The influence of childhood experiences on the main character`s personality in Jean Rhys`s wide sargasso sea - USD Repository
THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES ON THE MAIN CHARACTER’S PERSONALITY
IN JEAN RHYS’S WIDE SARGASSO SEA
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
IRENE SURYOPUTRI
Student Number: 014214144
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008
THE INFLUENCE OF CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES ON THE MAIN CHARACTER’S PERSONALITY
IN JEAN RHYS’S WIDE SARGASSO SEA
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
IRENE SURYOPUTRI
Student Number: 014214144
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008
Happiness keeps you Sweet Trials make you Human Failure keeps you Humble Success keeps you glowing And GOD keeps you Going (Anonymous)
“LOOK UP AND NOT DOWN LOOK OUT AND NOT IN LOOK FORWARD AND NOT BACK AND LEND A HAND”
(Edward Everett Hale) I dedicate this thesis to: My Beloved Mother and Father
My Sisters and Brothers My Dear K’Sipri My Grandmother in Heaven
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to thank God the Almighty because without His permission and His blessing I would not have been able to finish my thesis. I also want to express my gratitude to my advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka M.Hum and my co-advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum because without their guidance I would not be able to finish my thesis.
I thank my beloved father and mother for their love and care to me, also for their patience to wait for me to finish my thesis. For my big family, sisters, and brothers who always support me to finish my thesis, thank you very much.
I thank my “sleep partner” (Dian) for her help in every situation I needed her. I thank Galih, Irin and Adit for helping me finish my thesis.
I also want to thank my friends in campus, Cipika-Cipiki Plus (Inten, Irin, Anis, Vitoen, Novel, mbak Ari), for their friendship and beautiful moments in my college lives. They give me a lot of amazing experiences. Without them I have no colors in my life.
I want to address my gratitude to a special person who is always patient to waiting for me to finish my study, Kak Sipri. Finally, I can finish my thesis. I thank him for accompanying me for these 6 years. I thank him for understanding me, giving me support and encouragement to finish my study and my thesis.
My gratitude goes specially to my beloved Grandmother who has just passed away. I thank her for taking care of me since I was a child. Without her I cannot be like this. I thank her so much.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
9 C. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................... 17 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ............................................................
54 Summary of Wide Sargasso Sea ...........................................................
52 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................
48 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................
39 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ....................................................................
People’s Treatments toward Antoinette Mason ................................. 31 C. The influence of People’s Treatments in Her Childhood upon Antoinette’s Personality ...............................
23 A. The Character of Antoinette Mason ................................................... 23 B.
Approach of the Study ....................................................................... 20 C. Method of the Study ........................................................................... 21 CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS .........................................................................
19 A. Object of the Study ............................................................................ 19 B.
8 2. Theory of Child and Personality Development ............................
TITTLE PAGE ............................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE ....................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE .................................................................................. iii MOTTO AND DEDICATION PAGE ........................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... vi ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... vii ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .................................................................
7 1. Theory of Characterization ..........................................................
6 B. Review of Related Theories ...............................................................
6 A. Review of Related Studies .................................................................
4 CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW ................................................
3 D. Definition of Term .............................................................................
3 C. Objectives of the Study ......................................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation .........................................................................
1 A. Background of the Study ....................................................................
54
ABSTRACT
IRENE SURYOPUTRI (2008). The Influence of Childhood Experiences on the
Main Character’s Personality in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Yogyakarta:
Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.The novel Wide Sargasso Sea tells about a girl named Antoinette. Her life is full of misery. Since she was a child she experienced many unhappy experiences. Her mother never cared for her anymore after her brother got sick. People in her surrounding disliked her. Her brother’s death made her mother change into a mad woman. Antoinette married a stranger, whom finally she loved and hurt her by making love with her servant. Finally, she is locked out from outside world and she is treated as a mad woman. This thesis analyzed the influence of childhood experiences on someone’s personality.
There are three problems proposed in this study. They are (1) how is Antoinette depicted in the novel? (2) how do people in her childhood treat her?, and (3) how do the treatment in Antoinette’s childhood influence Antoinette’s personality?
