T1 112009069 Full text
The Analysis of Humbert Humbert’s Pedophilia
in Lolita by the Psychoanalysis Criticism
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dian Nurani Pramesti
112009069
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUANGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
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Dian ii
The Analysis of Humbert Humbert’s Pedophilia
in Lolita by the Psychoanalysis Criticism
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dian Nurani Pramesti
112009069
Approved by:
Dian iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Dian Nurani Pramesti and Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature. Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Dian Nurani Pramesti
Dian iv
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
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verify that:
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Kind of Work
: Dian Nurani Pramesti
: 112009069
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: Faculty of Language and Literature
: Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free
right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
The Analyisis of Humbert Humbert‘s Pedophilia in Lolita by the Psychoanalysis
Criticism
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Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A
Lany Kristono, M.Hum
The Analysis of Humbert Humbert‘s Pedophilia in Lolita Using
Psychoanalysis Criticism
Dian Nurani Pramesti
Abstract
Pedophilia is one kind of mental disorder that happens in the society that also happened in a
novel entitled Lolita. So, the purpose of the study is to uncover the underlying reasons for
pedophilia using Psychoanalysis Criticism. As the theory concerns how things happen based
on childhood events, the writer found that what happened toward Humbert in ―Lolita‖ as a
pedophile was because the death of his lover when he was a teenager that turned out to be
traumatic for him. The writer tried to relate and connect Humbert‘s past traumatic memory on
his childhood with what effect it gives in his adulthood.
Keywords: Psychoanalysis Criticism, childhood memory, pedophilia.
Introduction
Pedophilia. This word is closely related with sexual deviation. But what is it
actually? Ir. Suyatno, M.Kes, a lecturer in Faculty of Public Health, Diponegoro University,
stated in his blog that pedophiles are adults who like to do sex or abusive physical contacts
with kids. Pedophilia actually means love for children, but then the word is used to describe
the psychosexual development disorder where adults have an abnormal erotic desire to
children (Sadarjoen 71). Although we are not children any longer, but what if we see some
children being abused by some people who are pedophiles? We will of course curse that
person because we think that the person has a lack of morals. We sometimes heard some
cases where an old man was sexually abusing a little child. The motives are usually by giving
the little child some money or candy, then later on taking the little child to a desolated place
then rape that kid. That case also happened in Buleleng, according to Beritabali.com,
Dian 2
JanJacobus Vogel was sentenced guilty for doing sexual abuse to four 9-12 year-old students.
Of course this kind of thing is so creepy.
The question is that why are people pedophiles? I was really curious why that kind of
people could be pedophilias, until I found ―Lolita‖, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov which tells
us about the life of Humbert, a pedophile, as he said, ―I was consumed by a hell furnace of
localized lust for every passing nymphet whom as a law-abiding poltroon I never dared
approach (Nabokov 31)‖. Evidently, Humbert‘s pedophilia can be analyzed from the literary
perspective, that is by using the Psychoanalysis theory because by using it we will be able to
know what was exactly in Humbert‘s mind related to his pedophilia. According to Barry,
psychoanalysis, a theory developed by Sigmund Freud, is a form of therapy which aims to
cure mental disorders ‗by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements
in the mind‘ (96). But in literary theory, it is used to identify the mental disorders by checking
on the unconscious mind. I really like this theory because through this theory we can analyze
something through people‘s minds. Even so, this psychoanalysis theory that I use is only head
for the literary critics.
My research question in this paper is ―How can traumatic effects shape
Humbert‘s personality into becoming a pedophile, seen from Psychoanalysis Criticism?‖ The
reason I take the traumatic effects as the ones which can affect Humbert into being a
pedophile is because by using the Psychoanalysis Criticism, what is being analyzed are things
related to his past, including his childhood.
The biggest question is why do I have a research on this. Here, what I want to do
is give emphasis to how being a pedophile is not merely the fault of the person who has it.
Because later on, through the analysis, we will find that there are many things that are able to
affect a person and contribute to them becoming a pedophile. Because society tend to judge
Dian 3
pedophilia as something immoral, but here, my curiosity of the reasons why someone can be
a pedophile is not because I do agree with pedophiles, and even I myself still do think that
pedophilia is immoral. However, by doing this research, I want it to be a good sample and a
good resource for others who want to have a research in Psychoanalysis Criticism, pedophilia,
or even childhood trauma, because from my own experience in doing this, I found it difficult
to find resources about literature resources on psychoanalysis, let alone pedophilia. Whereas,
there are many people who are interested in psychoanalysis criticism, especially on childhood
traumatic events part. The other thing that makes me want to have a research on this is that
there are not many articles which discuss the problem of Humbert as a pedophile and analyze
it using Freud‘s theory. One example on the previous study that discusses Humbert‘s
pedophilia comes from Warren Holt. On Other/Wise, an online journal of International Forum
for Psychoanalytic Education he discusses how Humbert‘s pedophilia happened regarding to
the ego-ideal of psychoanalysis criticism. So, this might be a good chance for me to analyze
Humbert‘s pedophilia by the unconscious motion of psychoanalys theory.
Summary
The text that I am going to analyze is Lolita, a novel written by Vladimir
Nabokov, which is very controversial. This novel had ever been banned from publishing but
as well as being a best seller in the United States. As cited from Gore, it was first published in
1955 in French, but it was rejected by many US publishers because many thought that it was
pornographic – the relationship between a twelve-year-old girl with a middle-aged man. Only
in 1958 was the book published in both United States and United Kingdom.
The story is about a middle-aged man named Humbert Humbert who was a
pedophile. His mother died when he was three years old and in the summer of 1923, when he
was thirteen, his father was away to Italy and left him alone with his unawareness of
Dian 4
sexuality. At the same time, he started to know a girl named Annabel. Both of them liked
each other, they even tried to do things that they were not supposed to do yet. But one day,
Annabel was sick and then she died. Humbert was really shocked knowing that Annabel had
passed away.
