Narrator and feminism in Banerjee Divakaruni`s The Palace of Illusion : a study of feminist narratology - USD Repository

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NARRATOR AND FEMINISM IN BANERJEE
DIVAKARUNI’STHE PALACE OF ILLUSION: A STUDY OF
FEMINIST NARRATOLOGY

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

By
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA
Student Number: 094214102

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014

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NARRATOR AND FEMINISM IN BANERJEE
DIVAKARUNI’STHE PALACE OF ILLUSION: A STUDY OF
FEMINIST NARRATOLOGY

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

in English Letters

By
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA
Student Number: 094214102

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2014

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“A flower does not think of competing to the
flower next to it. It just blooms.”
-Flower in the Sun-

“A problem becomes a problem only if you
believe it to be so. And often others see you as
you see yourself.”
-Krishna-

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For
All Mother’s Love
Around The World

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I address the first gratitude to my undergraduate thesis advisor Dra. A. B.
Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D for her time, advice and assistance in this work. I also
thank P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph.D for being a supportive Co-Advisor.
The next person to thank is Kenan Fabri Hartanto for his willingness to be
an unofficial advisor. He is the one who introduced narratology tomeat the first
time and lent some books related to the subject.
I give my deepest gratitude to Bapak Agus Widiatmoko and Ibu Erliana
Suci Rahayufor the never ending lessons to become a man. Thanks to Bhimart
Widhi Restu for the assistance at home.
I would like to thank friends in UKM LC where my learning to see the
world begin. It shall also go to Media Sastra for unbelievable experiences to give
a word called endure. Big thanks are addressed to the whole family of JAKSA
(Jalinan Akrab Sastra) for the learning to be a man with others. I am grateful to
Geng Bunga Matahari, Teater Kepik, Swager, and Hulo for the stories being
performed on and behind the stages.
Gratitude also goes to all of my friends in RPC: Samsol, Dhika, Hendra,
Theo, Dinda, and Neng Uci, for the happiness and sadness in a friendship. I also

need to say thanks to my fellows during my study in English Letters Department:
Bli Putu, Mov, Bea, Panjul, Putri, Agnes, Yanti, Intan, Yuni, Lidia, Vince, Refa,
Pinka, Retha, Etri, Febi, Anik, Lolo, Richard, Adit, Wowok, Mov, Bea,

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Indra,Dedy, Pucil, Ubed, Titus, Dita, Samson, Audy, Dito, Aya, Adit Cinta, Mbak
Irene baby, Agung Gondez, Herman, Aryo, Anggit, Alwi, Mujiand many others.
And also thanks to Tombo Gelo Dang Dut orchestra.
Lovely, thanks are addressed to Bonaventura Andhiko Aji Tresadi for
being a brother. Thanks to Geng Kaliwaru Bersatu: Haryo, Victor, Fauzan, Kenan,
and Adoel, for the place given. Thanks to Sugeng Utomo for the blossom
inspiration. I give a deep gratitude to Maria Puspitasari Munthe for being a friend,

simply a friend to share every little thing with, no matter what.
At last, I thank Krishna, Jesus, Muhamad, and Sidharta for the meaning of
life. Thanks to God for everything and everyone I have mentioned.

Sakha Widhi Nirwa.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................. ii
APPROVAL PAGE ....................................................................................... iii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE.................................................................................. iv

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH.............. v
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................. vi
MOTTO PAGE .............................................................................................. vii
DEDICATION PAGE.................................................................................... viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT............................................................................. ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... xi
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... xiii
ABSTRAK ...................................................................................................... xiv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1
A. Background of the Study...................................................................... 1
B. Problem Formulation ........................................................................... 3
C. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................ 4
D. Definition of Terms.............................................................................. 4
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................. 6
A. Review of Related Studies ................................................................... 6
B. Review of Related Theories ................................................................. 7
1. Theory of Narratology.............................................................. 7
2. Theory of Narrative Situation .................................................. 9
3. Theory of Point of View and Focalization............................... 10
4. Theory of Plot .......................................................................... 12

5. Theory of Feminist Criticism ................................................... 15
6. Theory of Feminist Narratology............................................... 17
C. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................ 19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ............................................................. 21
A. Object of the Study............................................................................... 21
B. Approach of the Study ......................................................................... 22
C. Method of the Study............................................................................. 23
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS .......................................................................... 25
A. Plot Structure........................................................................................ 25
1. The First Climatic Peak............................................................ 26

