Repression toward students at school in James Joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man.

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xii ABSTRACT

MARIA PUSPITASARI MUNTHE. Repression toward Students at School in James Joyce’sA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.

Education is one of the important fundamental fields in human civilization. In nowadays society, education even becomes an obliged thing to achieve. Considering its significant role in human life, the discussion about education is always relevant and actual. Literature with its function as the mirror of human’s real life portrays the situation of education. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Manwritten by James Joyce is the work that is used to discuss the issue of education that the writer concerns with.

As the material of the discussion, the problem formulation consists of three questions. The first one questions about the characteristics of significant characters of the novel. It continues to answer the question about what parts of school system that the repression toward students is done through. At last, the characteristics of the characters contributively show how such repression happens at school. The answer to those questions is found by using psychoanalytic criticism. Some theories presented by Jacques Lacan are used such as, the concept of repression observed through the method of symptomatic reading.

The result of the analysis shows that characters of students in the novel have certain characteristics that imply inferiority and rebellion. Meanwhile, teachers’ characteristics identify power and authority. The gap between students and teachers position enables the existence of repression done by the one with larger power. Institution of school, represented concretely by its teaching staffs, represses the students through the rules it obliges them to obey. It is also supported well by the relationship between students and teachers that positions students as the inferior.

Repression toward students at school can be identified by observing the symptoms that students emerge. Those symptoms are the returning form of their repressed desire. Here, school is a symbolic father to its students which at the same time occupies the position of Other. Observing some events in the novel, school indeed does repression toward students.

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xiii ABSTRAK

MARIA PUSPITASARI MUNTHE. Repression toward Students at School in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2013.

Pendidikan merupakan salah satu hal mendasar yang penting dalam peradaban manusia. Dalam masyarakat masa kini, pendidikan menjadi sesuatu yang wajib diemban oleh orang-orang. Berkaitan dengan peran penting pendidikan dalam kehidupan manusia, diskusi tentangnya selalu berada dalam posisi relevan dan aktual. Sastra dengan salah satu fungsinya sebagai cerminan kehidupan nyata manusia tentunya juga memuat serba-serbi pendidikan di dalamnya. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man oleh James Joyce adalah sebuah karya yang membahas isu-isu pendidikan yang menjadi perhatian penulis.

Sebagai bahan diskusi, rumusan masalah disusun menjadi tiga pertanyaan. Pertanyaan pertama berkaitan dengan karakteristik dari sejumlah karakter yang signifikan dalam novel. Selanjutnya, penelitian ini mencari bagian-bagian dari sistem sekolah yang menjadi jalan masuk bagi represi kepada murid-muridnya. Hasil dari pembahasan karakteristik sebelumnya menunjukkan bagaimana represi terjadi di sekolah. Untuk mendapatkan jawaban atas rumusan masalah tersebut, penelitian ini dikerjakan dengan pendekatan psikoanalisis. Secara praktis, penulis menggunakan teori-teori dari Jacques Lacan, terutama mengenai konsep represi yang dikenali melalui metode pembacaan simptomatis atau pembacaan gejala.

Hasil analisis memaparkan bahwa karakteristik tokoh-tokoh murid dalam novel menyiratkan inferioritas dan pemberontakan. Sementara itu, karakter guru selalu diidentifikasi melalui kekuatan dan otoritas mereka. Kesenjangan posisi murid dan guru ini memungkinkan terjadinya represi yang dilakukan oleh pihak yang lebih berkuasa. Institusi sekolah, yang diwakili secara nyata oleh tenaga pengajarnya, melakukan represi kepada murid melalui peraturan yang wajib ditaati oleh murid. Hal ini dapat dengan langgeng berlaku karena pengkondisian hubungan murid dan guru yang menempatkan murid sebagai pihak yang lebih kecil kekuasaannya.

Represi kepada murid di sekolah dapat diidentifikasi dengan cara mengamati gejala-gejala yang muncul pada murid. Gejala-gejala tersebut merupakan bentuk pelepasan kembali hasrat murid yang terrepresi. Sekolah yang berperan sebagai Liyan menjadi ayah simbolis bagi para muridnya. Melalui pengamatan dalam beberapa peristiwa dalam novel, sekolah terbukti melakukan represi kepada muridnya.

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REPRESSION TOWARD STUDENTS AT SCHOOL

IN JAMES JOYCE’S

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A

YOUNG MAN

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra

in English Letters

MARIA PUSPITASARI MUNTHE Student Number: 094214004

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2013

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REPRESSION TOWARD STUDENTS AT SCHOOL

IN JAMES JOYCE’S

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A

YOUNG MAN

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra

in English Letters

MARIA PUSPITASARI MUNTHE Student Number: 094214004

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2013

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Menulis adalah bekerja untuk keabadian.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer

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viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I address the first gratitude to my undergraduate thesis advisor Dra. A. B. Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D for her time to advise and criticize this work. I also thank Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum. for being a supportive Co-Advisor and Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph.D for being a challenging examiner.

The next person to thank is Alwi Atma Ardhana for his willingness to be an unofficial advisor. He is the one who arranged my first interaction with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and maintains such patience in facing me having the obstacles in comprehending the subject. Thanks also go to Ibu Lany Wihardjo for sponsoring the first half of my study in the university.

I give my deepest gratitude to Bapak Parulian Munthe (†) and Mama Patricia Setyowati for being a great eternal couple. Thanks to Abang Yohanes Sebastian Munthe and Adek Jonathan Christian Munthe for our time to grow together. I am deeply grateful to be the beloved of theirs.

I would like to thank friends of mine in UKPM Natas where my learning journey started. It shall also go to Media Sastra for impressive experiences through good and bad times. A big thank is addressed to the whole family of JAKSA (Jalinan Akrab Sastra) for the unspeakable thing that enables me to feel alive. I am grateful to Geng Bunga Matahari and Teater Kepik for the stories being performed on and behind the stages.

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Gratitude also goes to Fitri Handayanti Lubis and Siti Rahma, far-away friends who are never that far to support me in working on this undergraduate thesis through any ways. Thank you to Maria Anindita Pranoto and Jati Pradipta for accompanying me through an interesting transition phase of life. I also need to say thanks to my fellows during my study in English Letters Department: Vince, Refa, Pinka, Retha, Etri, Febi, Anik, Lolo, Dhika, Samuel, Dinda, Uchi, Richard, Adit, Wowok, Mov, Bea, Indra, Kezia, Aulia, Pucil, and many others.

Lovely thanks are addressed to Bonaventura Andhiko Aji Tresadi for a very great companionship through the times of falling and rising again to yell. I give a deep gratitude to Sakha Widhi Nirwa for being a friend, simply a friend to share every little thing with, no matter what.