Due to that past event, Humbert never loved any woman about the same age as
him. He was only attracted to girls around nine to fourteen years old and he lived under the
shadow of Annabel because each time he saw a girl who had a similar physical appearance
with Annabel, it would make him had a memory of her. And he lived under the shadow of
Annabel for twenty four years until he found another ―Annabel‖ in Lolita, like what he said in
the novel, ―I am convinced, however, that in a certain magic and fateful way Lolita began
with Annabel‖ (Nabokov 24). Lolita was Dolores Haze, a twelve-year-old girl. Lolita was the
daughter of Mrs. Haze, Humbert‘s landlady in Ramsdale, New England. He then married
Mrs. Haze; although he was actually infatuated with Lolita as he stated on the novel, ―And
what is most singular is that she, this Lolita, my Lolita, has individualized the writer's ancient
lust, so that above and over everything there is—Lolita‖ (Nabokov 78).
After Mrs. Haze‘s death from an accident, Humbert took Lolita away from
Ramsdale. They were going around United States while Humbert was enjoying his desire as a
pedophile.
Psychoanalysis Theory
Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy which aims to cure mental disorders by
investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind (Barry).As
described in Literary Theory: An Anthology edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan,
Sigmund Freud discovered that the human mind contains a dimension that is only partially
accessible to consciousness and then only through indirect means such as dreams or neurotic
Dian 5
symptoms, while the unconscious is a repository of repressed desires, feelings, memories, and
instinctual drives that have to do with sexuality and violence (389).
In psychoanalysis, we know the words unconscious, conscious, and conscience.
Unconscious is the part of the mind beyond consciousness which nevertheless has a strong
influence upon our action (Barry 96). ―The ‗unconscious‘, as Freud called it, is a repository of
repressed desires, feelings, memories, and instinctual drives, many of which, according to
him, have to do with sexual and violence‖ (Rivkin dan Ryan). The basic assumption of
Freud‘s theory is that much of our behavior stems from processes that are unconscious which
means thought, fears, and wishes a person is unaware of but which nevertheless influence
behavior (Atkinson, Atkinson dan Hilgard). Then, there is also an idea repression which
means forgetting or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, inadmitted desires, or traumatic past
events, so that they are focused out of conscious awareness and into the realm of the
unconscious (Barry). The relation between unconscious and repression is that by doing the
repression, the memory is kept in the unconsciousness.
There might be so many things about psychoanalysis like what I‘ve described before,
but here I would not focus only on the things above, because my focus is actually more on the
traumatic childhood memory. Some notions by Freud are mostly talking about the memory.
Like what is stated by Barry that Freud‘s work depends upon the unconscious. While the
unconscious is closely related to the memory. So, that is the reason I relate psychoanalysis
criticism, especially on the unconscious, with my aim of this research to know the reason why
Humbert is being a pedophilia by looking at his childhood memory.
While in psychiatry, trauma has assumed a different meaning and refers to an
experience that is emotionally painful, distressful, or shocking, which often results in lasting
mental and physical effects (Wulandari). Here, we could see that traumatic events, especially
when they happen in childhood, could affect the mental health of the person who has it.
Dian 6
Discussion and Analysis
Parents left
Humbert Humbert, the main character of Lolita, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, was
born in 1910 in Paris. His mother died when he was three years old, so then he was cared for
his aunt, Sybil. Nevertheless, he lived in joyfulness until he was a teenager. Up to thirteen
years old, he was just a usual boy, like other children who liked to play and had lots of joy,
but then at that time, his father went to take a trip in Italy with Madame de R. Although it was
not stated how long his father was gone, but indeed led Humbert in loneliness and confusion,
because he was also lived in a boarding school, so that his communication with his father did
not happen every day. Thus, it made him having no one to share things he wanted to tell
because Humbert did not tell the reader whether he had friends or not in the boarding school.
From the summary of Humbert‘s childhood above, we could see that Humbert had
lost his parents since childhood. His mother died when he was three, and his father left him in
a boarding school when he was thirteen. Being left by the parents can be a traumatic event for
children like what is stated below:
“Many people wrongly believe that babies do not notice or remember traumatic
events. In fact, anything that affects older children and adults in a family can also
affect a baby. Traumatic and life-threatening events may include incidents such as
car accidents, bushfires, sudden illness, traumatic death in the family, crime, abuse
or violence.” (Trauma and children - newborns to two years)
Even newborns until two years old children can notice the traumatic events happen to them,
let alone for Humbert who was three years old when his mother died. This event would
certainly affect Humbert‘s life, whether his childhood or even his adulthood, because parents‘
affection is one thing that affects someone‘s behavior. Marks, Jun, and Song on their study
from Cooney &Uhlenberg, 1992; Eggebeen& Hogan, 1990; Rossi & Rossi, 1990 stated
thatmothers continue to provide a range of financial, emotional, and instrumental support to
Dian 7
daughters and sons across the adult years. The situation that happened to Humbert was that he
had no emotional and instrumental support from his mother, which is actually needed by a
son. Let alone, psychoanalysis criticism also explains that the relation of sons and mothers
has a very strong meaning ever since they are still infants. In his general introduction to
psychoanalysis, Freud stated that children will be soon having bliss in their sleeps after
having fed by their mothers (Freud 270). So, the point here is by the death of his mother,
Humbert was lack of affection from mother, whereas mother‘s affection is needed by a son.
By his parents‘ leaving, his opportunity to know about sex education since childhood
was lessened. Whereas having sexual education since childhood is such an important thing as
quoted ―Children and teens can make responsible choices about sexual health only when they
have a solid understanding of their bodies and sexuality‖ (Harris). By understanding what
Harris said, children should have a strong foundation first to know about sexuality and its
education, so that later on they could be responsible for what they have done. It was also
stated by Freud that children should be held out, convinced, and directed into controlling their
sexual instinct (Freud 358). His father indeed gave him sex education as it is shown from the
quotation taken from the novel below:
“Later, in his delightful debonair manner, my father gave me all the information he
thought I needed about sex.” (Nabokov 19)
But later on at the time when Humbert really needed the figure of a father to consult with, his
father was gone. Besides, Freud also stated that the tendency of having sexual distortion is
based on their childhood (Freud), so if the foundation on sexual education is not yet strong,
then it was possible for Humbert to have misunderstanding of his bodies and sexuality in
which stuck with him until he was an adult.
