CHARACTERIZATIONS OF MINA MURRAY AND LUCY WESTENRA AS THE REPRESENTATION OF VICTORIAN WOMEN IN BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA
CHARACTERIZATIONS OF MINA MURRAY AND
LUCY WESTENRA AS THE REPRESENTATION
OF VICTORIAN WOMEN IN BRAM STOKER’S
DRACULA
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
JEFF REINHARD
Student Number: O24214119
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2009
CHARACTERIZATIONS OF MINA MURRAY AND
LUCY WESTENRA AS THE REPRESENTATION
OF VICTORIAN WOMEN IN BRAM STOKER’S
DRACULA
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
JEFF REINHARD
Student Number: O24214119
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2009
AMAZING GRACE
AMAZING GRACE HOW SWEET THE SOUND
THAT SAVE A WRETCH LIKE ME
I ONCE WAS LOST BUT NOW I’M FOUND
WAS BLIND BUT NOW I SEE
I WAS GRACE THAT TAUGHT MY HEART TO FEAR
AND GRACE MY FEAR RELIEVED
HOW PRECIOUS DID THAT GRACE APEAR
THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVE
THROUGH MANY DANGERS TAIL AND SNARES
I HAVE ALREADY COME
THIS GRACE HAS BROUGHT ME SAVE THIS FAR
AND GRACE WILL LEAD ME HOME
JOHN NEWTON
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to
The Almighty Jesus Christ My Lovely Mother and My Brother
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : JEFF REINHARDNomor Mahasiswa : 024214119
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :CHARACTERIZATION OF MINA MURRAY AND LUCY WESTENRA AS
THE REPRESENTATION OF VICTORIAN WOMEN IN BRAM STOKER’S
DRACULAbeserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me-
ngalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data,
mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media
lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun mem-
berikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 3 September 2009 Yang menyatakan ( JEFF REINHARD )
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deepest gratitude to Jesus Christ, the most compassionate for the unlimited love, strength and guidance that have been given to me so that I finally can finish this thesis. I do realize that this thesis could not be accomplished without the help of others. Therefore, I also thank Him for giving me chances to meet the wonderful people who are willing to accompany, help and support me in facing this step of life.
I thank God for giving me a very super duper Mother, Irma Maria Jacqueline, who always prays for me, gives me unlimited love me and support me when I was down. To my elder brother, Joe Roosevelt, I thank him for being an outstanding brother. To my cousin Yvone Valerijn Wattiheluw, I thank her for being a splendid big sister during my study in Yogyakarta.
In this opportunity, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Advisor and Co-Advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum. and Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum who have provided their precious time for reading, encourage, patience, care and guiding me during my thesis writing process. May God always bestow His blessing on them.
I also would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all the lecturers of the English Letters Department for their guidance and willingness to share their knowledge to me, the members of secretariat staff for their best service, and the librarian staff of Sanata Dharma University for their kind service and useful co- operation.
My special thanks to all my friends in group C - 2002 especially PRUE family: Dian Sastra, Nana Dalem, “Dora” Debora, Kartika Andeng2, Rudy “Alam”, Ferdi “Gendut”, Alfa Batam, Nico the Sailor Man, Gatot “Danang” Hendy, “Sreek” Harjanto, Yeremias Nardji, Fitra Sunny and Suryo Pramono DIY.
I thank them for all the wonderful friendship and adventures that we had, it means a lot for me and also all my friends in “Panggung Boneka”, I thank them for all experiences that we share. For YPA, I thank her for our special moment even it’s only a moment.
Last but not least, I thank my fellow comrades who still struggle for the better future. God bless them all.
Jeff Reinhard
TABLE OF CONTENTS
16 D. Theoretical Framework …………………………………………..
31 B. The Representation of Women in the Victorian Age ………...….
24 2. The Description of Lucy Westenra ……………………..
24 1. The Description of Mina Murray ……………………….
24 A. The Description of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra …………...
23 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……………………………………………...