At last, I thank Mother Mary for her examples of life to follow. Thanks to God for everything and everyone I have mentioned.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE PAGE_{... i}

APPROVAL PAGE_{... ii}

ACCEPTANCE PAGE_{... iii}

MOTTO PAGE_{... iv}

DEDICATION PAGE_{... v}

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH_{... vi}

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY_{... vii}

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS_{... viii}

TABLE OF CONTENT_{... x}

ABSTRACT_{... xii}

ABSTRAK_{... xiii}

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION_{... 1}

A. Background of the Study... 1

B. Problem Formulation ... 6

C. Objectives of the Study ... 6

D. Definition of Terms... 7

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW_{... 9}

A. Review of Related Studies ... 9

B. Review of Related Theories ... 11

1. Theory of Character and Characterization ... 11

2. Theory of Psychoanalysis ... 12

3. Theory of Subject by Lacan ... 13

a. The Three Order: The Real, The Imaginary, and The Symbolic ... 14

b. The ‘other’ and the ‘Other’ ... 16

4. Theory of Desire and Symptom ... 17

c. Desire ... 17

d. Symptom ... 18

5. Theory of Repression ... 20

6. The Relations between Literature and Psychoanalysis ... 22

C. Theoretical Framework ... 23

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY_{... 25}

A. Object of the Study... 25

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C. Method of the Study... 28

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS_{... 30}

A. Description of Characteristics ... 30

1. Stephen Dedalus... 30

a. Characteristics of Stephen Dedalus during School Period ... 31

a.1. Clever ... 31

a.2. Quiet ... 32

a.3. Critical ... 34

a.4. Religious... 35

b. Characteristics of Stephen Dedalus in the University... 38

b.1. Brave ... 38

b.2. Critical... 41

2. Father Dolan... 44

a. Firm ... 44

b. Rude ... 45

c. Authoritarian ... 47

3. Fleming ... 48

a. Caring... 48

b. Mischievous ... 49

c. Provocative... 51

4. Father Arnall ... 52

a. Tolerant ... 52

b. Fair ... 53

B. Revealing the Parts of the School System in which the Repression is Done ... 55

1. The Rule of the School... 56

2. The Relationship between Students and Teachers ... 61

C. Revealing the Repression toward Students ... 66

1. Stephen’s Wrong Punishment ... 67

2. Boys’ Doing Smugging... 69

3. Stephen’s Meeting Prostitute and his Guilty Feeling... 73

4. Stephen’s Doubt and Ignorance to Religion ... 82

5. Stephen’s Being Active and More Sociable in University... 87

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION_{... 93}

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xii ABSTRACT

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xiii ABSTRAK

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Education is one of some important fundamental fields in society’s civilization. It is usually included in the list of obligatory things to achieve. It becomes the important fundamental thing because every human being conducts a process of learning in many various ways. The history of education recorded that human had started the process of education since the very primitive life. At that time, education was conducted in two steps of process. “The first is the training necessary to the satisfaction of the practical necessities of life” (Monroe, 1957: 4). In this step, human usually learned how to survive by doing things like hunting, using weapons, and building a shelter. The second step is explained as “the training in the elaborate procedures, or forms or worship, through which it is necessary that every member of the group shall go in his endeavor to placate the spirit world, or to cultivate its good will” (Monroe, 1957: 4). The first step is considered as the practical education, while the second is the theoretical one.

As the time goes by, education exists in more sophisticated forms. People formed some kinds of system to make it more integrated and well-organized. As the result of this effort, in modern time we are familiar with some systems of education, such as formal system and the non-formal ones. These systems are the means which are used by the society to shape the people, culture, and many other

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aspects of social life. They have been held for many years and contributed much in how people manage their lives. Education is even considered offering the best means for social betterment (Monroe, 1957: 707). Hence, it becomes an inseparable part of society’s life.

Formal education system is related to school and other institutions which deal with the business of education. In conducting this kind of system, school becomes the primary means to reach the goal of education. School exists as the integrated form of education consisting of the concrete forms which are descended from the abstract essence of education. It is constructed by the system within including the curriculum, the methods of teaching-and-learning activities, the rules, the management of institution, and the human resources (teachers, students, and officers).

The practice of education is derived from the essence of education. This term is always and still debatable, though. Different groups of people may present different views and opinions about this thing. Those different thoughts, consequently, influence how a system of education—be it school or other non-formal forms—is held for the sake of reaching the essence of education. These thoughts are the ones which should be the basic to manage the allowances, restrictions, and tolerances that a school will have.

“The aims of education in the theory of pedagogy constitute a certain ideological program, a binding element of the entire school system” (Salecl, 1994: 170). In the condition of being debatable, every school tries to hold one from

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many thoughts of the essence of education to be able to manage and rule the system. The possibility of having too many different systems among those schools is narrowed by having these schools grouped under a system that has been mentioned above, which is formal education system.

Formal school has been very familiar to people. In almost all countries of the world, it has become the primary source where people must get education from. Nowadays, education in formal institution like school is even made obligatory to all citizens of the country. It is controlled by the legal constitution in some countries. All of these actions show that education seems to receive great concern from society.

In formal schools, the people included within are generally classified into two distinctive groups: teacher and student. Out of these two groups, there are still some persons who hold the authority of running the school system. Teacher and student become the most significant groups of people since they run the main activities of school, which are teaching and learning activities.

As the result of teachers and students’ having direct contact in school activities, they must have a certain kind of relationship in between. This relationship might be varied according to the situation of the school and considering the certain climate and goal that a school wants to achieve. Although it is varied from one school to another, most of schools, especially the formal ones, still form a similar kind of relationship between the teacher and the student. It can be said like this, “… “the subject supposed to know” …; at school, he is the

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teacher, while the pupil is in the position of “the subject supposed not to know”” (Salecl, 1994: 164).

Such position of teacher and student obviously shows the power relation between them. “The leftist criticism of the education system usually gives the teacher the role of a Master who structures the field of the school discourse with his authority,” (Salecl, 1994: 163). This kind of situation might cause the action of repression toward the lower position party done by the higher position one. Since the system gives more power to the teacher, student tends to occupy the lower position in the hierarchy.

Teacher might not be the only one who does the repression, though. Salecl also mentioned in her article that,

The teacher, constituted by the institution (school) and made responsible through it to the ruling class and to the class-determined relations of power, is in the role of an intermediary who transfers this outer order to the pupils through his teaching, thus victimizing them with symbolic violence (Salecl, 1994: 165).

Therefore, school as an institution also occupies the powerful position. In this situation, students face the risk of being the only part of the school that is always repressed by the rest of the school.

Such situation occurred in some schools. Therefore, it is also reflected in some works of literature. It becomes possible since literature can be considered as the mirror of reality in the society according to the mimetic concept. According to Plato’sPoetics, “…the work of art is constructed according to prior models in the nature of things” (in Abrams, 1971: 9). Many works of literature talk about

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education by telling about schools, students, or the process of learning which is conducted by the characters within. In these works, the concept, reality, and even dream about education are presented.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is one of those works which presents the discourse of education by telling story about a school life of a student. This novel dominantly tells about the criticism done by the main character, Stephen Dedalus, toward the institution of Catholic religion. Stephen is also described facing some objections from his social circumstance toward his desire of being an artist. These conflicts are wrapped in the story of Stephen’s school life. Therefore, the criticism done by Stephen is very closely related to the circumstances of schools where he studied.

This research relates the description about school in the novel with the problem of repression toward students that happens in most of the schools. Description of school taken from the novel is an example that represents similar condition in other schools. Such school is a Catholic school, managed by Jesuits congregation. Though, the discussion about this school in this research also exists in most other kinds of school. As the reflection of the problem in reality, the description in the novel becomes the object of the analysis which leads to the discussion about how such situation happened in the real school.