Dian 8
From the death of his mother and the gone of his father, it is clearly stated that
actually, Humbert still needed a place to share, a place to consult, and a place to lean on as it
seen below:
“Later, in his delightful debonair manner, my father gave me all the information he
thought I needed about sex; this was just before sending me, in the autumn of 1923,
to a lycèe in Lyon (where we were to spend three winters); but alas, in the summer of
that year, he was touring Italy with Mme de R. and her daughter, and I had nobody
to complain to, nobody to consult. (Nabokov 19)”
By the absence of his parents, he got less affection from his parents and also he could not
share his confusion and experience about sex. Thus, in the result, he found Annabel, the
daughter of Humbert‘s aunt‘s friend. She was some months younger than Humbert.
When Humbert met Annabel, he was thirteen years old, in which he was in the state
of puberty, and in this state, people learn to desire members of the opposite sex (Felluga).
This also happened with Humbert, in which he had a strong desire to Annabel, and so did
Annabel toward Humbert.
“All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each
other”(Nabokov 21)
Seeing what he did back then when he was still a teenager, we could assume that he was
heterosexual. What I mean is that, he was in love and having a desire toward a girl in his age.
There was nothing wrong with his sexual desire from this point. But the thing is that, how
could Humbert be a pedophilia then? Rivkin and Ryan stated that, ―Freud argued that our
mental lives derive largely from biological drives, that the highest achievements and ideals of
civilization are inseparable from instinctual urges toward pleasure, constancy, and the release
of excitation and energy‖. From the theory, we could connect Humbert‘s pedophilia with his
childhood experience. His mental disorder happened because it was derived from his trauma
when Annabel died. Furthermore, at the time when Annabel died, he was in the state of
Dian 9
having pleasure and desire toward opposite sex. Thus, that state is one point that drives his
mental behavior as a pedophile.
When he was with Annabel, he had joyful moments that were full of desire. He was
in love for the first time with Annabel and he got the love and care he missed from his parents
from Annabel. But the worst thing is that, Annabel died when he had just found his
joyfulness. This is told as the quotation below:
“I was on my knees, and on the point of possessing my darling, when two
bearded bathers, the old man of the sea and his brother, came out of the sea with
exclamations of ribald encouragement, and four months later she died of typhus in
Corfu.” (Nabokov 23)
Anyhow, someone‘s death will give pain to the persons they left. That also happened
to Humbert. He had lost his mother when he was still a baby and being left by his father for
not so long ago. Suddenly, when he had found someone to replace his parents‘ love, it was
also gone away. It‘s clear that Humbert had experienced another traumatic event related to
grief, in which it shaped his mind unconsciously that he only desired teenage girls or what he
said as the nymphets. His only desire toward nymphets matches with what Freud would say
about grief and its effect on someone‘s behavior. ―Grief is a prototype and perfect example of
an affective fixation upon something that is past, and, like the neuroses, it also involves a
state of complete alienation from the present and the future (Freud 289).‖ Here, Humbert was
stuck with his sexual orientation because of the grief and trauma he had regarding to what
happened with Annabel. Like what is stated before, Humbert met Annabel when he was
thirteen, in which he was in the phase of puberty, so he had desire towards the opposite sex,
as stated by Felluga, ―13 years of age onward (or from puberty on). Your development over
the latency period allowed you to enter the final genital phase. At this point, you learned to
desire members of the opposite sex and to fulfill your instinct to procreate and thus ensure the
Dian 10
survival of the human species.‖ But then, at that age as well, he got a traumatic event, in
which Annabel died.
Since his father had left him with little knowledge about sex, he was confused of his
feelings towards Annabel. He actually did not know whether it was normal or not to have that
kind of feelings and desires, because he thought that his desires was too excessive. This is
shown by the following quotation when he was thinking of his desire toward Annabel when
he was a teenager.
“....that the rift in my life began; or was my excessive desire for that child only the
first evidence of an inherent singularity? (Nabokov 23)
And because his excessive desire that was not fulfilled, it was so hard for him to let Annabel
go. By the death of Annabel, it was clear that Humbert would feel so bad that it would
unconsciously trap him in that state
Attracted to Lolita
Basically, Humbert‘s attraction to Lolita happened because he unconsciously aware
that Lolita was an Annabel to him. How come? ―The ‗unconscious‘, as Freud called it, is a
repository of repressed desires, feelings, memories, and instinctual drives, many of which,
according to him, have to do with sexual and violence‖ (Rivkin dan Ryan). So, actually in
Humbert‘s unconscious mind, he still had the memory of Annabel. His desires, feelings, and
memories of his sexuality behavior towards Annabel were still kept in his mind, so that when
he finally met Lolita, those unconscious minds took a part for him to have the attraction.
When Humbert was talking about Lolita on their first meeting, he pictured Lolita as the same
girl with Annabel, but it does not mean that Humbert consciously compared Lolita with
Annabel. That was just happened without him wanting it to be.
Dian 11
“It was the same child--the same frail, honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple
bare back, the same chestnut head of hair.” (Nabokov)
That was what Humbert thought when he met Lolita for the first time. He was
unconsciously seeing Lolita as the same child with Annabel. His memory was dragged back
to the memory of him meeting Annabel.
Humbert happened to meet Dolores Haze, the daughter of Mrs. Haze who was the
landlady where he was living in Ramsdale, when he had moved to the United States after he
divorced with his wife. He was given his uncle‘s property after his death, so that he had to
live in the United States. The first impression he saw from Lolita is her resemblance with
Annabel. He unconsciously thought that he had found Annabel again.