22 C. Method of the Study ……………………………………………...
21 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………
21 A. Object of the Study ………………………………………………
19 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………..
15 C. Review of Victorian Women Historical Background …………....
TITLE PAGE ……………………………………………………………… i APPROVAL PAGE ……………….………………………………………. ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE …………………………………………………… iii MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………… iv DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………………………….. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………….. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………….. viii ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………. x ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………... xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………….
14 3. Theories of Literature and Society ……………………….
11 2. Theories on Representation ……………………..……….
11 1. Theories on Character and Characterization ……………..
8 B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………...
8 A. Review of Related Studies ……………………………………….
6 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW …………………………….
5 C. Definition of Terms ………………………………………………
1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………..
1 A. Background of the Study ………………………………………..
34
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………………..
49 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………...
53 APPENDIX: Summary of the Novel …………………………………….
55
ABSTRACT
JEFF REINHARD. CHARACTERIZATIONS OF MINA MURRAY AND
LUCY WESTENRA AS THE REPRESENTATION OF VICTORIAN
WOMEN IN BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA. Yogyakarta: Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.
Bram Stoker writes Dracula in an style that makes it interesting to study. The novel represents women in the Victorian Age that become the goal of this thesis. In the Victorian Age, there are many issue of women related to their attitude in the Victorian society. Such condition is worth studying in order to see whether or not the characteristic of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra in the novel is the representation of women in the Victorian Age.
This undergraduate thesis analyzes two main problems. The first one is revealing the characteristics of Mina and Lucy. The characteristics will then be analyzed further in order to reach the actual goal of the thesis which is to obtain the understanding on what really happen to women in Victorian Age through the characteristics of Mina and Lucy.
The analysis of the novel was conducted through library research using related books, articles and internet resources. In conducting the study, first the characteristic of Mina and Lucy which are going to be discussed were analyzed using theory on character and characterization. The final step was answering the second problem which will be analyzed by using theory of representation and the relation between literature and society to see is it true that those characteristics represent the Victorian women life.
In the novel, Mina is smart and beautiful young woman. She also has a warm personality, strong will to do her best, a hard worker, loves to cook, and she also has rebellious personality inside of her. Lucy is a very attractive young woman. She has a beautiful heart, cares and appreciates other people. She does not want to hurt somebody’s heart. She is honest and kind. Mina and Lucy characteristic are representing certain issue of women related to their attitude in the Victorian society such as firstly a woman working hard to study and learn many thing just to ensnare men and not to prepare themselves for work, secondly women getting married to get a status in the society, thirdly women should give a birth and become a mother because women who can not give birth at that time will be labeled inadequate or a failure by the society, fourth a woman has to wear a dress which covers her skin because their body belongs to their husband so they have to keep their body pure, fifth women should have a good manner and watch their language when they talks with other so they do not hurt somebody’s feelings, and sixth women supposed to have more deep sense on humanity then men. From the analysis performed, it is known that their characteristics in the novel Dracula are representing the real condition of women in the Victorian Age.
ABSTRAK
JEFF REINHARD. CHARACTERIZATIONS OF MINA MURRAY AND
LUCY WESTENRA AS THE REPRESENTATION OF VICTORIAN
WOMEN IN BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2009.
Bram Stoker menulis Dracula dalam bentuk “epistolary” yang membuatnya menarik untuk dipelajari. Novel ini menggambarkan wanita pada zaman Victoria yang menjadi tujuan utama dari skripsi ini. Banyak permasalahan tentang wanita yang berkaitan dengan sikap mereka di dalam masyarakat Victoria. Kondisi seperti ini sangat berguna untuk dipelajari untuk melihat apakah karakteristik dari Mina Murray dan Lucy Westenra menggambarkan wanita di zaman Victoria atau tidak.