This study applied the library research. This research collected the data and the information from some research books and internet. The psychological approach is the most appropriate approach to analyze the story related to the personality of the main character and her childhood experiences that influenced it.
The research finds out that Antoinette’s personality is influenced by her childhood experiences. She is a beautiful and a solitary girl. She is introverted and vulnerable. She is an obstinate and an emotional girl but she is also an affectionate and generous. She has loyalty to the place where she grows up and she doubts God. Antoinette is a woman who experiences a lot of unhappiness in her childhood. She was treated badly in her childhood. She lacks of love from people around her. She does not get enough love and emotional securities from her mother, which she should get in her age. She also accepts rejections from her mother and people in her surrounding, black people, white communities and peer. These treatments bring certain influences through her personality.
ABSTRAK
IRENE SURYOPUTRI (2008). The Influence of Childhood Experiences on the
Main Character’s Personality in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Wide Sargasso Sea bercerita tentang seorang gadis bernama Antoinette. Hidupnya penuh dengan penderitaan. Sejak kecil is mengalami banyak ketidakbahagiaan. Ibunya tidak pernah memperhatikannya setelah saudara laki- lakinya, Pierre, jatuh sakit. Orang-orang disekelilingya tidak menyukainya. Kematian adiknya membuat ibunya menjadi gila. Antoinette menikah dengan seorang yang tidak dikenalnya, yang pada akhirnya ia cintai, tetapi melukainya dengan bercinta dengan pembantunya Pada akhirnya ia dikurung dan diperlakukan sebagai wanita gangguan jiwa. Skripsi ini akan membahas pengaruh dari pengalaman-pengalaman masa kecil yang mempengaruhi kepribadian seseorang.
Ada tiga permasalahan yang diajukan untuk penelitian ini. Permasalahan tersebut adalah (1) bagaimana penggambaran Antoinette dalam novel? (2) bagaimana perlakuan orang-orang terhadap Antoinette di masa kecilnya? (3) bagaimana perlakuan-perlakuan masa kecil tersebut mempengaruhi kepribadianya.
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode studi pustaka. Penulis mengumpulkann data dari buku dan internet. Pendekatan Psikologi adalah pendekatan yang paling sesuai untuk menganalisa cerita ini yang berhubungan dengan kepribadian dari karakter utama dan pengalaman-pengalaman masa kecil yang mempengaruhinya.
Dari penelitian ini diketahui bahwa Kepribadian Antoinette dipengaruhi oleh pengalaman-pengalaman masa kecilnya. Antoinette adalah gadis yang cantik dan kesepian, gadis yang tertutup dan lemah, ia adalah gadis yang keras kepala dan emosional tetapi juga penyayang dan murah hati. Antoinette mempunyai kesetiaan terhadap tempat ia dibesarkan dan ia meragukan Tuhan. Antoinette adalah seorang wanita yang mengalami banyak ketidakbahagiaan di masa kecilya.Ia diperlakuakan dengan buruk pada masa kecilnya. Ia kekurangan kasih sayang dari orang-orang disekitarnya. Ia tidak mendapatkan cukup kasih sayang dan perlindungan .dari ibunya, yang seharusnya dia dapat pada usianya. Ia juga mendapatkan penolakan dari ibunya dan orang-orang disekitarnya, orang-orang kulit hitam, orang-orang kulit putih, dan teman sebayanya. Perlakuan-perlakuan ini membawa pengaruh tertentu terhadap kepribadianya.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Every human in this world has experiences. An author uses the media
of literary work to express his/her experiences, feelings and /or idea. It means that literature can deal with human’s thought, experiences, feeling and idea.
Literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have experienced of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us, it is thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language (Hudson, 1958: 10). The work itself may have character/characters to show the author’s idea. M.J. Murphy in his book Understanding Unseen pointed out that an author attempted to make his characters believable and come alive for his reader by nine ways; personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of other, reactions, direct comments, thoughts and mannerisms (1972: 161-173).
