AS REFLECTED IN PIP IN THE GREAT EXPECTATIONS: A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY

  THE REPRESENTATION OF CHARLES DICKENS’ LIFE AS

REFLECTED IN PIP IN THE GREAT EXPECTATIONS:

A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY

  AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

  

By

Karisma Kurniawan Wijayanto

Student Number : 044214112

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTEMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2009

  It is better

to be a lion for a day

than a sheep all your life

  (Sr. Elizabeth Kenny) Imagine there‘s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell bellows us Above us only sky

  Imagine all the people Living for to day

  Imagine there’s no country It’s hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religions too

  Imagine all the people Living life in peace

  You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one I hope some day you’ll join us, and the world believed as one

  Imagine no possession I wonder if you can No need, no greed, no hungry A brotherhood of men

  Imagine all the people Sharing all the world

  (John Lennon)

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Almighty Allah SWT who gives me the chance to enjoy this beautiful world and for all of the uncountable blessing which are given to me. I also thank Him for the excellent guidance along my way in finishing this undergraduate thesis. Then, I would thank the greatest proph et Muhammad SAW for being my ‘great tauladhan’.

  I would like also express my deepest appreciation to Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd.,

  

M. Hum for the time to have some consultations. I also thank her for her kindness,

understanding, and the patient guidance along the writing process of this thesis.

  Without her kindness, it is impossible for me to finish this thesis. I also would like to express my greatest thank to Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum as the reader of my thesis and also to Adventina Putranti, S.S., M. Hum as the main examiner in my thesis defense.

  Then, I would like to express my sincerest thank to my dearest family, especially for my Mom and Dad who always encourage me to be a better man, and also for the support to finish my study in Sanata Dharma University. I also would like to express my thank to my sisters who always cheer my life up every single day. I would like also to express my thanks to my special friend, Elis Wahyu Indarti for her unconditional love and support.

  I am also indebted to the lectures and the staffs of Faculty of Letters University. Besides, I also thank to all my friends such as Ardi for fixing my computer, Oos for the support and inspiration, Lucia for the support and the great friendship, Bayu for the great love sharing, Elly for being my great listener, SRV and

  

Eric Clapton for their great sounds which accompanied me during the writing

  process of this thesis, Sanata Dharma University for accepting me to be one of the students, Sanata Dharma University Library for the books and the sources to finish this thesis, Panda for the blues materials, Mario, Iwan, Arie, my brother in LOLENLONES, and all my friends who I cannot mention one by one, I owe a particular debt of gratitude to them for giving me spirit to finish this thesis.

  Karisma Kurniawan W

  TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE .................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE

  ……………………………………………… .. ii

  

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ..................................................................... iii

MOTTO PAGE .................................................................................. iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................. viii

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................... ix

ABSTRAK ......................................................................................... x

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN ................................ xi

PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN KARYA ........................................... xii

  

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................... 1

A. Background of the Study .......................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulation ................................................................ 5 C. Objective of the Study .............................................................. 5 D. The Definition of Terms ........................................................... 6

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ................................... 7

A. Review of Related Studies ....................................................... 8 B. Review of Related Theories ..................................................... 10

  1. Theory of Character ...................................................... 11

  2. Theory of Characterization ........................................... 12

  3. Relation between Autobiography and Literature .......... 14

  C. Review on the Biographical Background ................................. 16

  D. Theoretical Framework ............................................................. 19

  

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ................................................ 21

A. Object of the Study ................................................................... 21 B. Approach of the Study .............................................................. 22 C. Method of the Study ................................................................. 23

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ............................................................. 25

A. Pip’s Characteristics ................................................................. 25 B. The Representation of Charles Dickens’ Life ........................... 43

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ....................................................... 60

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................. 63 APPENDIX

  …………………………………………………………. 65

  

ABSTRACT

  Karisma Kurniawan Wijayanto (2009): The Representation of

  Charles Dickens’ Life as Reflected in Pip in The Great Expectations: A Biographical Study.

  Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

  This thesis analyzes the novel The Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens. Based on the novel, the writer of this thesis finds that Charles Dickens’ life experience becomes the inspiration in writing his works. From this topic, the writer formulates two problems and they become the objectives of the study. The first problem is to find out how Pip, as the main character is characterized in the novel.

  The second problem is to find out how the characteristics from the first problem represent Charles Dickens’ life.

