FRANCESCA AS THE REFLECTION OF WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EMERGING FEMINIST MOVEMENT AS SEEN IN WALLER’S THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
FRANCESCA AS THE REFLECTION OF WOMEN IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE EMERGING FEMINIST MOVEMENT
AS SEEN IN WALLER’S
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
HERNITA PURNASARI
Student Number: 034214062
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
FRANCESCA AS THE REFLECTION OF WOMEN IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE EMERGING FEMINIST MOVEMENT
AS SEEN IN WALLER’S
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
HERNITA PURNASARI
Student Number: 034214062
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2008
Every dark light is followed by a light morning.
(unknown)
You ha ve to e ndure c a te rpilla rs if you wa nt to se e
butte rflie s.
(Antoine De Saint)
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to: My Lord, Jesus Christ My beloved parents My dearest brothers
Adam Sapto Nugroho
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise to God, finally I could finish my thesis. I would like to thank Jesus
Christ for his blessing and for guiding me in writing and completing my
undergraduate thesis. He gives me strength to cope with the hard days of my life.My deepest gratitude goes to Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka M. Hum., for his help, guidance, patience, suggestions and time during the writing of my thesis.
I also thank Maria Ananta Tri S., S. S., M. Ed., my co-advisor, for reading my thesis and giving me suggestions in order to make it better. I also thank all my lecturers for their guidance and efforts to share me their valuable knowledge. To all of the secretariat staffs, I thank them so much for helping me in dealing with administration.
My greatest gratitude goes to my mom, Ny. Istinah, for her unconditional love and belief. Thanks to my brothers, Dwi Aryanto and Sunaryadi, for their supports and courage to help me finish my study. And for Adam Sapto Nugroho, thanks for being the part of me, giving me a lot of love and attention, and guiding me through this life patiently.
My special thanks go to my beloved friends: C.Max, Mbendhol, Adi
“Mbings”, Agoeng Akakom, Tiok, Yeri, Jatip, SuShit, Cosmas, Superbay,
Bagor, Danang, C.Nug TI. We have shared a lot of things and experiences that I
will never forget. “Our friendship will last forever”. Thanks also to Jhony and Yabes and English Letters students of 2003.
Hernita Purnasari
TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………... i
APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………………. ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE …………………………………………………… iii
MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………… iv
DEDICATION PAGE ……………………………………………………. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………. viTABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………. vii
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………... ix ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………. x22 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS…………………………………………….. 24
b. Francesca as a Mother ……………………………………… 39 c. Francesca as a Housewife …………………………………...
37
34 i. Francesca’s Self-sacrifice for Richard. …………………... 34 ii. Francesca’s Obedience toward Richard ………………… 36 iii. Francesca as Richard’s Complement ……………………. 37 iv. Francesca’s Subordination ………………………………..
33 a. Francesca as a Wife ………………………………………..
2. Francesca and Her Marriage ……………………………………
b. Francesca’s Experience to be Abused …………………….... 32
a. Francesca’s Obedience toward Her Father ………………… 31
1. Francesca and Her Past Life …………………………………… 30
29
B. Francesca Johnson as the Reflection of Women in the Middle of the Emerging Feminist Movement ………………………………
A. The Characterization of Francesca Johnson ………………………. 24
21 C. Method of the Study……………………………………………….
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………… 1 A. Background of the Study……………………………………………
20 B. Approach of the Study…………………………………………….
20 A. Object of the Study………………………………………………..
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………
13 C. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………. 19
9 2. Theory on Feminism…………………………………………….
1. Theory on Character and Characterization………………………
9
8 B. Review of Related Theories………………………………………..
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW…………………………….. 8 A. Review of Related Studies………………………………………….
6 D. Definition of Terms ………………………………………………... 7
1 B. Problem Formulation………………………………………………. 6 C. Objectives of the Study……………………………………………..
40
3. Francesca and Her Opportunity of Career………………………
42
4. Francesca as Herself …………………………………………… 43
5. Francesca’s Idea in the Relationship between Men and Women
48 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………………. 52
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….. 53
APPENDICES…………………………………………………………… 57
Appendix 1: Summary of Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County …………………………………………………………………….57 Appendix 2: The Biography of Robert James Waller …………………...