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2. The Second Climatic Peak ....................................................... 30
3. The Third Climatic Peak .......................................................... 37
4. The Fourth Climatic Peak ........................................................ 42
B. Position of The Narrator....................................................................... 46
1. Narrator Position in the First Passage ...................................... 46
a. Narrative Level................................................................... 46
b. Narrator and Point of View ................................................ 48
2. Narrator Position in the Second Passage.................................. 52
a. Narrative Level................................................................... 52
b. Narrator and Point of View ................................................ 54
3. Narrator Position in the Third Passage .................................... 58
a. Narrative Level................................................................... 58
b. Narrator and Point of View ................................................ 60
4. Narrator Position in Fourth Passage......................................... 65
a. Narrative Level................................................................... 66
b. Narrator and Point of View ................................................ 67
C. Plot, Position of Narrator, and Feminist Criticism Issue ..................... 69
1. Plot and Feminist Criticism...................................................... 69
2. Narrator Position and Feminist Criticism ................................ 75
a. Narrator .............................................................................. 75
b. Point of View ..................................................................... 78
c. Narrative Level................................................................... 80
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION..................................................................... 88
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 94

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ABSTRACT
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA. Narrator and Feminism in Banerjee Divakaruni’s
The Palace of Illusion: A Study of Feminist Narratology. Yogyakarta:
Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University,
2014.
Mahabharata is Indian epic that lives in the Indian’s heart and mind since
500 BC. This literary heritage has huge effects to many aspects of Indian politics,
religion, culture, social, and education. One of Indian novelists, Chitra Lekha
Banerjee Divakaruni, rewrites the epic to her novel titled The Palace of Illusion.
In her novel, she criticizes the significance of women characters within the epic of
Mahabharata. In the story world, the author is represented by the narrator as the
storyteller of the story. In this research, the way the narrator tells the story in order
to redefine the women within the story world becomes the focus points of the
discussion.
The discussion deals with three problem points that are formulated into
three questions. The first one is the question of plot structure of the story. The
second is the question about the position of the narrator within the storyworld.
The last is the question of the relation between the plot structure and the position
of the narrator contributes in redefining women in the storyworld.
As a library research, the main sources and primary data of the research are
taken from books. The writer takes close reading method as the first step of the
research in orderto understand the novel well. Then, the writer draws the plot
structure based on Problem-Solution patterns. Afterward, the writer describes the
position of the narrator based on narrative situation. The last step is relating the
plot structure and the position of the narrator to feminism in order to find out the
contribution of plot structure and position of the narrator in redefining the women
in the story world.
The result of the analysis toward the plot structure reveals the four climatic
peaks on four passages. Looking at the pattern in the four climatic peaks, it
emphasizes that the women characters have more struggle than man characters in
“loss” experiences. The constant experiences show that women in the story are
suffering. On the other side, the constant experiences show that women are
powerful and tough in facing those experiences. The position of the narrator,
primary, is overt first person internal narrator who uses all types of points of view.
The narrative uses three various narrative levels, there are extradiagetic, diagetic,
and metadiagetic. Looking at the narrator, point of view and the relation between
the extra diagetic level and the embedded story,it could be said that this narrative
is autodiegetic narrative in private narrative level. As a strategy in narration, the
private level is used to compromise the label of women’s writing, while the
narrator and the narrative levels in the narrative are used in order to negotiate and
challenge the public domain narrative level that is identical with man’s writing.