The writer underlines one of Murphy’s ways, past life. Someone’s past life can shape his/her nature. We can find out the character’s past life by the author’s direct explanation, the character’s thoughts and conversation of other. The writer is interested in the past life of the character in the novel.
The novel that the writer is interested in is Wide Sargasso Sea. Wide
Sargasso Sea is Jean Rhys novel that earned her place in the literary canon
and won the prestigious Royal Society of Literature Award and The W. Smith
1 Award in 1966 (Carter: http://www.jeanrhys.com/literature/novels/SSC2_wide sargassosea.html).
The novel itself is telling about Antoinette’s childhood life and her life
th after she is married. The novel is set in the 19 Century and is in three parts.
The first part is narrated by Antoinette Cosway, the main character, when she is a child. The second part is narrated by Mr. Rocester. He is now married to Antoinette, and in the third part of the novel, Antoinette has become “the mad women in the attic”.
Someone’s past life cannot be separated from his or her childhood experiences. Watson and Lindgren in their book Psychology of the Child agree with it. They describe that someone has in the future often depend on what he or she experiences in his or her childhood:
We are realize that we are more infinitely more that we were birth, and our exploration of the events and experiences of infancy and childhood holds the promise of filling in the gap between ourselves at birth and what we are today. We examine the accounts of these events and experiences in search of ourselves, in search of explanations for our success and failures, our inhibitions and capacities, our potentialities for pleasure and sorrow (1973: 6). The writer believes that there is always a cause before an effect. And some one’s life also cannot escape from this “cause and effect”. The story of the novel that the writer uses as the main source also shows that there is a cause and an effect. From the explanation above the writer wants to reveal “the cause and effect” in the novel. To make it specific, the main topic that the writer wants to analyze in this thesis is the main character’s experiences related to her later personality. In other words, the writer tries to relate literature and psychology. Wellek and Waren in their book Theory of Literature state that analyzing literary works relation to psychology means studying theory of psychology that may present within works of literature (1956: 81).
All of the explanation above shows that the topic of this thesis is worth studying. By using psychological approach in analyzing the novel hopefully the readers get some benefits from this thesis.
B. Problem Formulation
Regarding to the topic that is discussed above, this thesis will analyze problems that can be formulated as follows.
1. How is Antoinette depicted in the novel?
2. How did people in her childhood treat her? 3.
How do the treatments in her childhood influence Antoinette’s personality?
C. Objectives of the Study
The aims of this study are first to observe the characterization of Antoinette as the main character. Second, to know how people in her childhood treated her. Third or the last is to know the influence of the treatments toward Antoinette’s personality.
D. Definition of Term
This part will give brief explanation some terms that are used in this thesis in order to guide the reader to understand this thesis. There are three terms which are needed to define in this thesis.
1. Childhood According Paul Monroe in his book Encyclopedia of Psychology of
Education, childhood is a period during which individuality develops rapidly
(2002: 101). According to Reber in his book The Penguin Dictionary of
Psychology, childhood is a period between infancy and adolescence (1995:
122). According to Hurlock in her book Child Development, childhood is period between 2 years to adolescence (1964: 41).
2. Experiences Paul Monroe in his book Encyclopedia of Psychology of Education define experience as the cumulative effect, intellectual and practical, of a repeated series of acts and sufferings of like nature (2002: 238). So, childhood experiences are the cumulative effect, intellectual and practical, of repeated series of acts and sufferings of like nature, in the period between infancy and adolescence, or between 2 years to 12 years.
3. Personality Atkinson and Hilgard in their book Introduction to Psychology define the word personality as the characteristic patterns of behavior and modes of thinking that determine a person’s adjustment to the environment (1981: 383)
According to Arthur S. Reber’s The Penguin Dictionary of
Psychology , personality means a simple description of an individual’s
characteristic modes of behaving, perceiving, and thinking (1995: 312).CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Theories and other works are very helpful for the writer to accomplish this
paper. There are some works that discuss about Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea and others that are very helpful in the process to finish this paper.
