The significance of dark humor as revealed by Fred and George Weasley in J.K. Rowling`s Harry Potter series - USD Repository

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DARK HUMOR AS REVEALED BY FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY

   

  IN J.K. ROWLING’S HARRY POTTER SERIES AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

EKA UTAMI NINGSIH

  Student Number : 044214074

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DARK HUMOR AS REVEALED BY FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY

  i

  IN J.K. ROWLING’S HARRY POTTER SERIES AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

EKA UTAMI NINGSIH

  Student Number : 044214074

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010

  ii

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

  Yogyakarta, 27 Februari 2010 Eka Utami Ningsih

  

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried

with all my heart to do it well;

Whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted

myself completely;

  

In great aims and in small I have always

thoroughly been in earnest.

  

(Charles Dickens)

Because every wasted day becomes a wasted chance

You’re gonna wake up feeling sorry

  

Because life won’t wait

I guess it’s up to you

(Simple Plan)

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  For My Dad and Mom

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My biggest love and gratitude goes to Allah SWT, the only reason I am

alive, the only reason I am the way that I am now. I thank Him for every way He has

shown me in finishing another chapter of my life.

  I would like to express my love and gratitude for these following people without whom I will not be able to get to the point where I am now: I would thank advisor Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum. for her intellectual

insight, her faith in me and for being so patient to me. I truly appreciate her guidance,

advice and support in the process of making this thesis. I would thank my co-advisor

Modesta Luluk Artika Windrasti, S.S. for her guiding and understanding. I would

also like to thank all of the lectures and staffs of the Department English Letters for

helping me in all occasion, and to the staffs of USD library for helping me finding so

much information.

  I dedicated this hard work to my parents, Achmad Arifin and Sudjiah Sudiro

for guiding me, for their never-ending love and endless prayer for me and

encouraging me to finish everything that I have started. I just could not thank them

enough. I thank them for always having the faith in me.

  My gratitude also goes to all my best friends; the MIAs, Elizabeth Nita,

Danita Irianti, Arini Wulandari, Bertha Yenni Findriana and Yuli Satyawati for the

unforgettable moment we have created in this past 5 years. I thank Kharisma

Anggraini, Heny Puspasari, Ikhwan Ruslianto, Angga Fotolover and Juhendro for the

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time we have spent from elementary school up to the bitter sweet time we have in

Yogyakarta. Then, I thank all of my 4C boarding house mates, Mayang, Mba Linda,

Rina, Mba Indra, Winnie, Reno, Trie, Via, Anggie, Mila and Tia for helping me

remembering there is no the better place but home and their unbreakable bond of

sisterhood.

  Eka Utami Ningsih

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viii

 

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE .............................................................................................................................. i

APPROVAL PAGE ................................................................................................................... ii

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

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

DEDICATION PAGE ................................................................................................................v

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

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

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

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

  

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

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

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW .............................................................................8

A. Review of Related Studies ..........................................................................................8 B. Review of Related Theories ......................................................................................10 C. Theory of Character ..................................................................................................10

  1. Theory of Characterization ..................................................................................12

  2. Theory of Humor ..................................................................................................14

  3. Theory of Dark Humor .........................................................................................16 D. Theoretical Framework.............................................................................................19

  

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY........................................................................................20

A. Object of the Study ....................................................................................................20 B. Approach of the Study................................................................................................22 C. Method of the Study...................................................................................................23

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................26

A. The Description of Fred and George Weasley’s Characteristics ...............................27

  1. Identical and Inseprable. .......................................................................................27

  2. Amusing................................................................................................................29

  3. Wicked Sense of Humor .......................................................................................34

  4. Rude Attitude ........................................................................................................36

  B. How Fred and George Weasley’s Characteristics Reveal Dark Humor ....................38

  C. The Significance of Dark Humor in Harry Potter Series ..........................................45

  

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION................................................................................................47

BIBLIOGRAPHY .....................................................................................................................51

  

ABSTRACT

EKA UTAMI NINGSIH. The Significance of Dark Humor as Revealed by Fred

and George Weasley in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series. Yogyakarta:

Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2010.