  This thesis is a library research. The primary data are taken from the novel

  The Great Expectations

  by Charles Dickens. The others data are taken from some supporting books, such as theoretical books, dictionaries, and some sources which are cited from the internet. The writer of this thesis uses biographical approach as the approach of the study. This biographical approach enables to help the writer making an analysis which has a relation with the author’s biography.

  Firstly, having analyzed the novel, the writer finds that Philip Pirrip or Pip is described as a round character because the character develops from a poor village boy who is wise in using money into a well-prosperity person who is splendid and wasteful. His early character changes to be mature in his next life. Secondly, the writer also finds some similarities between Pip’s and Charles Dickens’s life which ensures the writer that Charles Dickens’ life has a big chunk in influencing his work. The similarities, such as Pip and Dickens both are lonely child, they both have the same way in learning something, they both have unfulfilled-love. They both also have a big debt. Besides those similarities, there are also some representations such as Pip orphanage is the representation of Dickens’ loneliness, the humiliation is the representatio n of Dickens’ feeling when he worked in the factory, and Pip’s sister’ bad characteristic is the representation of Dickens’s disappointment toward an injustice condition at that time. Actually, most of experiences are sad experiences and this kind of experience really influences Charles Dickens in writing his novel The

  Great Expectations .

  

ABSTRAK

  Karisma Kurniawan Wijayanto (2009): The Representation of Charles Dickens

  ’ Life as Reflected in Pip in The Great Expectations: A Biographical Study.

  Yogyakarta: Program Study Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Skripsi ini menganalisis sebuah novel karya Charles Dickens yang berjudul

  The Great Expectations

  . Berdasarkan novel tersebut, penulis skripsi menemukan bahwa pengalaman hidup Charles Dickens menjadi sebuah inspirasi dalam penulisan karya-karyanya. Dari topik tersebut, penulis merumuskan dua permasalahan yang menjadi objek dari penelitian ini. Permasalahan pertama adalah menemukan bagaimana Pip sebagai karakter utama digambarkan di dalam novel. Permasalahan kedua, menemukan bagaimana penggambaran karakter dari masalah pertama dapat mewakili kehidupan Charles Dickens.

  Skripsi ini merupakan penelitian pustaka. Data-data utamanya diambil dari novel The Great Expectations karya Charles Dickens itu sendiri. Data-data lainnya diambil dari buku-buku pendukung seperti buku-buku teori, kamus, dan beberapa bahan informasi dari internet. Penulis skripsi menggunakan pendekatan biografi sebagai pendekatan yang digunakan di dalam penelitian ini. Pendekatan biografi tersebut, memungkinkan untuk menolong penulis membuat analisis yang memiliki hubungan dengan riwayat hidup sang pengarang.

  Pertama-tama, dalam menganalisis novel tersebut, penulis menemukan bahwa Philip Pirrip atau dikenal sebagai Pip digambarkan sebagai karakter yang dinamis karena karakternya berkembang dari orang kampung yang miskin dan hemat menjadi orang yang kaya dan sangat boros. Karakter awal yang disuguhkan berubah menjadi lebih dewasa pada kehidupan selanjutnya. Kedua, penulis juga menemukan beberapa kemiripan antara Pip dan Charles Dickens yang meyakinkan penulis kalau pengalaman Charles Dickens benar-benar mempengaruhinya didalam penulisan karyanya, seperti keduanya sama-sama anak yang kesepian, mereka memiliki persamaan dalam mempelajari sesuatu, mereka juga sama-sama memiliki cinta yang bertepuk sebelah tangan, dan mereka juga memiliki hutang yang besar. Selain beberapa kesamaan tersebut, ada juga beberapa representasi seperti status yatim piatunya Pip merupakan pengambaran kesepiannya Charles Dickens, perlakuan yang tidak menyenangkan merupakan penggambaran perasaan Charles Dickens ketika bekerja di pabrik, dan perwatakan buruk kakaknya Pip adalah penggambaran kekecewaan Charles Dickens terhadap kondisi pada saat itu. Sebagian besar pengalaman yang terdapat di skripsi ini adalah pengalaman buruk dan pengalaman itulah yang mempengaruhi Charles Dickens dalam menulis The Great Expectations.