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ABSTRAK
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA. Narator and Feminisme dalam karya Banerjee
Divakaruni The Palace of Illusion: Sebuah Kajian Feminist Narratology.
Yogyakarta: Program studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma, 2014.
Mahabharata adalah sebuah epos yang tinggal dalam hati dan pikiran
masyarakat India sejak 500 tahus sebelum masehi. Warisan karya sastra ini
memiliki pengaruh yang besar terhadap banyak aspek politik, agama, budaya,
sosial dan pendidikan. Seorang novelis India, Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni,
menulis ulang epos tersebut kedalam novel berjudul The Palace of Illusion. Di
dalam novelnya, dia mengkritisi signifikansi tokoh perempuan dalam epos
Mahabharata. Dalam dunia cerita, penulis direpresentasikan oleh narator sebagai
pencerita cerita tersebut. Dalam penilitian ini, cara narator menceritakan cerita
dalam rangka mendefinisikan ulang perempuan dalam cerita menjadi titik fokus
diskusi.
Diskusi ini bersinggungan dengan tiga titik masalah yang dirumuskan
kedalam tiga pertanyaan. Yang pertama adalah pertanyaan perihal struktur plot
dalam cerita. Yang kedua adalah pertanyaan mengenai posisi narator dalam cerita.
Yang terakhir adalah bagaimana hubungan antara struktur plot dan posisi narrator
berkontribusi dalam pendefinisian ulang perempuan dalam cerita.
Sebagai sebuah kajian pustaka, sumber dan data primer dari penelitian ini
diambil dari beberapa buku. Penulis mengambil metode pembacaan mendalam
sebagai langkah pertama dalam memahami novel dengan baik. Kemudian, penulis
menggambarkan struktur plot berdasarkan pola Problem-Solution. Selanjutnya,
penulis mendeskripsikan posisi narator berdasarkan situasi naratif. Langkah
terakhir merelasikan struktur plot dan posisi narator terhadap feminisme dalam
menemukan kontribusi dari struktur plot dan posisi narator pada pendefinisian
ulang perempuan dalam cerita.
Hasil dari analisa terhadap struktur plot mengungkap empat puncak klimaks
dalam kempat bagian cerita. Melihat pola pada keempat puncak klimaks, tokoh
perempuan memiliki penderitaan yang lebih banyak dibandingkan tokoh laki-laki
dalam pengalaman "loss". Pengalaman konstan menunjukkan bahwa tokoh
perempuan dalam cerita menderita. Di sisi lain, pengalaman konstan
membuktikan bahwa perempuan adalah sosok yang kuat dan ulet dalam
menghadapi pengalaman tersebut. Posisi narrator secara primer adalah narator
overt orang pertama internal yang menggunakan semua tipe sudut pandang.
Narasi tersebut menggunakan tiga jenis level narasi, yaitu extradiagetic, diagetic,
dan metadiagetic. Menilik pada narator, sudut pandang, dan relasi antara level
extradiagetic dan embedded story, dapat dikatakan bahwa narasi ini adalah narasi
autodiegetic pada level narasi privat. Sebagai sebuah strategi dalam narasi, level
privat digunakan untuk mengkompromikan label dari tulisan perempuan,
sementara narator dan level narasi digunakan dalam rangka menegosiasikan dan
melawan kekuasaan level publik yang identic dengan tulisan laki-laki.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A.

Background of the Study
Mahabharata is anIndian epic. As an epic, this narrative is a long verse

narrative on a serious subject. It told in a formal and elevated style, and centered
on a heroic whose actions depends on a fate, tribe, nation or human race (Abrams,
2003: 76). The epic story tells about a big war among brothers of the Kuru
dynasty,the Pandavas and Kauravas. The Pandava represents the good side with
their good characteristics and the Kaurava represents the bad side with their bad
characteristics. In the end of the story, Pandavas wins the war and takes their
redemption way in the Himalaya Mountains, whileKauravas dies. Mahabharata
lives inthe Indian’s heartand mind, since the Harappan world era at C500 BC.
This tale is one ofthe Sanskrit epicsin the scripture of Hindu called Veda. This
literary heritage has huge effects to many aspectsof Indian politics, religion,
culture, social, and education(Keay, 2000: 2-4).
One of Indian novelists, Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni writes her
novelThe Palace of Illusionas a criticism of Mahabharata. In her childhood, her
parentstaught her about Hinduism by telling the story of Mahabharata like most
children in India (Divakaruni, 2008: xiii).In The Palace of Illusion,
Divakarunishows her dissatisfaction to the old Mahabharata,especially in women

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characters, by usingthe different way to tell about the story. Divakaruninotes
explicitly her dissatisfaction of the old tale of Mahabharata:
But always, listening to the stories of the Mahabharata as a young girl in
the lantern-lit evenings at my grandfather’s village home, or later, poring
over the thousand-page leather-bound volume in my parents’ home in
Kolkata, I was left unsatisfied by the portrayals of the women. It wasn’t
as though the epic didn’t have powerful, complex women character that
affected the action in major ways (Divakaruni, 2008: xiv).
The old tale is man-centered. It is shown by the fact that most of the heroes or the
villains aremen. On the other hand, the women characters are considered as
additional players.
But in some way, they remained shadowy figures, their thought and
motives mysterious, their emotions portrayed only when the affected the
lives of the male heroes, their roles ultimately subservient to those of
their fathers or husbands, brother or son (Divakaruni, 2008: xiv).
This criticism inspires her to write her Mahabharata in a woman’s point of view
by taking a woman character as the one who hasan important role. In her novel,
the woman character becomes the storyteller.
Taking a glimpse to the comment above, the author‘s tendency to write the
new version of Mahabharata is to redefine constructed gender role in the story.
The tendency leads The Palace of Illusions to become a feminist criticism. This
criticism aims to review the patriarchalsystem in the old Mahabharata. The
tendency becomes in a line with the tendency of Virginia Woolf, precursor of
feminist, found in A Room of One’s Own.Julia Hoydis analyzesmain character’s
point of view in order to find the feminine identity of the novel. She concludes
that the main character represents the struggle of women in Indian society. Julia
Hoydis’s research makes the gender issue in this novel stronger.

