agricultural production. Instead, all work was done by peasants. The landlord, by virtue of his ownership and control of such vast amounts of land and human
resources, was powerful enough to influence the distribution of water, fertilisers, tractor permits and agricultural credit and, consequently exercised influence over
the revenue, police and judicial administration of the area. The landlord was, thus, lord and master. Such absolute power could easily corrupt, and it was no wonder
that the feudal system in Pakistan was humanly degrading. Furthermore, having excessive wealth and power made them selfish and
arrogant. For landlords, justice, love and respect for law disappeared. The worsening was that when a landlord obtained responsible positions in civil
service, business, industry and politics, their influences were multiplied in all
directions http:www.yespakistan.comfeudalism.htm.
Feudalism in Pakistan, clearly applied only in certain provinces like in Sindh and in Punjab. In Pakistan, 40 of land was owned by only 7 big
landlords. It could be said that other 93 landlord owned the 60 land remained. As the result peasants were placed in a disadvantageous position. Peasants could
not improve their life. In contrast, feudalism usurped landlords or landowners. In other words, feudalism injured peasants Robinson: 271- 272
There were many people said that this system was a barrier of any progresses in Pakistan. Therefore, there were also many Pakistanis who
endeavoured to dismiss this system such as Qaede-Azam, Iftkhar-ul-din, Mumtaz Daultana, Khan Qayoom Khan, Zahid Hussain, M. Masood and Haidar Baksh.
However, the country continued to be governed by people who were founded on PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
feudal family, like Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zia-ul-haq and now president Musharraf. Even though they also attempted to rid Pakistan of Feudalism,
paradoxically, most members of their ministers were also feudalists or landlords. That was why, feudalism in Pakistan was quite impossible to abolish.
http:www.revolutionarydemocracy.orgrdv10n1 pakistan.htm.
D. Theoretical Framework
Those theories, mentioned before, are applied to help the writer in answering the problems, and to help readers to comprehend more about what
problems that are discussed and how they are solved. Review of related or previous studies is presented to show that this novel
is worthwhile to study and analyse. Review of related theories is employed to answer the problems formulated. Theories of character and characterisation are
applied to find out who the characters are. Theories on setting, conflict and review on social condition in Pakistan in
the 20
th
century are applied to find out the social condition of Pakistani society represented by characters.
The theory of relation of Literature, Society, Author and Criticism, and review of Pakistani society in the 20
th
century are employed to help the writer in answering the third question; criticism toward Pakistani society.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the study
Object of this study is a novel entitled The Holy Woman. This novel was written by Qaisra Shahraz and was published in 2001 by Black Amber. In 2002,
this novel won Jubilee Award. Furthermore, this novel is translated into several languages. In 2006, this novel was translated into Indonesian language.
This novel, in brief, is about women’s life in Pakistan, especially in Sindh and Chiragpur. There are two plots narrated in this novel. First is about Zarri
Bano, the major character. Habib- Zarri Bano’s father- has Zarri Bano be a Holy Woman get married to Holy Quran and is forbidden to get married to any men.
It is done to legalise Zarri as his heiress and to inherit his wealth since the only son in that family has already died. Zarri who seldom opens Quran, never uses her
duppatta well and has just found her soul mate suddenly has to transform into a Holy Woman for family’s wealth and honor sake.
For five years she has been keeping her sadness and her love behind her burqa. Shahzada, her mother, is also unable to do anything. She is apoplectic at
her husband but she only can stand beside him otherwise her large family is going to get bad image because of her.
Lamenting what he did, after five years being Holy Woman; Habib gives permission to Zarri Bano to get married. However, Zarri has already loved her
new identity. Thus, when everyone suggests her to marry Sikander, after Ruby PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
died, she totally refuses it. Though it is difficult, she finally accedes to marry her sister’s husband, and she at last finds her happiness.
Different from Zarri’s story, another plot is also narrated in this novel although the characters are still related to the first plot. That is a story between
Kaniz and Fatima. Kaniz is a Chaudarani, a rich woman, in Chiragpur. Kaniz got married to Sarwar after Fatima, a woman from lower class, had refused his
proposal. Suddenly, Kaniz, a woman from lower class, became a snobbish Chaudarani who hated lower class. Because of that past experience and class
distinction, Kaniz disagrees with her son idea to get married to Firdaus, Fatima’s daughter. Kaniz’s pride does not permit Fatima’s family to laugh at her anymore.
At last, they are able to live in harmony; however, the process takes long time and causes them to lose their dignities and pride.
B. Approach of the Study
In order to answer problems in this thesis, the writer needs an approach, which is usually called as critical approach to literature; one must know what
literature is, how to read it, and how to judge it Rohrberger, 1971:9. According to Rohrberger, there are five approaches in analysing literature,
those are, formalistic approach, psychological approach, biographical approach, mythopoeic approach and sociocultural- historical approach.
In this thesis the writer is going to employ the sociocultural- historical approach in doing the analysis. Sociocultural-historical believes that literature is
not created in a vacuum and represents ideas significant of culture that produced that literature 1971:9.
Sociocultural- historical approach tries to observe attitude and actions of society so closely that description of society where a work was created can be
obtained. Critics whose major interest is the sociocultural-historical
approach insist that the only way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization that produced it. They define
civilization, as the attitudes and actions of a specific group of people and point out that literature takes these attitudes and
actions as its subject matter….that it is necessary that the critic investigates the social milieu in which a work was created and
which it necessarily reflects 1971: 9.
Sociocultural- historical is chosen in conducting the analysis since the writer deals with social condition in Pakistan in the 20
th
century. In addition, in this thesis the writer also analyses the novel by looking at the relation of society
and characters in this novel. Thus, the writer focuses on the actions of characters in this novel and tries to relate it to social condition of Pakistan so that the writer
can obtain the social criticism those characters convey.
C. Method of the Study
In doing the analysis the writer uses written or documentation material. It means that this study is included in a library research. In doing the thesis, there are
two kinds of sources that the writer uses. Both are main source and some supporting sources.
The main source is the novel, The Holy Woman by Qaisra Shahraz. The writer uses some supporting sources like the Theory of Literature by Wellek and
