8 Characters in Yasunari Kawabata’s Beauty and Sadness by Indarsih from Sanata
Dharma University. In her study, Indarsih draws some messages from the way the characters view love in the novel.
Indarsih’s study has three purposes in writing her undergraduate thesis. Firstly, Linangkung wants to find the character and
characterization in the novel. Secondly, she wants to describe the way the characters in the story view love. Thirdly, Indarsih wants to know the message
which is revealed by the way the characters views love. She describes all the characters in the novel that have different characteristics and different views on
love, but they are related to one another. This undergraduate thesis has some similarity
to Indarsih’s undergraduate thesis in terms of message through the characters and the way the characters view.
It reflects messages based on the characters, the way the characters view something such as love. This thesis describes the main
character’s characteristic. However, the focus of this study has a different perspective from Indarsih’s thesis,
which is viewing the humanity shown by Eliot Rosewater, and then drawing some messages from it.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theories of Character and Characterization
A character in a literary work is very important because a character is the one that inhabits the plot of the story and the one that brings the reader’s
interpretation to understand the story itself. Green and LeBihan explain what a character means. Characters are engaged in a conventional arrangement, which
will dictate their actions and to a certain extent their speech acts; and they are
9 attempting interpersonal dialogue in order to keep the communication channels
between them open 2001: 31. To talk about characters, Bennett and Royles define characters as real
people and they explain that there are three requirements of a character to be
called like real people.
The first requirement for such a character is to have a plausible name and to say and do things that seem convincingly like the kinds of things people
say and do in so- called ‘real life’. The second requirement is a certain
complexity. Without this complexity, a character appears merely ‘one- dimensional’, cardboard or in E.M. Forster’s terms ‘flat’ Forster 1976,
73. To be life-like, a fictional character should have a number of different traits
– traits or qualities which may be conflicting or contradictory: he or she should be, to some extent, unpredictable, his or her words and actions
should appear to originate in multiple impulses. Thirdly, however, these tensions, contradictions, multiplicities should cohere in a single identity
2004: 62.
On the other hand, characters in the novel is divided into two categories. They are a major character and minor character. A major character mostly appears
in the story. A major character according to Henkle, becomes the focus of the story because major character inhabits the story itself and brings
the reader’s interpretation. The events of the story always involve him or her whether directly
or indirectly. Meanwhile, the role of the minor character is as the supporting character from the major character. The major character has played on an
important role in a story because he or she takes a part in most of the story 1977: 88. A minor character, according to Kennedy is supports and completes the
existence of the major character 1983: 45. In a ccordance with Kennedy’s
explanation, Abrams seems to agree with that explanation. The roles of the minor character are less important than the main character because he or she is not fully
10 developed characters and his or her roles in a story is just to support the
development of the major character 1999: 20. In the intrinsic elements, characters are the actors involved in the plot of
the story, including their moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities. Abrams got new terms to distinguish the kind of character in a story. He introduced flat and
round characters. A flat character is a character of a single idea or quality and does not have
much individualizing detail. A round character is a character of complex ideas in temperament and motivation and this character can surprise us just
like the person in a real life Abrams, 1999: 33.
Charactes are closely related with characterization. Characterization discusses the presence of people in the story in which it portrays on the
character’s action, speech, or physical appearance. One character can be differentiated with another character because they have their own personality and
physical attributes. Murphy 1972: 161-173 explains some details of the way how to
characterize a character in a novel. He explains through the nine ways in order to make the reader aware in characterizing the c
haracter’s personality. a. Personal Description
The author can describe a character’s appearance like the face, body, cloth of the character. The personal description is very important because it can give
clues to the character. b. Character as Seen by Another
Instead of describing a character directly the author can depict him thoroughly the eyes and opinions of another.