60
ABSTRACT
HERNITA PURNASARI. Francesca as the Reflection of Woman in the
Middle of the Emerging Feminist Movement as Seen in Waller’s The Bridges
of Madison County. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.Gender matter is an issue that has been discussed for a long time. There is a paradigm in society which believes that men are superior and women are inferior. This traditional belief strongly embedes on society and the result is discrimination toward women almost in all their aspects of life. This kind of situation commonly happens among the social community that adopts patriarchal system, in which men have an authority to take a control and make a decision. It can be predicted that women become victims and suffer from the unequal treatment toward them.
They are the feminists, who struggle for the women’s right to be of the same status as the men are. They try to fight against gender discrimination by so many forms of effort. One of them is to initiate women movement for the liberation from gender discrimination. The women’s consciousness of their rights is mark of the beginning of feminism era. Even though the feminism issues have been widely spread, still, there are some women who does not dare to declare themselves as feminist who adopt feminism ideas, although in fact they hold some feminism ideas on their minds.
The objective of the study is to answer two main problems. First, it is meant to identify Francesca Johnson’s characteristics described in the novel The
Bridges of Madison County written by Robert James Waller. Second, it is meant
to analyze the Francesca Johnson’s character as the representation of women in the middle of the emerging of feminist movement.
In the analysis, the writer employed library research to collect data relating to the topic of the study. This study applies some theories to answer the questions stated in the problem formulation. They are the theory of character and characterization and the theory on feminism. In this study, the writer also uses feminism criticism because the focus of the study is analyzing a character related with the issue of feminism.
The analysis result shows that Francesca is a woman character who holds some feminism ideas in her mind. She is aware of her life situation in which she feels oppressed by the treatment of her parents, husbands and children. She has a thought to free herself from the situation which places her in the corner but she does not have bravery to make a real act in order to fulfill her desire. The element which keeps her to be an oppressed party is the strong paradigm on society which says that the women’s duty is to do households, to be an obedient wife for her husband, and raising children, although she lives in feminism era.
ABSTRAK
HERNITA PURNASARI. Francesca as the Reflection of Woman in the
Middle of the Emerging Feminist Movement as Seen in Waller’s The Bridges
of Madison County. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.Masalah gender adalah sebuah isu yang telah didiskusikan sejak lama. Ada sebuah anggapan dalam masyarakat yang menganggap bahwa kedudukan pria lebih tinggi daripada perempuan. Anggapan kuno ini melekat erat pada masyarakat dan hasilnya adalah diskriminasi terhadap perempuan hampir di segala aspek kehidupan mereka. Situasi seperti ini biasa terjadi di komunitas sosial yang menggunakan sistem patriarki, dimana pria memiliki kekuasaan untuk mengendalikan dan membuat keputusan. Dapat diprediksi bahwa perempuan menjadi korban dan menderita akibat perlakuan yang tidak adil terhadap mereka.
Adalah para feminis yang memperjuangkan hak-hak perempuan untuk sejajar dengan pria. Mereka mencoba melawan diskriminasi gender melalui banyak cara. Salah satunya adalah memprakarsai pergerakan wanita menuju pembebasan dari diskriminasi gender. Kesadaran perempuan akan hak-haknya menandai awal era feminisme. Namun, meskipun isu-isu feminisme telah menyebar luas, masih banyak perempuan yang belum berani menyatakan diri mereka sebagai seorang feminis yang mengemban ide-ide feminis, walau pada kenyataannya, mereka memiliki ide-ide feminis itu dalam pikiran mereka.
Tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk menjawab dua permasalahan utama. Pertama, studi ini dimaksudkan untuk menggambarkan tokoh Francesca Johnson dalam novel The Bridges of Madison County karya Robert James Waller. Kedua, studi ini dimaksudkan untuk menganalisa karakter Francesca Johnson sebagai cerminan perempuan di era pertengahan kemunculan pergerakan feminis.
