Analysis of The View on The Utopian Society in Edward Bellamy's 'Looking Backward 2000-1887' and William Morris' 'News From Nowhere'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ............................................................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ............................................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem ............................................................................ 3
Purpose of the Study.................................................................................... 3
Methods of Research ................................................................................... 3
Organization of the Thesis .......................................................................... 4
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE VIEW ON THE UTOPIAN
SOCIETY IN EDWARD BELLAMY’S LOOKING
BACKWARD 2000-1887 .......................................................................... 5
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE VIEW ON THE UTOPIAN
SOCIETY IN WILLIAM MORRIS’ NEWS FROM
NOWHERE.............................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION.................................................................. 31
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 35
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Looking Backward 2000-1887 .............................................. 37
Synopsis of News from Nowhere.............................................................. 38
Biography of the Author............................................................................ 39
ii
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
ABSTRACT
Dalam skripsi ini, saya menganalisis pandangan mengenai masyarakat
utopia melalui pendekatan intrinsik. Masyarakat utopia adalah masyarakat yang
memiliki kehidupan yang ideal atau sempurna. Saya memilih untuk membahas
novel Looking Backward 2000-1887 karya Edward Bellamy dan News from
Nowhere karya William Morris.
Kedua novel di atas pada intinya sama-sama menceritakan pandangan
mengenai masyarakat utopia pada masa depan yang diperoleh dari narasi tokoh
utama yang hidup pada masa depan dan kedua novel tersebut memuat pandangan
yang berbeda satu dengan yang lain. Novel Looking Backward 2000-1887
bercerita mengenai masyarakat utopia yang dicapai melalui sistem pemerintahan
terpusat dan industri. Sebaliknya, novel News from Nowhere bercerita mengenai
masyarakat utopia yang dicapai melalui sistem pemerintahan desentralisasi dan
produksi secara tradisional. Sistem tersebut berdampak pada perubahan kehidupan
masyarakat yang menjadi lebih baik.
Pandangan mengenai masyarakat utopia pada masa depan dalam kedua
novel tersebut muncul sebagai akibat dari keadaan masyarakat yang menyedihkan
pada masa lampau yang diceritakan oleh tokoh utama yang hidup pada masa
lampau.
Dalam
novel
Looking
Backward
iii
2000-1887
karya
Edward
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Bellamy keadaan masyarakat tersebut disebabkan oleh penindasan orang kaya
terhadap orang miskin dan persaingan bisnis yang ketat. Keadaan ini
menyebabkan masalah lain, yaitu jurang pemisah antara orang kaya dan orang
miskin, dan juga masalah pemogokan kerja. Masyarakat dalam novel News from
Nowhere mengalami keadaan yang hampir sama ketika para buruh harus bekerja
keras untuk memproduksi barang dan masalah pengangguran yang diakibatkan
oleh penemuan mesin yang dapat memproduksi barang dalam jumlah besar.
Dari perbedaan pandangan masyarakat utopia dalam kedua novel, masingmasing pengarang memiliki tujuan yang berbeda. Edward Bellamy menulis novel
Looking Backward 2000-1887 dengan tujuan untuk memberikan solusi bagi
keadaan masyarakat yang menyedihkan pada saat ia hidup. Melalui novelnya,
Edward Bellamy menawarkan pandangan mengenai perubahan masyarakat ke
arah yang lebih baik, sedangkan William Morris menulis novel
News from
Nowhere dengan tujuan untuk mengkritik sistem industri dalam novel Looking
Backward 2000-1887 karya Edward Bellamy dan sekaligus mengkritik revolusi
industri pada jaman Victoria ketika ia hidup.
iv
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy
Julian West, the protagonist of the novel, was born in aristocratic family in
late nineteenth-century Boston. He finds that he lives in the midst of miserable
society in which the poor live in poverty while the rich live in prosperity. He also
finds that the rich compete with each other in fierce business competition.
Because Julian suffers from insomnia, he asks Doctor Pillsbury to make
him fall into a deep sleep. He then builds an underground sleeping chamber in his
house so that he is free from street noises. One night, on 30 may 1887 Julian
sleeps in his chamber.
In the twenty-first century, Doctor Leete, who is preparing the place for
the construction of his new laboratory, discovers Julian’s secret chamber. Waking
up in the twenty-first century on 10 September 2000 and getting explanation from
Doctor Leete, Julian finds that the society in the future is completely different
from that in the nineteenth century. He finds that the twenty-first century is an
astonishing utopian world with its modern public buildings, beautiful, clean city
of Boston and vast industrialization. He finds that the government controls all the
economic system.
37
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Synopsis of News from Nowhere by William Morris
The protagonist is William Guest, a rich man who has a house by the river
Thames at Hammersmith. One night, after attending a meeting of socialist league
he goes back to his house and goes to sleep. When Guest wakes up, he is surprised
that he is in the future.
Guest finds a historian named old Hammond, with whom he gets
information about society in future London. The society in future London lives
pleasantly and abundantly. They work in the traditional factory called Bandedworkshop. People work freely and they love working. All the things in the future
are mostly made in the traditional way by hands. He also finds people wearing
medieval clothes and living in medieval house.
Guest lives in the era when industries spread widely. But in the future he
finds that the industries have vanished; there are no industrial towns anymore like
Manchester but instead, all large industrial towns have shrunk and have been
made into countryside. At the end of the story, Guest ends his journey by hay
harvesting along with Richard Hammond. To Guest’s surprise, he is actually still
lying on the bed in his house and he can only remember about the dreams he has
while he is sleeping.