“It was the same child--the same frail, honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple
bare back, the same chestnut head of hair. A polka-dotted black handkerchief tied
around her chest hid from my aging ape eyes, but not from the gaze of young
memory, the juvenile breasts I had fondled one immortal day. And, as if I were the
fairy-tale nurse of some little princess (lost, kidnapped, discovered in gypsy rags
through which her nakedness smiled at the king and his hounds), I recognized the
tiny dark-brown mole on her side. With awe and delight (the king crying for joy, the
trumpets blaring, the nurse drunk) I saw again her lovely indrawn abdomen
where my southbound mouth had briefly paused; and those puerile hips on which I
had kissed the crenulated imprint left by the band of her shorts--that last mad
immortal day behind the "Roches Roses." The twenty-five years I had lived since
then, tapered to a palpitating point, and vanished.”(Nabokov)
Humbert said that he had ever experience the same feeling and attraction on a girl
back then twenty five years ago, in which he was still a teenager. Unconsciously, he stated
that he was still stuck in the moment when eagerly loved to be in love as a teenager. He said
that he saw again Annabel‘s lovely indrawn abdomen and hips that he had kissed while they
were still together when they were teenagers. But the condition and the fact is that he was no
more a teenager, instead he was a middle-aged man. While Dolores Haze, who was told as
Lolita by Humbert, was twelve years old. It means that she was almost the same age with
Dian 12
Annabel when Humbert knew her. This is also one thing that made Humbert had the desire
with Lolita.
According to Freud, the standstill is how Humbert could really have the desire with
Lolita as he had it with Annabel, ―It does also happen that persons may be brought to a
complete standstill in life by a traumatic experience which has shaken the whole structure of
their lives to the foundations (Freud 289).‖ This thing happened to Humbert, even before he
met Lolita. Humbert‘s life was shaken by Annabel‘s death when he was a teenager in the state
of having desire towards opposite sex. This grief and trauma has made Humbert‘s love life
standstill in where he was just a thirteen-year-old boy so that he would have the attraction
only to girls in the age of nine to fourteen. The following quotation was what Humbert said
toward his attraction to teenage girls.
“Now I wish to introduce the following idea. Between the age limits of nine and
fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many
times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that
is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as "nymphets."
It will be marked that I substitute time terms for spatial ones. In fact, I would
have the reader see "nine" and "fourteen" as the boundaries--the mirrory
beaches and rosy rocks--of an enchanted island haunted by those nymphets of
mine and surrounded by a vast, misty sea.” (Nabokov 28)
Thus, by knowing three things that had happened during Humbert‘s childhood, it can
be seen that actually Humbert‘s pedophilia was not merely his own fault. As it has been
explained, the grief that he had when his mother died, his father went away, and Annabel died
were the cases that made Humbert to be a pedophile.
Dian 13
Conclusion
The main purpose of analyzing Humbert‘s pedophilia is to know whether
Psychoanalysis Criticism can see the traumatic events that affect his personality into
becoming a pedophile. Humbert‘s pedophile was also derived from his biological drives in
his teenage life that he was sexually attracted to Annabel in his thirteen.
Humbert‘s fixation towards girls in their teenage was derived by his grief and
traumatic event when Annabel died, as matches to Freud theory that ―Grief is a prototype and
perfect example of an affective fixation upon something that is past, and, like the neuroses, it
also involves a state of complete alienation from the present and the future (Freud).‖ Thus,
the conclusion is that Humbert‘s pedophilia happened because of his grief on the traumatic
event made his sexual behavior stuck on the time when the traumatic event happened.
On the other hand, there are still very few research in literature discussing
psychoanalysis comparing to other theories. Whereas, there are many possibilities to do some
research on many other perspectives using Psychoanalysis Criticism, especially in Lolita. And
by having this research done, I hope that my research would become a milestone for other
research in psychoanalysis and Lolita in the future.
Dian 14
Acknowledgment
This thesis would not be done without the support and help that I received. First
let me praise ALLAH SWT who has mercy and blessing toward me. I will also express my
gratitude toward my supervisor, Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A who has patiently guide me
in writing this thesis. I am also grateful toward the help of my thesis examiner, Ibu Lany
Kristono, M.Hum. Without their guidance, I know that I would not finish this thesis well.
My love and gratitude will also be expressed toward my family, Bapak, Ibu, and Dik Esti who
have supported me and provided anything I needed during the time I wrote my thesis. Lastly,
a bunch of thank will go to my best friends OCHKI (Lintang, Garnis, Eva, Novia), Agam,
Niners, and many other best friends who have supported me mentally to finish my thesis.
Dian 15
Bibliography
Atkinson, Rita L., Richard C. Atkinson and Ernest R. Hilgard. Introduction to Psychology. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981.
Barry, Peter. "Psychoanalytic Criticism."Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary and cultural
theory. 2002. 184.
Dr. Sawitri Supardi Sadarjoen, psi. Bunga Rampai Kasus Gangguan Psikoseksual. Bandung: PT Refika
Aditama, 2005.
Barry, Peter. "Psychoanalytic Criticism." Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary
and cultural theory. 2002. 184.
BeritaBali.Com.
.
Dr. Sawitri Supardi Sadarjoen, psi. Bunga Rampai Kasus Gangguan Psikoseksual. Bandung: PT Refika
Aditama, 2005.
Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Freud: On Psychosexual Development." 31 January 2011. Introductory
Guide to Critical Theory. 18 July 2013
.
Freud, Sigmund. A General Introduction to Pscyhoanalysis. Permabooks, n.d.
Gore, Martha R. Vladimir Nabokov's book about the affair between a twelve-year-old girl and a
middle-aged man was banned because it was considered pornography. 8 September 2010.
Harris, Robbie H. "The Opinion Pages." The New York Times.
