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The three studies are all emphasizing on the linguistic aspect of the movie script and the subtitle. This research, however, will not discuss the linguistic
aspect. It will try to show the character development of the main character, named Gru, in DM1.
There are two theories that will be used in order to find out the development of
Gru’s character before and after he adopts the girls. The first theory is called the theory of characterization and the second is called theory of
personality. The theories used in this paper are the theory of characterization proposed by Robert Stanton and the theory of personality by Murray. The theories
will be discussed in the following parts.
2. Theory of Characterization
The theory of characterization is used to characterize Gru. It shows how Gru
’s character is described in the movie. According to Abrams 1999, character is a person in the story created by the writer that should be redefined by the
reader. It is the reader’s freedom to decide whether the character is bad or good. The author of the novel, however, left clues within the story Abrams, 1999.
Murphy, literature critics, states that characterization may be explained through the description of the appearances, speech and other characters view on specific
character. Literary work may include more than one character in the story. Each
character can be characterized as well. Forster 1927 defines two kinds of characters. The first is flat characters and the second is round characters. Flat
characters deserve narrow characterization in the story. They have no proper
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detail about the personality. Round characters in the story have more complex personality, which require more details. The idea of flat and round character by
Forster 1927 shares the similarity with the idea from Henkle 1977. He differs character in two groups, the major and minor characters. Major characters have
more opinions or thought to describe and may be the focus of the story as the opinion shifting. On the other hand, minor characters have small function and
require less description. Creator of a story needs to introduce the character to the readers and
audiences. It is important to characterize the major character in the story in order to build a reflection for the people. Clues toward the characters being introduced
should be clear and well developed to avoid miss interpretation between creators and the listeners. Characters in a story should be functioned as a tool to help
people know better about themselves.
3. Murray’s Theory of Personality
Personality theory concerns the development of an individual characteristic by focusing on the influences that may shape a man Crow and
Crow, 1972, p. 228. Those influences are divided into two groups. The first influence is potentialities that possess by an individual and the second influence is
coming from the environmental effect Crow Crow, 1972, p. 228. The development of a characteristic is controlled by the ability of people to adapt and
to study through the life experience, also by the environmental issue which would force people to change, for example: a family member, a close friend, a seminar,
or any other outside influence. Besides, Crow and Crow also wrote that “to the
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Layman personality often means no more than an identifying description of a characteristic possessed by an associate that either attracts or repel” Crow and
Crow, 1972. Murray is one of the psychology theorists who held the same idea as Crow
and Crow. According to Murray 1893, an individual is a biological organism who has needs and a person who is aware about personality development by the
social environment Nordby and Hall, 1974, p.127. Need according to Murray is
a force in human brain that automatically attempt to increase satisfaction and decrease dissatisfaction. Need may arise based on some human basic need like
food, water, and sex but it also be arouse based on the need of achievement Nordby and Hall, 1974. McClelland 1985 categorizes Mu
rray’s human need as cited from Hall and Lindzey 1957: abasement, achievement, affiliation,
aggression, autonomy, counteraction, defendance, deference, dominance, exhibition, harmavoidance, infavoidance, nurturance, order, play, rejection,
sentience, sex, succorance, and understanding. Abasement is the need to be blamed by others. It is the need to receive
punishment and misfortune. Defendance is totally different with abasement. It drives people to defend themselves from blame and criticism. It refuses to
surrender and tries to strike back. Almost similar to the defendence need, harmavoidence and infavoidence
are the needs to protect an individual from blame or embarrassing situation. Both harmavoidence and infavoidence are not defending but avoiding. However,
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harmavoidence attempts to avoid physical injury and infavoidence attempts to avoid humiliation.
On the other hand, achievement, aggression and counteraction are almost similar. Achievement is an eagerness to master something difficult using
acceptable action by the society, but aggression is an eagerness to use violence in order to obtain something. Sometimes it also provokes people to kill one another
and to take revenge. Counteraction however is the need to make up failure in order to overcome problem and avoid humiliation. The three of them leads people
to gain high standard and master something difficult whether using fair action or violence.
Affiliation and autonomy are contradictive needs. Affiliation is the need to get along with people with the same interest while autonomy is the need to
become independent. Affiliation leads people to be loyal to their friends but autonomy resist to be dominated by the authorities. The need of autonomy is
somehow similar to the need of rejection. It is the need to separate oneself from a negative object. Rejection refuses to become similar to inferior object. Unlike
autonomy that rejects higher authority, rejection only refuse a negative object. The need of deference and exhibition also differ from one another.
Deference is a willing to support superior. It is a need to give praise and honor to a superior object. Exhibition seeks an impression among others. People with the
need of exhibition definitely try to find people with the need of deference. The need of exhibition sometimes follows the need of sentience. Sentience is the need
to seek and enjoy impressions from others.
