Cornelius is in New York. Mrs. Levi says that Cornelius lives a double life and that he is very rich. Because what Mrs. Levi has said, Cornelius has to pretend to
be someone else in front of Mrs. Molloy. As he pretends to be a very rich man, he has also to play a person who
is totally different from his truly character. His behavior about pretend to be familiar with everyone in New York is one of his act to be seen as a gayest and
wittiest person. The way he orders champagne in front of the ladies indicates that he finally enjoys about his changing identity and he feels comfortable with it.
Although he is finally admits to Mrs. Molloy that he is not as rich as Mrs. Levi says he is, it is clear that he does it to make a good impression to Mrs. Molloy
about who he is.
C. Mrs. Levi and Cornelius’ Motives in their Courtship
In this part, the writer would discuss about the real motives of Mrs. Levi and Cornelius of their courtship towards someone that they like as seen in
Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker. From the analysis from question 1 and question 2 above, we can find out about the real motives of Mrs. Levi and
Cornelius why they are doing courtship as seen in Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker
. As stated by Maslow Goble, 1970: 38, one of motives underlying people’s actions is safety needs. Everybody needs to feel secure and safe about
anything related to them. So that both Mrs. Levi and Cornelius do their courtship basically because they want to feel secure and safe about their future.
1. Mrs. Levi’s Motives of Doing Courtship towards Mr. Vandergelder
In my opinion, there are three things that can make Mrs. Levi feels secure and safe about her future. Money, power to control, and the feeling that she
does not want to be alone are three things that can make her happy, secure and feels safe. First, as we know that Mrs. Levi is a poor widow and having trouble to
support her own life, it is not strange if she is always money oriented. When her life is in trouble of finance, she does more than a job to make a living. It is stated
when Mr. Kemper knows the fact when Mrs. Levi gives him a wrong card of her address Wilder, 1964: 198. For the one who needs money, the fastest way to get
money is by marrying someone who is very rich. Mrs. Levi’s motive of chasing money is based on her willing to get
out from poverty she has lived for three years. She feels tired of living in poverty, as she tells her late husband, Ephraim Levi, and also tells a permission to remarry
again with Mr. Vandergelder. Unfortunately, at first Mr. Vandergelder is someone who is very stingy. He believes that money is just a tool to make people do what
they do not want to do. Moreover, his plan to remarry again is based to look a housekeeper. He tells to the audience that marry is one thing to make a
housekeeper feels that she is the householder. Mrs. Levi’s intention about money is also shown when she arranges a
dinner for herself and Mr. Vandergelder at Harmonia Garden Restaurant. She asks for fifty dollars for the dinner. The money will be spent for a chicken and a bottle
of wine. The most explicit of Mrs. Levi’s motive that she is chasing Mr. Vandergelder’s money is when she tells the audience that she intends to marry
Mr. Vandergelder because of his money. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
As the writer has discussed above, Mrs. Levi’s willingness to get out from poverty makes her become materialistic. Her way of thinking that happiness
can only be achieved by money strengthens the opinion of her motive towards money. She feels that money is the only things that can bring pleasure to life. She
mentions that the difference between a little money and no money is enormous, means that with a little money someone still can achieve happiness while with no
money at all they cannot achieve any happiness. She also mentions that the difference between a little money and a lot amount of money is very slight, means
that it both can make someone happy but the difference just on how much happiness they can achieve. She thinks that money should be spent, spread among
others, and not as Mr. Vandergelder thinks that money should be kept and not be spent. And because she wants to change her life by marrying Mr. Vandergelder, it
can be sure that Mr. Vandergelder’s money is what Mrs. Levi is looking for. Although she plans to marry Vandergelder for his money, her intentions are good;
as she says to the audience in the last act, she plans to spread his money around to make the world a better place.
Second, the motive of Mrs. Levi of doing courtship toward Mr. Vandergelder is because she wants to gain the power to control. As we know that
Mrs. Levi is a person who ‘loves to arrange things’. From her way of doing courtship, the writer knows that most of the play is happens because of Mrs.