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B. Problem Formulation

To be able to understand the novel and to discuss the research topic better, three problems were formulated as follows

1. How are the characters in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mandescribed?

2. Through what parts of school system is the repression toward student characters in the story done?

3. How is the repression toward students revealed?

C. Objectives of the Study

This research aims to look and pay more attention to how a school continuously does repression toward its students in the condition where the people are usually not aware of it. Specifically, there are three objectives presented. The first objective is to see the characteristics of the characters in the novel. The second one is to find out how the institution of school with its system represses the students through some ways. The last objective is to prove whether such actions are truly repressions by considering the criteria and impacts of a repression.

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D. Definition of Terms

In this research, there are some terms which are frequently used. In order to understand them as close as possible to the meaning, the definition of those terms are presented here. These descriptions also aim to give restriction to the terms’ various meaning so that the discussion is able to run well and focused.

1. Repression

In An Introductory Dictionary to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, repression is defined as:

… the process by which certain thoughts or memories are expelled from consciousness and confined to the unconscious. … Since repression does not destroy the ideas or memories that are its target, but merely confines them to the unconscious, the repressed material is always liable to return in a distorted form, in symptoms, dreams, slip of the tongue, etc. (the return of the repressed). (Evans, 1996: 168)

2. School

According to theDictionary of Education, school is defined as: an organized group of pupils pursuing defined studies at defined levels and receiving instruction from one or more teachers, frequently with the addition of other employees and officers, and a staff of maintenance workers; usually housed in a single building or group of buildings. (Dictionary of Education Third Edition, 1973: 512)

3. School system

School system is defined as:

The aggregate of educational institutions organized under the constitution and laws of the state, administered under the

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general supervision of the state department of education, deriving their financial support, at least in part, from the state, and usually referred to as public schools, to distinguish them from private institutions of learning; usually includes kindergartens, elementary schools, high schools, junior colleges, teacher-education schools, a state university, and an agricultural and mechanical arts college; tax-supported and free to the public below the junior college level. (Dictionary of Education Third Edition, 1973: 516)

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9 CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

In order to respond the problems formulated, some reviews of related studies and theories are provided below.

A. Review of Related Studies

James Joyce started the project ofA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by writing an essay titled A Portrait of the Artist. “For Joyce, this ironic autobiographical essay was an early attempt to synthesize his ideas about aesthetics, Ireland, religion, and the role of the artist” (Bulson, 2006: 48). Out of the essay, Joyce wrote the early version of the story under the title Stephen Hero. This attempt was continued in completing the script of the novel. It is then well-known as the autobiographical novel since it has a similar story as Joyce’s personal life. Eric Bulson also states, “IfDubliners, as Joyce once said, represents his “last look at Dublin”,Portraitis a “picture of [his] spiritual self”” (2006: 47).

The main character in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a boy named Stephen Dedalus. The story tells about the journey of Stephen’s education in various schools. Generally, Stephen is a quiet boy along his school time. He mostly stores all of his confusion in his own mind.

From the beginning, Stephen, like most young people, is caught in a maze, just as his namesake Daedalus was. The schools are a maze of corridors; Dublin is a maze of streets. The mind itself is a convoluted maze filled with dead ends and circular reasoning. Life poses riddles

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at every turn. Stephen roams the labyrinth searching his mind for answers. The only way out seems to be to soar above the narrow confines of the prison, as did Daedalus and his son (Braurer, 1985: 35).

Stephen is certainly influenced by the environment around him that he has such a complicated mind. Stephen is sceptical to questions of life. According to the study above, there are some other common things in his life which represents that the way he has to go through in order to find the answers to the questions of life is complicated.

Since along this book Stephen is conducting school life, he has his personal view on how school exists to him.

Stephen then looks towards the priests at his school, but they are the same priests that beat him for not being able to do his homework because his glasses were broken. In Stephen's mind, anyone who would lay out such unjust punishment could not be the worldly interpreters of any higher being that was really true and good. Stephen still honours the priests, but cares nothing for what they preach (http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/joyce.html.2002). The view that ‘teachers are always right and therefore students must obey them’ is criticized. Stephen considered his teachers as unjust persons according to his own experience.

This research discusses a different point from those previous studies. It pays more attention to the schools where Stephen studied. In its daily activities, school does some actions of repression toward the students. It is a problematic phenomenon but, it is considered as something common since it occurs frequently

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and is accepted as a necessary thing. This research figures out how the actions of repression happen at school.

B. Review of Related Theories

To answer the problem formulation of this research, there are some theories which are used to support the analysis. Those theories are presented briefly as follows.

1. Theory of Character and Characterization

In the intrinsic elements of the work of literature, characters are those who are included in the work attributed with some certain moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities.A Glossary of Literary Termsstated that

The grounds in the characters' temperament, desires, and moral nature for their speech and actions are called their motivation…. Whether a character remains stable or changes, the reader of a traditional and realistic work expects "consistency"—the character should not suddenly break off and act in a way not plausibly grounded in his or her temperament as we have already come to know it. (Abrams, 1993: 23)

Abrams highlighted not only on the traits that characters have, but also the existence of motivation beyond characters’ actions. This motivation is not always mentioned, therefore an analysis on characters should do more than reading the written things.

The method of attributing characteristics on the characters is called characterization. According to Abrams, there are two ways of characterization: showing and telling (1993: 23). In showing method, it is the character which by

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him/her/itself shows the characteristics through talking and acting. Meanwhile, for telling method, it is the author who is in charge to intervene in order to describe the characters.

Other theory states that “The simplest form of characterization is naming” (Wellek and Warren,1963: 219). The other mode out of that simplest one is by a paragraph describing the physical appearance in detail. Another one is by analyzing the moral and psychological nature.

M. J. Murphy even presented more complete ways of characterization (1972: 161-173). The characteristics of a character might be identified through the personal description written by the author, the opinions of other characters, the character’s speech, the character’s life background, the conversation of other characters, the reaction toward certain situations, the author’s direct comment, the character’s thought and habits.

2. Theory of Psychoanalysis

The basis of thought in psychoanalytic theory is that what drives human being is not the consciousness, but the unconsciousness. This idea is the revolutionary thing which made psychoanalytic a separated discipline from psychology in the late 19th century. The concept of ‘unconsciousness’ was firstly introduced by a psychologist (who later became psychoanalyst) named Sigmund Freud. The existence of unconsciousness is impossibly ‘caught in hand’, but it is proved by several signs.

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In this theory, Freud also presented his own perspective on the definition of ‘self’. The sense of self commonly refers to the defining elements of personality and character (Elliot, 2002: 9). Freud revolted this view by defining self or ‘ego’ as a “dimension of subjectivity which is internally fashioned through interpersonal relationships and intense emotional experiences, particularly experience in early infancy and childhood” (Elliot, 2002: 10). Freud’s breaking-through thought split the centre of the self between consciousness of the self and the unconscious.

The very famous concept in psychoanalytic proposed by Freud is the division of what structures human. He introduced the terms ego, superego, and id. It is called the tripartite model (Bressler, 1998: 150). Ego is the rational, logical, waking part of the mind. It is usually recognized by the visible entity which is the human. Superego is thing which shapes, controls, and even restricts the ego. In real life, superego is represented by the existence of grand narration or discourses where humans live. Id is the more abstract entity which runs the function of being what exactly human wants. Unconsciousness is the main distinctive point that psychoanalysis officially deals with.

