B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory on Character and Characterization
The character has the important role in literary works. It helps us to understand about what happen in literary work. The characters are the person in the
story that interpreted by the readers with their moral and emotional qualities. The author can describe the characters based on their motivation and the action in the
story. According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms1993: 24, stated that: Characters are the person in a dramatic or narrative work, who is interpreted
by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say: the dialogue, and by what they
do: the action. A character remains stable or changes, the reader of traditional
and realistic work expect “consistency”-the reader should not suddenly break off and act in a way not plausibly grounded in his or her temperament as we
have already come to know it.
The quotation above shows that characters are the figure presented in the work of literature. It is the most distinctive feature that any other intrinsic elements
because characters have emotional features. Emotional features cannot be separated from the characters because characters are usually human beings playing their own
roles in the story. The characters in a story can be found by the interpretation of the readers
according to their conceptions of the characters. The characters can be described through the behaviour and action in the play. The writer tries to understand the
characters in the story by the dialogue of the characters in the play. The dialogue in the story can influence the behaviour and the action to the character itself.
It is impossible to separate character from characterization. Ordinarily, characterization is the process by which the author creates a character. It is the
process in which the author reveals the traits of a character. Hugh Holman and William Harmon in A Handbook to Literature 1986: 81 clarified that there are three
basic methods of characterization as quoted below. a.
The explicit presentation of a character by the author through direct explanation, whether in a block‟s introductory or throughout the work
which is illustrated by action b.
The presentation of the character in action, therefore the reader will be able to conclude the attributes of character from actions
c. The presentation from within a character, without comment on character
by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions on character‟s inner self, with the expectation that the reader will come to clear understanding
of attributes of the character.
Furthermore, the theory on characterization explains how the characteristics of the characters are described. According to M. J. Murphy in his book entitled
Understanding Unseens: An Introduction to English Poetry English Novel for Overseas Students
1972: 161-173, there are nine ways for an author can apply to present the characterization of character in literary works to make the character
understandable to the reader. a.
Personal Description The author describes character‟s appearance in details such as skin colour, body
shape, the clothes used by the character. b.
Character as Seen by the Author
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