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According to those points mentioned above, this work has some indications
referring to feminist ideology. This research questions howthe writer inserts the
ideology. The answers must deal with the technique of narrative. In order to find
the technique, this research focuses on the narrator as the storyteller and the way
the narrator tells the story.
Based on Fludernik’s statement, narrative means narrator and story (1999:
4). It means that when the authors create their narrative, they consider two
important elements of narrative:the story and the narrator. The story is the object;
the narrator is the subject; and the author is the creator of both. If the author is the
God and the story is the world, then the narrator will become the prophet. God
uses the prophet to show his/her existence in the world. With the same idea, the
author usesthe narrator to present his/her existence in the narrative. Therefore,the
narrator could represent the author’spoint of view and the ideology that is
intended inside the narrative.
In this research, the writer analyzesThe Palace of Illusionsby using the
perspective of feminist narratology. The aim of using feminist narratology is to
find the narrative discourse of the story.By figuring out the narrative discourse,
the way of the author inserts the ideology into the novel can be comprehended.
B.

Problem Formulation

1.

Whatarethe plot structures of the story based on Problem-Solution patterns?

2.

Where is the position of the narrator among the plot structures?

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3.

How does the narratorredefinewomen through the plot structures and
narrator position?

C.

Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem formulation above, there are three objectives of the

study. The first objective is to identify the plot structure of the story. The second
objective is to revealthe position of the narrator among the plot structures. The
third objective is to find out howthe narratorredefines women in The Palace of
Illusion by Banerjee Divakaruni.
D.

Definition of Terms
In this research, the writer uses some terminologies. To avoid

misunderstanding, the writer provides some definition of the terminologies. The
terminologies are as follows:
1.

Narrative
Narrative is the representation of at least two real or fictive events or

situations in a time sequence, neither of which presupposes or entails the other
(Price, 1982:4). Another definition comes from Suzanne Keen with her book
Narrative Form, which defines narrative as “what the narrator does and what the
narrator tells” (Keen, 2003:1).

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2.

Narrator
The narrator is someone who is responsible for acts of telling. It can be

characters when they are positioned inside the story world, but when it is outside
the story world, it is not the character (Keen, 2003:30).

3.

Narrative Situation
Narrative situation is the combination of narrator, perspective, and narrative

level involved in first-person and third-person fictional narration (Keen, 2003:30).
4.

Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism is a “product” of women’s movement in 1960s. This
movement dealt with the significance of the images of women in literature,
and saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority and their
coherence (Barry, 2009: 116).

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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A.

Review of Related Studies
In this part of the research, the writer discusses briefly other studies. The

writer has two other studies to be discussed. The first is a study withthe same
object of the studyas this research’s and the second is the study with the same
basic approach as this research’s.
In a gender study essay entitled A Palace of Her Own: Feminine Identity in
The Great Indian Story, Julia Hoydis from University of Cologne, Germany,
analyze the feminine identity in the novel The Palace of Illusions in order to find
the feminine identity of Indian society.In her research, Hoydis tries to find the
position of Mahabharata in Indian society. Then, she analyzes the point of view
of one heroine in the novel, Panchaali, and finds some struggles of the character.
As the result, Hoydis states that as a character in the novel, Panchaali can
represent the struggle and the rebellion of feminine identity in Indian society.
One of undergraduate theses that discusses about the narrator is Kenan Fabri
Hartanto’s thesis. He is one of the students in Sanata Dharma University. In his
research, he usesa narrative study to find out the position of narrator in Jaroslav
Hazek’s The Good Soldier Schweik. In his research, he usesthe theory of the
narrative situation to find out the narrator position. He finds that such narrative
situation has a close relation with the position of the narrator in a story because
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the narrator is the central of narrative situation. He also finds that narrative
situation that is used by the author in the novel gives such satirical effect to the
story.
This research discusses similar literary work with Julia Hoydis’s essay and
similar topic with Kenan’s thesis. Although this research has some similar points
with the other studies, especially in Kenan’s topic, this research tries to go further
by analyzing the narrative discoursein order to reveal the contribution of structural
analysis to the cultural context of the novel. The writerdiscusses how the
narrativediscourse of the novel supports the gender issues stated by the author in
the author’s notes that is affirmed by Julia Hoydis in her essay.
B.

Review of Related Theories
In order to answer the problem formulation stated above, the writer

usessome narratology theories in this research. The theories used by the writer
will be reviewed below:
1.