  Character is one of the important elements in literary works as well as humor

since humor is one of the important parts of life. Literary works without humor is the

same as a life without passion; it is impossible, no matter how gloomy or dark the

story of a novel is. Humor is various, one example is dark humor; it is a kind of

humor which is morbid, ironic, and grotesquely comic. In J.K. Rowling’s Harry

Potter series, Fred and George Weasley are described as the twin characters with a

sense of humor. By analyzing the characteristics of the twin, their humor can be

concluded as dark humor.

  There are three problems that are formulated in this study. First, related to

the characterization of Fred and George Weasley as the minor characters. Second,

related to how the characteristics and the humor of Fred and George Weasley can be

considered as dark humor. The third and the last are discussing what the significance

of dark humor in Harry Potter series is.

  This study uses the formalistic approach. Therefore, some literary theories

are used to answer the first problem and the second problem and including the dark

humor theory.

  Based on the analysis, the results of the study are as follows. Firstly, it can

be concluded that the character of Fred and George Weasley is not only minor but

also flat. They are described as amusing twin having wicked-sense of humor, rude

attitude and identical appearance as well as inseparable. Dark humor has four basic

elements that are further used to prove that the humor of Fred and George Weasley is

containing dark humor. The first element is insensitivity which is found from the

characteristics of Fred and George Weasley who is amusing in all situations. Second

is paradox which can be seen from their characteristic as a couple with wicked-sense

of humor. It is considered as paradox because in a time, their humor is containing two

contrary features which are wicked and amusing in the same time. Third is cruelty,

their characteristics as a couple with rude attitude influences their humor which can

cause harm or put someone’s safety in danger. The last is absurdity which can be

found from the whole characteristics of the twin. In summary, some dark humor’s

elements, such as insensitivity, paradox, cruelty and absurdity that are found in the

humors that are revealed by Fred and George Weasley in Harry Potter series proves

that their humors are containing dark humor. Moreover, it proves that dark humor has

a very significant role in influencing the atmosphere in Harry Potter series.

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ABSTRAK

EKA UTAMI NINGSIH. The Significance of Dark Humor as Revealed by Fred

and George Weasley in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series. Yogyakarta: Sastra

Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2010.

  Tokoh merupakan salah satu elemen penting dalam karya sastra begitu juga

dengan humor karena humor merupakan salah satu bagian penting dalam kehidupan.

Karya satra tanpa humor sama halnya dengan hidup tanpa gairah; hal tersebut

sangatlah tidak mungkin, tidak perduli seberapa sedih atau kelam sebuah cerita novel.

Terdapat beberapa jenis humor dan salah satu contohnya adalah humor kelam; yaitu

humor yang mengandung hal-hal mengerikan, ironis dan keaneah-keanehan lucu.

Dalam novel seri Harry Potter karya J.K. Rowling, Fred dan George Weasley adalah

tokoh kembar yang memiliki sifat humoris. Dengan menganalisa karakteristik si

kembar akan ditemukan bahwa humor mereka bisa dikategorikan sebagai humor

kelam.

  Terdapat tiga masalah yang dirumuskan dalam studi ini. Yang pertama

berhubungan dengan penokohan Fred dan George Weasley sebagai tokoh minor.

Kedua berhubungan dengan bagaimana karakteristik dan humor Fred dan George

Weasley bisa dikategorikan sebagai humor kelam. Ketiga dan terakhir membahas

tentang signifikansi humor kelam dalam seri Harry Potter.

  Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan formalistik. Karenanya, beberapa teori

sastra digunakan untuk menjawab masalah pertama dan kedua termasuk teori humor

kelam.

  Berdasarkan analisis yang dilakukan, hasil dari studi adalah sebagai berikut.

Pertama, bisa disimpulkan bahwa tokoh Fred dan George Weasley tidak hanya tokoh

minor tapi juga datar. Mereka digambarkan sebagai saudara kembar yang lucu, humor

jahat, sikap yang kasar, dan sangat identik serta tidak terpisahkan satu sama lain.

