of abuse which are classified as physical effects are dangerous and harmful for the victims, but, psychological effects could cause greater problems and influence the
personality development of the victims. The abuses experienced by Tess affects her personality development. The effects of the abuses on her personality
development are inferiority, role confusion, isolation, and generativity.
1. Inferiority
The first effect of the abuses on Tess‟ personality development is inferiority. Inferior or inferiority is the dystonic quality of the school age, the age
from 6 until 13 years old. At this age, children will deal with the conflict between industry versus inferiority. Industry is the quality of a person who is hard-
working. While inferiority, is describes as the feeling of not having the quality which is required by other people or by the society. Industry could emerge from a
person in a condition if a person could accomplish the task given by others teachers or parents and given support to do their task, heshe will become
industrious. However, a person would become inferior if heshe receives not enough support and if hisher work is being considered as insignificant by
teachers, parents, or schoolmates. In the case of Tess, she becomes inferior due to the abuses she receives.
The next day I was stiff and sore. It hurt to get washed and dressed, but I had to go to school. I was so scared of seeing Mother again. What if she
turned her back on me for ever? What if she sent me away? I knew
people at school were looking at me, but I ignored them. I didn‟t care what they thought. I only cared about Mother and getting back into her good
books. Stevens, 2008: 184
The first quotation as that proves Tess becomes inferior could be seen above. From the text above, it could be explained that Tess loses her trust from
mother. She loses her trust because she had done a great mistake by going to Liam‟s house, the husband of Lily. In Liam‟s house, Tess is asked a favor by
Liam to fry an egg for him. She agrees to do him the favor and he fries the egg. She helps Liam because she remembers mother had told her that she should be
polite and helpful to neighbors. If Tess does not obey her mother‟s word, she would be punished. In here, we could see that Tess did this because of the trauma
she has on her mother, whom usually abused her if she does not obey mother. The fear of being abuse leads Tess to be industrious. Yet, she fails in being industrious
because mother does not support her and does not give her the chances to gain pleasure and give her some time to accomplish her works. On the other hand, Tess
always abused by mother due to the little mistakes she did in her work. As a result she becomes inferior. She starts to worries about her works and worries that she
could not do her works according to the standard of mother. This worriedness emerges because mother always abuse her for her mistakes in her works. From
here, it could be said that Tess loses her self-esteem and loses her believe in herself because of not meeting the requirement of the standard given by mother.
All of this low self-esteem and mistrust Tess has towards her mother leads to the emergence of inferiority.
At home, Mother would punish us if we did wrong – but she would
punish us if we hadn‟t done anything too. You were always on the tenterhooks with Mother. Stevens, 2008: 51
The second quotation that proves Tess becomes inferior could be seen
above. It is stated that when Tess is at home, mother would always punish her and her siblings if they had done something wrong. Mother also punishes them if they
had not done anything either. It is stated that they are always on the tenterhooks with Mother. It means that they always worried and feel the fear when they meet
mother. From this description it could be concluded that because of the fear being punished and abused by mother, she becomes inferior.
I could only nod, and handed him the shopping list. He piled up the tea, the sugar and all the other stuff on the counter and I put it into my
bag. „That‟ll be six and eight, please.‟
And out came the empty purse. I was so upset that the tears came naturally.
There was a real break in my voice when I wailed, „I‟ve lost my money I‟m gonna get into trouble‟
Sure enough, the grocer tut-
tutted, and said, „Never you mind, dear, just be more careful next time.‟
Still blubbing, I left the shop feeling like a criminal. Stevens, 2008: 43
The third quotation that proves Tess becomes inferior could be seen above. It is stated that Tess fulfills her mother‟s order by lying to the grocer that she loses
her money. After that, the grocer gives the shopping items to Tess for free since he pities her. Actually, Tess does not lose her money; this is just a part of
mother‟s plan to be able to steal the items from the shop. She orders Tess to steal the stuffs from the shop by ordering her to act as if she has lose her purse after she
get all of the shopping stuffs. At first, Tess refuses her mother‟s order. But, her mother psychologically abuses her by threatening her that if she does not obeys
mother; mother would be punished by God. Due to this psychological abuse, she becomes afraid if her mother will be punished, so she tries to be worthy and
fulfills mother‟s order by stealing the items in the grocer‟s.
I dreaded the thought of being sent out again to those special customers, but knew I had to do everything I could to help Mother. I
tried not to think of it, to push it to the back of my mind. That worked
