15 3. How he or she develops, or fails to develop during the course of the story.
c. His or her place in the work, namely:
1. The treatment of the author sketched or fully rounded portrayed descriptively or dramatically, treated sympatically or unsympatically.
2. His or her place in the story a leading character or a minor one 3. His or her relation to the theme, for example: whether the character embodies
something important the author has to say.
3. The Theory of Love
Fromm defines the term “love as an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward
one “object” of love” 46. There are four basic elements of all forms of love, namely care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge 22.
Dealing with the element of care, love is the active concern for the life and the growth of that which one loves. It is best described as the mother’s love for
her child. In Christian teaching, the essence of love is to “labor” for something and “to make something grow” 23. Therefore, love and labor are inseparable.
People love for they labor and they labor for that which they love. Responsibility, in its true sense, is an entirely voluntary act 23. To be
“responsible” means to be able and ready to “respond”. Respect is not the same as fear or awe. Derived from the word ”respicere” which means, “to look at” it
denotes the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality 23. Respect means the concern that the other person should grow and unfold as
16 he is. Respect, as well as love, liberates people for their own sake in their own
ways. To respect a person is not possible without knowing him. There is the
knowledge which is an aspect of love is one which does not stay at the periphery, but penetrates to the core 24. Further, based on the kind of object which is loved,
there are five types of love, namely Brotherly Love, Motherly Love, Erotic Love, Self-Love, and Love of God.” 47-71
Brotherly love is the most fundamental of love. It is defined as the sense of responsibility, cares, respect, knowledge of any other human being, the wish to
further his life. It is love for all human beings and characterized by its very lack of exclusiveness. In short, brotherly love means love among equals.
Motherly love is the unconditional affirmation of the child’s life and his needs. Dealing with the affirmation issue, there are two aspects of motherly love.
The first one is the care and responsibility that is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the child’s life and his growth. Secondly, it is the attitude which
instills in the child a love for living. In this kind of love, it is shown that two people who were one become separate.
The mother must not only tolerate, but also wish and support the child’s separation. Therefore, it requires unselfishness, the ability to give everything and
to want nothing but the happiness of the loved one by its very nature one of inequality, where one needs all the help the other gives it. For this altruistic,
unselfish character, motherly love is considered as the highest kind of love and the most sacred of all emotional bounds.
17 Erotic love means “the craving for complete fusion, for union with one
other person” 46. It is characterized by its very nature exclusive and not universal. As a result, this kind of love becomes “the most deceptive form of
love” 46. Erotic love grows since someone experiences the separateness of the other person primarily as physical separateness. Therefore physical union means
overcoming separateness. Erotic love has one premise “That I love from the essence of my being – and experience the other person in the essence of his or her
being” 47 Love should be essentially an act of will of decision to commit one’s life
completely to that of one other person 47. To love somebody is not just a strong feeling – it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise 47. If love were only a
feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and may go.
The next one is self-love. Self-love is not the same as selfishness. A selfish person is interested only in himself, wants everything for himself, feels no
pleasure in giving, but only in taking. For that reason, he lacks interest in the needs of others, and respect for their dignity and integrity. He can see nothing but
himself, he judges everyone and everything from its usefulness to him. Meanwhile, dealing with self-love, the idea expressed in the Bible is
“Love thy neighbor as thyself”. It implies respect for one’s own integrity and uniqueness love for and understanding of one’s own self, cannot be separated
from respect and love and understanding for another individual. It is inseparably
18 connected with the love for any other being. The affirmation of one’s own life,
happiness, growth, and freedom is rooted in ones capacity to love. Love of God is described as “the longing for the attainment of the full
capacity to love, for the realization of that which “God” stands for in oneself” 71. The thing that counts here is the act of experiencing the oneness with God.
As the religious form of love, God stands for the highest value and the most desirable good. Neither the knowledge of God in thought, nor the thought of one’s
love of God, but the act of experiencing the oneness with God that counts. In this study, two types of love will be mainly used, namely the erotic love
and the love of God. Erotic love will become the basic theory to analyze the relationship between Elijah and the widow in Akbar. Meanwhile, Love of God is
used to explain the growing faith of Elijah.
4. Theory of Faith