  

LEMBAR PERYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan dibawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : KARISMA KURNIAWAN WIJAYANTO Nomor Mahasiswa : 044214112

  Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  

THE REPRESENTATION OF CHARLES DICKENS’ LIFE AS REFLECTED

IN PIP IN

  

A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY

  beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikiam saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikannya secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberi royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian peryataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 31 Maret 2009 Yang menyatakan (KARISMA KURNIAWAN WIJAYANTO)

PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN KARYA

  Saya menyatakan dengan sesungguhnya bahwa skripsi yang saya tulis ini tidak memuat karya atau bagian yang lain kecuali yang telah disebutkan dalam kutipan dan daftar pustaka sebagai mana layaknya karya ilmiah.

  Yogyakarta, 31 Maret 2009 Karisma Kurniawan Wijayanto

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Literature is a common thing to discuss for us as a student of English Letters, but we do not really know what actually literature is. Some say that

  

literature is a kind of creative work, it can be a fiction or non-fiction and it

involves the creator ’s mind to create it, but what about a comic such as Superman

then. It is a comic, but can it be considered as a literary work? (Eagleton, 1995: 2)

  

Actually, literature itself has no exact definition about what exactly literature is,

because literature is always in the form of written work but in the contrary, all

kinds of written work can not be called as literature.

  According to a book Encyclopedia of General Knowledge by S. Graham

literature is the written and printed products of human thought, generally divided

into fiction and non-fiction (Graham, 1958: 304). Then, according to Oxford

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary literature is writing that are valued as work of art,

especially fiction, drama, and poetry (Hornby, 1995: 687). Based on those two

definitions of literature, we can draw the conclusion that literature is written or

printed work and it has value of art.

  According to Terry Eagleton in her book Literary Theory an Introduction,

literature is not merely a written work that uses ordinary language as we use every

day in our daily conversation, but literature uses language in a peculiar way, as

  2 Perhaps literature is definable not according to whether it is fictional or ‘imaginative’, but because it uses language in peculiar ways. On this theory, literature is a kind of writing which, in the words of the Russian critic Roman

  Jacobson, represents an ‘organized violence committed on ordinary speech’. Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language,

deviates systematically from everyday speech (Eagleton, 1995: 2).

We can see the peculiar way of literature in using language when we are reading

poetry. In poetry, the poets often use the ‘extra ordinary language’ in order to

maintain the rhyme and the beauty in writing his or her literary work. They

usually use metaphor, personification, violence the structure, rhythm and

resonance of words in excess an abstract meaning to make their words more

‘unfamiliar’ (Eagleton, 1995: 2).

  It is different when the authors are writing a novel. In writing a novel, the

authors sometimes also use this kind of extra ordinary language, but sometimes

they do not, because in writing a novel the authors sometimes use ordinary

language to convey their idea through their work. In a novel, the authors usually

want to reveal his or her own experience to the reader with daily language due to

get the reader easier to understand what the whole novel is talking about.

  

Sometimes, authors also add some factual or historical events in their work. This

method is used in order to invite the reader to feel or to share the author’s experience or the historical event to the readers.

  According to some statements above, we know that literary works are

nothing without its authors. The author is the more important person of literary

work because; the creator of literary works is the author. Rene Wellek and Austin

Warren in their book Theory of Literature said that the most obvious of a work of

  3

main cause of the existence of their works including all the characters inside it.

There is also a close relationship between literary works and its authors because

as stated before that sometimes in writing their works, the authors include also

their experience of life in their work, but the work itself is not a copy of their real

life.

  The statement above occurs because the literary work is their media to

release their emotion or just a place to share their experience in the past. They also

include their biography into their work and represent it through the character of

their work. It is because biography is an ancient literary genre. Biography is a part

of historiography and it makes no methodological distinction in status, so

everyone may have their own biography no matter they are a statesman, a general,

an architect, a lawyer, and a man who plays no public role (Wellek and Warren,

1949: 75). For example Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre, she reveals her

past experience when she was a governess through the character of Jane Eyre.

Another author who reveals the past experience is Charles Dickens. This great

Victorian era author revealed his past experience when he was a worker through

his famous work David Copperfield and The Great Expectation which considered

as his semi autobiographical novels.

  According to Rohrberger and Woods in their book Reading and Writing

about Literature, there are indirect relationship and similarity between the work

and the author. An author’s work including the character perhaps is “a kind of

mask which is surely based on the author’s experience of life” (Rohrberger and

  4

of the author can be a place to hide their weakness in the past through the

character of their work. As stated in the book Theory of Literature

  The work may be a mask, a dramatized conventionalization, but it is frequently a conventionalization of his own experience, his own life (Wellek and Warren, 1949: 79) It can be about unhappy childhood, about love, or may be about anything else that mak e a significant event recorded in author’s mind and they are described in their literary work direct or indirectly.

