3. Dialogue between Characters The characteristic of a character is described through the way he or she talks to
the other characters 1966: 47. 4. Hidden Narration
The character is described in a way where another character narrates something about that character 1966: 47.
5. Language The personality of a character is described through the use of language and
expressions when he or she talks to another character 1966: 48. 6. Character in Action
The character is depicted through the way he or she acts in the play to give a better insight of his or her personality 1966: 48.
From those six devices of characterization according to Reaske, all of them are important ways to define a person’s characteristics. It can be noticed that most of
those ways of characterizing concern on the dialogues. According to the author, the dialogues are the most effective ways to define characteristics, especially in a
drama or play, which does not have any narration or description 1966: 40.
2. The Relation between Literature and Psychology
The purpose of this theory, as mentioned in the subtitle, is to give clarification that there is a connection between psychology and literature. Richard
A. Kalish stated in his book entitled The Psychology of Human Behavior that
psychology can gain something from the other fields and vice versa. One of the fields are literature. He stated that
A good novelist can communicate the feelings of his fictional characters and make them seem more lifelike than the real people whose behavior the
psychologist attempts to describe. Plays and films can produce the same result. Writers can use the understanding provided by psychologists to
enrich their stories, and psychologists can gain their understanding of human behavior by drawing from deep sensitivity of good authors Kalish,
1966: 8.
From the statement above, it can be inferred that basically a world of psychology and literature can gain knowledge each other. The characters in works of literature
can be created more lifelike and complex by applying the authors’ understanding on human beings psychologically. While psychologists, at the same time, can get
more understanding about human behaviors through the characters depicted in literary works by the authors.
3. Theory on Tragedy
Since this study is also focusing on tragedies, it is also important to give a theory that explains about tragedy. The purpose of the theory is to give
justification so that all the tragedies presented in this study can be classified as a tragedy according to what the theory will say.
There is an explanation about tragedy from Edward J. Gordon in his book entitled Introduction to Tragedy. He stated that tragedy deals with the reasons
why one person suffers 1973: 1. Furthermore, he continues his explanation that, “Since tragedy also deals with how man faces his misfortunes, it helps us to
define what man is and what he can be” 1973: 1. Through these two quotations,
it can be inferred that basically a tragedy is always connected to destruction or suffering in someone’s life, and the suffering or destruction that happens always
has a reason. The destruction can be various. It can be physical, such as deaths that can be caused by accidents, crimes, or natural catastrophe Kean, 2005, or it
can be mental, such as frustration and misfortunes.
C. Theories on Psychology 1. Pain and Pleasure
It is stated earlier that one’s characteristics can give some effects to the aspects in the real life. One of the aspects is the tragedy. In this part, we are going
to see some theories about characteristics that can give some contributions to the tragedy in real life. The first theory that will be discussed is about pain and
pleasure. Richard Dewey stated in the book entitled The Development of Human Behavior that
One of the most obvious of all of the principles of activity on the human level is the one which points out that we do what is pleasurable and avoid
that which is unpleasant 1951: 187.
From the statement, it is obvious that human beings tend to get pleasures in life and avoid things which makes them under pressures.
The discussion on the paragraph above represents one of characteristics that human beings have. Most people in the real life are selfish. While discussing
the theory on pleasure and pain, the word “selfish” cannot be separated from it. Dewey stated in his theory that a selfish person is a person who has self-satisfying
behavior only to the individual. A selfish person would be unhappy if he or she is
not allowed to seek his or her own interest 1951: 187. It means that a selfish person will do anything to satisfy himself or herself without thinking of other
people. Another statement about pleasure and pain was further given by Richard Dewey. It is stated that
Careful observation of the behavior of others, as well as introspection, will evidence the truth of the statement that we never do anything that we do
not want to do, at least in the sense that what we do is less unpleasant than suffering the consequences of not having done it 1951: 187.
By looking at the quotation, we can see that people tend to get pleasures by avoiding the consequences of things they have done. Running away from all those
tense conditions that people experience will make them feel the pleasure because they will be free of all pressures and pain. This kind of situation is still happening
until now. The example is a lot of suicide cases which happen recently. This example
really represents the condition of avoiding pressures and difficulties in life. They think that death is the most suitable way to run away from those pressures.
Psychologically, there are some reasons why people tend to avoid the pressures in the real life. Some of them can be the anxiety and fear. Richard A.
Kalish stated that “Two familiar emotional states are fear and anxiety. Fear is a response to an actual stimulus” Kalish, 1966: 133. Furthermore, it is also stated
by Kalish that Anxiety, an emotional state closely related to fear, occurs when a person
worries about what might happen in the future or when he is fearful about some vague or unknown thing that he cannot explain Kalish, 1966: 133.
From those quotations above, we can see that anxiety and fear are the causes of people avoiding the pressures. They know that they are guilty, they worry about