Dalam analisa, penulis menggunakan metode penelitian pustaka untuk mengumpulkan data yang berhubungan dengan topik dari studi ini. Studi ini menggunakan beberapa teori yang digunakan untuk menjawab pertanyaan- pertanyaan yang ada di rumusan masalah. Teori-teori yang digunakan adalah teori tentang tokoh dan penokohan dan teori tentang feminisme. Dalam studi ini, penulis juga menggunakan pendekatan feminis karena fokus dari studi ini adalah untuk menganalisa tokoh yang berkaitan dengan masalah feminis.
Hasil analisa menunjukan bahwa Francesca adalah tokoh perempuan yang mengemban ide-ide feminis dalam pemikirannya. Dia sadar akan situasi hidupnya dimana dia merasa tertekan oleh perlakuan orangtua, suami, dan anak-anaknya. Dia punya gagasan untuk membebaskan diri dari situasi yang menyudutkannya, namun dia tidak memiliki keberanian untuk melakukan langkah nyata untuk memenuhi keinginannya. Faktor yang mendorong Francesca untuk tetap bertahan sebagai pihak yang tertindas adalah kuatnya paradigma di masyarakat bahwa kewajiban perempuan adalah untuk mengurus hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan rumah tangga, menjadi istri yang menuruti suami, dan merawat anak-anak, meskipun dia hidup di era feminisme.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Literature is the product of the creative thought of human being. Therefore, there are a lot of literary works which contents are based on the
realities that happen in the real life. Many issues can be the main topic to discuss in a literary work, such as politics, economy, social and culture, and other issues that are up to date in the era in which the literary work is written.
While Abrams in his Glossary of Literary Terms states that a literary work can be a good reflection of a society where the works are written. By regarding a literary work, we can dig out many values that implicitly set in it. Literature is one element of culture. It contains values, thoughts, problems and conflicts. Literature functions as a representation of the situation happening in certain setting of time and place (Abrams, 1981:1).
Literature can be found in oral language such as folktale, epic, legend, myth, ballad, and oral poetry, and written language such as poem, play, drama, novel, and short story. It is possible that in the future, there will be some new form of genre that can be categorized as work of literature.
In this study, the writer uses novel as the main source. Abrams describes novel as a fiction literary work that reflects the reality of human life by presenting complex character with their motives based on their social class and their interaction with others. It is also described as the experience of daily human life.
That can be said that novel is the illustration of one’s experiences in facing the problem in the real life and how to deal with it (Abrams, 1981:16).
2 The novel chosen for this study entitled The Bridges of Madison County. It is a novel written in 90’s by Robert James Waller, photographer, author and a professor of management at the University of Northern Iowa. This novel is best sold in the United Stated. Several years after the novel firstly published, the film was made with the same title The Bridges of Madison County. The same as the novel, the movie also won a lot of movie awards. It is not merely because this novel is best sold and the movie that is derived from it won a lot of awards that the writer chooses this novel as the subject matter, but it is more because of some uniqueness of this novel .
When the reader reads the novel, it seems that the introduction and conclusion of this novel seem to indicate that it is a true story written at the direct request of Francesca Johnson's children, based on their mother's journals and on Waller's firsthand research of Robert Kincaid's photography career. However, it is entirely a work of fiction fabricated by the author imagination. (http: //www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/dbdc/bridgesof madisoncounty.asp). Waller’s way to write this novel makes readers believe that it is a true story. For Waller, it is an easy way to achieve their "suspension of disbelief" and make a fanciful story credible. This kind of creative delivery of thought is rarely found in the others novels. It is also interesting to find a male author like Waller to write such an anti male sentiment, especially through the mouth of a male protagonist so uncannily similar to the author himself. It can be the basic speculation that he is a clear supporter of the feminist movement. In this novel, the readers will find some conflicts in which a woman, in this case Francesca is confronted with unfair treatments and situations which actually are aimed as a critic toward the discrimination of women on society which still exists although in the era where
3 most people try to bring the equal right between men and women in reality. This novel was published in 1992, yet the author chose to set it in Iowa, 1965. That is five years after the second wave of American Feminism that happened in 1960’s, which marks the establishment of the modern Women’s Movement. In other words, the setting of this novel is in the middle of the emerging feminist movement.