  From those statements above, now we are paying attention to Charles

Dickens’ work, The Great Expectations. In this novel, Charles Dickens reveals

almost all significant event of his life through the character of Phillip Pirrip (Pip)

the main character of this novel. Although the character is created as a fiction,

Charles Dickens creates it as if he is a real character who resembles to his past

experiences. He created the character imaginatively but, he used his actual life as

the important material to build the plot in this novel, so the story really reflects his

own experience. It can lead us to the significant part of the author

  ’s experience of

life and share it to the reader about what kind of life which the author had in the

past. Like in this thesis which titled THE REPRESENTATION OF CHARLES

DICKENS’ LIFE AS REFLECTED IN PIP IN THE GREAT EXPECTATIONS: A

BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY , the writer of this thesis wants to try to study the

similarity between Charles Dickens’s life with the main character of his novel,

Phillip Pirrip (Pip) which is built by the past experience which influences Dickens

to write the novel. The reason why the writer of this thesis wants to study about

  5 writer wants to study further about Charles Dickens’s biography as one of greatest

Victorian era writers, and wants to reveal how near the author’s experience effects

to his literary work.

B. Problem Formulation

  In order to analyze the problem above, which is about how near the reflection between Charles Di ckens’ life with the main character of his novel Pip, the writer of this thesis formulates it into two problem formulations

1. How is Pip characterized in The Great Expectations?

  2. How do Pip’s characteristics represent Charles Dickens’ life?

C. Objectives of the Study

  As the problem formulations above, it is clear that to find out about the

relation or reflection between the author with the character in The Great

Expectations (Pip) is the objective of this study. The writer of this thesis agrees

that past experience of life can influence the literary works because past

experience can be the author’s inspiration in writing his work. Not only past

experience which influences the author in writing his work, but a difficult

condition can also influence the author during writing the novel and it is proven in

Dickens’ “The great Expectations” in which the main character reflects to its

author’s life experience although not merely the same.

  6

D. The Definition of Term

  To highlight and clarify the terms which are used in this thesis, the writer

includes this part in order to avoid un-understandable term. The writer of this

thesis uses some terms which are very important in this essay, and they are as

follows

  1. Autobiography According to A Glossary of Literary Terms Forth Edition (Abrams, 1981: 15), autobiography is a biography written by the subject about himself, in which the emphasis is not on the author’s developing self but, on the people he has known and the events he has witnessed and from the private diary or journal, which is a day-to- day record of the events in a person’s life.

  2. Character According to A Handbook to Literature Fifth Edition (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 81), a character is a brief descriptive sketch of a personage who typifies some definite quality. The person is described not as an individualized personality, but as an example of some vice or virtue or type, such as a busybody, a glutton, a fop, a bumpkin, a garrulous old man, a happy milkmaid, etc.

  3. Characterization According to A Handbook to Literature Fifth Edition (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 81), a characterization is the creation of imaginary persons

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW In this chapter, the writer of this thesis divides it into four parts. The first is a

  review of related studies. This part discusses the previous essays which have been done by other students or experts who have also studied the same novel

  “The Great Expec tations” written by Charles Dickens. These related studies are used to make a

  comparison between the analysis done by the other researchers and the analysis done by the writer of this thesis. The second is a review of related theories which will discuss the theories that are going to use to analyze the novel. The third will be a review of the historical or biographical background of Charles Dickens as the author of the novel. Actually this part is necessary because this thesis is analyzing the autobiography and anything which is related to the past experience of Charles Dickens which influences him in writing the novel, so the writer of this thesis attaches it in order to review the social background or the biographical background of the author of the novel which is analyzed in this thesis. The biographical background above is also used by the writer of this thesis to help him illustrates what is the condition in the Victorian era when Charles Dickens lived. And the last part is the theoretical framework. Theoretical framework will explain one by one the contribution of the theories applied in this thesis to solve the three problems which have been formulated in previous chapter.

