CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1. Background of the Research
Most people are interested in other people. People meet someone for the first time and then they notice certain things: how the person looks, speaks, and
acts, for example. People make judgements according to what they notice. Sometimes, as people get to know the person better, those evaluations are
affirmed. Sometimes they are challenged. Interest in other people is more than just idle curiosity. People base their most important life decision-whom they will be
friends with, whom they will live with – on observation, talking with, and interacting with.
It’s not surprising, then, people watch television programs, see movies, or read literature, most of them pay close attention to the people-the character-whose
lives unfold before us. To stay interested in a film, a novel, a short story, or a play, they must find the characters interesting in some way.
Character refers to the people authors create to inhabit their stories.
1
Some characters fascinate readers by being very different- by living in a distant place or
a time long past or by being wildly glamorous or consummately evil. Sometimes characters can capture readers’ minds and hearts because they are people readers
can relate to. The characters may have similarities with those of readers or may
1
Gloria Mason Henderson. Literature and ourselves New York : Pearson Education, Inc., 2003, p.9.
act in ways that make them feel as though readers are looking in a mirror. Frequently a character intrigues them by displaying a special quality or style: a
unique sense of humor, a gift for the absurd, or a profoundly wise way of looking at the world.
Much of interest in a novel lays in the characters whose world the readers enter and in whose live the readers share. The reader usually responds to them
first as people. The readers can analyze their personalities, trace how they are affected by events and empathize or disprove of them. Therefore, the character is
very important aspect in the novel. In literary work character can be used to create an event and determine the
plot of story. Character is a person or a fictitious creation which is created by the author to represent what the author wants to tell to the readers in a novel.
Character has an important role because through a character people can know the totality of the story.
2
Without character there would be no plot and hence no story. For most readers of fiction the primary attraction lies in the characters. It is an inevitable
fact that character is a vital and necessary element in literary work. The novel The Mayor of Casterbridge written by Thomas Hardy exposes
a character which starts his life as a poor journeyman hay-trusser. He rises above his humble beginnings to become successful businessman and is respected by
townpeople of Casterbridge for his work etnic and his position as Mayor of Casterbridge. However his success doesn’t last long because of his fool decisions
2
Tom Baily. A short’s companion New York: Oxford Univ. Press, Inc., 1967, p.30.
and deeds. In the end, he becomes a poorman. He’s not only lost all his materials but also people he beloved evenworse he dies alone in the countryside.
This drastic changes becomes the reason why I am interested in analyzing the main character by applying character theory. It will reveal how the tragic
character is presented in the novel. Therefore the writer would like to know how the the tragic character is presented in the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge.
2. Focus of the Research
Kategori