Humor kelam memiliki empat elemen dasar yang kemudian digunakan untuk

membuktikan bahwa humor Fred dan George Weasley memiliki unsur-unsur humor

kelam. Elemen pertama adalah ketidaksensitifan yang bisa dibuktikan dari

karakteristik Fred dan George Weasley yang suka membuat lelucon, tidak perduli

bahwa mereka membuat lelucon di dalam situasi senang, sedih atau bahkan

berbahaya. Kedua adalah paradok yang bisa dilihat dari karakteristik mereka sebagai

dua orang yang memiliki sifat humoris yang jahat. Hal ini disebut paradok karena

dalam humor mereka terdapat dua hal yang saling bertentangan yaitu jahat dan lucu

dalam waktu yang bersamaan. Ketiga adalah kekejaman, karakteristik mereka sebagai

dua orang dengan sikap yang kasar mempengaruhi humor mereka yang bisa melukai

dan membahayakan seseorang.Yang terakhir adalah kemustahilan atau keabsurban

yang bisa ditemukan dalam keseluruhan karakteristik si kembar. Kesimpulannya,

beberapa elemen humor kelam, seperti ketidaksensitifan, paradok, kekejaman, dan

keabsurban yang ditemukan dalam humor yang diciptkan oleh Fred dan George

Weasley dalam seri Harry Potter membuktikan bahwa humor mereka mengandung

humor kelam. Kemudian, hal tersebut membuktikan bahwa humor kelam memiliki

signifikansi dalam mempengaruhi atmosfir cerita seri Harry Potter.

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Literary works have important role in real life. From literary works,

  people can learn about life itself. Literary works consist of moral messages, good values, and affects the way of people seeing life. However, the wrong interpretation toward literary works may result something that is bad in the way of people live in the world, even if the literary work is already considered as a good work. That is why, before people apply anything that they got from literary works to their lives, it is good for them to understand the literary works well first.

  Novel is one of the forms of literary works. To understand the novel deeply, people should pay attention to the elements of the novel. They are useful in order to understand the meaning of the story. The elements such as the plot, character and point of view help us to understand the story in detail. Through the elements of the novel, people will sense the feeling, get the idea and values and know the conflicts and the problems which occur in the novel.

  Here the writer sees that as one of the novel elements, character has a significant role to show the qualities of the novel. In novel, the author can talk about the character as well as through them or can arrange for us to listen when they talk to themselves (Forster, 1974: 58). According to Abrams in A Glossary of

  

Literary Terms (1993: 23) characters are the people presented in a dramatic or

  narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral,

  

1  

  2 dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say – the dialogue – and by what they do – the action.

  J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are a kind of phenomenon in literary field, not only in England where for the first time the book was published, but also worldwide. As a part of literature, a lot of papers, articles, thesis, and etc, have been written to discuss Harry Potter series. They discuss the intrinsic elements, such as the plot, character, atmosphere, point of view, up to the elements outside the novel, such as religion, social structure, social issues, etc. Even if, after the seventh and the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, was published, the euphoria around Harry Potter series does not stop, or perhaps, it will continue as long as there are readers who still keep reading the books.

  That is why the writer chose Harry Potter series to be her object of discussing in her undergraduate thesis. The more the writer reads the books, the more she finds interesting things to be discussed. Especially, the characters, in the novel, the writer sees that as one of the intrinsic elements, character is one of the interesting things that she can discuss. According to the writer as the reader, each character that appeared in Harry Potter series always has its own unique characteristics. It is does not matter, whether the character is major or minor.

  The articles that discuss characters in Harry Potter series mostly discuss the major characters, such as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley. The reason is that the major characters have more interesting qualities of characteristics to be discussed. However, in literary works we can find some kinds of characters. E.M. Forster, in Aspects of the Novel (1974: 46-54), introduced

  3 popular new terms about type of characters; they are flat and round characters. A flat character, Forster says, is built around ‘a single idea of quality’ and is presented without much individualizing detail, and therefore can be fairly adequately described in a single phrase or sentence. A round character is complex in temperament and represented with subtle particularity; such as a character, it is difficult to describe with any adequacy as a person in real life, and like real persons, is capable of surprising us.

  In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series the characters of Fred and George Weasley are the examples of minor characters but they are also prominent characters. They take a role in the whole story as the characters that have the importance in revealing humor. Are they the only characters that reveal humor in

  Harry Potter series? The answer is no. Humor has an important role in Harry Potter series. That is why J.K. Rowling needs more than Fred and George

  Weasley to gain humor in Harry Potter series. A literary critic, A.N. Wilson, a columnist for London Evening Standard, in ‘The Sunday Times’ states “There are not many writers who have J.K’s Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep – openly, with tears splashing – and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes…” (http://entertaiment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/children/a

  ,

  rticle2139573.ece   2007). That statement proves that the humor that J.K Rowling created in Harry Potter series can be considered as a good humor, and Fred and George Weasley have a role in gaining it and make them as the prominent characters.