3. Theory of Subject by Lacan

The next important thinker of psychoanalysis was Jacques Lacan. He claimed that all individuals are fragmented; no one is whole (Bressler, 1998: 156).

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Going along with the concept of self or subject, Lacan also developed Freud’s concept of ‘the other’ into a more complex thought.

a. The Three Order: The Real, The Imaginary, and The Symbolic

Lacan also divided human psyche into three parts. They are the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic. ‘The real’ is an abstract concept. It is difficult to understand since, “…the fact that it is not a ‘thing’; it is not a material object in the world or the human body or even the ‘reality’” (Homer, 2005: 81). ‘The real’ is the place from which human’s basic needs originate. It is pre-symbolic since human does not have any way to symbolize it. In short, the real can be defined as “…something that is repressed and functions unconsciously, intruding into our symbolic reality in the form of need” (Homer, 2005: 82-83). Since the real could not be symbolized, it can be said that, “The real exists outside of or apart from our reality” (Fink, 1956: 25).

Imaginary phase is when human exists as unified entity with his/her mother. Within this phase, human will recognize that he/she and the mother are two different individuals. Later in the symbolic order, father dominates the process. Father is the person who teaches languages (Bressler, 1998: 157). He is also the one who separates baby from baby’s mother.

The third phase is the symbolic order. In this step, human learns how to use language to symbolize what human had in the real order. According to Lacan, existence is the product of language since language brings things into existence (Fink, 1956: 25). The symbolic creates reality. Reality is not the same as ‘the real’

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since reality is the result of naming ‘the real’ by language and can thus be thought and talked about (Fink, 1956: 25).

In those phases, there are some parties who are included. They are mother and father. In this point, Lacan presented a different definition and understanding of terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’. According to Freud’s thought, ‘mother’ and ‘father’ are defined as biological parents that a person has. Differently, Lacan erased the sense of ‘biological’ in his own definition of those terms. To Lacan, what to emphasize more is the function of ‘mother’ and ‘father’. Therefore, they might be anything.

As mentioned briefly earlier, mother is the first individual from whom a baby separated a self. Based on this statement, term ‘mother’ might be understood as the person who gave a birth to the baby. However, in some cases Lacan also called a ‘babysitter’ as a mother. Essentially, ‘mother’ is the person who intensively takes care of the baby. “The mother manifests herself in the real as the primary caretaker of the infant” (Evans, 1996: 121).

Lacan’s ‘father’ appears in more various forms. Playing a role as a father in Lacan’s thought means separating the baby from the mother and teaching languages. Teaching languages in this context means showing how a reality speaks and then teaching the way to respond it. Thus, Evans also mentioned that a father ‘makes possible an entry into social existence” (1996: 62). While the term ‘mother’ is commonly used in many contexts without being different in meaning, Lacan’s concept about ‘father’ includes three terms: the real father, the imaginary

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father, and the symbolic father. In An Introductory Dictionary to Lacanian Psychoanalysis, the real father is the man who is said to be subject’s biological father (Evans, 1996: 63). The imaginary father could be defined as the ideal figure of father that a subject has. This figure is commonly omnipotent and an all-powerful protector (1996: 63). “The symbolic father is not a real being but a position, a function, and hence is synonymous with the term ‘paternal function’” (1996: 63). This paternal function is what has been explained before about father’s role. In other term, the symbolic father is also called ‘the name of the father’.

In relation to mother, father is the one who runs the function of giving other versions of reality to be seen by the subject out of subject’s own mother’s version of reality. Therefore, father usually does an action of repression in order to make the subject able to comprehend the reality. Father needs to teach the subject to repress subject’s desire which usually is related to a bond to the mother by setting a condition for a subject to do something before gaining pleasure from it. A common example of it is the requirement to get parents’ appreciation by leading education as high as possible.

b. The ‘other’ and the ‘Other’

Both terms ‘other’ and ‘Other’ generally refer to the concept of subject alteration. In Freud’s thought, term ‘other’ is used to express ‘the other person’ and ‘the otherness’. Lacan developed the concept and distinguish ‘the little other’ with non-capitalized initial letter o and ‘the big Other’ with capitalized initial

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letter o. In French, these terms are spelled autreand Autre, therefore the symbols for them areaand A.

“The little other is the other who is not really other, but a reflection and projection of the EGO” (Evans, 1996: 135). The little other is also known as ‘objet petit a’ which represents the cause and at the same time the object of desire which human seeks in the other. Evans also explained it as something which is imagined as something separable from the body. Thus, the little other is only ‘imagined’ as something separable while truly it is not.

“The big Other designates radical alterity, an other-ness which transcends the illusory otherness of the imaginary because it cannot be assimilated through identification” (Evans, 1996: 136). The big Other seems to be a more concrete alteration. It represents the other subject. In the process that each human leads, mother is the first person who occupies the position of Other for the infant.

4. Theory of Desire and Symptom

a. Desire

Lacan distinguished the concept of ‘desire’ from the terms ‘need’ and ‘demand’. He provided the distinctive point from which people may differentiate each of them. “Need is purely a biological instinct, an appetite which emerges according to the requirements of organism and which abates completely (even if only temporarily) when satisfied” (Evans, 1996: 37). The simple example of it is the need to eat in order to fulfill body requirement to survive.

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Since human was born in the condition of powerless and dependent to the other human, this basic biological need can only be satisfied by the other human. For instance, a baby’s need of nutrition is satisfied by being breastfed by the mother. In fact, need is only understood by the individual whom it belongs to. Therefore, to get someone else’s help in order to satisfy it, need must be expressed vocally in the form of ‘demand’. Demand is expressed with two functions: an articulation of need and a demand for love. Although the need can be satisfied by giving the object of the need to the person, the Other could not give the love that the person demands.

Therefore, there is something left unsatisfied. It is the desire. Unlike the need and demand, which turn to other needs and demands when one is satisfied, desire is always unable to satisfy. The object of desire is only one. It is called “objet petit a”. It is not the material object which desire tends, but it is the cause of desire. The reason of being so is explained by Evans like this, “Desire is not a relation to an object, but a relation to a LACK” (1996: 38). This is one of the points that Lacan believed as the incompleteness of self, no one is whole. Human always lacks of something.

b. Symptom

Symptom is a term which is commonly used in medical field. Since psychoanalysis was first a clinical study, it adopts a similar concept of symptom from medical perception.

The concept of symptom is thus predicated on a basic distinction between surface and depth, between phenomena (objects which can be directly

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experienced) and the hidden causes of those phenomena which cannot be experienced but must be inferred (Evans, 1996: 205).

The distinctive point between symptom in medical field with the one which is in psychoanalysis is the ability of the symptom to lead the analysis to a valid hidden phenomena occurred in a person. In medical world, certain symptom leads the analyst to arrive to a diagnosis about what a person tends to suffer from. In psychoanalysis, something is considered as a symptom in one condition: it is repeated for many times. According to many cases that have been analyzed, symptom is always something which is contrasted to the desire it represents. In literal association, a description of a symptom usually does not have any relation with the repressed desire. Symptom could not be the only sign to determine the condition of a person. It still needs more complex method of collecting information from various aspects of the person’s life to eventually be able to come to the nearest conclusion.