A. Review of Related Studies

  In finishing this undergraduate thesis, the writer uses two related studies in order to make a comparative study with the previous students who have studied the same novel and they have almost similar opinion toward the novel itself. These related studies are also used to help the writer to strengthen his opinion in finishing this thesis. The writer uses two related studies written by Edmon Jabes and Wayne Huang. Both of them have their own opinion which is almost similar toward the novel which is titled The Great Expectations written by Charles Dickens. These two related studies are cited from the internet in website www.penguingroup.com and www. victorianweb.org. From these two websites state the same conclusion that they agree The Great Expectations is one of Dickens’ autobiographical novels besides his popular novel David Copperfield. In his essay, Jabes said that the creation of the character Phillip Pirrip or known as Pip in this novel is a kind of remembrance or excavation of his childhood sad experience as a worker in Warren’s Blacking factory in order to solve his family economical problem:

  The writing of The Great Expectations, and by the extension of its protagonist, Pip, therefore, can be viewed as a kind of excavation for its author, a cathartic attempt to come to terms with the painful facts of his childhood particularly the family’s chronic economic instability, culminating in his father’s imprisonment due to financial insolvency (http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/greate expectations.html).

  Jabes also added in his thesis that before Dickens began to write The Great

  Expectations action is represented in his novel although not as exactly as the real event, when Pip got his hand burned when he was trying to help Mrs. Havisham from fire.

  Huang added that before Dickens began to write his The Great Expectations, he also read his previous autobiographical novel David Copperfield besides he burnt all his papers related to his life:

  Shortly before he began to write The Great Expectations, Dickens wrote a fragment of an autobiography, which he kept to him self. A sort time later he shorted through, re-read, and burnt many personal letters, and also re-read David Copperfield, perhaps the most overtly autobiographical of all his novels. (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/huang cd.html)

  According to the quotation of Huang’s essay above, it is impossible to read The Great

  Expectations

  without sensing Dickens’ presence in the book by portraying his younger life in the character of Pip.

  Charles Dickens also describes the character of Pip as an

  “orphan” including

  his solitary life because of having no parents and no one of his family members care of him except his brother in law named Joe Gargerry. According to Jabes ’ opinion, this is also a kind of portrait of Dickens’ life when he was twelve years old, he was compelled to work in blacking factory due to solve his family financial problem, and lived separately from his parents. As written in his essay, Jabes also said that this kind of situation led little Dickens into sad childhood experience which influenced his psychological condition at that time.

  …also paramount in his psychological make-up were Dickens consignment at the age of twelve to work as a child worker at Warren’s Blacking factory and his subsequent separation from his family as a result of it. This period in the and was certainly the crucible in which his personality was formed. (http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/great expectation. html)

  After that kind of condition, Dickens tried to build a better life from these ruins of childhood life which had haunted him all his life. He rose from a humble beginning into success and fame. He became one of the great novelists in the Victorian era.

  Tthe two related studies above, the writer sees that Charles Dickens often involves his past experience in writing his works such as in The Great Expectations.

  He wrote about the orphanage, poverty, and another sad thing in this novel as the representation of his sad experiences in his past time. Instead those matters, actually Dickens reveals other significant events in this novel which are related to his past experience. As the writer of this thesis has found in the novel, the “other significant event s” which are reflected in the novel, the first is his failed love experience with Maria Beadnell, and the second or more important is about “the debt” which has a big chunk in changing Dickens’ life orientation.

B. Review of Related Theories

  This part consists of several theories which will be used by the writer to help him making the analysis toward the novel (The Great Expectations). In this part, the writer uses three kinds of theories to analyze the novel. They are the theory of character, the theory of characterization, and the relation between autobiography and literature. Then, these tree theories will help the writer to finish making the analysis

1. Theory of Character

  When we read a novel, prose or other fictional work, the word ‘character’ usually refers to a person who acts in a particular place and time. M.H. Abrams ’ book

  A Glossary of Literary Terms

  (1985: 23) defines that characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say and what they do. The grounds in the characters’ temperament, desire, and moral nature for they speech and action constitute their motivation. A character may remain essentially stable or unchanged in outlook and disposition from the beginning to the end of the work or may undergo a radical change, either through a gradual process or motivation and development or as the result of a crisis.

  In the book An Introduction of Fiction by Stanton, also gives the definition of character. A character in the individual who appears in the story and it refers to the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that makes up each of these individuals. Furthermore, he also distinguishes character into two types which are main or major and minor character. Major character is the most important person in the story or the story tells about this character, but he can not stand on his own. He needs the other character to have conflicts or to make the story more convincing and lifelike. While, minor character is the character which is less important than the main character (Stanton, 1965: 17).

