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situation states that what Athena’s doing becomes controversy. Last, the economical situation of the novel refers to economical situation in the early 21
st
century, where the characters of the novel relatively in a good economic condition since it have never
been stated that any of them is lacking of fund.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This third chapter consists of three sub-chapters. They are Subject Matter, Approach, and Procedures. In Subject Matter, the theories employed are discussed.
Approach mentions the approach used in this study. The last sub-chapter, Procedures, explains the steps to answer the research questions.
3.1. Subject Matter
The subject matter here is a novel that the writer chooses to be analyzed. The Witch of Portobello is one of the great literary works from Paulo Coelho. Though the
original novel was published in 2006 in Portuguese language, what the writer mentions here is the English-translation version – translated by Margaret Jull Costa in
2007. This novel was published in 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America. From the publication year, this novel is considered fresh. In this
book, Coelho works with the return to the goddess religion, the interpretation of love, and the feminine part of the Divine within the theme of searching for one’s true self
and opening to the energies of the world. The genre of Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello is considered fiction since it
is not based on a real story. The story was created from different perceptions. The points of view that create the story come from the people who knew Athena: her
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adoptive mother, her ex-husband, a journalist, a priest, her landlord, her calligraphy teacher, and an actress. Each narrator has their own opinion based on their perception.
Furthermore, it could be found out that the setting of the novel takes place in various places: Beirut, Dubai, Transylvania, Scotland, and London.
This novel may best described as the chronicles of Athena’s life. Paulo Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello is the kind of story that can transform the way readers
thought about love, passion, joy and sacrifice. Paulo Coelho portrays the meaning of love, passion, joy, and sacrifice differently in this novel.
3.2. Approach
This study used one of the Critical Approaches—introduced by Rohrberger and Woods, Jr. in their work Reading and Writing About Literature published in 1971. It
consists of five approaches: The Formalist Approach, the Biographical Approach, the Sociocultural-Historical Approach, the Mythopoeic Approach, and the Psychological
Approach. A critical approach to literature necessitates an understanding of its nature, function, and positive values. Rohrberger and Woods, Jr. 1971 states that one must
know what literature is, how to read it, and how to judge it p. 3. This quotation suggests that literary works can only be analyzed by understanding the roots of that
literary works itself. Rohrberger and Woods, Jr. believe it is necessary to use the critical approaches, which consist of five approaches, in order to understand a literary
works. In this study, the writer employed the psychological approach.