Another difference between medical symptom and psychoanalytic symptom is the aim of figuring it out. Medic does an effort to relate a symptom to an illness that the patient has in order to cure the illness. In psychoanalysis, figuring out a symptom does not aim to remove it. It is considered as something which is not necessary since when a symptom disappears, another one will replace it (Evans, 1996: 205). Thus, along the life, human always suffers from symptoms. According to Freud’s theory of repression, symptom is one of the forms by which the repressed can return.

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5. Theory of Repression

In Freud’s concept of the division of psyche (ego, superego, and id), these three entities work in a process of repression. Peter Barry in Beginning Theory defined repression as “…the ‘forgetting’ or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desires, or traumatic past events, so that they are forced out of conscious awareness and into the realm of the unconscious” (Barry, 2009: 92-93). (repression) Id is always considered as something which is too vulgar or not appropriate to be expressed directly. Therefore, it must be repressed so that it would not come out in another inappropriate form. This function is run by superego. As the result of the repression, there comes the ego as the most proper form of the expression of id.

When something in human mind is repressed, it does not totally disappear. “…it remains alive in the unconscious, like radioactive matter buried beneath the ocean, and constantly seeks a way back into the conscious mind, always succeeding eventually” (Barry, 2009: 96). Freud once stated, “There is always a return of the repressed.” According to Freud’s statement, each person will give the way back to his repressed fear and wish. Freud explained that those repressed things might come back in the form of symptoms, dreams, or slips of tongue.

Basically, Lacan agreed with Freud’s thought about repression. He did not state a radical differentiation from it. However, since Lacan presented a different theory of subject, there are some things that are needed to be paid attention to. In Lacan’s concept of repression, what to repress is the desire of a subject. A similar

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reason with the reason of repressing id is attributed on this action. It is because the desire is considered as something which is too vulgar to be expressed that it should be repressed.

The process of repression starts when a subject meets the Other. Through the relationship they have, the Other will always make a limitation on the self of the subject. Subject’s desire is repressed by the influence of the Other that it will result in a more appropriate expression that can be accepted by the circumstance around the subject. Following the same logic that Freud presented, this repressed thing returns in some certain forms. The existence of repression is recognized through the existence of symptoms that the subject shows. The symptoms appear in the symbolic phase.

Lacan’s famous saying was that the unconscious is structured like a language (Barry, 2009: 106). In Lacanian analysis, the symptoms are identified from the speech that a subject speaks. Every single word and even letter is showing the structure of subject’s unconsciousness. By paying attention to subject’s speech as a symptom in symbolic phase, the desire that a subject has repressed can be associated with.

“…that psychoanalytic theory inserts itself, seeking to uncover repressed or overdetermined aspects of self-organization” (Elliot, 2002: 10). Psychoanalysis runs its function by paying attention to the forms of the returning repressed and relating them to the other aspects of the person analyzed to eventually make an interpretation of what exactly exists in that person’s unconsciousness. This

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function is helpful to the patient with disturbance since when the repressed could not be recognized by the patient, he/she would not be able to solve the problem.

6. The Relations between Literature and Psychoanalysis

In the history of psychoanalytic criticism, the very first time it was introduced as psychobiography. This method tries to relate the biographical data of the author to the latent content of his/her work. In 1950s, the method turned to the character analysis, studying the various aspects of characters’ minds (Bressler, 1998: 161). Psychoanalytical literary criticism was then divided into four kinds depending on the object of attention. “It can attend to the author of the work; to the work’scontents; to its formal construction; or to the reader” (Eagleton, 1996: 155). This study used the work’s content as the object.

In relation to literature, Freud believed that a work of literature is the external expression of the author’s unconscious mind. The author (it is also usually known as the artist), like most of human beings, is neurotic. The neurotic then “is oppressed by unusually powerful instinctual needs which lead him to turn away from reality to fantasy” (Eagleton, 1996: 156). Work of literature is the outward manifestation of the author’s repressed wish. Therefore, it might be considered as the dream or fantasy of the author (Bressler, 1998: 159). Psychoanalytic critic believes that somewhere beyond various levels of the story, there lies the real meaning or interpretation of it, hidden and censored.

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According to the concept of jouissance (it is translated in English as pleasure), it can be said that literature and psychoanalysis have a simple connection in between. Since instinctively human always avoids pain and seeks pleasure, every little action that human does is expected to lead human into pleasure. Reading literature is also included in such action. Therefore, the reason why people read works of literature is because “they find them pleasurable” (Eagleton, 1996: 166).

To understand why works of literature are considered to be pleasurable, it should be related to the previous explanation about the statement that it is the manifestation of repressed things. Eagleton described the reason as that it transforms our deepest anxieties and desires into socially acceptable meanings.

C. Theoretical Framework

There are three theories which are used in this research. The first one is the theory of character and characterization. This theory is the means to analyze the work through intrinsic elements, character. It is used to figure out the characteristics of some significant characters in the story, such as Stephen and other characters included in his school life.

The second one is psychoanalytic theory. Through the characteristics and characterization of the characters, this research analyzes how such action and thought were conducted by the characters in the story. Psychoanalytic criticism enters beyond the superficial conscious realm of the events. It seeks the

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unconscious repressed ideas of the characters or situations through reading the symptoms and any other signs shown by them.

The third one is the theory of subject presented by Lacan. The first sub-point in the explanation of this theory is functioned to recognize the process that the characters in the story as a ‘subject’ (in Lacan’s term) lead. Afterwards, the theory of Other is used to identify the parts of school system which make limitation and repression.

The theory of desire and symptom is closely related to the theory of repression. These theories are the means to analyze whether the examples of cases taken in the analysis are truly a repression or not. In each case, the characters involved show some symptoms. These symptoms are figured out. Besides the symptoms, the desire of the characters is also identified. A repression is recognized when there is a limitation and pressure given to the desire. Then, it is proven by the existence of the forms of “the return of the repressed” where symptom is one of them.

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25 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

This research is done on a fiction novel written by James Joyce titled A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Before being published in the form of book, this story was published in The Egoistduring 1914 – 1915 as a serial. The very first version of the book was published in 1916 in United States. Afterwards, the first British edition was published in 1917 in Ireland. The book which is used in this research is the edition that is published by Wordsworth Editions Limited in 1992. This work is divided into five chapters with pages of the notes of the text (which are more like appendix) to help the readers in understanding the book by giving some additional background information outside the text about the terms used in the novel.

This work is Joyce’s first debut which is considered as one of the three greatest novels he had ever written out of Ullysesand Dubliners. This novel had been once adapted into a film by Judith Rascoe and directed by Joseph Strick in 1977.

James Joyce’sA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Manmostly talks about a boy named Stephen Dedalus and his school life. He came from a Catholic Ireland family. He was sent to a boarding school called Clongowes School. Stephen faces

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many problems in the early period of school. He got homesick very often. He had only few friends.

Clongowes School was very strict in its discipline. No students were allowed neither to make mistake nor to break the rules. When there was any, the students would be punished by the prefect of the school. Stephen had also had the experiences of being punished even though he had not broken any rules. Therefore, Stephen was a very quiet student who never protested.