  Furthermore, the novelist E.M. Forster also distinguishes character into two relatively simple and usually has only one trait. It is uncomplicated, but that is probably part of what the author is getting at. Usually flat character is static, at the end of the story the character is pretty much what the character was at the start. On the other hand, round character is the character which embodies several or even many traits that cohere to form a complex personality. A round character is likely to be dynamic, it is changing considerably as the story progresses (Abrams, 1985: 24).

2. Theory of Characterization

  This is the way how the author conveys to the reader the characters and the personalities of the people he writes about. In other words, how he conveys to the reader what short of people they are, how he makes the reader get to know and understand them. This theory works like when we try to observe somebody in the real life. We will try to learn about his or her outward appearance, how they talk, what accent they use, the behavior, etc. all of those matters will give us the knowledge which will help us observing somebody’s characteristic. As written in the book

  Understanding Unseens

  by M.J. Murphy, there are nine ways in which the authors attempt to make their character understandable to the reader. They are:

a. Personal description

  The author can descr ibe a person’s appearance and clothes. We will tell about the outward appearance.

  b. Character as seen by the other

  Instead of describing a character directly the author can describe the character in the novel through the eyes and opinions of the other. The reader gets, as it were, a reflected image.

  c. Speech

  The author can give us an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever the character is in the conversation with another, whenever the character puts forward an opinion, the character is giving us some clue to its character.

  d. Past life

  By letting the reader learn something abo ut the person’s past life the author can give us a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character. This can be done by direct comment which is given by the author through the person’s thoughts, through his conversation or through the medium of another person.

  e. Conversation of others

  The author can also give us clues to a person’s character through the conversation of other people in the novel and the things they say about him. People do talk about other people and the things they say often give as a clue to the character of the person spoken about.

  f. Reactions

  The author can also give us a clue to a person’s character by letting us know how

  g. Direct comment The author can describe or com ment on a person’s character directly.

  h. Thoughts

  The author can give us direct knowledge of what person is thinking about. In this respect he is able to do what we cannot do in real life. He can tell us what different people are thinking. The reader then is in privilege position; he has, as it were, a secret listening device plugged in to the inmost thoughts of a person in a novel.

i. Mannerisms

  The author can describe a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies which may also tell us something about his character.

  These are some ways which are used by the author to make the reader gets to know the personalities and the characterizations of the characters in his or her novel. The author does not exclusively use them one by one but, blend them into a good narrative, so the reader will tend to think that the characters in the novel as the real people (Murphy, 1972: 161-173).

3. Relation between Autobiography and Literature The next is the relation between autobiography of the author and literature.

  The writer of this thesis finds that an autobiography or past experience of the author can be the influence of his or her work. Based on that statement, it is possible that using the author’s life experience. So, the analysis of this thesis will be based on the idea that a person’s life influences his or her work, and then the writer tries to find the similarity between the work and the author’s life. When considering some biographical aspects of the author, there will be a close relation between the work and the author’s life that can not be separated. According to Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, there is a close relationship between the work of art and the life of the author, but the work of art is not totally the copy of life. The work of art is only a place to hide his weakness, so in writing his work, the author depends on his mood (1949: 75-78).

  The other writers that have the same opinion above are Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods. In their book Reading and Writing about Literature, they say that there is an indirect relationship between the work and that author. The work including the character inside it perhaps is “a kind of mask which is surely based on the author’s experience of life” (1971: 8). So, the use of the biography of the author is very helpful in this study. The writer of this thesis should attempt to learn as much as he can about the life of the author. There is a quotation that says:

  They insist that a work of art is a reflection of a personality, that in the esthetic experience the reader shares the author’s consciousness, and that at least part of the reader’s response is to the author’s personality. Consequently, they attempt to learn as mush as they can about the life and development of the author and to apply this knowledge in their attempt to understand his writing (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 8)

  Still concerning on the importan ce of the author’s life experience or biography in influencing his work, according to George Perkings in his book The Theory of

  American Novel

  states that the result of the author’s work is influenced by the author’s experience Now, when it comes to talking about the experiences of writer, I think I should say some thing that perhaps most of you realize. The work of any writer, and for that matter of any artist in any of the seven art, should contain within it the story of this own style (Perkings, 1970: 293). Now, we can see that the biography, including a series of events which have been witnessed, and any story in life can influence the literary work.

