23 Theory of character, method of characterization, and theory of motivation will
be useful to determine the characteristics of the main character in the novel and help the writer to answer the first problem formulation, in which the writer will give a
clear description about Veronika’s characteristics in Paulo Coelho’s novel Veronika Decides to Die.
In order to answer the second problem formulation, the writer will use theory of psychoanalytical psychology and theory of motivation. These theories are used to
find out the meaning of Veronika’s decision to commit suicide. Freud’s psychoanalytical psychology theory is applied to help the writer to explain about the
first true meaning of Veronika’s decision to commit suicide which is related to the the analyses that Veronika cannot control the id. Furthermore, Maslow’s theory of
Motivation is applied to explain the second true meanings of Veronika’s decision to commit suicide which is related to the analyses that Veronika is lack of
belongingness and love needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.
2.3 Context of The Novel
Veronika Decides to Die is a novel written by Paulo Coelho.
This novel consists of 210 pages.
The original version Paulo Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die was written Portuguese. The novel was translated into English by Margaret Jull Costa
and
published in 1999 in the United States of America by Harper Collins Publisher Inc.
24
New York. Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author who likes to use his personal experience as the inspiration in writing a literary works.
Veronika Decides to Die, is one of Coelho’s novels that is written based on his personal experience when he was sent to a mental hospital by his parents for three
times because he wanted to be a writer. Besides Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho also wrote some other famous novels such as The Alchemist, The Pilgrimage,
Eleven Minutes, The Valkyries, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept, the Fifth Mountain, and Warrior of the Light: A Manual.
Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die is a novel which tells a story of a journey of life of a young Slovenian woman called Veronika. Veronika is the main character
of this novel. The author of this novel described that Veronika was 24-year-old when she decided to commit suicide on November 11, 1997 by taking four packs of
sleeping pills. The authors’ description about Veronika’s age above shows that Veronika, as the main character of the novel, lived in the situation of what it is
described as a civil war when the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early-to-mid 1990’s. As the consequences of this civil war, thousands of people, soldiers and
civilians were killed. This is the social and political context of Coelho’s Veronika Decides to Die.