  4 Moreover, the characters of Fred and George Weasley are not only minor characters but also flat characters. They are static and not dynamic. They are remaining and not changed by circumstances; they move through circumstances. However, in novel that is complex often requires flat characters as well as the round characters which have many realistic traits and are relatively fully developed by the author (Forster, 1974: 49). The similar thing is also stated by James Patrick Kelly in his essay You and Your Character (1991) that every story needs some flat characters and many successful stories, for instance Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, have nothing but flat characters. In the other words, as flat characters, Fred and George Weasley are not supposed to be considered as just the static and not dynamic characters which are not important and much closer to the word ‘boring’. E.M. Forster emphasized this matter that flat characters are not in themselves as big achievement as round ones, and also that they are best when they are comic. A serious or tragic flat character is apt to be a bore (1974: 50). From that statement, the writer can conclude that the characters of Fred and George Weasley are in the best zone of flat characters, they are not boring at all. As the opposite, they offer the humor toward the Harry Potter series.

  Shortly, it will be interesting to discuss humor as represented on Fred and George Weasley’s characteristics. Through the characteristics of Fred and George Weasley the writer will be lead to a kind of humor that they reveal. From some of their characteristics and the way they reveal humor in Harry Potter series, the writer can see that somehow their humor can be considered as dark humor. According to Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, Dark humor which

  5 is originally known as black humor for the first time is translated from French,

  

humour noir , this kind of humor is marked by the use of morbid, ironic, or

  grotesquely comic episodes that ridicule human folly (1995: 144). In addition, the reason why the writer chose to analyze the whole series of Harry Potter is because Fred and George Weasley are minor characters, so they are only appearing in certain settings which is not much in a single book of the series, and they are also flat characters which are not changing from the very first of the series up to the end of the series, so if the writer analyze thes whole series, it will not make any differences for her as if she analyzes a single book of the series. However, by analyzing the whole series she will have a broad scope of data about the characteristics of Fred and George Weasley.

B. Problem Formulation 1.

  What are the characteristics of Fred and George Weasley? 2. How do Fred and George Weasley’s characteristics reveal dark humor in

  Harry Potter series? 3.

  What is the significance of dark humor in Harry Potter series? C.

   Objectives of the Study

  This thesis is made to identify the characteristics of Fred and George Weasley then to prove that their characters are not only minor characters but also flat characters. Besides, the objective of the study is also to find out that their characteristics are able to reveal humor in the story and make their characters as

  6 the prominent minor characters. Later, by discussing those things the writer will be able to find out what kind of humor they reveal in the series. So, the reader of

  Harry Potter series will be able to understand more about the characteristics of Fred and George Weasley and their humor.

D. Definition of Terms

  To avoid misunderstanding and to help the readers understand the study, there are several terms that have to be clarified.

  1. Character According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms (1993: 23) characters are the person 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 – the dialogue – and by what they do – the action.

  2. Dark Humor According to Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, Dark

  Humor or Black Humor is a kind of humor which is marked by the use of morbid, ironic, or grotesquely comic episodes that ridicule human folly (1995: 144). The term of Black Humor for the first time is introduced by the French Surrealist Andre Breton which is published in his Anthologie de l’humour noir in 1940. The reason why the writer prefers Dark Humor rather than Black Humor as the title of her undergraduate thesis because as Breton said ‘until then the term had meant nothing, unless someone imagined jokes about black people’

  7 (http://www.answers.com/topic/anthology-of-black-humor), so to avoid ambiguity of the term Black Humor the writer prefers Dark Humor.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW E. Review of Related Studies J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series have redefined commercially success

  since the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone which in American version entitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was published in June 26, 1997. Since that day, Rowling has drawn surprise and even criticism. A lot of essays about the novels were written. Those essays discuss almost all of the elements of fiction that make up in Harry Potter series. The writer has looked for some essays that discuss Fred and George Weasley character and their relation to the humor in Harry Potter series.