C. Review on the Charles Dickens’ Biographical Background

  In order to finish this thesis, the writer of this thesis needs to know about Charles Dickens’ biography to be the source in analyzing this thesis. Then, this Charles Dickens’ biography will give the information to the writer about what kind of experiences which Charles Dickens has during his life before or after getting his popularity as the great novelist in his era, and his autobiography as in below

  Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Landport near Portsmouth,

  th

  Hamshire, on February 7 , 1812. He was the second child of John Dickens and Elizabeth nèe Barrow. His father was a naval pay clerk in Navy Pay-office. Very soon after the birth of Charles Dickens, the family moved for a short period to Norfolk Street, Bloomsbury, when Charles Dickens was five, his family moved to Chatham Kent and when he was ten they relocated to 16 Bayham Street, Camden town in London (Chesterton, 1956: 24). His early years were an idyllic time, he spent his time outdoor, and reading some novels by Tobias Smollet and Henry Fielding.

  His family was moderately well-off, and he received some education at the private William Giles’ School, but all of these beautiful lives changed when his father was imprisoned for debt at Marshalsea Debtor’s Prison because of spending too much money entertaining and retaining his social position.

  When he was 12 years old, he was withdrawn from school because of his father’s imprisonment then, he started to work for ten hours a day in a Warren’s boot- blacking factory which was located near the present Caring Cross railway station and lived separately with his family. After his father’s imprisonment, his mother opened a small girl’s school in the north of London to make some money, but no students would come (Chesterton, 1956: 30). So , this mother’s small girl’s school made the family condition became worst, she caused more debt, and then led her into the Marshalsea prison. Dickens spent his time pasting labels on the jars of thick polish and earned six shilling a week. He used this money to pay his lodging in Camden Town and to help to support his family which most of them were living incarcerated with his father in Marshsalsea (Hennessy, 1970: 26-27)

  After a few months he was able to release his family from Marshalsea and he was possible to back to school at Wellington House Academy, London and at Mr.

  Dawson’s school until 1827. Although his family was released from Marshalsea but, their economical condition was not improved at all, this situation let him to still work in the same blacking factory and lived with the working class society. In May 1827, his formal education was ended then he began to work in the office of Ellis and at the age of 17. A t the age of 18, he applied for a reader’s ticket at British Museum, where he could read eagerly the work of Shakespeare. In the 1830-32s, Dickens wrote for True Sun and 1832-34 for The Mirror of Parliament. In 1834 he became a journalist reporting some of parliamentary debates for Monthly Magazine and The

  Evening Chronicle

  and edited

  Bentle’s Miscellany. His journalism was published

  from 1833 in the form of sketches and in 1836, it was published in the book form named Sketches by Boz. In the same year, he led to write his first novel The Pickwick

  Papers (Hennessy, 1970: 28-42).

  On April 1836, he married Catherine Thompson Hogarth, the daughter of George Hogarth, the editor of Evening Chronicle but, divorced in 1858. After a brief honeymoon in Chalk, then they lived in Bloomsbury where they had produced ten children. Dickens’ success as a novelist was proven by continuing writing Oliver

  Twist

  in 1837, then Nicholas Nickleby in 1838-39. In 1840-41 he wrote The Old

  Curiosity Shop

  and Barnaby Rudge which were published as a series in monthly installment before being made into a book in 1841. This popular was not ended until that year, after his visiting to America with his lovely wife, he continued his success by writing A Christmas Carol in 1843. This novel was the first of his Christmas book which was reputedly written in a matter of weeks (Chesterton, 1956: 118-125).

  After living briefly abroad in Italy in 1844 and in Switzerland in 1846, Dickens continued writing his masterpiece Dombey and Son in 1848, David

  Copperfield

  in 1849-50, Bleak House in 1852-53, Hard Time in 1854. In 1856, his when he was a child. In this large house he continued with Little Dorrit in 1857, a historical novel A Tale of Two Cities in 1849, The Great Expectations in 1861, Our

  Mutual Friend

  in 1865, and his last novel before he died The Mystery of Edwin

  Drood

  which was published in 1870, but Dickens did not manage to finish it because his suffering of “stroke attack”. This very last novel actually was planned to produce it in 12 monthly parts but the fact that it was compelled only in 6 numbers. He died on 9 June 1870 at

  Gad’s Hill Place and was buried in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey (www.vivtorianweb.org/authors/dickens/dickensbio1.html).