Holt, Warren. "Humbert, Nabokov and the Ego-Ideal." Other/Wise 9.9 (2012) : n. pag. Web.
December 1 2012
Introduction to PsychologyNew YorkHarcourt Brace Jovanovich1981
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. Jakarta: Serambi, 2009.
Nadine F. Marks, Heyjung Jun, and Jieun Song. "Death of Parents and Adult Psychological and
Physical Well-Being: A Prospective U.S. National Study." J Fam Issues. (2009).
Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan. "Introduction: Strangers to Ourselves: Psychoanalysis." Rivkin, Julie
and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Victoria: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 289.
Suyatno. Suyatno, Ir., M.Kes. 14 Novemeber 2009. 30 October 2012 .
"Trauma and children - newborns to two years." http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/.
Wulandari, Niken Hapsari. An Analysis of Violence Faced by Oliver Twist as the Main Character in
Oliver Twist's Novel by Chares Dickens. Thesis. Salatiga, 2009.
in Lolita by the Psychoanalysis Criticism
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dian Nurani Pramesti
112009069
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUANGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
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Dian ii
The Analysis of Humbert Humbert’s Pedophilia
in Lolita by the Psychoanalysis Criticism
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Dian Nurani Pramesti
112009069
Approved by:
Dian iii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Dian Nurani Pramesti and Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature. Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Dian Nurani Pramesti
Dian iv
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic community, I
verify that:
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: Dian Nurani Pramesti
: 112009069
: English Education
: Faculty of Language and Literature
: Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free
right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
The Analyisis of Humbert Humbert‘s Pedophilia in Lolita by the Psychoanalysis
Criticism
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This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in : Salatiga
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Dian Nurani Pramesti
Approved by:
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Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A
Lany Kristono, M.Hum
The Analysis of Humbert Humbert‘s Pedophilia in Lolita Using
Psychoanalysis Criticism
Dian Nurani Pramesti
Abstract
Pedophilia is one kind of mental disorder that happens in the society that also happened in a
novel entitled Lolita. So, the purpose of the study is to uncover the underlying reasons for
pedophilia using Psychoanalysis Criticism. As the theory concerns how things happen based
on childhood events, the writer found that what happened toward Humbert in ―Lolita‖ as a
pedophile was because the death of his lover when he was a teenager that turned out to be
traumatic for him. The writer tried to relate and connect Humbert‘s past traumatic memory on
his childhood with what effect it gives in his adulthood.
Keywords: Psychoanalysis Criticism, childhood memory, pedophilia.
Introduction
Pedophilia. This word is closely related with sexual deviation. But what is it
actually? Ir. Suyatno, M.Kes, a lecturer in Faculty of Public Health, Diponegoro University,
stated in his blog that pedophiles are adults who like to do sex or abusive physical contacts
with kids. Pedophilia actually means love for children, but then the word is used to describe
the psychosexual development disorder where adults have an abnormal erotic desire to
children (Sadarjoen 71). Although we are not children any longer, but what if we see some
children being abused by some people who are pedophiles? We will of course curse that
person because we think that the person has a lack of morals. We sometimes heard some
cases where an old man was sexually abusing a little child. The motives are usually by giving
the little child some money or candy, then later on taking the little child to a desolated place
then rape that kid. That case also happened in Buleleng, according to Beritabali.com,
Dian 2
JanJacobus Vogel was sentenced guilty for doing sexual abuse to four 9-12 year-old students.
Of course this kind of thing is so creepy.
The question is that why are people pedophiles? I was really curious why that kind of
people could be pedophilias, until I found ―Lolita‖, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov which tells
us about the life of Humbert, a pedophile, as he said, ―I was consumed by a hell furnace of
localized lust for every passing nymphet whom as a law-abiding poltroon I never dared
approach (Nabokov 31)‖. Evidently, Humbert‘s pedophilia can be analyzed from the literary
perspective, that is by using the Psychoanalysis theory because by using it we will be able to
know what was exactly in Humbert‘s mind related to his pedophilia. According to Barry,
psychoanalysis, a theory developed by Sigmund Freud, is a form of therapy which aims to
cure mental disorders ‗by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements
in the mind‘ (96). But in literary theory, it is used to identify the mental disorders by checking
on the unconscious mind. I really like this theory because through this theory we can analyze
something through people‘s minds. Even so, this psychoanalysis theory that I use is only head
for the literary critics.
My research question in this paper is ―How can traumatic effects shape
Humbert‘s personality into becoming a pedophile, seen from Psychoanalysis Criticism?‖ The
reason I take the traumatic effects as the ones which can affect Humbert into being a
pedophile is because by using the Psychoanalysis Criticism, what is being analyzed are things
related to his past, including his childhood.
The biggest question is why do I have a research on this. Here, what I want to do
is give emphasis to how being a pedophile is not merely the fault of the person who has it.
Because later on, through the analysis, we will find that there are many things that are able to
affect a person and contribute to them becoming a pedophile. Because society tend to judge
Dian 3
pedophilia as something immoral, but here, my curiosity of the reasons why someone can be
a pedophile is not because I do agree with pedophiles, and even I myself still do think that
pedophilia is immoral. However, by doing this research, I want it to be a good sample and a
good resource for others who want to have a research in Psychoanalysis Criticism, pedophilia,
or even childhood trauma, because from my own experience in doing this, I found it difficult
to find resources about literature resources on psychoanalysis, let alone pedophilia. Whereas,
there are many people who are interested in psychoanalysis criticism, especially on childhood
traumatic events part. The other thing that makes me want to have a research on this is that
there are not many articles which discuss the problem of Humbert as a pedophile and analyze
it using Freud‘s theory. One example on the previous study that discusses Humbert‘s
pedophilia comes from Warren Holt. On Other/Wise, an online journal of International Forum
for Psychoanalytic Education he discusses how Humbert‘s pedophilia happened regarding to
the ego-ideal of psychoanalysis criticism. So, this might be a good chance for me to analyze
Humbert‘s pedophilia by the unconscious motion of psychoanalys theory.