Feminism is an issue that has been discussed for a long time. There are various opinions about where the position of women toward men should be, since in fact God creates human as man and woman to live together in the same place called earth. Some say that man and woman are different, but the differences itself depend on one’s point of view.
Men and woman are, of course, different. But they are not as different as day and night, earth and sky, yin and yang, life and death. In fact, from the standpoint of nature, men and women are closer to each other than either is to anything else – for instance, mountains, kangaroo, or coconut palms. The idea that men and women are more different from one another than either is from anything else must come from somewhere other than nature (Glover and Caplan, 2000: xxiv). From the quotation above, it can be assumed that what makes man and woman different is not nature, but something else, let say society. In the past, the traditional society made such a stereotype that the women’s position is lower than man.
Jo Freeman in her book Women, A Feminist Perspective states that the traditionalist view look at the many way in which women differ from men concludes that these differences that far transcends reproductive capacities. The traditionalist notes that historically women have always had less power, less influence, and fewer resources than men, and assumes this must accord with some natural order (Freeman, 1984: xiii).
4 The stereotype made by the society had placed women in a difficult situation. There is an unseen border which restricts them to develop. As Montagu says that in the society there was conditioned norm, which stated that women can do and can not do. (Montagu, 1953: 38) This norm makes women lack of opportunities to develop their intelligence and skills, and they have different opportunities to men. This situation inflicted a loss upon women because in almost everyday society there is a belief that men are superior and women are inferior. In past, limited by the norm, women can not have their opinion to be heard. Women think that the belief is right, because it is believed as what really happens. (Montagu, 1953: 23)
Facing for the bad situation for long enough time, the women then try to find a solution for the problem which is basically appeared because of the patriarchal system on society. What the women need is the equal rights on many aspects as what is owned by the men. The women’s courage to struggle in order to get the equal rights as the men is known as the born of feminism. In Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County , there is the character of Francesca Johnson. This character can be seen as the woman figure that represents women in the middle of feminist movement. In this novel, the character of Francesca who is drawn as a woman who realizes the unfairness of gender discrimination and holds some feminist ideas after she experiences some situations which boxed her in the corner because of her position as woman. Waller builds Francesca’s character as faithful wife and a good mother, although she had some difficult experiences in her past that she can not easily forget. She
5 holds out in her family’s situation in which she feels oppressed; put away her mind to escape from that situation and buried her dream of finding the true love on someone. Later, it can be seen that in fact, Francesca does not struggle to get out from her difficult life situation by radical rebellion, but she has a tendency to deal with her situation by realizing and accepting the situations that in fact, happen to her.
The Bridges of Madison County, that title on its own is already enough to
scare half of the male population away. They know it's a romantic drama and don't even need to see it, they are already convinced that they won't like it. And yet, if only they took the time to give it a try, they might be surprised by it. I know I was, so why should’t others have the same feeling about it (Philip Van der Veken, 2005)
The same with Philip Van der Veken from Tessenderlo, Belgium who says that he is surprised by the things that he finds in the story, the writer is also interested by the fact that besides being rich and dominated by symbols, there is another thing that is interesting enough to be discussed further as the main topic in this paper, that is Francesca Johnson as the reflection of women in the middle of the emerging feminist movement.
Until now the matter of gender discrimination still becomes a popular issue in society. In fact, the existence of discrimination toward female is caused by social culture. The stereotype on society which said that women is in the second class of social, while the first class consists of parents, man, and society seems never faded. So that woman often feels being harassed in almost all aspects of life.
Feminism issues in this novel are interesting to be discussed because it gives the readers some perspective about the women’s reasons of why they do not
6 dare to be feminists in order to minimize the oppression toward them. Through Francesca’s story of life in this novel, the readers will find a situation in which a woman, in this case Francesca Johnson shows her courage to solve her problems of life by sacrificing herself as a woman to lose her hopes and dream. She recognizes her position as a woman who lives in a society with it’s paradigm that there are some things that women should not do. The uniqueness of Francesca’s character is that she knows how to be a tough woman without merely complaining, and also has no anger and egoism to be understood by men or by the other, but she prefers to maintain her desire and try to put up with her life situation.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background above, this study formulates two questions:
1. How is Francesca Johnson described in Robert James Waller’s The
Bridges of Madison County ?