Wide Sargasso Sea is Rhys’s novel that made a sensational reappearance
in 1966. Which then made her won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W.H. Smith Award forth at year (http.:/www.jeanrhys.com/literature/novels/ SSC2widesargassosea.html).
Some critiques criticized this novel. Hilary Jenkins said "Wide Sargasso
Sea is highly dramatic story, exotic, psychological feminine and mysterious"
(Rhys, 2001: p.vii). In the same book, Edward Said pointed out how the European imperial powers saw their colonial subjects as representing what they found most fearful and stressed the importance of cultural texts like Wide Sargasso Sea in the great game of colony and empire of race and its deployment.
Luan Gaines states in her opinion that drawing from her personal knowledge of the West Indies and the unfortunate Creole heiresses of the times, Rhys reveals the decadent, incestuous societies in which such women flourished, resented by the former slaves, ripe for the plucking from their exotic vines. The truth lies somewhere between the perspectives of Antoinette and Rochester, an odd blending of cultures inspired by the easy fortunes to be plundered in a society where women are irrelevant. Hypnotic and disturbing, Antoinette Mason’s
6 tortured existence is a stunning indictment of an indifferent society, even Rochester victimized by the constraints of honor and propriety. “I feel bolder,
happier, more free, but not safe” he said (http://www.enotes.com/wide-
sargasso/7775).Alfredo Torres review that Wide Sargasso Sea is Unusual Insights on Racial Politics. What he found most memorable in this book is the connections it makes between the personal and public, the objective and subjective, and the natural and supernatural realms. It can be read as an extremely important analysis of racial politics, and the politics of disenfranchisement. I read it as an ingenious account of how a person becomes a ghost, impressive because the story presents a profound and serious examination of the process of how this happens (http://www. Amazone_com.WideSargassoSea).
Different from the previous studies that discus Wide Sargasso Sea from the views of cultural, gender, post-colonial, and racial politics this paper will discuss the novel from psychological view. The influence of childhood experience upon the main character personality in the novel of Wide Sargasso Sea is the main focuses. In other word, the writer focuses on psychological side.
B. Review of Related Theories
The writer needs to use some theories that are considered relevant to this study. Since this thesis studies the influence of childhood experience upon the main character personality, the first thing that must be present is theory of characterization. This theory will be needed to analyze the character of Antoinette, the main character. The second thing is the theories of personality and child development, these theories will help the writer to relate and show the influence of childhood experience upon the personality of the main character.
1. Theory of Characterization
Murphy in Understanding Unseens : An Introduction to English poetry
and the English Novel for over seas student states that there are nine ways in
which the author presents his character. Those are:
a. Personal Description We can find out the nature of the character from the author’s description about his/her character appearance.
b. Character as seen by another Besides, we can know the character’s nature through other eyes and also comment on his/her nature.
c. Speech The character can give us clue to his nature through his/her nature through his/her speaking, conversation with other people, and opinion.
d. Past Life A person’s past life can shape his nature. We can find out the character’s past life by the author direct explanation, the character’s thoughts and conversation of other. e. Conversation of Other The conversation of other people and the things they say about him/her can give a description of the character’s nature.
f. Reaction The person’s nature can be known by his/her reactions to different occasions.
g. Direct Comments The author describes the character by his/her own direct comments on the character’s nature.
h. Thoughts The nature of the character can be known from what he/she is thinking. i. Mannerisms
We can understand the character through the way he or she behaves and talks when he or she is with other people (1972:161-173).
The writer uses the theories of character because the study that the writer wants to do is related to the characters in the novel. Moreover, the first problem formulation that the writer uses is to reveal the characterization of the main character.
2. Theories of Child and Personality Development
The second thing that the writer uses to help the reader understand the personality of the main character is theories of development and theories of personality. Also, considering the topic and the title in this undergraduate thesis, these theories will help the writer to relate the personality and the factors. Robert Havigurst has identified six major age periods of development, as retrieved from
Robert Havigurst: Developmental Theorist (http:/faculty.mdc.edu/jmcnair/EDF32 14%20Ttopic20outline/RobertHavigurst.html).
