Third, the writer described the main character’s personality at the beginning of the story in details and analyzed the development of the main
character’s personality at the end of the story. To analyze the main character’s personality development and how the main character’s personality was described
in this story more easily, the writer read the novel repeatedly until deep understanding of the main character’s personality was obtained fully.
The fourth procedure was analyzing what the Priest and his teaching represent and how the Western Catholic Priest influenced the main character’s
personality development. Finally, after the three problems had been answered, the writer drew
conclusions from what the writer had already discussed in the analysis. 26
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter is the analysis of the problems of the study. It consists of three sections. The first section is about Madame Wu’s personality under the
influence of Chinese culture before she met Priest Andre. The second section discusses about Priest Andre representing Christianity teaching and Western point
of view. The last is about Madame Wu’s personality development under the influence of Priest Andre.
A. Madame Wu’s Personality Under the Influence of Chinese Culture Before Meeting Priest Andre
This part discusses about the personality of one of the characters in Pavilion of Women
1946 under the influence of Chinese culture before she met a Western Catholic priest, named Priest Andre. Abrams 1993:22 says that a
character is a person presented in a dramatic or narrative work interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that
are expressed in what heshe says and does. On the contrary, Forster 1974:30 describes a character as someone pretending to be a human being. Here the
character discussed is Madame Wu, the major character. In line with the description of a character proposed by Abrams and Forster, Madame Wu is not a
real person presented in the narrative work, who is endowed with moral,
27 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
dispositional, and emotional qualities expressed in what she says and does, so are other characters in the novel.
The analysis will use some of the nine ways to make a character understandable presented by Murphy 1972: 161-173. There are nine ways that
are used by the author to describe his or her characters. In Pavilion of Women 1946, Pearl S. Buck uses six of the nine ways proposed by Murphy to describe
Madame Wu’s personality, namely character as seen by others, speech, reactions, direct comment, thought, and mannerism.
1. Conservative
Madame Wu lived in Chinese culture environment, it formed her personality much. Chinese is very unique; it has many traditions and customs
to follow. Chinese people in 1900’s were very conservative. There were rules that ruled the relationship of members in a family. A son could not meet his
mother anytime he wanted when he was getting the age of seven Chang, 1960: 160. Madame Wu also did not permit her sons to meet her without
sending a servant to tell her their coming. ‘”You will return at once to your own court,” Madame Wu said in the
same cold voice. “It was intrusion for you to come here without sending a servant first to find if it was convenient for me…”
…. She had steadfastly followed that one which separated male from female at an early age. In this house her sons had been separated from
all women at the age of seven.’ p. 95-96
From the statement given by Pearl S. Buck and the reaction of Madame Wu when one of her son visited her without sending a servant first
shows us how she still held that tradition. 28