2. How does Francesca Johnson reflect the life of women in the middle of the emerging feminist movement?
C. Objectives of the Study
In this thesis, the readers can find the contra- feminism idea through one of female characters in the novel The Bridges of Madison County. That is why it is significant to know further about the character of Francesca Johnson and how she is represented first before discussing the main issue about the women’s position in the middle of emerging feminist movement in the novel The Bridges of Madison County .
7
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation in understanding this thesis, there should be some explanation about some words, which are mostly used and widely related to the topic that is going to be analyzed. Those words are follows:
1. Feminine Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language define
feminine as having quality regarded as gentleness, weakness, delicacy, and modesty; womanly (1989).
2. Feminism According to Maggie Humm, feminism is the ideology of women’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief that the women suffer because of their sex. (1990: x).
3. Feminity Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language describes feminity as the qualities or nature of the female sex; womanliness, also effeminacy (1989).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The Bridges of Madison County is the novel written by Robert James Waller. This novel is firstly published in1992 and was best sold in the United States. Here can be seen that Waller as the writer was competent to catch the
readers’ desire, it is to get the novel in which the story derived from the affairs which usually happen in daily life situation so that they get a great enjoyment to play with their feeling when they read it.
Therefore, only two years after it’s firstly published, the movie of The
Bridges of Madison County was made. There are a lot of comments about this
novel which has been filmed. Much of them give positive opinions about this novel. Some readers and viewers said that this novel brings a new interesting thing that is closely related to the issue of feminism.
Leo Goldsmith, in his review states that it is crucial in both versions that Francesca does not leave her husband for Kincaid, but in Waller’s estimation her gesture is one of feminine self-sacrifice, a relinquishing of her desire in the service of both of the men she loves. Only in Eastwood’s version is Francesca’s choice made something subtler: Francesca’s is a denial of something very like “true love,” but it is emphatically her decision to do so. She is not compelled by a woman’s sense of duty nor by the world’s cruel gender inequities, but by a practical unwillingness to ruin several lives (including perhaps her own) by pursuing an ethereal “true love” (Goldsmith, 2007)
In his review above, Goldsmith reveals his finding that the Francesca’s character in the novel represents a woman who does a feminine self-sacrifice, meaning to
9 say that Francesca is one who faces a situation in which she becomes a party who should give in to the moral value.
Another researcher the writer chooses as the references for her review of related studies is Eka Wahyuning. She is a graduate student of English Letters Study Programme, Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, generation of 1995, who had done to analyze Waller’s The
Bridges of Madison County on her project for final thesis. She takes The
Significance of The Symbol of The Covered Bridges Toward The Main Characters
as Seen in Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County as the topic on her thesis. On
her thesis, she had focus on all symbols used in the novel and also the relationship between the characters, especially Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson.
Different from Eka Wahyuning, in this thesis, the writer will focus to study the character of Francesca Johnson and discuss her position and life situation as a woman in the middle of the emerging feminist movement.
B. Review of Related Theories
In order to analyze the problem formulation, the writer employs two kinds of theories.
1. Character and Characterization
Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms describes character as “the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say-the dialogue-and by what they do the action” (Abrams, 1981:
10 20). It can be concluded that characters can be analyzed by their dialogue and their action.
Roger B. Henkle divides characters in two kinds, major character and minor character. Major characters are the characters that are observed most often in the story. These characters are given a good deal of attention and shoved onto the background or off scene as attention turns elsewhere (Henkle, 1977:90). The minor characters or secondary characters in the story performed more limited functions. They can function in various ways; is elements of society that’s makes up the human context, as average or normal points of reference, as foils to the major characters or they can be symbols of aspects of the governing state of being (Henkle, 1977: 100).