In a school break after some years passed in Clongowes, Stephen came back home for a holiday. He found that his family was having a financial problem that finally forced him to stop schooling in Clongowes. He could not go back to that school. Stephen was moved by his father to another cheaper school called Belvedere.

Stephen experienced some new things. He made his first sexual intercourse with a prostitute. He experienced the time when he paid not of any attention to his religious life. He met more prostitutes as ignoring his religion values. In the end, Stephen felt very guilty. He was very sorry for what he had done and finally he decided to be more concerned with his Christian values.

Stephen continued to study in a university. In this period of school, Stephen started to discuss deeply and extrovertly his ideological and political point of view with his fellows. Another significant change that happened in this stage was that he set himself free from many limitation and pressure he was previously under. Religion, which once he had left and then he came back after,

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had become trivia. He concerned no more with it. He had desire to be an artist by doing writing. He enlarged his chance to follow his dream more and more. Finally, he decided to leave England and became free to do what he loved in his life.

B. Approach of the Study

In Bressler’s Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, psychoanalytic criticism is one of the schools used to make a criticism on a literary work. Psychoanalytic criticism was first developed by Sigmund Freud and as the time went by, it has been becoming more complex as it has diverse form of development. Psychoanalytic was firstly introduced as the therapy for people with psychological disturbance. As it is developed into a literary criticism, it is still related to the concept of clinical psychoanalytic. It mainly talks about the unconsciousness which drives human being’s action.

According to Bressler (1999: 161), psychoanalytic criticism is an approach to literary analysis that holds that we humans as the complex yet somewhat understandable creatures often fail to note the influence of the unconscious on our motivations and our everyday actions. This idea is the starting point of the analysis of this research since related to the practice of education, specifically in school, people who had joined that process for a very long time are usually not aware of that ‘unconsciousness’. The repression occurred at school

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runs on this method. Those who are included in the process of education in school unconsciously conduct and nourish this phenomenon.

In this kind of criticism, the critic has to read the text of the unconscious. It might be meant to seek what the text does not say or to read the hidden meaning of the text. Psychoanalysis does not only do that, but also does the steps of uncovering the processes, the dream-work, by which that text was produced. To do this, the critic uses the method of symptomatic reading. What to seek are “distortions, ambiguities, absence and elisions which may provide a specially valuable mode of access to the ‘latent content’, or unconscious drives, which have gone into its making” (Eagleton, 1996: 158).

The analysis in this study is done in the textual level using Lacanian psychoanalysis. This criticism is chosen to analyze the work because it deals with the unconscious repression toward the student characters done by school in the story. For those reasons, psychoanalytic criticism is the most suitable approach to work this research with.

C. Method of the Study

This research was done over a library research. Some previous studies on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are the references in collecting some point of view on this work. To reach the goal of this research, there are some theories used to be the means of the analysis.

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In doing the analysis, representative and significant data from the work were collected to be the basis of this research. Afterwards, the characters and their characterization in the novel were found out. The next step used the result of characters analysis to figure out the repression that happened to students through some aspects of the school system. By using the theory of the psychoanalytic criticism, such actions explained in the previous step are proven whether they are the actions of repression or not by considering the criteria and the impacts of a repression.

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

The writing format of the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is rather different from the common novels written by other authors. Every direct expression spoken by the characters in this novel is not written in between the quotation marks (“…”). Instead, James Joyce uses dash mark (-) to start the direct sentence of the characters. It is quite difficult and problematic then to differentiate between the direct spoken statement and the indirect one (especially when both are used in one expression). However, the writer tries to give extra notes in some potentially problematic quotations.

A. Description of Characteristics

Since this research discusses the repression toward students at school, the characters included in the dynamic of the story are those who deal with the school activities. It is classified into two significant groups: student and teacher. In this part, each group is represented by several important characters belonging to the group.

1. Stephen Dedalus

Stephen Dedalus is the main character of the novel. In the early part of the story, he is described as a boy who starts his elementary school period. Afterwards,

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the story accompanies him passing his school time until he continues his study to a university. Stephen enters a school named Clongowes School. It is a school for boys only. The school obliges all students to live in the dormitories apart from home and parents. Clongowes is managed by the Society of Jesus, the community of Catholic priests who are well-known as the Jesuits. Clongowes is a real school in Ireland founded by Father Peter Kenny in 1814.

Along his time of study in formal education institutions, Stephen grows. Therefore, the description about his characteristics is divided into two parts. The first one represents Stephen’s characteristics during school time and the second part shows the change after he graduates and continues to the university.

a. Characteristics of Stephen Dedalus during School Period

Using the theories of M. J. Murphy and M. H. Abrams, there are some characteristics of Stephen Dedalus that can be revealed.

a.1. Clever

Stephen Dedalus does a great job in his school period. Since he has very few distractions from around, he can concern more with his study.

Stephen felt his own face red too, thinking of all the bets about who would get first place in elements, Jack Lawton or he. Some weeks Jack Lawton got the card for first and some weeks he got the card for first (Joyce, 1992: 7).

The situation in the quotation happens when Stephen’s class has ‘the hour of sums’. Their teacher gives some questions to be answered by the students. Stephen

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and his friend Jack Lawton compete in the class discussion. Both are often in the first position of the class. It means that Stephen is clever that he can be the cleverest student in every lesson.

In the story, Stephen cannot finish his study at Clongowes due to the financial problem of the family. His father then sends him to a cheaper school called Belvedere. At this school, Stephen keeps up his good reputation as a clever student.

Stephen, though in deference to his reputation for essay writing he had been elected secretary to the gymnasium, had had no part in the first section of the programme but in the play which formed the second section he had the chief part, that of a farcial pedagogue (1992:55).

Stephen seems to have a good ability of writing that his essays are known well by the school. Besides, he is often chosen to take an important position in student activities.

Since basically Stephen is clever, this characteristic does not gradually change when he enters the university. He remains a clever boy. The explanation about this is presented in the part talking about his characteristics in university.

a.2. Quiet

Stephen Dedalus is a bit shy. He has only few friends at Clongowes. To these few friends, Stephen rarely talks. He mostly thinks and seldom lets it out.

Stephen looked at the faces of the fellows but they were all looking across the playground. He wanted to ask somebody about it. What did that mean about smugging in the square? Why did the five fellows out of the higher line run away for that? It was a joke, he thought (1992: 31).

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This narration describes what is going on in Stephen’s mind when he faces an event. A day before, five students from higher class escaped from school to avoid

punishment. They have just done ‘smugging’. According to Cassell’s Dictionary of

Slang, ‘smug’ is an Irish word in 20th century to represent “to engage in homosexual practices” (Green, 2003: 1099).

Stephen does not understand what his friends have been talking about. Instead of asking, he only wonders in his mind. Eventually, Stephen does not say what he thinks about that story to any of his friend. Stephen keeps it for himself.

Another situation also shows that Stephen is quiet. Once he has been punished by the teacher named Father Dolan for no mistake. When Father Dolan comes to him, he asks Stephen what his name is. Stephen answers, “Dedalus, Sir.” After a very little conversation, Father Dolan asks his name again. Stephen answers for the second times. After the class, Stephen thinks about it again.

Why could he not remember the name when he was told the first time? Was he not listening the first time or was it to make fun out of the name? The great men in the history had names like that and nobody made fun of them. It was his own name that he should have made fun of if he wanted to make fun. Dolan: it was like the name of a woman who washed clothes (Joyce, 1992: 41).