Summary
The text that I am going to analyze is Lolita, a novel written by Vladimir
Nabokov, which is very controversial. This novel had ever been banned from publishing but
as well as being a best seller in the United States. As cited from Gore, it was first published in
1955 in French, but it was rejected by many US publishers because many thought that it was
pornographic – the relationship between a twelve-year-old girl with a middle-aged man. Only
in 1958 was the book published in both United States and United Kingdom.
The story is about a middle-aged man named Humbert Humbert who was a
pedophile. His mother died when he was three years old and in the summer of 1923, when he
was thirteen, his father was away to Italy and left him alone with his unawareness of
Dian 4
sexuality. At the same time, he started to know a girl named Annabel. Both of them liked
each other, they even tried to do things that they were not supposed to do yet. But one day,
Annabel was sick and then she died. Humbert was really shocked knowing that Annabel had
passed away.
Due to that past event, Humbert never loved any woman about the same age as
him. He was only attracted to girls around nine to fourteen years old and he lived under the
shadow of Annabel because each time he saw a girl who had a similar physical appearance
with Annabel, it would make him had a memory of her. And he lived under the shadow of
Annabel for twenty four years until he found another ―Annabel‖ in Lolita, like what he said in
the novel, ―I am convinced, however, that in a certain magic and fateful way Lolita began
with Annabel‖ (Nabokov 24). Lolita was Dolores Haze, a twelve-year-old girl. Lolita was the
daughter of Mrs. Haze, Humbert‘s landlady in Ramsdale, New England. He then married
Mrs. Haze; although he was actually infatuated with Lolita as he stated on the novel, ―And
what is most singular is that she, this Lolita, my Lolita, has individualized the writer's ancient
lust, so that above and over everything there is—Lolita‖ (Nabokov 78).
After Mrs. Haze‘s death from an accident, Humbert took Lolita away from
Ramsdale. They were going around United States while Humbert was enjoying his desire as a
pedophile.
Psychoanalysis Theory
Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy which aims to cure mental disorders by
investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind (Barry).As
described in Literary Theory: An Anthology edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan,
Sigmund Freud discovered that the human mind contains a dimension that is only partially
accessible to consciousness and then only through indirect means such as dreams or neurotic
Dian 5
symptoms, while the unconscious is a repository of repressed desires, feelings, memories, and
instinctual drives that have to do with sexuality and violence (389).
In psychoanalysis, we know the words unconscious, conscious, and conscience.
Unconscious is the part of the mind beyond consciousness which nevertheless has a strong
influence upon our action (Barry 96). ―The ‗unconscious‘, as Freud called it, is a repository of
repressed desires, feelings, memories, and instinctual drives, many of which, according to
him, have to do with sexual and violence‖ (Rivkin dan Ryan). The basic assumption of
Freud‘s theory is that much of our behavior stems from processes that are unconscious which
means thought, fears, and wishes a person is unaware of but which nevertheless influence
behavior (Atkinson, Atkinson dan Hilgard). Then, there is also an idea repression which
means forgetting or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, inadmitted desires, or traumatic past
events, so that they are focused out of conscious awareness and into the realm of the
unconscious (Barry). The relation between unconscious and repression is that by doing the
repression, the memory is kept in the unconsciousness.
There might be so many things about psychoanalysis like what I‘ve described before,
but here I would not focus only on the things above, because my focus is actually more on the
traumatic childhood memory. Some notions by Freud are mostly talking about the memory.
Like what is stated by Barry that Freud‘s work depends upon the unconscious. While the
unconscious is closely related to the memory. So, that is the reason I relate psychoanalysis
criticism, especially on the unconscious, with my aim of this research to know the reason why
Humbert is being a pedophilia by looking at his childhood memory.
While in psychiatry, trauma has assumed a different meaning and refers to an
experience that is emotionally painful, distressful, or shocking, which often results in lasting
mental and physical effects (Wulandari). Here, we could see that traumatic events, especially
when they happen in childhood, could affect the mental health of the person who has it.
Dian 6
Discussion and Analysis
Parents left
Humbert Humbert, the main character of Lolita, a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, was
born in 1910 in Paris. His mother died when he was three years old, so then he was cared for
his aunt, Sybil. Nevertheless, he lived in joyfulness until he was a teenager. Up to thirteen
years old, he was just a usual boy, like other children who liked to play and had lots of joy,
but then at that time, his father went to take a trip in Italy with Madame de R. Although it was
not stated how long his father was gone, but indeed led Humbert in loneliness and confusion,
because he was also lived in a boarding school, so that his communication with his father did
not happen every day. Thus, it made him having no one to share things he wanted to tell
because Humbert did not tell the reader whether he had friends or not in the boarding school.
From the summary of Humbert‘s childhood above, we could see that Humbert had
lost his parents since childhood. His mother died when he was three, and his father left him in
a boarding school when he was thirteen. Being left by the parents can be a traumatic event for
children like what is stated below:
“Many people wrongly believe that babies do not notice or remember traumatic
events. In fact, anything that affects older children and adults in a family can also
affect a baby. Traumatic and life-threatening events may include incidents such as
car accidents, bushfires, sudden illness, traumatic death in the family, crime, abuse
or violence.” (Trauma and children - newborns to two years)
Even newborns until two years old children can notice the traumatic events happen to them,
let alone for Humbert who was three years old when his mother died. This event would
certainly affect Humbert‘s life, whether his childhood or even his adulthood, because parents‘
affection is one thing that affects someone‘s behavior. Marks, Jun, and Song on their study
from Cooney &Uhlenberg, 1992; Eggebeen& Hogan, 1990; Rossi & Rossi, 1990 stated
thatmothers continue to provide a range of financial, emotional, and instrumental support to
Dian 7
daughters and sons across the adult years. The situation that happened to Humbert was that he
had no emotional and instrumental support from his mother, which is actually needed by a
son. Let alone, psychoanalysis criticism also explains that the relation of sons and mothers
has a very strong meaning ever since they are still infants. In his general introduction to
psychoanalysis, Freud stated that children will be soon having bliss in their sleeps after
having fed by their mothers (Freud 270). So, the point here is by the death of his mother,
Humbert was lack of affection from mother, whereas mother‘s affection is needed by a son.