Narratology
Gerald Prince definesNarratology as the study of the form and functioning

of narrative. It analyzes the constructing elements of the narrative and their
elaboration. Narratologist attempts to describe the narrative and understand the
function by recognizing the elaboration (Prince, 1982: 4-5).
The term ‘narrative’ becomes an important thing to be understood firstly
since narratology is the study of narrative. At this point, Gerard Genette
distinguishes the meaning of the French word recit (‘narrative’). Genette draws a

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distinction between narration, discourse or recit and histoire. Narration is defined
as the narrative act of the narrator. Discourse is narrative as text or utterance.
While histoire is the story which the narrator tells in his/her narrative). Then, the
narration and discourse can be classed as Narrative Discourse and the story is
what is reported, represented or signified by narrative discourse. This distinction,
then, enables to account that the same story can be represented in various guises
(Fludernik, 2009: 2).
Peter Barry, in Beginning Theory, formulates what narratologists do in their
research. He finds 5 points of what narratologists do. The first one is they look at
individual narratives to seek out the recurrent structure which is found within all
narratives. Second, they switch much of their critical attention away from the
mere ‘content’ of the tale, often focusing instead on the teller and the telling.
Third, they take categories derived mainly from the analysis of short narratives,
expand and refine them so that they are able to account for the complexities of the
novel-length narratives. Fourth, they counteract the tendency of conventional
criticism to foreground character and motive by foregrounding instead action and
structure. The last is they derive much of their reading pleasure and interest from
the uniqueness and originality of a small number of highly regarded examples
(Barry, 2009: 233).
Gerard Genette is one of the most prominent narratologist since Roland
Barthes. He does not focuson the tale itself, but focuses on how the tale is told. He
discusses six particular areas in his book Narrative Discourse (Barry, 2009:222).
Peter Barry in his book Beginning Theory extracts the six particular areaswhich

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are meant by Gerard Genette into six questions. The six questions are: is the basic
narrative mode ‘mimetic’ (scenic way: specified) or ‘diegetic’ (summarizing
way)?; how is the narrative focalized?; who is telling the story?; how is time
handled in the story?; how is the story ‘packaged’?; and how are speech and
thought represented? (Barry, 2009:222-229).
2.

Narrative Situation
Narrative situation is a description about the location of the narrator. It

describes how overtly or covertly the narrator makes his or her presence felt by
the readers, his or her relationship with the characters, and whom perspective may
be invested (Keen, 2003: 30). Narrative situation can be said as the mediator
between the author and the reader.
Three important points to draw the narrative situation are who tells the tale
is; who sees the actions is; where the functions of narration resides in relation to
the story world. These questions refer to the elements that construct a narrative
situation. Three elements that constructing a narrative situationare the narrator,
point of view, and narrative level (Keen, 2003: 31).
One of the elements that constructs a narrative situation is called narrative
level, which deals with the process of fictional world making. The fictional world
is a world created automatically in the mind of the readers whenever they
encounter a narrative (Keen, 2003: 108).
The levels in a narrative are divided furthermore into extradiagetic, diagetic,
and metadiagetic. Extradiagetic is the act of narrating the first narrative, while the

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diagetic is the narrating act of the second narrative (a narrative inside the first
narrative). The events narrated in the second narrative are called metadiagetic
(Genette, 1983: 228).
There are three types of relationships between the metadiagetic and the
diagetic level. The first relationship is a relationship in which the second
(metadiagetic) narrative serves explanatory functions. The second relationship is
the thematic relationship, in which the second narrative can serve as a contrast or
an analogy. The last is where the second narrative becomes a distraction from the
main narrative (Genette, 1983: 232-234).
A narrator has narrative functions. The first function is the one who presents
the fictional world. The second is he/she comments. It means that he/she explains
why events occurs, leads them to political or social circumstances and condition,
indicates the motives of character and so on. In this function requires an overt
narrator using the first person pronoun. The main purpose is to arouse the reader’s
sympathy or antipathy to certain characters and develop a framework for the story
world and the reader’s reception of it. The third is narrator functions as the
philosopher or moralist who builds the norms and speaks universal valid
propositions. The fourth is the narrator communicates the situation of narration
(Fludernik, 2009: 27).
3.