Skripsi ini menganalisa dua masalah utama. Yang pertama ialah menunjukkan karakteristik Mina dan Lucy. Lalu karakteristiknya akan di analisa lebih lanjut untuk mencapai tujuan utama dari skripsi ini yakni mencapai pemahaman tentang apa yang terjadi pada wanita pada zaman Victoria melalui karakteristik Mina dan Lucy.
Analisa novel ini dilaksanakan dengan cara studi pustaka menggunakan buku, artikel serta sumber-sumber online yang berkaitan. Dalam proses analisa, mula-mula karakteristik dari Mina dan Lucy yang akan dipelajari telah dianalisa mengunakan teori karakter dan karakterisasi. Langkah terakhir ialah menjawab rumusan masalah kedua yang akan dianalisa menggunakan teori penggambaran dan hubungan antara sastra dan masyarakat untuk melihat apakah benar karakteristik mereka menggambarkan kehidupan wanita zaman Victoria.
Dalam novel ini, Mina ialah wanita muda yang pintar dan cantik. Mina juga mempunyai kepribadian yang sangat ramah. Keinginan yang kuat untuk selalu melakukan yang terbaik, pekerja keras, pintar, senang memasak, dan dia juga memiliki jiwa pemberontak di dalam dirinya. Lucy adalah wanita muda yang sangat menarik. Dia mempunyai hati yang baik, perhatian dan menghargai orang lain. Dia jujur dan baik. Karakteristik Mina dan Lucy menggambarkan beberapa permasalahan tentang wanita yang berkaitan dengan sikap mereka di dalam masyarakat Victoria yaitu yang pertama seorang wanita bekerja keras untuk belajar dan mempelajari banyak hal hanya untuk menarik perhatian pria bukan mempersiapkan diri untuk bekerja, yang kedua seorang wanita menikah untuk mendapatkan status dimasyarakat, yang ketiga wanita harus melahirkan anak dan menjadi seorang ibu karena wanita yang tidak dapat melahirkan anak pada waktu itu akan dianggap wanita yang mempunyai kekurangan atau gagal, yang keempat wanita harus menggunakan pakaian yang dapat menutupi kulitnya karena tubuh mereka milik suami mereka jadi mereka harus mempertahankan kesempurnaan tubuh mereka, yang kelima wanita harus mempunyai kelakuan yang baik dan menjaga bahasa mereka saat berbicara dengan orang lain agar mereka tidak menyakiti hati orang lain, dan yang keenam wanita sudah seharusnya lebih peka terhadap orang lain dari pada pria. Dari analisa yang dilakukan, dapat diketahui bahwa karakteristik mereka di dalam novel Drakula menggambarkan kondisi dari wanita yang sesungguhnya pada zaman Victoria.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study A literary work can be described as a story or text that gives knowledge and
pleasure for those who read it. Readers are driven to understand ideas emerged in the works. When reading a fiction, readers can go deep into something beyond their imagination that could please them. John M. Ellis in his book The Theory of
Literary Criticism: A Logical Analysis wrote:
The purpose of literary criticism is to make the text more enjoyable to the reader, to encourage and excite his appreciation of the text, to explicate it, and to point it out (Ellis, 1974: 54). This shows us that a literary text contains two effects: pleasure and knowledge. John’s ideas lead us to the assumption that readers tend to explore their fantasy and knowledge in order to understand and also analyze a literary work.
Literature is the expression of live through the medium of language. It can be regarded as something essential since it contains real life, people, thought, and their feeling about life. Therefore, it is not wise to think that literature is only a matter of enjoyment and the function is to make life less tedious and hours pass more quickly. Literature is an expression of thought, feeling and attitudes toward life that will give lesson about people, values, vicarious, life and social relationship. Even Wellek and Warren in their book notes:
The pleasure of literature, we need to maintain, is not one preference among a long list of possible pleasure but it is a “highest pleasure”
2 because pleasure is a highest kind of activity, i.e., not acquisitive contemplation. And the utility seriousness-the instinctiveness- of literature is a pleasurable seriousness, i.e., not seriousness of a duty which must be done or a lesson to be learned but an aesthetic seriousness, a seriousness of perception (1956: 31).