1. Achieving mature relations with both sexes 2. Achieving a masculine or feminine social role 3. Accepting one’s physique
3. Satisfactory career achievement
2. Achieving adult social and civic responsibility
1. Helping teenage children to become happy and responsible adults
Rearing a children 5. Managing a home 6. Starting an occupation
3. Starting a family 4.
Selecting a mate 2. Learning to live with a partner
Early Adulthood (19-30) Middle Adulthood (30-60) Later Maturity (61-) 1.
8. Describing and achieving socially responsible behavior
7. Acquiring values and an ethical system to guide behavior
4. Achieving emotional independence of adults 5. Preparing for marriage and family life 6. Preparing for an economic career
9. Developing acceptable attitude toward society
The Havigurt’s stages of development are:
6. Developing concepts necessary for everyday living 7. Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values 8. Achieving personal independence
5. Developing fundamental skills in reading, writing, and calculating
4. Learning an appropriate sex role
3. Learning to get along with age-mate
Learning physical skills necessary for ordinary games 2. Building a wholesome attitude toward oneself
8. Learning to distinguish right from wrong and developing a conscience 1.
7. Readiness for reading
Learning to control the elimination of body wastes 5. Learning sex differences and sexual modesty 6. Acquiring concepts and language to describe social and physical reality
3. Learning to talk 4.
Learning to walk 2. Learning to take solid food
Infancy and Early Childhood (0-5) Middle Childhood (6-12) Adolescence (13-18) 1.
1. Adjusting to decreasing strength and health 2. Adjusting to retirement and reduced income 3. Adjusting to death of spouse
7.
4.
4. Assuming civic Developing adult Establishing leisure time activities relations with one’s responsibility
5. own age group Relating to one’s spouse as a person
5. Meeting social and 6. civic obligations
Accepting the physiological changes
6. Establishing of middle age satisfactory living 7. quarters
Adjusting to aging parent This paper is specifying on childhood development. The childhood of the main character of the novel that the writer wants to analyze is moreover middle childhood, so, the writer just underlines the development of middle childhood.
Middle childhood is the age period between 6 to 12 years old. According to Havigurst as retrieved from http://nongae.gsnu.ac.kr/2bkkim/won/won117.html in age of 6-12 children should:
1) Learning to physical skills necessary for ordinary games: To learn the
physical skills which are necessary for the games and physical activities which are highly valued in childhood, such skills as throwing and catching, kicking, tumbling, swimming, and handling simple tools.
2) Building wholesome attitudes towards oneself as a growing organism: To
develop habits of care of the body, of cleanliness and safety, consistent with a wholesome, realistic attitude, which includes a sense of physical normality and adequacy, the ability to enjoy using the body, and a wholesome attitude toward sex. Sex education should be a matter of agreement between school and parents, with the school doing what the parents feel they cannot do so well. The facts about animal and human reproduction should be taught before puberty.
3) Learning to get along with age-mates: To learn the give-and-take of social
life among peers. To learn to make friends and to get along with enemies. To develop a "social personality."
4) Learning an appropriate masculine or feminine social role: To learn to be a
boy or a girl--to act the role that is expected and rewarded. The sex role is taught so vigorously by so many agencies that the school probably has little more than a remedial function, which is to assist boys and girls who are having difficulty with the task.
5) Developing fundamental skills reading, writing, and calculating: To learn
to read, write, and calculate well enough to get along in society.
6) Developing concepts necessary for everyday living: A concept is an idea
which stands for a large number of particular sense perceptions, or which stands for a number of ideas of lesser degrees of abstraction. The task is to acquire a store of concepts sufficient for thinking effectively about ordinary occupational, civic, and social matters.
7) Developing conscience, morality, and a scale of values: To develop an inner
moral control, respect for moral rules, and the beginning of a rational scale of values. Morality, or respect for rules of behavior, is imposed on the child first by the parents. Later, according to Piaget, the child learns that rules are necessary and useful to the conduct of any social enterprise, from games to government, and thus learns a "morality of cooperation or agreement" which is a true moral autonomy and necessary in a modern democratic society.