Point of View and Focalization
According to Abrams, point of view signifies the way a story is told. It is the

mode or modes established by the author by means of which the reader is
presented with the characters, dialogue, actions, and events which constitute the

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narrative in a work of fictions (Abrams, 1999: 231). From the definition, it means
that point of view can represent the way of the author arranges the story told. By
arranging the point of view, the author tries to lead the reader’s mind when the
reader reads the works. To lead the reader’s mind, the author needs to arrange
someone who will give the “directions” to the reader, so the author needs the
narrator as the storyteller who can represent him/her in the story to present the
story to the reader. Whenever a narrator narrates, he or she adopts a certain kind
of point of view. He or she may narrate from the outside of a character, inside a
character, or both inside and outside the character (Prince, 1982: 50).
In simplified classification, there are three kinds of modes in narrating a
story. It is classified based on the narrator’s position. There are first person
narrative, second person narrative and third person narrative. In first person
narrative, the narrator speaks with first person pronoun such as “I”, and in some
ways, the narrator is a characterin the story. In third person narrative, the narrator
is someone outside the story who refers to all the characters in the story by name,
or pronoun such as “he”, “she”, or “they”. Third person narrative, then,is divided
into subclasses according to the degree and limitation, which the author assumes
in getting the story across to the reader. In some cases,the author rarely uses
second person narrative whose narrator speaks as “you”. In this mode, the reader
seems to be the one experiencing the events in the story.
There are three subclasses of the third person narratives. The first is an
unrestricted point of view, often referred as omniscient, in which there is no
restriction to what a narrator can tell. He/she knows and tells more than any of the

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characters can know or tell at any given time and situation of the narration. The
second one is called the internal point of view. In internal point of view, the
narration is restricted to the feelings, knowledge, and perception of one or more
than one character. The last one is called the external point of view in which the
narration is limited only to the outside of the character, namely his/her actions and
physical appearance (Prince, 1982: 51-52).
Gerard Genette, in Narrative Discourse, argues that most theories have
failed to distinguish properly between point of view and focalization, that is to
say, between the questions which character whose point of views orients the
narrative perspective is and the very different question who the narrator is.
Genette redefines the definition of point of view. When the story is told from the
point of view of a particular character (focalized), whether the character is the
narrator or not, it is about voice and not about point of view (Genette, 1980:10). In
his arguments, the narrator could be the one whose point of view becomes the
origins of the perspective and vice versa.
4.

Plot
Ruth E. Page in her book titled Literary and Linguistic Approaches to

Feminist Narratology provides two models of plot. She adopts the concept of
postclassical practice of synthesizing aspects of analysis thatare derived from a
different paradigm. In the first concept, she uses Longacre’s Narrative Versus
Other Discourse Genre, that works on the anatomy of plot, which provides a
structuralist starting point. Then, the second concept complements the first by a
more recent development in written discourse analysis of Michael Hoey’s Textual

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Interaction: An Introduction to Written Discourse Analysis, thatworks on
culturally recognized patterns of text organization.
Her aim to use these two models is twofold. The first is to use these models
in narratological criticism and indicate how particular formulations of gender
ideology are significant in both the interpretation of form and the content. The
second is to conductfurther attainment and suggest how the analysis of the plot
might be used to modify the theoretical frameworks of plot and re-evaluate the
criteria used in narratology.
According to Ruth E. Page, Hoey’s approach describes about the “culturally
popular patterns of organization” base on the understanding that text is a site of
interaction between writer and reader. As such, the analysis of the patterning in
the text is contextualized, understood inrelation to extra-textual world knowledge.
The pattern that Hoey goes on to describe related to Problem-Solution, GoalAchievement, Desire-Arousal and so on, is derived from the action structure that
readers draw on when processing narrative and parallel aspects of Structuralist
plot models. Problem-Solution pattern would be as follows(Page, 2006: 53):
Projected Question

Element of Pattern

What is the situation?

Situation

What aspect of that situation is problematic?

Problem

What response was made?

Response

What was the result?
How successful was this?

Result
Evaluation

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Situation

Aspect of situation requiring a response (For example)

Problem

Goal

Opportunity

Desire Arousal

Gap in Knowledge

Response

Negative Evaluation and/or Result

Positive Evaluation and/or Result

Throughout the discussion, the Problem-Solution pattern is not a universal
structure (different from Structuralist structure), but appears within particular
cultural context, and has potential to the infinite range of patterns that might be
occurring. Hoey’s model is a useful starting point for both narratological criticism
and reflecting on narratology itself. The model makes the analyst considering
what situations are constructed and understood as ‘problematic’, which
participants are able to articulate desire, achieve goals, and solve problems and so
on. Ruth E. Page argues that generally a feminist perspective might take Hoey’s
observation that certain patterns occur with great frequency while others do not

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and then ask why this might be so and what this might reflect about the
ideological values in a given culture.
5.

Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism is the product of the women’s movement in 1906s. This

movement dealt with the significance of the images of women in literature, and
saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority and their coherence.
In 1970s, the major effort of feminist criticism criticizes the mechanism of
patriarchy. Patriarchy refers to the cultural mindset in men and women, which
continuously inherit sexual inequality. In this phase, critical attention was given to
books by male writers, in which influential or typical images of women were
constructed.
In 1980s, feminist criticism changes its concentration. Firstly, feminist
criticism begins to draw upon the finding and approaches of other kinds of
criticism, such as Marxism, Structuralism, Linguistics, and so on. Secondly,
feminist criticism changes its focus from attacking male version of the world to
exploring the nature of the female world and reconstructing the lost record of
female experience. Thirdly, the attention of feminist criticism is changed to the
need to construct a new canon of women’s writing by rewriting the history of the
novel and poetry that neglected women writers.
Elaine Showalter detects that distinct phases of interest and activity
becomes the characteristic of feminist criticism. In history of women’s writing,
she categorizes women’s writing into three phases. The first phase is in 18401880, which is called as the feminine phase when women writers

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imitateddominant male artistic norms and aesthetic standard. The second phase is
called feminist phase when radical and often separatist positions were maintained
in women’s writing in 1880-1920. The last phase is female phase, in 1920
onwards, which looks particularly at female writing and female experience (Barry,
2009: 116-118).
An anthropologist, Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, in apapersWoman,Culture,
and Society: A Theoretical Overview, proposes a structural model that relates to
an opposition between the “domestic” orientation of women and extra-domestic or
“public” that primarily available to men. This model provides a general
characteristic of human sex role and identification of certain strategies and
motivation, as well as a source of value and power, that are available to women in
different human groups (Rosaldo and Lamphere, 1974: 17-18).
The opposition between “domestic” and “public” offers the basis of a
structural framework to identify and explore the place of male and female in
psychological, cultural, social, and economic aspect of human life. “Domestic”
refers to minimal institution and modes of activity that are organized immediately
around one or more mothers and their children. While, “public” refers to
activities, institutions, and forms of association that link, rank, organize, or
subsume particular mother-child groups (1974: 23). From this point, the male is
considered as in the public domain, while the female is in the private domain.
Peggy R. Sanday, in Female Status in Public Domain, specifies the
opposition of domestic and public domain. The domestic domain includes
activities performed within the realm of the localized family unit. The public

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domain includes political and economic activities that take place or have impact
beyond the localized family unit and that relate to control of person or things.
Related to the “power” and “authority”, Sanday cited the definitions of power and
authority from M. G. Smith. Power is the ability to act effectively on persons or
things, to take or secure favourable decisions. Whereas, authority is the right to
make a particular decision and to command the obedience. Authority is
recognized and legitimized power. Furthermore, it it important to recognize in
dealing with female status in both domains that although female authority may
imply power, female power does not necessarily imply authority (1974: 190-191).
Rosaldo argues that woman's position is raised when they can challengethis
man’s authority, either by taking on men’s roles or by establishing social ties, by
creating a sense of rank, order, and value in a world in which women prevail. The
possibilities for women, then, are entering the men’s world or creating a public
world of their own (1974: 36).

6.

Feminist Narratology
Ruth E. Page in Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist

Narratology cited Warhol’s definition of feminist narratology from Mezei’s books
Ambiguous Discourse: Feminist Narratology and British Women Writers. Warhol
defines feminist narratology as the study of narrative structure and strategies in
the context of the cultural construction of gender. She mentions that one of the
principals of feminist narratology is the emphasis of feminist narratology itself on

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contextualization as a means of understanding the interplay between gender and
narrative form (Page, 2006: 1-2).
In the development of the study, feminist narratology is typical of the
revisionist work of postclassical narratology, which did not necessarily reject the
models of Structuralist narratology, but integrated them with other theoretical
perspectives. It does not mean that feminist narratology is the opposites of
narratology. Feminist narratology is the product of narratology, even though both
of them have different point(Page, 2006: 5).
In Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology, Ruth E.
Page also raises three main criticisms of feminist narratology. First, categorizing
the various plot types in metaphorical terms, lacks the support of empirical data
and detailed linguistic analysis. Second, labeling the alternatives as ‘male’ and
‘female’ illustrates a universalizing and assuming that all male and female
experience are the same and is biologically determined. Third, the slippage
between narrative content and plot structure result in a simplistic correlation of
narrative structure and gender (Page, 2006: 43-44).
According to Susan S. Lanser in Toward Feminist Narratology, in the
relationship between the narrator and the narratee, there is dichotomy among
public and private narration level. Public means narration that is addressed to a
narratee who is external to the textual world and who can be equated with a public
readership. Public narration requires a direct relationship between the reader and
the narratee and closely the nonfictional author and reader relationship. Private, in

