Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

The world of literature is the image of the real world, what we find in literary works is often can be found in a real world and vice versa. Many authors created their masterpiece based on what happen in a real world. John Dryden in his book entitled Selected Criticism said literature is lively image of human nature, representing passions and humors, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and instruction of mankind 1970: 36. Thus what we find on literature is often happen in a real world. Understanding literature from a certain period will definitely help us understand that period of time. Understanding the ideas presented in a literary works will definitely give us understanding of that ideas in real world. Religion has become one important issue discussed by so many people in different societies throughout the world. People have their own ideas, opinions, understandings, perceptions, and interpretations about religion, therefore a lot of discussions and debates has happened and emerged in relation to religion. Nowadays, although people have discussed and studied almost every single thing related to religion, yet it stills an interesting topic to talk about. Therefore the writer finds it interesting to discuss the idea of religion and also religiousness presented in a certain work of literature. Many people in this world believe in a common fact that there is a power in this universe which is far more powerful than the power that every single human possessed. People realized it when they are not capable of doing things they want to do. Some people think of it as a nature power due to the fact that sometimes we could see that at the time natural disasters occur. When natural disaster occurs, people cannot do anything to stop them since the power of the disaster is too great for people to deal with. Meanwhile some people think that it is the power of the people that has been passed away. People might be dead and their body might be destroyed but their spirit will remains and stays on some places or things. They will protect a certain area or thing using their power. People who believe this kind of fact usually traditional people for example people of tribes. They often held rituals to make sure that their predecessors will always be with them. Some others think of it as a mystical power beyond their understanding. This kind of power connects the world where humans and all living things live and the world of the creator of life. That kind of power is believed to be possessed by God or in some other belief by Gods and Goddesses. They believe that it was them who create the universe and all things related to it including the earth where they live. They also believe that they control and maintain everything in this world including when and where people will die. They are the ones that maintain the balance of the universe with their great power. This kind of belief is called religion. Speaking of religion, there are many religions in the world with very different form from each other. Since the ancient times religion existed, each religion has a central and important figure that they called as God though each religion called it differently. Some examples of religions in the world are Islam, Christianity, Judaism, etc. They have different names for God as well as different way to worship God. Religions have become an important part of human‟s life and it affects human‟s life very much. Paloutzian stated about this in his book Invitation to the Psychology of Religion Second Edition as seen in the following quotation: Globally, we can predict that over 3 billion people out of the worlds 5,5 billion total population are religious or have their lives affected by religion in important ways. Paloutzian, 1996:3 From the statement made by Paloutzian above thus we can say that many people in the world know religion and have what so called as religiousness. Understanding of religion often leads people to do good things. As an example, religion can unite many people with different background and history to live together in and a society or even country. They will live together above their similarities of religion although in many other things they are completely different. In the other hand, due to the different interpretations, perceptions, and understandings of religion, bad thing can also happen. For example the act of terrorism which is done by some Moslems in the name of Islam. This happens because they misinterpreted some words in the Quran. This kind of fact often leads to a huge conflict between religions. When this happens it will be very hard to handle. In the real world, we can always find this kind of conflict worldwide. People have their own opinion and reason to believe in such religion. One person believes that there is only a single God while other person believes that there are many Gods. Some people ignore this difference. They don‟t care with such difference because people have their own rights to believe in something. Unfortunately some others concern about this difference. It often creates conflicts between people who have different belief. Some people often forced other to have the same belief with them. It happens worldwide and a very usual cause of a chaos. It is the reason that even in a single religion there are some different types. For example the Islam in Indonesia has NU, Muhammadyah, Ahmadyah, etc. The writer believes that people who live in a religious society usually will be very affected by their understanding of religion and become religious people. They will always remember their understanding of religion at first before doing anything. They will always think whether what they are going to do is good thing or bad thing in their religion. They will pray before and after doing something in order to make sure that everything is right according to their religion and that nothing bad will happen. Religion can even give people strength to do something that almost impossible for them to do because they believe God with its power will help them every time they need help. As a result people look for this strength which clearly beyond their own power. Hendropuspito, 1983: 30-33 An example of religious society is of course the ancient Greek. This can be seen through a lot of sources such as movies, videogames, and work of literatures. Greek people worshiped many Gods and Goddesses. Some examples are Zeus as the leader of all Gods, Hades who rules the underworld, Ares as the God of war, Poseidon rule the sea, etc. It affects the people‟s life very much. Looking at the history of the Greek society, we might be able to find out that religion is very important to the life of people. This interests the writer to discover the power of religion, in this case religiousness to be more precise, in human‟s life. Whether religiousness could make any difference on someones life or not is very interesting to find out. In this study the writer tries to analyze the religiousness of a character named Antigone seen in a play written by Sophocles entitled Antigone. The writer chooses Antigone as the object of the study because the setting of place and time are in the ancient Greek which is very famous as religious society. The main conflict is between Antigone and Creon in the story. Creon stated a public law that should be obeyed by people, in the other hand Antigone disagree with that law and decide to go against it. It is important to find out the influence of religiousness towards someone‟s attitude especially in a religious society. Whether Antigone is affected by religiousness or not would be very interesting to find out through this study. Antigone is one of many great plays written by Sophocles. It is one of many Greek tragedies which are very famous throughout the world of literary work. The play is about a rebellion of a woman, a princess actually, named Antigone. She is the daughter of a former king of Thebes named Oedipus. After the death of Oedipus, his two sons quarreled and killed each other in a battle. Creon as the closest relatives then becomes a king. She rebels against the new king of Thebes who due to th e king‟s decision that is not suits her very well. The king decides not to burry Antigone‟s brother named Polineices due to the fact that he is considered as a traitor while her other brother get a very proper burial. Antigone dares to fight against king‟s law which is very powerful. What actually makes Antigone dare to fight against the powerful law of the king is the next thing that interests the writer. Furthermore the writer tries to see such a phenomenon that religion and also religiousness could affect peoples behavior very much. It will be done by looking at the characteristics of the main character of the play named Antigone throughout the story Sophocles‟ Antigone.

B. Problem Formulation