These days, literary works are not merely used as a device to satisfy the need of entertainment or to express ideas and imagination. In addition, they have also been used as a representation of the society, a means to identify the norms and values of the society.
We can identify the ideas revealed in the literary work from the important elements within. The roles of the characters are usually very significant in revealing the ideas inside the literary work. Understanding the characters inside a literary work means to look deeper the implied meaning that the author wants to reveal through the characters in the novel.
Wellek and Warren also said that “Literature is a social institution that uses social creation, i.e. language as its medium. It is the representation which in a large measure, a social reality” (1956: 94). From this idea, the writer tries to analyze the representation of women in the Victorian Age revealed in Bram Stoker’s Dracula to see the relation of a literary work created by using social creations to represent the social reality.
The world knew Bram Stoker when he published Dracula in 1897. The novel still stands as his greatest literary achievement. Although the novel was not an immediate popular success at that time, but the story has inspired countless films and other literary works since its first publication.
3 According to Barbara Belford in her book Bram Stoker: A Biography of the
Man Who Wrote Dracula (1996) that was Emily Gerald’s essay entitled
Transylvania Superstitions (1885) who inspired Stoker in writing a story about
Dracula. In her book, Belford says that Stoker’s spent almost seven years to study European folklore and the stories of vampires to help him understand the vampire character. The name of the novel main character was taken from the Romanian language “Dracul” which means the devil (Belford, 1996: 15).
In her book, Barbara Belford also says that when Stoker’s wrote Dracula novel, he gave a Gothic touch in his work. He depicts characteristic elements of Gothic genre such as gloomy castles, sublime landscapes, and innocent maidens threatened by ineffable evil which develop the setting of the novel (Belford, 1996: 17).
Stoker tries to modernize Gothic genre tradition in his novel by moving the setting from the conventional of Dracula’s ruined castle into the modern England setting. He revealed the contradiction of two different worlds of the count’s ancient Transylvania and the protagonist’s modern London in the Victorian era that he lays bare many of the anxieties who characterized his age, the repercussions of scientific advancement, the consequences of abandoning traditional beliefs, and also the dangers of female sexuality. To this day, Dracula remains a fascinating study of popular attitudes toward sex, religion, and science at the end of the nineteenth century.
Stoker develops his novel Dracula in style. It is rare that a novel written in collections of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters,
4 and also fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspaper. One of the greatest benefits of the diary narrative is that the readers are allowed to see and feel the emotional hearts and souls of the emotional characters. This is great because when a character is not feeling too great and is trying to hide something, the reader knows this, and therefore the reader knows everything that happen nothing is being hidden from the reader. That is why the writer is interested to read and understand the novel.
When analyzing the novel, the writer is interested in the character of Mina Murray and her best friend Lucy Westenra because in the novel Stoker characterized them in a very interesting way. Both are beautiful young ladies but they came from different social classes and this condition influences their idea of life and how they live with their dreams about the perfect portrait of a wonderful marriage.
Women in the Victorian Age were considered as lower beings or second class citizens. The culture set the men to be superior. Many women in the world were victims of the patriarchal system. They were oppressed in many parts of life. Victorian women are prepared for a marriage which gave them status if they landed a prosperous husband from a higher class.
When Victorian women are married, they were completely subservient to her husband. Fortunately, some educated women realize that women have the same rights as men have. Upon those conditions, occurred some important women’s movement in the mid-nineteenth century. There were emancipation movements, which demanded for equality and discrimination abolition.
5 This undergraduate thesis is focusing the study on analyzing the characters condition and the relation of the woman characters in the novel with the characteristic of Victorian women that still keeping the ideas of purity and dignity of a women who would be her husband's friend and companion, the woman who would consider her husband’s happiness as identical as her own should make a place calls house becomes a true home and a cozy place to rest, not a mere passage place for vanity and ostentation to pass through, a tender mother, an industrious housekeeper, and also a judicious mistress.