Stephen gets emotional after he realizes that he is punished for nothing. He is angry at Father Dolan but he cannot express it since he must obey the teacher. He finally has his own judgement about Father Dolan. However, Stephen never says it verbally even with his close friend as a mock to a teacher just like what other students usually do.

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Even though Stephen’s characteristic of quietness changes when he enters university, it still leaves tracks. Some of his friends in university view him as a man who talks too little. “—Dedalus, you’re an antisocial being, wrapped up in yourself” (1992: 136). It seemed like Stephen does not talk a lot then as the result he has very few friends. Therefore, his friend calls him ‘antisocial being’. His experiences of only thinking and not talking something out may be the clue to the meaning of ‘wrapped up in yourself’.

a.3. Critical

Stephen is curious to new things. He questions many things around him. Since Stephen is rather quiet, he mostly just thinks and keeps his questions in mind. One example showing his critical characteristic is Stephen’s writing on his Geography book.

Stephen Dedalus Class of Elements

Clongowes Wood College Sallins

County Kildare Ireland

Europe The World

The Universe(1992: 9-10)

Then he read the flyleaf from the bottom to the top till he came to his own name. That was he: and he read down the page again. What was after the universe? Nothing. But was there anything round the universe to show where it stopped before the nothing place began? It could not be a wall; but there

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could be a thin thin line there all round everything. It was very big to think about everything and everywhere (1992: 10).

Stephen tries to discover what comes after the universe. At first he just wants to write the identity of the owner of the book. He continues a little bit longer and finds a question about the existence of the thing after the universe. Stephen questions something which is rarely thought by common people in common situation.

In other time, Stephen questions the punishment that is given to the students while they are in class. When Stephen and his friend, Fleming, are punished by the prefect of the studies (Father Dolan), a teacher named Father Arnall is teaching in that class. He does not do anything to stop Father Dolan from punishing his students. Even that he knows that Stephen has no mistake, he lets Father Dolan punishes him.

Stephen is confused by the system of the school where he studies. A teacher may do physical punishment to the students without anyone advocates the victims. The authority of Father Dolan as the prefect of studies is the reason why Father Arnall acts that way.

Stephen’s habit to question things around him occurs many times and continues along his life. Therefore, he may be classified as a critical boy.

a.4. Religious

Stephen is born in a Catholic Ireland family. The tradition of Catholicism is very strong in his family. This is also the reason why his parents enroll him at Clongowes School which is managed by Catholic priests.

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As a Catholic school, Clongowes rules its system based on the rules of Catholicism. Clongowes is a boarding school, therefore it is easier for the school to manage the students following the religious activities. Since Stephen is one of the students, he also follows the religious routine along his school time. As the result, Stephen grows as a religious person.

At a moment, Stephen used to imagine himself dead and be brought in a corpse to a mass. He thinks about his life.

… the body had died and the soul stood terrified before the judgement seat. God, who had long been merciful, would then be just. He had long been patient, pleading with the sinful soul, giving it time to repent, sparing it yet awhile. … Now it was God’s turn: and He was not to be hoodwinked or deceived (1992: 86).

Stephen seems to have a close relationship with God that he can guess how long God has been waiting and what God has been doing along that time. He builds his own imagination of God’s feeling toward sinful people. This can be done by Stephen because he has references from religion that talks about the judgement day and how God treats human.

Another case shows the religious self of Stephen. He does an evening praying in his room. He does it for the sake of making himself feeling better.

Why was he kneeling there like a child saying his evening prayers? To be alone with his soul, to examine his conscience, to meet his sins face to face, to recall their times and manners and circumstances, to weep over them (1992: 104-105).

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Stephen takes time to look back to what kind of human he has been. He wishes that he could have found the sins he has made and asks to be forgiven by God. In that prayer, Stephen finds that he is guilty.

Could it be that he, Stephen Dedalus, had done those things? His conscience sighed in answer. Yes, he had done them, secretly, filthily, time after time, and, hardened in sinful impenitence, he had dared to wear the mask of holiness before the tabernacle itself while his soul within was a living mass of corruption (1992: 105).

Such quotation indicates that in his past life, Stephen does not really care about the things he does right or wrong. He just passes it all by concerning less with the consequence of doing things. At that time of praying, he eventually realizes the sins he has done. Stephen’s expression of guilty in that prayer seems a bit hyperbolic. He calls himself ‘a living mass of corruption’ who ‘wear the mask of holiness’. This expression implies a very great feeling of guilty. Stephen can possibly feel that way because of his perception about God. In his mind, God is the thing that gives love unconditionally to everyone including Stephen. This view is proven by Stephen’s mind, “But he could not longer disbelieve in the reality of love, since God himself had loved his individual soul with divine love from all eternity” (1992: 115). When he does a sin, it might show that he fails to love God back.

Religiosity is a struggling journey to Stephen. He often questions it (shown by two quotations above that consist of question). He himself is in the journey to seek his personal attitude toward religion. It is clarified when he is having a talk with a friend in university.

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—… how your mind is supersaturated with the religion in which you say you disbelieve. Did you believe in it when you were at school? I bet you did. —I did, Stephen answered.

—And were you happier then? Cranly asked softly, happier than you are now, for instance?

—Often happy, Stephen said, and often unhappy. I was someone else then (1992: 185).

(P.S. The phrase “Cranly asked softly” and “Stephen said” are indirect expression. The rest of the conversation is direct ones.)

Stephen admits that he believes in religion when he is a student at school. He is even happy to be such person. However, in some other times he feels like being someone else. Hence, he is indeed a religious person with his sceptical thought and continuing struggle.

b. Characteristics of Stephen Dedalus in the University

Having finished his study at school, Stephen continues his education process in a university. The story about his life in university shows that he is not the same Stephen Dedalus anymore. His mother even gives comment on him when he takes a holiday at home, “—… and you’ll live to rue the day you set your foot in that place. I know how it has changed you” (1992: 135). Something inside him has changed. Some characteristics remain still, though. Those changes include his characteristics presented below.

b.1. Brave

During his years at school, Stephen is a very quiet and shy boy. He has problems in expressing the content of his mind. He mostly chooses to be silent if

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nobody asks him to say something. He even does not state his opinion toward the circumstance around him. Stephen seems like having a problem with self-confidence.

In Stephen’s new world in university, he tries to solve his problem of quietness. He starts to speak out his mind. This change is very significant that Stephen is able to talk long in a conversation with his friend below.

—This hypothesis, Stephen began. …

—This hypothesis, Stephen repeated, is the other way out: that though the same object may not seem beautiful to all people, all people who admire beautiful object find in it certain relations which satisfy and coincide with the stages themselves of all esthetic apprehension. These relations of the sensible, visible to you through one form and to me through another, must be therefore the necessary qualities of beauty. Now, we can return to our old friend Saint Thomas for another pennyworth of wisdom.

Lynch laughed.

—It amuses me vastly, he said, to hear you quoting him time after time like a jolly round friar. Are you laughing in your sleeve?

—McAlister, answered Stephen, would call my esthetic theory applied Aquinas. So far as this side of esthetic philosophy extends, Aquinas will carry me all along the line. When we come to the phenomena of artistic conception, artistic gestation, and artistic reproduction I require a new terminology and a new personal experience.