By his parents‘ leaving, his opportunity to know about sex education since childhood
was lessened. Whereas having sexual education since childhood is such an important thing as
quoted ―Children and teens can make responsible choices about sexual health only when they
have a solid understanding of their bodies and sexuality‖ (Harris). By understanding what
Harris said, children should have a strong foundation first to know about sexuality and its
education, so that later on they could be responsible for what they have done. It was also
stated by Freud that children should be held out, convinced, and directed into controlling their
sexual instinct (Freud 358). His father indeed gave him sex education as it is shown from the
quotation taken from the novel below:
“Later, in his delightful debonair manner, my father gave me all the information he
thought I needed about sex.” (Nabokov 19)
But later on at the time when Humbert really needed the figure of a father to consult with, his
father was gone. Besides, Freud also stated that the tendency of having sexual distortion is
based on their childhood (Freud), so if the foundation on sexual education is not yet strong,
then it was possible for Humbert to have misunderstanding of his bodies and sexuality in
which stuck with him until he was an adult.
Dian 8
From the death of his mother and the gone of his father, it is clearly stated that
actually, Humbert still needed a place to share, a place to consult, and a place to lean on as it
seen below:
“Later, in his delightful debonair manner, my father gave me all the information he
thought I needed about sex; this was just before sending me, in the autumn of 1923,
to a lycèe in Lyon (where we were to spend three winters); but alas, in the summer of
that year, he was touring Italy with Mme de R. and her daughter, and I had nobody
to complain to, nobody to consult. (Nabokov 19)”
By the absence of his parents, he got less affection from his parents and also he could not
share his confusion and experience about sex. Thus, in the result, he found Annabel, the
daughter of Humbert‘s aunt‘s friend. She was some months younger than Humbert.
When Humbert met Annabel, he was thirteen years old, in which he was in the state
of puberty, and in this state, people learn to desire members of the opposite sex (Felluga).
This also happened with Humbert, in which he had a strong desire to Annabel, and so did
Annabel toward Humbert.
“All at once we were madly, clumsily, shamelessly, agonizingly in love with each
other”(Nabokov 21)
Seeing what he did back then when he was still a teenager, we could assume that he was
heterosexual. What I mean is that, he was in love and having a desire toward a girl in his age.
There was nothing wrong with his sexual desire from this point. But the thing is that, how
could Humbert be a pedophilia then? Rivkin and Ryan stated that, ―Freud argued that our
mental lives derive largely from biological drives, that the highest achievements and ideals of
civilization are inseparable from instinctual urges toward pleasure, constancy, and the release
of excitation and energy‖. From the theory, we could connect Humbert‘s pedophilia with his
childhood experience. His mental disorder happened because it was derived from his trauma
when Annabel died. Furthermore, at the time when Annabel died, he was in the state of
Dian 9
having pleasure and desire toward opposite sex. Thus, that state is one point that drives his
mental behavior as a pedophile.
When he was with Annabel, he had joyful moments that were full of desire. He was
in love for the first time with Annabel and he got the love and care he missed from his parents
from Annabel. But the worst thing is that, Annabel died when he had just found his
joyfulness. This is told as the quotation below:
“I was on my knees, and on the point of possessing my darling, when two
bearded bathers, the old man of the sea and his brother, came out of the sea with
exclamations of ribald encouragement, and four months later she died of typhus in
Corfu.” (Nabokov 23)
Anyhow, someone‘s death will give pain to the persons they left. That also happened
to Humbert. He had lost his mother when he was still a baby and being left by his father for
not so long ago. Suddenly, when he had found someone to replace his parents‘ love, it was
also gone away. It‘s clear that Humbert had experienced another traumatic event related to
grief, in which it shaped his mind unconsciously that he only desired teenage girls or what he
said as the nymphets. His only desire toward nymphets matches with what Freud would say
about grief and its effect on someone‘s behavior. ―Grief is a prototype and perfect example of
an affective fixation upon something that is past, and, like the neuroses, it also involves a
state of complete alienation from the present and the future (Freud 289).‖ Here, Humbert was
stuck with his sexual orientation because of the grief and trauma he had regarding to what
happened with Annabel. Like what is stated before, Humbert met Annabel when he was
thirteen, in which he was in the phase of puberty, so he had desire towards the opposite sex,
as stated by Felluga, ―13 years of age onward (or from puberty on). Your development over
the latency period allowed you to enter the final genital phase. At this point, you learned to
desire members of the opposite sex and to fulfill your instinct to procreate and thus ensure the
Dian 10
survival of the human species.‖ But then, at that age as well, he got a traumatic event, in
which Annabel died.
Since his father had left him with little knowledge about sex, he was confused of his
feelings towards Annabel. He actually did not know whether it was normal or not to have that
kind of feelings and desires, because he thought that his desires was too excessive. This is
shown by the following quotation when he was thinking of his desire toward Annabel when
he was a teenager.
“....that the rift in my life began; or was my excessive desire for that child only the
first evidence of an inherent singularity? (Nabokov 23)
And because his excessive desire that was not fulfilled, it was so hard for him to let Annabel
go. By the death of Annabel, it was clear that Humbert would feel so bad that it would
unconsciously trap him in that state
Attracted to Lolita
Basically, Humbert‘s attraction to Lolita happened because he unconsciously aware
that Lolita was an Annabel to him. How come? ―The ‗unconscious‘, as Freud called it, is a
repository of repressed desires, feelings, memories, and instinctual drives, many of which,
according to him, have to do with sexual and violence‖ (Rivkin dan Ryan). So, actually in
Humbert‘s unconscious mind, he still had the memory of Annabel. His desires, feelings, and
memories of his sexuality behavior towards Annabel were still kept in his mind, so that when
he finally met Lolita, those unconscious minds took a part for him to have the attraction.