The characters of Mina and Lucy are chosen by the writer because their characterizations are very appropriate to reveal the characteristics of women in the Victorian Age that become the objective of the study. This study is made to point out the characteristics of women in the Victorian Age that Stokers wants to reveal in his work by analyzing the characterization of the selected characters.
B. Problem Formulation
Referring to the background of the study, there are two questions formulated as follows
1. How are Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra characterized in the novel?
2. How do Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra representing women in the Victorian Age?
6 C. Objectives of the Study The study on this thesis aims to find out more about the Victorian women through guiding questions stated before. Therefore, there will be two objectives of the study. Firstly, this study is trying to figure out the depiction of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra characteristics in the novel. Lastly, the writer using the information from the previous question which is very beneficial to reach the actual goal of the thesis by identify how Mina and Lucy represent the women in the Victorian Age.
D. Definition of Terms
In this part, some words will be defined to guide the readers in understanding this thesis. The writer will clarify the meaning of some significant terms that are used in this study to avoid misunderstanding on reading this thesis. The writer gets definition of the specific terms mostly from library works, which are considered well qualified.
1. Character According to M.H. Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms, characters are the persons in a dramatic or narrative work whom naturally posses novel, dispositional, and emotional qualities that all are reflected in the dialogue and the action among the persons which is very important to understanding more about characters (Abrams, 1993: 23).
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2. The Victorian Age The Victorian Era of Great Britain is considered a period of dramatic change that brought England to its highest point of development as a world power. It is often defined as the years from 1837 to 1901, when Queen Victoria reigned, through many historians believe that the passage of the Reform act 1832 marks true inception of a new cultural era.
When Queen Victoria reigned, through many historians believe that the passage of the Reform act 1832 stimulated discussion of woman’s political rights marks true inception of a new cultural era Whereas in previous centuries generations had stayed in the same communities and remained close to the parental home, in the 19th century there was considerable mobility within the population. For the new members of industrialized middle classes, social identity was created around sets of values which marked them out as separate and different from the aristocracy above them and the working classes below them. Broadly speaking, middle-class identity was built on a platform of moral respectability and domesticity.
Middle-class voices also challenged conventional ideas about women. They would find that the Victorian did not consider their age stable and secure. Whether they belonged to upper, middle, or lower classes, they through themselves as lived in time of troubles (Ford, 2000: 927-941).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The original title for Dracula was The Dead Un-Dead and until a few weeks
before publication, the manuscript was titled simply The Un-Dead. The name of the main character was Vampire, but while doing a research Stoker ran across an intriguing word in the Romanian language “Dracul” which means "The Devil".
Stoker's novel deals in general with the conflict between the world of the past full of folklore, myth, legend, and religious piety and the emerging modern world of technology, logical positivism, and secularism.
Leonardo Wolf in his book Introduction to the Signet Classic Edition, 1992 state that What has become clearer and clearer, particularly in the fin de siècle years of the twentieth century, is that the novel's power has it source in the sexual implications of the blood exchange between the vampire and his victims” (Wolf, 1992: 57-58). Wolf also wrote that Dracula has embedded in it a very disturbing psychosexual allegory whose meaning he is not sure that Stoker entirely understood about a demonic force at work in the world whose intent is to eroticize women (Wolf, 1992: 57-58).
Dracula has been the basis for countless films and plays. Three of the most famous are Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992).
Nosferatu was produced while Stoker’s widow was still alive, and the filmmakers
9 were forced to change the setting and the names of characters for copyright reason. The vampire in Nosferatu is called Count Orlok rather than Count Dracula. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, while closer to the novel plot than most movies produce earlier, remains the Count as a tragic figure instead of a monster. It adds an opening sequence that focuses on the Count’s Romanian background, and inserts a new romantic subplot into the story (Wolf, 1992: 60-62).