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contrast, means narration that is addressed to an explicitly designated narratee
who exists only within the textual world. In private narration, the reader’s access
is indirect, as it were through the figure of a textual persona (Warhol and Price,
1991: 684).
Stereotypically, the dichotomy of public and the private narrative level
typifies gender domain. Public narration is identical with male. Private narration is
identical with female. The different narration uses different gender language.
Some linguists argue that women’s language or a discourse of the powerless is
polite, emotional, gossipy, talkative, uncertain, dull, and chatty. In contrast, man’s
language is capable, direct, rational, illustrating a sense of humor, unfeeling,
strong and blunt (Warhol and Price, 1991: 680-681). Thus, in private level, the
narrative is considered as subjective, unreliable, and untrustworthy, while the
public narrative is considered as objective, reliable, and trustful.
In terms of literary genre, epic is considered by Bakhtin as a product of the
patriarchal society. Epic represents the world of the father. It canonizes the world
of father. On the other hand, novel represents the word of the mother. In
Donovan’s words, novel valorizes events from everyday world of the mother
(Donovan, 2000: 3-4).
C.

Theoretical Framework
Toanswer the problem formulation stated above, the writer will use some

theories. In this research, the writer uses the theories from Gerard Genette as the
basic theory, which is combined with the theory found in Suzanne Keen’s

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Narrative Form and the theory from Ruth E.Page’s Literary and Linguistic
Approaches to Feminist Narratology.
In answering the first question, the writer will use Ruth E. Page’s theory of
plot.The writer analyzes the plot of the story based on Problem- Solution pattern.
Problem – Situation plot pattern divides the story based on the climatic peak.
Then, it allows dividing the story into some passages based on the multiple
climatic peaks.
After the first question is answered, to answer the second question, the
writer usesSuzanne Keen’s theory in order to reveal the position of the narrator.
The writer analyzes the narrative situation based on the classification of the
climatic peaks that are derived from Problem – Solution plot structures.
The third question is answered by analyzing the effects that are produced by
plot pattern and the narrator positionin redefining women in the story.

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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

A.

Object of the Study
This research analyzes a novel written by Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni

entitled The Palace of Illusions. This fiction novel contains 360 pages and 43
chapters. In 2008, Doubleday published this novel in the United State for the first
time. The book used in this research is the PDF version, which is released on 10th
of October 2010.
Mainly, the story of the novel retells the story of Indian Mahabharata tales.
In the author’s note, the authorwrites her disagreement about the patriarchal
system in the tale. She notes her motivation to redefinewomen in the tale of
Mahabharata. In a line with the author’s ambition, the story begins with the birth
of a woman character, Panchaali. Thesame as the original version of
Mahabharata, Panchaali is the wife of the five Pandava and becomes the trigger
of the biggest war between Kurava and Pandava. In this novel, Panchaali is the
main character who tells her struggle as a woman character facing her destiny and
the war. As a woman character, Panchaali becomes the princess, so her activities
always take place mostly in the palace. As a princess, of course she needs to keep
the rules of the palace. Her obedience makes her becoming a special princess and
different from other princess. Instead of fully obeying the rules, Panchaali often
breaks the rules.

21

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B.

Approach of the Study
Narratology is the study of the form and functioning of narrative. It analyzes

the constructing elements of a narrative and their elaboration. Narratologist
attempts to describe the narrative explicitly and grasp a better understanding of its
functioning by first recognizing the elaboration (Prince, 1982: 4-5). Narratology
itself is a branch of structuralism, whichessence is the belief that things cannot be
understood in isolation – they have to be seen in the larger structures they are part
of, but it has independence from the structuralism because narratology takes some
terminology from linguistic theory, stylistic. (Barry, 2009:214).
In narratology, there is a crucial distinction between “Story” and “Plot”.
This distinction is fundamental in narratology because this distinction will be an
alert to questions of how the narrative is designed and what designs it might have
(Barry, 2009: 231). ‘Story’ is the sequence of events as it actually happens, while
‘Plot’ is how the events in the ‘story’ are presented to the reader or listener. In
other word, ‘Story’ is an actual sequence of events as they happen and ‘Plot’ is a
story that is edited, ordered, packaged, and presented in what we recognize as a
narrative. Many narratologists use varied term to substitute the term of ‘story’ and
‘plot’. For example, The Russian Formalist uses the term ‘Fabula’ for ‘story’ and
‘sjuzet’ for plot’ (Barry, 2009: 215).
Russian Formalist named Vladimir Propp analyzes a ‘corpus’ of hundred
Russian folktales in order to find the plot patterns