  Below is one the essay about the character Fred and George Weasley in

  

Harry Potter series written by Lisa Waite Bunker. Bunker herself is a librarian for

  the Columbus Branch of the Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Arizona. She is also an editor for some Harry Potter fan sites, for example is Accio Quote! and

  

Harry Potter Lexicon which are already praised and admitted by critics and even

  J.K. Rowling herself. Bunker’s writing entitled Fred and George Weasley concerns about Fred and George Weasley as the characters who are significant in revealing humor in Harry Potter series.

  Mischief managed! The Weasley twins are the staunch enemies

  of pretension, authority, and pessimism. Their weapons? A pointed, wicked sense of humor and inventive, original charmwork coupled with a good business sense (Bunker, http://hp-lexicon/HPL Fred and George Weasley.mht ).

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  9 Based on Bunker’s opinion about the characteristics of Fred and George Weasley, the writer agree that revealing humor is the main role of them.

  Moreover, in her writing, Bunker indicated small pieces about what kind of humor that the Twins reveal; it is a kind of wicked sense of humor. Besides that, Bunker also mentioned that ‘inventive’ is one of the characteristics of Fred and George Weasley. This information, indeed very important for the writer, and perhaps this information can be used for the further analysis; about the characteristic and humor that related to the Fred and George Weasley characters.

  Here, the writer also put another article which discussed the genre of Harry Potter. This article is taken from New York Times published on July 16, 2005 written by Michiko Kakutani, she is a reporter for New York Times since 1979, and since 1983 she became a highly influential literary critic for New York Times.

  In addition to being a bildungsroman, of course, the Harry Potter books are also detective stories, quest narratives, moral fables, boarding school tales and action-adventure thrill rides, and Ms. Rowling uses her tireless gift for invention to thread these genres together, while at the same time taking myriad references and tropes (borrowed from such disparate sources as Shakespeare, Dickens, fairy tales, Greek myths and more recent works like "Star Wars") and making them her own (Kakutani, http://www.nytimes.com/books/16choc.html?n=top/reference/

  TimesTopic/People/R/Rowling.J.K ) That article is not discussing about humor in Harry Potter series.

  However, it does not mean that humor is not part of Harry Potter series. Kakutani just concerned on main genres that J.K. Rowling had adopted from some previous author; such as Dickens and Shakespeare. Rowling also adopted some characters from fairy tales and myths, especially Greek Myths related to the ‘magic’

  10 characters that Rowling developed in Harry Potter series. The writer uses this information as the support for her opinion humor in Harry Potter series is less important, and the characters that have importance in revealing humor also less important, and well known as the minor characters.

  Different from those two studies above, the writer is focusing in Fred and George Weasley characters as the characters which are prominent in revealing humor in Harry Potter series, plus the writer is focusing to the humor much deeper. The writer tries to find out what kind of humor that Fred and George Weasley reveal in the series.

F. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Character

  Character is one of the elements of novel that has a significant role to show the qualities of that novel. According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary

  

Terms (1993: 23) characters are the person 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 – the dialogue – and by what they do – the action.

  Characters in a novel are divided into ‘major’ and ‘minor’ or ‘secondary’ character based on the role the character serves in the novel (Henkle, 1977: 87- 89). Major can be the center of the story. He or she is the most important character in the story. Usually, the acts of the story are focused on this character from the beginning to the ending part. The core of the story is highlighted to these

  11 character’s experiences. While minor or secondary characters appear in a certain setting, just necessarily to become the background for the major characters. Their roles are less important than those of the major characters because the focal experiences of the novel are taken place among the major characters (1977: 23).

  According to E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel in fiction you will encounter two types of characters called “round” and “flat” (1974: 46-54): a.

  Round Characters Round characters are usually the major figures in a story. They have many realistic traits and are relatively fully developed by the author. For this reason they are often given the names hero or heroin. Round characters possess many individual and unpredictable human traits they may be considered as dynamic; that is, they demonstrate their capacity to change or to grow (Forster, 1974: 51-54).

  b.

  Flat Characters Flat characters are essentially undistinguishable from their group or class.