8) Achieving personal independence: To become an autonomous person, able to
make plans and to act in the present and immediate future independently of one's parents and other adults. The young child has become physically independent of his parents but remains emotionally dependent on them.
9) Developing attitudes toward social groups and institutions: To develop
social attitudes those are basically democratic. Attitudes, or emotionalized dispositions to act, are learned mainly in three ways; (1) by imitation of people with prestige in the eyes of the learner; (2) by collection and combination of pleasant or unpleasant experiences associated with a given object or situation; (3) by a single deeply emotional experience, pleasant or unpleasant, associated with a given object or situation.
Havigurst has the same opinion as Erickson’s statement that an individual can move on to the next, more mature stage only after having successfully completed the demands of the previous stage or having satisfactorily met its requirements (Erickson, 1969: 550).
Every person wants to have happy experiences in their life, including a child. In contrast, a lot of unhappy experiences must be deal by some children, which then influences their later development. Hurlock in Child Development states that early social experiences are important in determining what sort of person of adults they will become (1964: 329). Childhood experiences and the memory of these experiences as the years go by leave and indelibly impression on the individual personality (1964: 732).
She also states that early years are the critical period of personality: It would appear that the things which happen to an individual during his childhood are important in determining the pattern of his later life…It is in these early years that the essential methods are built up which the individual will use thought his life in meeting difficult situations and frustrations. The forms in which they may be expressed may change under the various influences of the environment and of maturity, but the essential characteristics of the type of reactions will remain more or less fixed (1964: 94).
According to Hurlock in Personality Development, basically human’s personality development is influenced by two factors early experiences, home experiences and experiences outside the home (1974: 233-234). Or we can say that childhood experiences are influences by the families, and outside influences.
In other word, children get their early experiences from their home and their parents play important roles in shaping their personality pattern. Hurlock states: The child’s attitudes and behaviour are marked by the family into which he is born and in which he grows up. Because the home is the child’s first environment, it sets the pattern for his attitudes toward people, things and life in general (1974: 514). It is clear that the family has big influences in their child experiences because they are the first people who are close to the children. Outside influences can come from people outside the home, peer, and neighbors.
Influences of the family toward children experience especially come from the mother as the first person in children life. So, children are highly dependent on their parents, not only physical security but also psychological security. In Horney’s theory child, needing to be loved, wants to move towards the parents, but fear of rejection. The child also feels hostility and wants to retaliate by moving against the parents, but fears punishment. The child gives up and moves from the parents.
Karen Horney believes that in child development, love and nurturance is key to a child's development. In her theory, basic anxiety and hostility are the fundamental emotions of childhood. Without adequate parental love, the child develops unhealthy interpersonal modes and a defensive sense of self (Cloninger, 2004: 155).
Horney also adds that some people turn to others for love and protection lacking in their early life (Cloninger, 2004: 159).
According to Catell, children who have not been adequately nurtured or loved, develop a belief, which may be unconscious, that they are not worthy (Cloninger, 2004: 218).
Hurlock again state that early social experiences effect on personality. If the conditioning has stemmed from pleasant experiences, the child will respond to people in warm, respond in friendly manner and win their affection. If the opposite condition happens when conditioning is based on unpleasant experiences. Instead of assuming that a frightening experience is just an occasional thing, as a more mature person would do, the young child concludes that all social experiences are frightening and tries to avoid them. If teasing, bullying, and other aggressions toward him mark unpleasant experiences, he wants to retaliate in kid.
Hurlock also state that emotions colour the child’s outlook of life. His fright, curiosity, and happiness can influence the child’s view his role in life and his position in the social group (1974: 185). Further, he describes that anxiety may response into depression, nervousness, irritability, mood swings, restless sleep, quick anger, and extraordinary sensitivity to what other say or do. Feeling grief may result in loss of appetite, sleeplessness, and a tendency to experience fearful dreams. Grief also lead to feeling of guilt if the child believes that she could have prevented the moment happens. Other emotions that can influence a child’s development are anxiety. An anxious child is unhappy because he or she feels guilty about not coming up to the expectation of others, for example parents, teachers, and peers. It causes the child often feels lonely and misunderstood.
