Theory of Character and Characterization

character brings the readers a description about how the story flows therefore the readers can imagine what the story is about. Abrams also mentions that there are two types of character, simple or flat character and round or complex character. Flat character is character that possesses just one certain dispositional quality. He seems less to have trait behavior that can give a surprising effect to the reader. The flat character can be easily recognized and more familiar whenever they come in and easily be remembered by the readers afterward. A round character is more lifelike rather than flat character because we may see all sides of this character. He possesses many kinds of traits or various attitudes. The character is also capable of surprising us 20- 21. Flat character is easy to describe rather than round character because flat character does not make any significant development. Henkle states in his book Reading a Novel, that characters are categorized into “main or major characters” and “minor characters”. Major character is the most character in the story. The readers give him her fullest attention because heshe performs the key structural function; upon himher we build expectation and desires. Minor characters only perform a limited function in the story. They may be less sophisticated, so that their responses to the experience are less complex and important 22 While according to Horman and Harmon in A Handbook to Literature 81, the characterization is the way of the author to reveal the character in the story. There are three methods that can be used in characterization of the character. Those are: 1.The explicit presentation by the author of the character through direct exposition either in an introductory block or more often piecemeal throughout the word illustrated by the action. 2.The presentation of the character in action, with little or no explicit comment by the author, in the expectation that the readers will be able to deduce the attributes of the actions. 3.The presentation from within the character without comment on the character by the author, the impact of actions and emotions on the character’s inner self with the expectation that the reader will come to a clear understanding of the attributes of the character Murphy, in Understanding Unseens: An Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for Overseas Students, mentions some ways to describe characters. In describing character in a work of art, author can use one of the following ways: 1. Personal Description In revealing characters, the author can present the physical appearance of the characters. The author can describe a person’s appearance and clothes. By summarizing the author’s description of the character physical appearance, the readers can imagine what kind of person he is 161. 2. Character as Seen by Another As opposed to describe character directly, the author can describe him through the eyes and opinion of another character. From the opinion of other characters, the reader can infer the imagination of a character as a reflection. The others’ point of view about the certain character might be an important point to understand the character well 162. 3. Speech Through the choice of word or what the person says, the author can give us an insight into the character of one person in the story. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in a conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving us some clues to his character. Commonly, we know someone’s insight from his speech because from the speech we can analyze what kind of person he is 164. 4. Past Life The author can give us a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character by learning about the person’s past life. This can be done through the direct comment of the author, through the person’s thought, through his conversation or through the medium of another person. What happens to the character to the present life can be the result of what happened to him in the past life. Therefore learning the person’s past life can help the readers in analyzing character in the story 166. 5. Conversation of Others The author can give us clues to a person’s personality through the conversation of others and their opinion about the characters. What the other characters say in the conversation about the certain character can give us information what a character is like. It is important to pay attention to the conversation of other characters since it will help us understand the character 167. 6. Reactions The author can also give us a clue to a person’s character by letting us know how the person reacts to various situation and events. The readers can recognize whether the character is strong or weak, smart or not by analyzing their actions coping with different situation. The reader can also get the image of the character from their attitudes 168. 7. Direct Comments The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly. Since the author gives the description and comment on the character directly, it will be easier for the reader to find out the information on the character. Besides it is easy, misinterpretation can be reduced 170. 8. Thought The author gives us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. The author is able to know what is going on in the mind of the character. He can tell us what different people are thinking. He can do what we cannot do in real life. In the novel, we accept this. From the direct description about the character’s mind, the readers can analyze what kind of person he is exactly. Therefore, the readers can understand the inner life of the character 171. 9. Mannerism The author can describe a person’s mannerisms, habit and idiosyncrasies which may give the reader some clues about the character. What people always do or habit can reflect their inner side positively and negatively. We can also infer what a character is like from what he does, thinks or says 173.

2. Critical Approach

In analyzing a literary work, a novel for instance, we will use a certain approach in order to make the analysis clear and understandable. Rohrberger and Woods, Jr state that we need to employ a mean that is called a critical approach in order to understand and apprehend the aesthetic values of literary work 3. Rohrberger and Woods, Jr define five kinds of critical approach called formalist approach, biographical approach, sociocultural-historical approach, mythopoeic approach, and psychological approach. The formalist approach concentrates on the total integrity of literary works. The involvement of each aesthetic part to the whole is seen as harmony to the complete work. The biographical approach is used when we intend to judge literary work based on importance of acknowledging the author’s personal life for deep understanding to his writing. The sociocultural-historical approach asserts the analysis of social, cultural and historical background as reference to the further understanding of the story. The Mythopoeic approach is used when the critic attempts to find particular recurrent pattern of human thought, which are considered sharing the same universal belief to certain community mind. Generally, the patterns involve death or rebirth, guilt and sacrifices, primitive rites, or patterns behavior basic to Christian theology. Psychological approach involves theories of psychology to explain the character’s personality in the story. The proponents of this approach insist that each character’s behavior could be referred to the psychology of human being. By the approach, the character’s thought and behavior can be traced more profoundly because it has close relationship with human’s life.

3. Theory of Psychology a. Definition of Love

Since the analysis deals with the influence of the absence of love, so it is necessary to use theory of love. According to Hauck in his book How to Love and be Loved, love is a powerful feeling one has for persons, animals or things that has satisfied, is satisfying or will satisfy our deepest desires and needs. From the definition, the writer may infer that actually not people that we love but what people do for us that we love. 1 Types of Love According to Eric Fromm According to Fromm, in his book The Art of Loving 1963, states “love in all aspects, there is not romantic love which is surrounded by wrong conception. There are also parental love love of parent and children, brotherly