Roger Ebert in his essay talking about the monstrous ego of the vampire or Count Dracula character in Francis Ford Capola’s motion picture entitled Bram
Stoker’s Dracula . In his essay Ebert portray Dracula as a very egoistical person
because he could live forever and change form into a huge bat and many rats, event into mist. This is shown by Count Dracula efforts to buy property in London. Ebert wanted to print out all the special things that Dracula could do which no common person could do, but still Dracula no satisfied with that <(6 November 2008).
In short, Ebert wanted to show readers that Dracula was a character that was never satisfied with what he gained. This attitude made him want to gain everything for himself regardless at other persons importance and this made him becomes a very egoistical person <(6 November 2008).
Norma Roman in her essay Teaching the Vampire Dracula in the Classroom writes about her experience in teaching vampire text. She has found that the psychological aspect of a study of the vampire has intrigued students, as has the socio-cultural connection with the alienated and marginal. She also found that the
10 most fascinating aspects of the Dracula myth are the idea of immortality.
“Dracula gave the students pause, prompting them to reassess their prior assumption about the vampire” Roman says. We can be sure that immortality is always being an attractive topic when we talk about Dracula. Roman also said that the journey into the dark and hidden reaches of the self is more difficult when the guide assumes the form, not of someone youthful and attractive however murderous but of a repulsive and unrepentant elder with bad breath <(6 November 2008).
The interesting mystery about Dracula has helped to keep the story alive; the novel has also created a great deal of critical molestation. No reader can come to the text without preconception that derived from the screen and other vampire literature. There have been many twentieth century novelists who have dealt with the vampire, but none so strikingly as Stoker. In The Death of Dracula, Benjamin Leblanc writes, “Dracula’s death should not be considered a tragedy. After all, he died of ‘natural’ causes, and left a legacy to his descendants, one which is both dark and powerful. In a way, he will live forever through his descendants and in our memories” <http://classiclit.about.com/cs/productreviews/fr/aafpr_bram drac.htm> (6 November 2008).
Carol Margaret Davison in her book has brought together collection of essays by some of the world’s leading scholars. This book offers analysis of Stoker’s original work, but also celebrates the influence this famous monster has had upon our literature and culture. Davidson also said that Bram Stoker Dracula was representing the social condition of the Victorian Age at the time the novel
11 was written. Whenever a vampire is mentioned, the monster Dracula invariably still comes to mind, even if that character has been dramatically altered by movies and other films, as Davidson writes,
The figure of Dracula pervades our culture’s conception of vampirism. Stoker, who choose not to imitate the plot structure and characterization of the model often deal with its influence by self- consciously subverting it <> (6 November 2008).
In the analysis, the writer is going to analyze deeper about the relation of the women character with the characteristics of Victorian women at that time which have not been analyzed yet. The writer found that the novel is not just about the sexual repression that induce Lucy and Mina after they infects by Dracula’s blood but Stoker tried to wrote about the social condition of Victorian women in detail so the reader can experience by them self about the condition in the Victorian era.
The writer wants to reveal the characteristics of Victorian women through the characters of Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra. The purpose is to make the readers understand about the Victorian women as Stoker’s writes on his works.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Character and Characterization
A Character is the object of this study. Therefore, in order to understand clearly about the characterization, I draw some theories about character and personality of the people in a literary work from some books. Firstly, I will discuss the characterization theory based on theory of character from Abram in his book A Glossary of Literary Term. He mentions characters as:
12 The persons in a dramatic or narrative work, endowed with moral and dispositions qualities that are expressed in what they say, i.e. the dialogues, and what they do, i.e. the action (1985: 21). Characterization is the way in which the author reveals or creates the characters in his/her work, making them ‘alive’ for the reader (Holman-Harmon,
1986: 81). In his book Holman and Harmon stated that there are three fundamental methods of characterization in fiction. First, the explicit presentation 10 by the author, second, the characters own presentation in action without any comment from the author, and last the representation from within a character of the impact of certain events towards the character’s inner self, also without any interference from the author (1986: 81).