When Humbert was talking about Lolita on their first meeting, he pictured Lolita as the same
girl with Annabel, but it does not mean that Humbert consciously compared Lolita with
Annabel. That was just happened without him wanting it to be.
Dian 11
“It was the same child--the same frail, honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple
bare back, the same chestnut head of hair.” (Nabokov)
That was what Humbert thought when he met Lolita for the first time. He was
unconsciously seeing Lolita as the same child with Annabel. His memory was dragged back
to the memory of him meeting Annabel.
Humbert happened to meet Dolores Haze, the daughter of Mrs. Haze who was the
landlady where he was living in Ramsdale, when he had moved to the United States after he
divorced with his wife. He was given his uncle‘s property after his death, so that he had to
live in the United States. The first impression he saw from Lolita is her resemblance with
Annabel. He unconsciously thought that he had found Annabel again.
“It was the same child--the same frail, honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple
bare back, the same chestnut head of hair. A polka-dotted black handkerchief tied
around her chest hid from my aging ape eyes, but not from the gaze of young
memory, the juvenile breasts I had fondled one immortal day. And, as if I were the
fairy-tale nurse of some little princess (lost, kidnapped, discovered in gypsy rags
through which her nakedness smiled at the king and his hounds), I recognized the
tiny dark-brown mole on her side. With awe and delight (the king crying for joy, the
trumpets blaring, the nurse drunk) I saw again her lovely indrawn abdomen
where my southbound mouth had briefly paused; and those puerile hips on which I
had kissed the crenulated imprint left by the band of her shorts--that last mad
immortal day behind the "Roches Roses." The twenty-five years I had lived since
then, tapered to a palpitating point, and vanished.”(Nabokov)
Humbert said that he had ever experience the same feeling and attraction on a girl
back then twenty five years ago, in which he was still a teenager. Unconsciously, he stated
that he was still stuck in the moment when eagerly loved to be in love as a teenager. He said
that he saw again Annabel‘s lovely indrawn abdomen and hips that he had kissed while they
were still together when they were teenagers. But the condition and the fact is that he was no
more a teenager, instead he was a middle-aged man. While Dolores Haze, who was told as
Lolita by Humbert, was twelve years old. It means that she was almost the same age with
Dian 12
Annabel when Humbert knew her. This is also one thing that made Humbert had the desire
with Lolita.
According to Freud, the standstill is how Humbert could really have the desire with
Lolita as he had it with Annabel, ―It does also happen that persons may be brought to a
complete standstill in life by a traumatic experience which has shaken the whole structure of
their lives to the foundations (Freud 289).‖ This thing happened to Humbert, even before he
met Lolita. Humbert‘s life was shaken by Annabel‘s death when he was a teenager in the state
of having desire towards opposite sex. This grief and trauma has made Humbert‘s love life
standstill in where he was just a thirteen-year-old boy so that he would have the attraction
only to girls in the age of nine to fourteen. The following quotation was what Humbert said
toward his attraction to teenage girls.
“Now I wish to introduce the following idea. Between the age limits of nine and
fourteen there occur maidens who, to certain bewitched travelers, twice or many
times older than they, reveal their true nature which is not human, but nymphic (that
is, demoniac); and these chosen creatures I propose to designate as "nymphets."
It will be marked that I substitute time terms for spatial ones. In fact, I would
have the reader see "nine" and "fourteen" as the boundaries--the mirrory
beaches and rosy rocks--of an enchanted island haunted by those nymphets of
mine and surrounded by a vast, misty sea.” (Nabokov 28)
Thus, by knowing three things that had happened during Humbert‘s childhood, it can
be seen that actually Humbert‘s pedophilia was not merely his own fault. As it has been
explained, the grief that he had when his mother died, his father went away, and Annabel died
were the cases that made Humbert to be a pedophile.
Dian 13
Conclusion
The main purpose of analyzing Humbert‘s pedophilia is to know whether
Psychoanalysis Criticism can see the traumatic events that affect his personality into
becoming a pedophile. Humbert‘s pedophile was also derived from his biological drives in
his teenage life that he was sexually attracted to Annabel in his thirteen.
Humbert‘s fixation towards girls in their teenage was derived by his grief and
traumatic event when Annabel died, as matches to Freud theory that ―Grief is a prototype and
perfect example of an affective fixation upon something that is past, and, like the neuroses, it
also involves a state of complete alienation from the present and the future (Freud).‖ Thus,
the conclusion is that Humbert‘s pedophilia happened because of his grief on the traumatic
event made his sexual behavior stuck on the time when the traumatic event happened.
On the other hand, there are still very few research in literature discussing
psychoanalysis comparing to other theories. Whereas, there are many possibilities to do some
research on many other perspectives using Psychoanalysis Criticism, especially in Lolita. And
by having this research done, I hope that my research would become a milestone for other
research in psychoanalysis and Lolita in the future.
Dian 14
Acknowledgment
This thesis would not be done without the support and help that I received. First
let me praise ALLAH SWT who has mercy and blessing toward me. I will also express my
gratitude toward my supervisor, Danielle Donelson-Sims, M.A who has patiently guide me
in writing this thesis. I am also grateful toward the help of my thesis examiner, Ibu Lany
Kristono, M.Hum. Without their guidance, I know that I would not finish this thesis well.
My love and gratitude will also be expressed toward my family, Bapak, Ibu, and Dik Esti who
have supported me and provided anything I needed during the time I wrote my thesis. Lastly,
a bunch of thank will go to my best friends OCHKI (Lintang, Garnis, Eva, Novia), Agam,
Niners, and many other best friends who have supported me mentally to finish my thesis.
Dian 15
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