Self-concepts are also shaped by the early social experiences of child. If a child is accepted, approved, respected and liked for what he is, he will acquire an attitude of self-acceptance and respect for himself. But if the significant people in his life, at first his parents and later his teacher, peers, and other persons who wield an influence, belittle him, blame him and reject him, the growing child’s attitudes toward himself are likely to become unfavorable. As he is judged by others, he will tend to judge himself (Hurlock, 1974: 23).
Early social experiences leave their mark on the child’s personality. A mark that is consistent throughout life. Early social experiences largely determine what sort of person of adult a child will become. Happy experiences encourage the child to seek more such experiences and to become social person. Positive attitudes toward self are most often found in the person whose early social experiences were favorable. Too many unhappy experiences are likely to lead to unwholesome attitude toward all social experiences and toward people in general.
They encourage the child to become unsocial or antisocial. Lack of opportunities for social contacts and for learning how to get along successfully with others will like wise delay normal development. (Hurlock, 1964: 225).
Emotional dominance is all the emotions a person experiences. The emotions, which will become dominant forces in his life, depend mainly upon the environment in which he grows up, the relationship he has with significant people, and the guidance he receives in controlling his reactions. Hurlock also adds that if a child experiences too many unpleasant emotions and too few of the pleasant, his outlook on life will be distorted and he will develop an “unpleasant disposition”.
So, children should be protected from unreasonable and excessive fear, jealousy, anger, and other unpleasant emotion. In the case of anger, if the child gradually learns to tolerate frustration when he is young, he will not develop the habit of aggressive attack in all frustrating situations, as he grows older (1964:207).
C. Theoretical Framework
This study uses library research method in analyzing the data. Besides using the novel Wide Sargasso Sea as primary source of data, this study also uses articles and books that deal with psychology.
By using theories of character and characterization, the writer can identify the characteristics of the main character in order to understand how Antoinette's personality is influenced by childhood experiences.
The writer applies Murphy’s theory of characterization to understand the characteristics of the main character. It is important to see the characteristics of the main character because the reader can understand the main character’s characterization. This theory helps to know what kind of character Antoinette is.
The writer also applies Hurlock’s theory of personality development to understand the personality of Antoinette. Also Havigurst’s theory, Horney’s theory, Catell’s theory, and Hurlock’s theory on child development will help the writer to understand the influence of childhood experience toward the main character personality.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The object of the study is a novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, which was written
by Jean Rhys, a novelist who was born in Dominica in 1890. This novel was published originally in 1966 by Andre Deutsch, in England. In this analysis the writer uses the edition that was edited by Hilary Jenkins, published by Penguin Books, England, in 1968. This novel contains three chapters with 168 pages. Wide
Sargasso Sea is Jean Rhys’ novel that earned her place in the literary canon and
won the prestigious Royal Society of Literature Award and The W.H. Smith Award in 1966.
Jean Rhys' late, literary masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. The novel itself is telling about Antoinette childhood life and then her life after she is married. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, life in poverty and neglected child, Creole heiress Antoinette Mason meets a young Englishman who is drawn into her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage the rumors begin, her husband thinks that she is poisoning her husband.
Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness.
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B. Approach of the Study The approach used in analyzing the novel is psychological approach.
Psychological approach is the most suitable approach to use in this analysis because this approach deals with one’s personality development and the topic that the writer chooses is the influences of childhood experience upon the main character’s personality. Lewis Leary in his book A Study and Research Guide states that:
A psychological approach is an approach that applies principles of modern psychology to characters or situations within a literary work or to the person who wrote the work (1976: 57). According to Rohrberger and Woods (1971: 13), psychological approach is an approach to literature which “involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent patterns” and which refers to different body of knowledge that is Psychology. In applying this approach, psychological theories are generally used as interpretive tools.
The writer wants to reveal the main character’s personality and what the effects of childhood experience dealt by the main character related to her personality. As quoted by Hall in Theories of Personality, Sullivan mentions that personality is formed by some related situations happened in one’s life recurrently. It manifests certain behavior that will be carried throughout his relationship with other people (1957: 111).