In Understanding Unseen, M.J. Murphy provides nine ways of how an author may reveal the characters’ personalities and traits to the readers in literary work. Those are as follows
1. Personal Description It is about the description of a person’s appearance and clothes from the author’s point of view. The person appearance can be description of face, skin, eyes, and so on.
2. Character as Seen by Another Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe him through the eyes and opinions of another. We can obtain a lot of information about what kind of person is the protagonist from the other characters’ opinions about her.
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3. Speech The author can give us an insight into the other character of one of the person in the book through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in a conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving us clues to his character. We can see one’s character is reading the speech or the dialogue from the text.
4. Past Life By getting the reader learn something about a person’s past life; the author can give us a clue to events that have help to shape a person’s character.
5. Conversation of Others The author can give us clues to a person’s character through the conversations of other people and things they say about him
6. Reactions The author can give us a clue to a person’s character by letting us know how that person reacts to various situations and events. We can judge one’s character from the way he faces a particular problem.
7. Direct Comment The author can describe one’s character direction. We know one’s character from the author’s description.
8. Thoughts The author can give direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about
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9. Mannerisms The author can describe one’s mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies that may also tell us something about his character (1972: 161-173). We can describe one’s character only by looking at his mannerisms, habits behaviour, and so on.
2. Representation
Representation is the production of meaning through language. In representation, constructions argue, we use signs, organized with other language can use sign to symbolize, stand for or reference objects, people and events in the so-called ‘real’ world. They can also refer to imaginary things and fantasy worlds or abstract ideas which are not in any obvious sense part of one-to-one correspondence between language and the real world. The world is not accurately or otherwise reflected in the mirror of language. Languages do not work like a mirror. Meaning is produce within language, in and through various representational produce by the practice, the ‘work’ of representation (Hall, 1997: 25-26).
In Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary and cultural
theory, representation, or in the book known by the name sign, needs to undergo
the series of steps before reaching its present stage of emptiness. First, it represents a basic reality. Second, it misrepresents the reality behind it. Third, it disguises the fact that there is no corresponding reality underneath the representation. Fourth and the last stage is that it bears no relation at all to any reality (Barry, 2002: 87-88).
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3. The Relation between Literature and Society
The relation between literature, a novelists, and society is that literature mirrors or expresses life and therefore an artist is supposed to express real life in his work. However, it is not the whole of life that a writer expresses in his work. He must concern to the specific object such as social, economic, political, and religious condition in his era that ought to be “representative” of his time and society, since historical and social truths are symbols of artistic values in literature. A novel is supposed to be a representation of social problems. By doing so, literature can also be viewed as the essence, the abridgment, and summary of all history (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 95). It means that a literary work can be stated as historical record to certain time.
Moreover Stanton states that literature is the principle of a culture. It contains a record of values, thought, problem, and conflicts that are transmitted either through written and spoken words. With such acknowledgment, literature stands as the instrument to pass the experience from the generation to the next.
The literature then functions as a representation of the situation (1963:1).
Wellek and Warren state that there are three actual relations between literature and society. The first is the sociology of the writer, the economic basis of the literary production, the social provenance and status of the writer; his social ideology, which may find expression in activities and literature. The second is the problem of the social content, the implication and social purpose of the literary works themselves. The last is the problem of the audience and actual social influence of literature. Since the work much deals much with social problem, the
16 suitable actual relation that is used in this study is of the first explanation as listed above (1956: 96).