Levi’s plan. She is a person who loves to be the center of attraction. Her coquettish manner shows that way.
The hierarchy of needs according to Maslow is running from psychological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and
self-actualized needs 1970: 38-43. Self-actualized is identification of the psychological need for growth, development, and utilization of potential. This
need is also considered as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that someone is capable of becoming. Mrs. Levi with her
coquettish manner is a description that she wants to be the center of attraction. By doing that, she knows that she will get and grab attention from people around
them. And by that, she makes it easier to control them to do as what she has planned.
The power to control is one that Mrs. Levi wants because she loves to be the top. From the beginning of the play until the end, she always arranges all so
that everything happens as she has planned. She controls Mr. Vandergelder to rethink about his plan to marry Mrs. Molloy by saying that she has found Miss
Ernestina Simple that will be Mr. Vandergelder’s suitable bride. She also controls Mr. Kemper to stop asking Ermengarde to elope by saying that she will make Mr.
Vandergelder allows them to marry. In the Mrs. Molloy’s hat shop, she also makes Mr. Vandergelder dislike Mrs. Molloy by saying that his chief clerk,
Cornelius Hackl, is the one who is gayest, wittiest, and rich person in New York. And because of what she says, Mrs. Molloy attracts with Cornelius. In Harmonia
Garden Restaurant, she tells that she won’t marry Mr. Vandergelder. This makes Mr. Vandergelder thinks that he is alone in his life, although he do not realize it
yet, and when he knows the fact, Mrs. Levi asks Mr. Vandergelder to marry her. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
She chooses Mr. Vandergelder because he is the only one who has power, and by marrying Mr. Vandergelder, she knows that she will gain the power to control
everything. She is a manipulator and schemer who does not mind making up
stories to get the results she wants. Her business cards claims skills in reducing varicose veins and in giving instruction on guitar and mandolin, but she states her
principal occupation as a woman who arranges things. As seen in the play, she controls almost all the characters to act as she has planned and that proves her
ability to control people and her ambition and motive to control everything. Last, her basic motive of doing courtship towards Mr. Vandergelder is
because she does not want to be alone for the rest of her life. As Maslow has already stated, everybody needs to feel secure, safe and out of danger. People
need secure society so that they feel safe. Mrs. Levi, as a widow and has lived alone for almost three years,
must have experienced the feeling of unsecure life. When she lives alone, she has unsecure job, doing two kinds of jobs, reducing varicose veins and in giving
instruction on guitar and mandolin, but none of them makes a constant payment. In her three years she has been live in unsecure, unsafe, and powerless. It is
proven when she tells Mr. Vandergelder about what she has been going trough in the last three years. So when she asks for fifty dollars for arranging the dinner, she
insists Mr. Vandergelder to provide it. And when she asks permission to her late husband, she tells that she has been tired of living unsecure.
No one can life alone in this world, and neither can Mrs. Levi. Although she has a lot of friends, and as her nature that she puts her hands in
someone else’s problem, she still feels unsecure and lonely. When she tries to persuade Mr. Vandergelder to marry her, she tries to make Mr. Vandergelder feels
what she has felt, that is the loneliness. In the end of act three, she tells Mr. Vandergelder that he is now lonely, without his money, without his purse, without
his trusted clerk, and even more, without his niece, Ermengarde. She tries to show Mr. Vandergelder the meaning of loneliness so that he accepts her offers to marry
her. By marrying Mr. Vandergelder, at least she does not feel alone. She
will feel safe and secure because she knows that there will be someone that will accompany her for the rest of her life. By marrying Mr. Vandergelder, she has
secured her future, because Mr. Vandergelder is very rich and she knows that he can support her. She also feels safe, and her loneliness will disappear because Mr.
Vandergelder has so many people surround him. And last, by marrying Mr. Vandergelder, she will feel happy because Mr. Vandergelder has everything she
wants, that are money and power.
2. Cornelius’ Motive of Doing Courtship towards Mrs. Molloy