In his An Introduction to Fiction, Stanton says that a reader can understand a character in a story by simply paying attention to the evidences shown in the story. Firstly, we can understand the characteristic of the character from the character’s name where sometimes the sound of the name fits the character. Then the author explicitly describes the physical look of the character and comment upon it. We can see it also from the other character in the story and their attitudes toward the major character. The last we can see it from the character’s own dialogue and behavior (Stanton, 1965:17-18).
Other explanation of character also stated by M.J. Murphy in his book
Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for
Overseas Student. Murphy said that author can make his characters
understandable by using some types of description.
11 a. Personal description
The author directly describes the character’s physical appearance and clothes in the way telling an accurate description.
b. Character as seen by another Instead of describing a character directly, the author describes the character through the eyes and opinion of the others, so that the reader can get a reflected image.
c. Speech We can understand the characters by the way they speak. Whenever they speak, or in a conversation with the others, they give us a clue to their characters.
d. Past life The author lets the readers learn something about character’s past life by giving them clues through his comment, conversation or through the medium of another character.
e. Conversation of others The author can give the readers clues about the character through the conversations of other characters and what they say about him/her.
f. Reaction The author lets the readers know about the character’s personality through his reaction toward various situation and events.
12 g. Thoughts
The author gives the readers a direct knowledge about character is thinking about.
h. Mannerism The author explains about his character by describing the character manner or habits.
Different from M.J. Murphy, Perrine in his book Literature: Structure,
Sound and Sense divides character into two categories, based on ‘motivation’ and
based on ‘development’.Based on ‘motivation:
- Flat character Character which is characterized by one or two traits.
- Round character Character which is usually complex and many sided.
- Stock character Character as the stereotyped figure who occurs very often in fiction that his nature is immediately known.
Based on ‘development’:
- Static character Character which usually does not undergo a change or in other words at the end he is still the same as he was in the beginning.
13
- Dynamic character Character which undergoes a permanent change in his character personality or outlooks.
In relation with character, it is important to understand the characterization, because both of them are undivided. According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature characterization is a character which has particular personalities and physical attributes that differs them from other characters, that is shaped by the process of an author creates a characters themselves ( Rohrberger and Woods,1971:20).
2. Feminism
There are many arguments about what feminism is. Feminism in general is the ideology of woman’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief that women suffer injustice because of their sex (Humm, 1990: 74). Maggie Humm adds that feminist theory reveals the importance of women as individual. It analyzes how sexual differences are constructed within any intellectual and social world and build accounts of experiences from these differences (Humm, 1990: x).
Sexually, human being divides into two, male and female. The biological differentiation between two kinds of human being is called gender. Talk about feminism will be never far away from the matter of gender classification.
The problem of gender classification of human being into men and women always arises in society. The differentiation between men and women resulted by the social construction or social culture causes unfairness toward women (Glover and Kaplan, 2000: 207).
14 There is a kind of unpleasant feeling to know that women are often treated unfair because in fact, gender is destiny, it is not the matter of choice of picking up and discarding identities at will.
Despite their diversity, feminist critics generally agree that their goals are to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices, to promote discovery and re-evaluation of literature by woman and to examine social, cultural and psychosexual context of literature and literary criticism. Feminist critics therefore study sexual, social and political issues once thought to be “outside” the study of literature (Guerin, 1999: 197). In his further statement, Guerin states that in its diversity, feminism is concerned with the marginalization of all women, that is with their being relegated to a secondary position (Guerin, 1999: 196).
Jo Freeman in her book Women, A Feminist Perspective states that there are discrimination between men and women. It has been for a long time that the society considers men as superior and women as inferior. This paradigm was started by the traditional thought and up to now, it is still strongly embedded to the way of thinking of the society.
The traditionalist view looks at the many ways in which women differ from men concludes that these differences reflect some basic intrinsic differences that far transcend reproductive capacities. The traditionalist notes that historically, women have always had less power, less influence, and fewer resources than men, and assumes this must accord with some natural order (Freeman, 1975: xiii).
Feminism is closely related with the idea of universal equality between men and women. It can be said that behind all differences, there is some characteristically human nature by virtue that all men are equal. The aim of equality is to avoid some existing unequal treatment.