C. Review of Victorian Women Historical Background
In The Norton Anthology of English Literature entitled "The Woman Question" contains texts dealing with controversies as it was called, was no less prominent an issue for debate than evolution or industrialism. George H. Ford says that the greatest social difficult in the Victorian Age is the relationship between men and women. The principle difference between ourselves and our ancestors is that they took society as they found it while we are self-conscious and perplexes. This institution of marriage might almost seem just now to be open trial. It could be further extended, for all trial throughout the Victorian period are not only the institution of marriage but the family itself, and most particularly the traditional roles of women as wives, mothers, and daughters. Moreover, the rate of change the Victorians experienced, caused to a large degree by advances in manufacturing, created new opportunities and challenges to women. They became writers, teachers, and social reformers, and they claimed an expanded set of rights (Ford, 1979: 1650-1652).
In her essay entitled “The Women of England”, Sarah Stickney Ellis says that the bodies of the woman was seen as pure and clean except when she was experiencing or any other adornments, or wear clothing that showed her skin, or showed even stockings or any other undergarment. Some believe this was because
17 a woman's body was considered to be the property of her husband. As a result, women were not to advertise their bodies to other men (Ellis, 1979: 1653-1654).
According Margaret Fuller and Mary Wolstonecraft, during the Victorian Era symbolized by the reign of British difficulties escalated for women because of the vision of the "Ideal Women" shared by most in the society. Also, they were seen as pure and clean. Because of this view, their bodies were not seen as temples which should be adorned with nor should it be used for such pleasurable things as sex. The role of women was to have They could not hold a job unless it was that of a nor were they allowed to have their own checking accounts or savings accounts. In the end, they were to be treated as saints, but saints that had no legal rights (Fuller and Wollstonecraft, 1979: 1656-1661).
Women were supposed to know the things necessary to bring up their and general literature were of extreme importance, whereas It was even said that studying was against their as all that was required of them. It meant a girl who could be trusted alone if need be, because of the innate purity and dignity of her nature, but who was neither bold in bearing nor masculine in mind. A married women would be her husband's friend
18 and companion, but never his rival; one who would consider his interests as identical with her own, and not hold him as just so much fair game for spoil who would make his house his true home and place of rest, not a mere passage place for vanity and ostentation to pass through; a tender mother, an industrious housekeeper, a judicious mistress. More over, they also says that women supposed to posses more sensibility, and even humanity, then men, and their strong attachments and instantaneous emotions of compassion are given as proofs (Fuller and Wollstonecraft, 1979: 1656-1661).
In Victorian England by Clarice Swisher, entitled “Victorian Women Expected to Be Idle and Ignorant Women” Charles Petrie says that upper-class Victorian women, neither govern by rigid societal rules, neither work nor acquired education, unlike women in previous times. He also notes that Victorian woman prepared for a marriage which gave her status if she landed a prosperous husband from a higher class. When she married, she was completely subservient to her husband; is she found herself in a tolerable marriage, she had no recourse for divorce (Petrie, 1960: 178).
To get ready for the marriage market, a girl was trained like a race-horse. Her education consisted of showy accomplishments designed to ensnare young men because Victorian women are preparing themselves for marriage, not work.
Innocence was what Victorian men demanded from the girl of his class, and they must not only be innocent but also give the outward impression of being innocent.
White Muslin, typical of virginal purity, clothed many a heroine, with delicate shade of blue and pink next in popularity (Petrie, 1960: 180).
19 According to Lynn Abram in her essay Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain Published: 2001-08-09, a lady should be quiet in her manners, natural and unassuming in her language, careful to wound no one's feelings, but giving generously and freely from the treasures of her pure mind to her friends. She should scorn no one openly but have a gentle pity for the unfortunate, the inferior, and the ignorant, at the same time carrying herself with an innocence and single heartedness that disarm ill nature and win respect and love from all. Such a lady is a model for her sex, the "bright particular star" on which men look with reference. The influence of such a woman is a power for good that cannot be overestimated.
Lynn also says that marriage signified a woman's maturity and respectability, but motherhood was confirmation that she had entered the world of womanly virtue and female fulfilment. For a woman not to become a mother meant she was liable to be labelled inadequate, a failure or in some way abnormal.
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_woma nhood_01.shtml> (6 May 2009).