—Of course, said Lynch. After all Aquinas, in spite of his intellect, was exactly a good round friar. But you will tell me about the new personal experience and new terminology some other day. Hurry up and finish the first part.

—Who knows? said Stephen, smiling. Perhaps Aquinas would understand me better than you. He was a poet himself. He wrote a hymn for Maundy Thursday. It begins with the words Pange lingua gloriosi. They say it is the highest glory of the hymnal. It is an intricate and soothing hymn. I like it; but there is no hymn that can be put beside that mournful and majestic

processional song, theVexilla Regisof Venantius Fortunatus (1992: 161-162).

(P.S. The utterance “It amuses me vastly…sleeve?” was Lynch’s.)

Compared to Stephen’s attitude toward his friends at school, such conversation implies surprising change of characteristics. Stephen does not only solve

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his problem of quietness and shame, but he also expresses his opinion about something. He discusses it openly with his friend.

Stephen’s opinion on a topic indicates his cleverness. He has good background knowledge to discuss with his mates. Through this event, it can be said that Stephen has built his own self-confidence.

Although Stephen is a boy who is often alone during his time at school, he is not that independent. In the early part of the story, it is told that Stephen faces some problems when he first enters Clongowes since he is apart from home. He misses his mother pretty frequent, especially in the time when he is sick. The thing that Stephen waits most is holiday so that he can come home.

In the university, it seems like he also has changed this dependency on parents. He states it as below.

—… I do not fear to be alone or to be spurned for another or to leave whatever I have to leave. And I am not afraid to make a mistake, even a great mistake, a lifelong mistake, and perhaps as long as eternity too.

Cranly, now grave again, slowed his pace and said:

—Alone, quite alone. You have no fear of that. And you know what that word means? Not only to be separate from all others but to have not even one friend.

—I will take the risk, said Stephen (1992: 191).

(P.S. The clause ‘said Stephen’ is an indirect expression.)

Stephen’s statement represents his independence. He can stand as his own self. He encourages his bravery to lead his life as an independent being that is able to make decision on how his life should go. He takes the responsibility of his life that he consciously states his willingness to face the consequences.

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93 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION

This research works on the problem formulation that leads to the goal of the research stated in the title. It discusses about the repression toward students that happened at school. Therefore, this work starts the elaboration of that topic through analyzing the characteristics of several significant characters. Continuously, it examines the parts of school system that are used as the means of repression and how such repression is done toward the students.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man presents Stephen Dedalus as the

main character. Stephen is one of some clever students at Clongowes. He is also a critical boy who likes to question many things around him with curiosity. However, he seldom lets his questions out. He speaks very little to his friend. Besides, he is quite obedient in doing religious activities obliged by school. These characteristics gradually change when Stephen continues to a university. He indeed remains a clever and critical student. The development in this point is that Stephen is able to choose and state his own standpoint toward certain issue or discourse. Obviously, he turns into a much braver person that starts to speak out his mind and even discusses it with everyone. Due to his change to be open to discussion, Stephen’s religious life meets its challenges. He chooses not to care too much to the issue of religion. Religiosity is always a struggling journey to Stephen.

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Stephen’s friend, Fleming, is another student who is quite different from Stephen. He is an active boy who often turns into mischievous. At some other moments, he becomes a provocative student who is usually success in persuading his friends to do something. Fleming is one of few students who pay enough attention to Stephen. He cares about Stephen during their companionship at Clongowes.

The teachers of Clongowes vary one another. Two of them who contribute quite much in the story are Father Dolan and Father Arnall. Father Dolan is the prefect of the studies, the discipline patrolman. He is a very firm person with very little tolerance who is mostly rude to students. Due to the responsibility he takes, Father Dolan is an authoritarian. The other teacher, Father Arnall, is pretty fair in his action. He gives proper compensation to students’ action and is considered tolerant. However, he keeps silent while his student is unjustly punished by Father Dolan.

School is a symbolic father. According to psychoanalysis theory, a symbolic father plays a role to separate infant from the mother and teaches reality. In order to do that, a symbolic father must do repression. Hence, school also does repression toward its students. At Clongowes, it can be seen through the rules of the school and the relationship between students and teachers. Rules at Clongowes are the means of enforcing discipline. This discipline aims to show the students the reality where they have to live in. The importance of rules is also shown by the existence of the prefect of studies. School needs certain position with exact

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authority that is irresistible to any of school member for the sake of discipline enforcement.

Another part of the school system that flourishes action of repression is the relationship between students and teachers. In between, there is a certain power relation that aims to support discipline enforcement. In such relation, one must be subordinated and the other one owns authority upon it. At Clongowes, students are the subordinated. Teachers are considered superior to students. With such relationship, discipline can be enforced and students are under teachers’ authority.

Repression toward students told in the novel is presented in some cases. In several cases such as Stephen’s getting wrong punishment and Stephen’s activeness while studying in university shows the symptoms that emerges as the result of repression done through school authority and students-teachers relationship. School, attributed with its authority, forces the students to decline trouble by enforcing rules and giving punishment to those who break them. A top-down relationship that positions teachers as the superior is very effective to limit students’ freedom. They are obliged to obey their teachers.

Repression is also done by school through religious teaching. Some students’ doing smugging and Stephen’s guilty feeling for having an intercourse with prostitute are the symptoms that prove it. Catholicism values are taught intensively to Clongowes students’. They occupy Other position in these cases. Smugging or homosexual activity is done by the students due to the absence of girl at Clongowes. However, it is prohibited by Catholicism. A strict religious

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teaching represses students’ desire to choose their own action. Instead, they have to deal with judgement of guilty and punishment whenever they do so.

All students of Clongowes must follow religious routine regulated by school no matter how the condition of their personal faith is. Such action is repressing somehow. To Stephen, his repressed desire’s returning point is manifested through ignorance to religious issue. After a certain period of time being bound by rules of religion, he is able to find himself free to state his attitude toward it. Since Stephen considers that it does not contribute much in his life, he decides not to care too much about it.

Through this study, it can be seen that education, specifically the institution of school, presented in the novel represents a problematic reality. It shows that school as a symbolic father represses its students. Repression is inevitable. However, it is still able to be adjusted.

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Good, Carter V. ed.Dictionary of Education Third Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1973.

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Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren.Theory of Literature Third Edition. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1963.

Repression toward students at school in James Joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man.

REPRESSION TOWARD STUDENTS AT SCHOOL

IN JAMES JOYCE’S

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A

YOUNG MAN

REPRESSION TOWARD STUDENTS AT SCHOOL

IN JAMES JOYCE’S

A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A

YOUNG MAN

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Repression toward students at school in James Joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man.

REPRESSION TOWARD STUDENTS AT SCHOOL

IN JAMES JOYCE’S

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TENSIONS BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN BELIEFS AND VALUES, REFLECTED IN HENRY JAMES’ THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH.

THE USE OF PUPPET IN TEACHING SPEAKING TO YOUNG LEARNERS A CASE STUDY AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN BANDUNG.

A PORTRAIT OF TEACHER TALK IN EFL CLASSROOM INTERACTION A case study at the first grade of a senior high school in Pekanbaru.

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Repression toward students at school in James Joyce's a portrait of the artist as a young man

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