Based on the analysis, Dona Maria is suffering because of lack of affection and attention from her parents and her husband. It is getting worse when her
daughter also abandons her. She longs for love and belongingness. The absence of love in her life influences her behavior and her relationship with her daughter.
From the analysis, the absence of love influences Dona Maria’s behavior. First, she neglects her appearance. Dona Maria feels despair about her life. She
believes there is no joy and love in her life. Her despair influences her life physically. She does not care about her appearance anymore. Second, she is
getting drunk to escape from her bitter life. Awareness hurts her; her mind directs her to believe that her life is awful. Third, she is daydreaming. Dona Maria is busy
thinking about her daughter for she dreams of reconciliation with her daughter. Fourth, she withdraws herself. Living in depression, Dona Maria tries to cover her
stress by withdrawing herself. She refuses to face problems. From the analysis, I also conclude the influence of the absence of love in
Dona Maria’s personal relationship with her daughter. Dona Maria becomes possessive toward her daughter. Since Dona Maria is longing for love and
appreciation from her daughter, she is afraid of losing her daughter. She also becomes obsessive toward her daughter. Dona Maria believes that the only person
who can fulfill her needs of love is her only daughter. And the last is she expresses love in a wrong way. Dona Maria has no idea of loving since she is
never loved before. Unconsciously, she regards what her parents did to her as the experiences of love. She tries to express her love by giving her daughter so much
money and gifts. She also cannot prevent herself to treat her daughter sarcastically
as her mother does to her. The absence of love in Dona Maria’s life not only brings bad effects on her life but also on her relationship with her daughter. It
turns out, however, that her feeling of being unloved is not true. Her death reveals the essence of love. Her daughter realizes that her mother loves her so much.
B. Suggestions
1. Suggestions for Future Researchers
In this thesis, I focus on analyzing the characteristics of Dona Maria and the influence of the absence of love toward her behavior. I am sure the other
researchers could analyze the other topics that could be found in Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey. The future researchers could conduct
research on the symbols that appear in the novel. The future researchers can also analyze the title of the novel and Dona Clara’s motivation leaving her mother.
2. Suggestion for Teaching Learning Activities
Literature provides many advantages in teaching learning English. Students may learn about the culture when reading literary works. In addition, it
can increase our ability in using language. There are some media that can be used for learning English, such as
drama, movie, newspaper, magazine, grammar book and literary text. Literary text is important because it provides authentic language. By studying literary text we
can understand reality of human problems, feeling, background, and relationship. Students also can develop their knowledge of the value of life, language and
culture of a certain society.
Based on the benefit of teaching English using literary works, I provide teaching Extensive Reading I using the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey.
According to Paulston and Bruder there are two groups of reading. Those are Extensive Reading and Intensive Reading. The students are expected to focus
their attention on linguistic features so that they are able to decode the message in Intensive Reading 158. The main objective of Intensive Reading is developing
the ability to draw syntactic and lexical clues, and to recognize farther the production of language features 163. While in Extensive Reading, the students
are expected to obtain the meaning of the whole text 158. Reading is one of four language skills that must be mastered by language learners. Through reading
students can develop their grammar and vocabularies. There are two exercises used in this teaching learning activity. They are comprehension questions and
vocabulary exercise. Comprehension Questions are questions that derived from the novel and students’ opinion related to the topic taught. Vocabulary exercise is
very important because it can improve the students to memorize new words.
3. The Implementation of Teaching Extensive Reading I Using Chapter 2 of
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The lecturer gives the students The Bridge of San Luis Rey in the previous meeting. This novel will be used for two meetings. It could help the
students get more understanding of the novel so that the teaching-learning activity will be effective and efficient. In the first meeting, the lecturer asks the students to
answer comprehension question from chapter 2 of the novel in which the material