15 Freeman divines the ideas feminism into several points, some of them are: a.
Equality
The idea of equality is that behind all the differences, basically men are all the same in the matter of to have rights and to do their duties.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Freeman, 1975: 439). God creates people as men and women in order to complete each others, to help each others to fulfill their needs and, in the most basic aim is to get happiness.
b. Freedom of Argument
The feminism reacts against belief which is exists on the society that a woman is placed under men’s control.
“Woman feels she is not made for command, and finds her truest happiness in submitting to those who wield a rightful scepter in justice, mercy and love” (Freeman, 1975: 421). The idea of feminism is to give women awareness that they have a freedom in revealing ideas and thought. Feminism brings a thought that women are free in giving argument and finding happiness as long as they follow the legal rules of law.
c. Opportunity
Feminism demands for the woman equality of education and access to the profession. In other words, feminism help woman to fulfill their ambition to have an equal right as man in achieving a satisfaction through her own abilities.
A husband has some roles in his position. He is the man who works outside home. His primary obligation is to provide financial support for
16 the family. He plays an important part as a head and a master of the family (Freeman, 1975: 73). It is true that man is the leader of family, but he should give a wife (woman) her right to develop her abilities and to go work or to have a job. A wife is a homemaker, but she has a right to work because as same as man has, God gives abilities to think or to do some valuable things.
W.L. Guerin in his A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature stated that the domination of male characters toward female characters appears much more in the novel written by male writer and makes an ‘image of woman’ which is sometimes stereotyping woman and make a gender bias in the work itself. The consciousness gives an important from of literary point of view that has com to be called feminist literary criticism (Guerin, 1999: 245-249). Feminist criticism tries finding the equality for woman to speak about their needs and their consciousness on the gender equality as man can do.
As Sargent in his book Contemporary Political Ideology said, feminist argue that men socialize women to accept both physical and mental mistreatment, and that legal system has traditionally treated women as offender (Sargent, 1987: 220) it seems that there is a stereotype in society that there are two parties .The first party is women, and the second party is society which consists of general society, parents and men. There is such a rule that women in the first party have to obey what the second party wants them to do as woman especially as wives, that leads women become oppressed party.
There are some points to be fulfilled by feminists. Thomas Gramstad in his article says that “The feminist ideas are those that lead a social progress
17 concerning gender relations at a given time and place”. He adds that there is a form of equal worth between the ideas and activism. Thus without a commitment to action and social change, she is not a feminists, even if she holds feminist ideas (Gramstad, 2007).
Deborah L. Madsen in Feminist Theory and Practice has an argument that feminism is women’s struggle to obtain an equality between women and men stems from the premises that both sexes have the same human rights as well as opportunities to advance themselves in many aspects of life (Madsen, 2000:2).
Still in the same book, she divides feminism in America into some points.
First Wave of American Feminism which began in the 1840’s and is commonly marked by the first Women’s Right Convention, held in Seneca Falls in 1848. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other women who had been denied a place at the international anti-slavery convention in London in 1840 (Madsen, 2000: 3-4). Women need to fulfill their personal and national destinies, but they also need to fulfill the spiritual destiny of humanity and it is men who have historically placed obstacle in their way (Madsen, 2000: 5). The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the political struggle for women’s right; the Declaration of Sentiments, modeled ironically of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, was drafted primarily by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Together with Susan B. Anthony, Stanton founded the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869, and Lucy Stone established the American Woman Suffrage Association, to promote a suffrage amendment to the
th
Constitution (this became the 19 Amendment only in 1920). The two
18 organizations merged in 1890 to become the National American woman’s Suffrage Association, which later became the League of Women Voters (Madsen, 2000: 6)
Number pro-suffrage groups sprang up in the pre-war years: Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch, founded the Equality League in 1907 and Alice Paul, who had been active in the British suffrage struggle, founded the more militant Congressional Union, which later became the Women’s Party. It was the Women’s Party that first proposed the Equal Right Amendment to Congress in 1923 – ‘Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction’- and although this move was unsuccessful, it did lay some of the intellectual groundwork for the second wave of American Feminism in the 1960s (Madsen, 2000: 6).