C. Method of the Study
The method that the writer used to analyze the problems was library research. There were several stages undertaken in order to answer the problems formulated.
Firstly, the writer read the novel, Wide Sargasso Sea as the primary data. After reading several times the writer was interested in the personality of the main character that is related with childhood experiences.
Secondly, the writer decided to raise the topic, the influence of childhood experiences related toward personality. Then the writer drew the problem formulation.
Thirdly, the writer decided to use psychological theories on personality and child’s development. The writer decided that the novel could be analyzed also by using psychological approach.
Fourthly, the writer looked for others sources and references, such as books of psychology and its theory, books of theory of character and characterization, others books related with this thesis and also others data from the Internet, such as articles.
Fifthly, the writer examined the character’s personality by the theories of character and characterization.
Sixthly, the writer related the personality of the main character to the childhood experiences of the main character.
Seventhly, the writer drew conclusion. This step was needed to find out the conclusion after making the analysis. The conclusion is the summary of the analysis, which was the answer of problem formulation.
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS This chapter provides the explanation about Antoinette Mason as the main
character in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and those related to Antoinette Mason. The writer divides this chapter into three parts: the characteristics of Antoinette Mason depicted in the novel, the treatment of the people in her childhood, and the treatments in her childhood which influence Antoinette’s personality.
A. The Characteristics of Antoinette Mason
Antoinette is a Creole girl who lives with her family in Jamaica. Because Antoinette’s family is a former slave owner, black people in their surrounding hate them.
Antoinette is a solitary girl. Due to the isolation experienced by Antoinette and her family she is used to being alone. She has no friend and black people hate her and her family since they are white. “I got used to a solitary life” (p.3). Antoinette says that she has no friend and she was lonely. It can be seen in her husband’s opinion about her. He feels that even though she smiles she seems lonely. “Her mouth was set in fixed smile but her eyes were so withdrawn and lonely that I put my arms round her, rocked her like a child and sang to her” (p.49).
She is introverted when she was a girl. She seldom told her problems and feeling to other persons. When she is afraid of her mother she tells no one. When a local girl follows her and mocks her, she tells no one. She chooses to hide behind the bushes all day long in spite of telling it to someone.
She is a vulnerable girl. It can be seen from her reaction to her arranged marriage. She is afraid of what may happen to her and her life in the future. Her husband must convince her that he will give her happiness, peace and safety when she becomes his wife. It shows that she really needs someone to give her happiness and protection.
‘What is the matter, Antoinette? What have I done?’ She said nothing. ‘You don’t wish to marry me?’ ‘No.’ She spoke in very low voice. ‘But why?’ ‘I’m afraid of what may happen.’ I kissed her fervently, promising her peace, happiness, safely… (p.45-46).
She says to her husband that she will die without him. She really needs her husband to give her a feeling of security. She says that she is not used to happiness, and happiness that she gets from her husband is something that she is so afraid of loosing.
‘Why you make me want to live? Why you do that to me?’ ‘Because I wished it. Isn’t that enough?’ Yes that enough. But if one day you didn’t wish it. What should I do then? Suppose you took this happiness away when I wasn’t looking…’ “I’m not use to happiness, she said. It makes me afraid’ Never be afraid. Or if you tell no one.’ ‘I understand. But trying does not help me.’ ‘What would?’ She did not answer that, then one night whispered, ‘If I could die. Now, when I am happy. Would you do that? You wouldn’t have to kill me. Say die and I will die…(p.55).
Antoinette is fragile; she likes to be told that she was safe. She often cries in the night. Sometimes she wakes up in the night and tells her husband about her unhappy childhood.
‘You are safe,’ I’d say. She’d liked that-to be told ‘you are safe’. Or I touch her face gently and touch tears. Tears – nothing! Words - less than nothing” (p. 56).
She is also an obstinate girl. It can be seen from the opinion of her husband. She likes to ask about England to her husband. But she has her own fixed idea or opinion about it.