CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter intends to answer the two questions that are formulated in the problem formulation. The analysis helps me to find out how Marquesa De
Montemayor or well known as Dona Maria is described in the novel and how the absence of love influences Dona Maria’s behavior.
A. Description of Dona Maria’s Character in The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Dona Maria is one of the major characters in The Bridge of San Luis Rey. She becomes a major character because she has an important role in the novel.
She introduces many key characters in the story. Henkle states that major character performs the key structural function 22. It is important to analyze the
major character since it helps me to answer the second problem formulation. From the analyses of the characters, I can understand better the influence of the absence
of love on the main character’s life. There is a relation between novel and reality. The story in the novel is one of the thousand stories that happen in human life.
According to Abrams there are two types of characters, simple or flat character and round or complex character. Dona Maria has complex character
because she is more life like. She possesses many kinds of traits and attitudes. The character is also capable of surprising us 20-21. Dona Maria is a good-hearted
woman but she is a drunkard. She is an aristocrat in Lima but she appears in an eccentric dress and behavior. She has a bad relationship with her parents, her
husband and her daughter.
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While according to Murphy in Understanding Unseens, we can analyze the character of Dona Maria from her personal description, opinion from other
characters, her speech in a conversation, her past life, conversation of other characters, her reactions to various situation and events, and direct description
from the author 161-173. In this thesis, I analyze the influence of the absence of love on Dona
Maria’s behavior. The description, therefore, is limited on Dona Maria’s characteristics in the novel. Dona Maria is characterized as lonely, introvert,
miserable, not good-looking, unconfident, and an unfaithful Christian.
1. Dona Maria is lonely
Dona Maria is a daughter of a cloth merchant in Lima, the capital city of Peru. Her parents are successful people in Peru. Although Dona Maria comes
from a wealthy family, unfortunately she is not a good-looking girl and suffers from inability to speak fluently. Therefore, her mother forces her to wear a lot of
jewelry to arouse some social charms. It can be seen that Dona Maria’s parents tried to fulfill Dona Maria’s needs of affection with a life of luxury. Her needs of
love and attention are not satisfied since her parents are busy people. It makes her create her own world. She is not accustomed to share what she feels with her
parents. She used to live and think alone. Since she stutters, she has difficulties in communicating with others. It
makes her look unattractive in other people’s view. Being unattractive brings misfortunate for Dona Maria. She does not have any close friends. She is a lonely
child.
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