  Therefore they are not individual, but representative. They are usually minor characters, although not all minor characters are flat. They are mostly useful and structural in the stories. Usually they stay the same; they are static, and not dynamic like round characters. They are not developed, and because they are not central to the plot they do not change or grow (Forster, 1974: 46-50).

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2. Theory of Characterization

  According to Rohrberger and Woods (1971: 20), characterization is a process that is used by the author to create a character. The author cannot illustrate directly all about the character in describing them because it will make the story long and boring. Therefore, the reader in order to understand the character, have to make a conclusion by themselves about the character from a story.

  Murphy in his book Understanding Unseen introduced nine ways of how author reveals the character’s personality to the readers: a.

  Personal Description It is about the description of a person’s appearance and clothes from the author’s point of view. The person appearance can be description of face, skin, eyes, and so on. The author can describe clearly using his point of view about what the characters are alike and he or she can also tell the readers the details about the characters (Murphy, 1972: 161).

  b.

  Character as Seen by Another Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe him or her through the eyes and opinion of another (Murphy, 1972: 162). The other characters in the story tell what they see from the other characters that they encounter.

  c.

  Speech The author can give us an insight into the other character of one of the person in the book through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks,

  13 whenever he is in a conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving us clues to his character (Murphy, 1972: 164).

  d.

  Past Life By letting the reader learn something about a person’s past life, the author can give us a clue to events that have help to shape a person’s character (Murphy,

  1972: 166). This can be done by direct comment by the author through the person’s thought in his conversation or through the medium of another person.

  e.

  Conversation of Others The author can give us clues to a person’s character through the conversation of other people and the things they say about him (Murphy, 1972:

  167).

  f.

  Reaction The author can give us a clue to a person’s character by letting us know how that person reacts to various situation and events. By this characterization the reader might expect to find the quality of the characters in dealing with various situations and events they encounter (Murphy, 1972: 168).

  g.

  Direct Comment The author can describe one’s character direction. It is possible for the author to describe by commenting a person’s character in the story directly.

  Usually the author gives is opinion about the character in the story itself (Murphy, 1972: 170).

  14 h.

  Thoughts The author can give direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about.

  (Murphy, 1972: 171). i.

  Mannerisms The author can describe one’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies that may also tell us something about his character (Murphy, 1972: 172).

3. Theory of Humor

  According to Roberts and Jacobs (1987: 254- 255), there is no two critics agree on what exactly makes people laugh, but all agree that laughter is essential in a person’s psychological well-being. Laughter is an unpredictable action; what a person finds amusing today will not move him or her tomorrow. The causes of laughter are complicated and difficult to analyze and isolate. While scholars still believe in theories of superiority and hostility and of surprise and incongruity, the twenty-first century's mass media provides the world with so many different kinds of humor that few scholars try to make observations about all humor. Instead, they study humor to gain insights into their particular areas of expertise.

  For obvious reasons, performers, comedians, public speakers, and advertisers are interested in the features or the characteristics of humor. They want to know what makes people laugh so that they can create and re-create such situations. The historian Joseph Boskin (1997: 180) collects joke cycles, what he calls comic zeitgeists, and uses their popularity as data for revealing Americans' preoccupations and attitudes.

  15 Modern literary critics often focus on this kind of humor as they work with deconstructionism, postmodernism, and magical realism. They have long defined satire (which often includes elements of irony and wit) as humor designed for the specific purpose of convincing readers and viewers of the need for some kind of action or a change in attitude and beliefs. On the other hand, black humor or dark humor (also referred to as gallows humor, absurd humor, existentialism, and film noir) illustrates the futility of looking for easy and neat answers to the tragedies of life. In such humor, the lines between fantasy and reality and between tragedy and comedy keep shifting. People laugh because they do not know what else to do. The laughter is itself a testament to the strength of the human spirit in showing that people can laugh in spite of bewilderment, death, and chaos.

  Linguists, especially computer programmers working with artificial intelligence and translation, study jokes because their abbreviated scripts leave listeners to fill in the mundane details that "go without saying." Many jokes provide an even greater challenge for computers because they are designed to lead listeners to interpret the story along mundane lines, but then comes the climax or the punch line, which makes listeners laugh in surprise as they realize they have been led "down the garden path."

