.Thefword.org.ukreviewsbookroxana.live Fiorava nti shows how Defoe‟s novel has impressed her. It is because the novel can give a special influence over the reader. Moreover, she finds, it is very i mportant because she has the opportunity to see and understand women from male‟s point of view. Fioravanti is also interested in how the author writes about the character, Roxana. Defoe is a man of eighteenth century. He writes about a woman who is involved in the hard life and hard situations. However, Defoe just comments and judges the actions in general but never judges the character, Roxana. The second criticism comes from Virginia Woolf’s essay on Defoe, published in the Common Reader, first series 1925, which is included in the novel. She praises the Defoe‟s sympathetic representation of women. This is the aspect of his work, which gives a greater contribution to modern feminist context. Roxana, a lady of the same profession, argues more subtly against the slavery marriage. She had started a new thing in the world. But Defoe is the last writer to be guilty of bald preaching. Roxana keeps our attention because she is blessedly unconscious that she is any god sense an example to her sex and thus, at liberty to town that part of her arguments is of an elevated strain which was really not in my thoughts at first at all Woolf, 1998: 315 Tholonia in the article “Bond” also pays attention to the character of Roxana. She focuses her discussion to Roxana‟s perspectives about marriage. Daniel Defoe was much concerned on the status of woman at that time. Defoe‟s study, Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of Marriage Bed, deals with the moral, sexual and legal realms of marriage. Women do not have more rights than children or lunatics in London society in eighteenth century1727:163. Another criticism comes from Lora David and Carrie S. Bryant2002: 175 in “Make Your Way as A Women Eighteenth-Century England” essay, both seniors at University of Michigan. They state that Daniel Defoes novel Roxana is for the most part a woman of wealth and independence. Her wealth is acquired to a large degree through her dealings with the men in her life. She has strong business sense, sexual awareness and financial standing. It is for this reason that Roxana chooses to remain single. In contemporary law, gender and marital status determines a persons legal profile. Being a married woman effectively eliminates the womans status as an individual under the law-legally, the married woman is essentially subsumed into her husband. Specifically, she virtually loses her right to own and control property. It is for this reason that Roxana has no desire to be married. She argues that a wife has nothing of her own, but a mistress has what is hers as well as what her lover haswww.umich.edu~ecestudent_projects. This writing has some similarities with some studies above, but still this writing has different focus to explore from those studies. The previous studies discuss about the character and representation of upper class woman, marriage, and independent woman, this writing focuses on Roxana. She lives in patriarchal family. She has arranged to marry her parent‟s chosen husband. Roxana was fifteen years old when she got married with a Brewer. Based on the analysis of her characteristics and the description of woman ‟s lives1800s in England the writer can understand woman‟s hardships that exist in the novel.