  As indicated by these examples, the humor research of the future is likely to focus on particular kinds of humor as created and received by individuals in particular situations. And as the world grows smaller and people are forced to communicate with and adapt to people with different customs and beliefs, there will probably be increased interest in understanding both the bonding and the out-

  16 bonding as well as the release of frustration that comes when people laugh together. ( http://science.jrank.org/pages/9718/Humor-Other-Views.html )

4. Theory of Dark Humor

  Initially the term of Dark Humor is introduced by the French Surealist Andre Breton. This term is used in his book, entitled Anthologie de l’humour noir in 1940. That is why, the first time the term is translated into English, the target language uses Black Humor as the translation from the word ‘noir’ which means black (color). However, the term of Black Humor is containing ambiguity since people think that Black Humor is related to black people, just as what Breton said ‘until then the term had meant nothing, unless someone imagined jokes about black people’ (http://www.answers.com/topic/anthology-of-black-humor). So, to avoid any ambiguity, today people prefer to use the term of Dark Humor rather than Black Humor, it is proven that some modern books that are recently published are using the term of Dark Humor as the reference to l’humour noir in French language.

  According to Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, Dark Humor or Black Humor is a kind of humor which is marked by the use of morbid, ironic, or grotesquely comic episodes that ridicule human folly (1995: 144). In

  

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, it was stated that black humor, in literature,

  drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony.

  17 Black humor uses devices often associated with tragedy and is sometimes equated with tragic farce. For example, Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove; or, How I

  Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1963) is a terrifying comic

  treatment of the circumstances surrounding the dropping of an atom bomb, while Jules Feiffer's comedy Little Murders (1965) is a delineation of the horrors of modern urban life, focusing particularly on random assassinations. The novels of such writers as Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, John Barth, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth contain elements of black humor ( http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0807778.html ).

  In other words, generally, Dark Humor is expressing insensitivity, paradox, cruelty, absurdity. So, any humor which contains those elements is considered as Dark Humor.

  a.

  Insensitivity Roberts and Jacobs (1987) said in their book, that incongruity can be included as one of the laughter elements along with the tragic farce that is caused by some reasons and insensitivity is a characteristic which is actually on the list.

  b.

  Paradox According to Abrams, paradox is a statement which seems on its face to be self-contradictory or absurd yet turns out to make good sense. Moreover, Abrams explains that paradox encompass all deviations of qualification of common perceptions or commonplace opinions.

  18 c.

  Cruelty Humor which contains violence can be seen as cruel. Especially, the joke that is created which causes harm or put someone’s life in danger or as what Roberts and Jacobs said in their book, Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, is the part of farce; a condition when a great deal of physical abuse takes places. The incongruity of such situation causes laughter and one’s safety from personal consequence-together with the insulation from pain of the participants-prevents the interference of more grave or even horrified response (1987:254).

  d.

  Absurdity Absurdity, according to Abrams is the situation that has quality of being absurd. A situation which is not reasonable or contains double sense that is grotesquely comic and also irrational and non-consequential (1993:1) G.

   Theoretical Framework

  The focus of this thesis is on one of the most important elements in the novel, it is character. Just like the writer has explained that the character that will be discussed is not only one character but two characters; they are Fred and George Weasley. Those characters are created for any circumstances, and the theories above will help the writer to answer the problems that have been formulated. The first is to identify and find out what sort of characters they are, and the second is to find out how the characteristics that have been characterized reveal humor in the series, and then through their humor the writer will be able to

  19 find out what kind of humor that they reveal in Harry Potter series. After that the writer will find the significance of that humor in Harry Potter series.

  The theories that the writer uses are the theory of character, the theory of characterization, theory of humor, and theory of dark humor. Theory of character will help the writer to identify what types of the character Fred and George Weasley are, whether they are major or minor and round or flat. The theory of characterization will be useful for the writer in order to find out the characteristics of the characters textually in story. Theory of humor is used because it is related to the significance of Fred and George Weasley in revealing humor. By using this theory, the writer will be able to explain how their characteristics are able to reveal humor in the story. Then after the writer has found out the humor that the characters revealed, by using the theory of dark humor, the writer will be able to find out the type of humor that Fred and George Weasley revealed by using some elements that express dark humor that are contained in their humor and then to find out the significance of dark humor in Harry Potter series.