38
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Biography of the Author
Biography of Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was born on 26 March 1850 in Chicoppee Falls,
Massachusetts. Bellamy studied law and worked for a short time in the newspaper
industry in New York and in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1888, he published his
famous work entitled Looking Backward 2000-1887. By 1900 the novel became
as famous as Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Looking Backward 2000-1887 is a utopian fiction novel which takes place
in future America concerning nationalized industry, equal distribution of wealth in
which to overcome problems that occur in Bellamy’s contemporary society. In
this utopian world, the society has to dedicate themselves to the state with the
spirit of solidarity among them.
In 1888, Bellamy Nationalist Club was formed and it spread out all over
the country and attracted William Dean Howells and Edward Everet Hale. The
main purpose of the club was to create and promote the practical realization of the
utopian vision of Bellamy. The movement was over in 1894.
In 1897, Bellamy published his second novel entitled Equality. Soon after
the publication of this novel, Bellamy passed away in Chicopee Falls at the age of
forty-eight.
39
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Biography of William Morris
William Morris was born on 24 March 1834 at Elm House, Walthamstow.
He was the third of nine children of William and Emma Shelton Morris.
Morris studied at Marlborough College in 1848, but after the riot happened
at Marlborough College in 1851, he left his school and continued his education at
home.
In 1853, Morris entered Exeter College at Oxford where he became a member of
an undergraduate aesthetic circle that was deeply interested in idealism of the
middle ages. Besides, Morris has deep interest in medieval art and architecture
and with the mediaeval ideals of courtesy and of the communal life.
Morris wrote his poetry entitled The Defence of Guenevere published in
1858. In 1867, Morris published his poetry entitled The Life and Death of Jason
and later his long poem entitled The Earthly Paradise appeared in 1868 and 1870.
Morris published his prose translation of the Volsunga Saga, The Story of the
Volsungs in 1870.
In 1883, Morris was made an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. In 1888,
he published Signs of Change,a collection of lectures and his first prose romance
entitled The House of the Wolfings. In 1889 Morris’ great work e ntitled News
from Nowhere began to appear serially in Commonweal. In 1894 Morris
published his fantasy prose, namely The Wood Beyond the World. In addition,
Morris established the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith in 1891.
Morris died on 3 October 1896 at Kelmscott House and was buried in
Kelmscott Village churchyard.
40
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Utopian literature began in 1516 with the first edition of the book of Sir
Thomas More entitled Utopia. In its most common and general positive meaning,
utopia, ‘…refers to the human efforts to create a better society, a perfect society
that does not exist (yet).’ .
There are many utopian novels that have emerged not only in the United
States but also in England with their amazing story. On this occasion, I am going
to analyze two utopian novels written by two different authors; Looking
Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy and News from Nowhere by William
Morris. Both Edward Bellamy and William Morris got their fame soon after the
publication of their utopian novels. Edward Bellamy, ‘…a lawyer and writer from
western Massachussets, who wrote, in simple, intriguing language, a novel called
Looking Backward, in which the protagonist falls asleep and wakes up in the year
2000…’(Zinn, 1995: 258), while William Morris, ‘…was a writer of poetry and
fiction, and a pioneer of the socialist movement in Britain.’
.
1
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
In a utopian novel:
The author imagines a society with a given set of social conditions,
few in numbers, which are decidedly different from those of his
own society; they are decidedly different, there is discontinuity
between the author’s actual and his imagined society, but the
difference is not so great as to render his imagined utopian society
unrecognizable
to
his
fellow
citizens.
PREFACE ............................................................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study ............................................................................. 1
Statement of the Problem ............................................................................ 3
Purpose of the Study.................................................................................... 3
Methods of Research ................................................................................... 3
Organization of the Thesis .......................................................................... 4
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE VIEW ON THE UTOPIAN
SOCIETY IN EDWARD BELLAMY’S LOOKING
BACKWARD 2000-1887 .......................................................................... 5
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE VIEW ON THE UTOPIAN
SOCIETY IN WILLIAM MORRIS’ NEWS FROM
NOWHERE.............................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION.................................................................. 31
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 35
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Looking Backward 2000-1887 .............................................. 37
Synopsis of News from Nowhere.............................................................. 38
Biography of the Author............................................................................ 39
ii
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
ABSTRACT
Dalam skripsi ini, saya menganalisis pandangan mengenai masyarakat
utopia melalui pendekatan intrinsik. Masyarakat utopia adalah masyarakat yang
memiliki kehidupan yang ideal atau sempurna. Saya memilih untuk membahas
novel Looking Backward 2000-1887 karya Edward Bellamy dan News from
Nowhere karya William Morris.
Kedua novel di atas pada intinya sama-sama menceritakan pandangan
mengenai masyarakat utopia pada masa depan yang diperoleh dari narasi tokoh
utama yang hidup pada masa depan dan kedua novel tersebut memuat pandangan
yang berbeda satu dengan yang lain. Novel Looking Backward 2000-1887
bercerita mengenai masyarakat utopia yang dicapai melalui sistem pemerintahan
terpusat dan industri. Sebaliknya, novel News from Nowhere bercerita mengenai
masyarakat utopia yang dicapai melalui sistem pemerintahan desentralisasi dan
produksi secara tradisional. Sistem tersebut berdampak pada perubahan kehidupan
masyarakat yang menjadi lebih baik.
Pandangan mengenai masyarakat utopia pada masa depan dalam kedua
novel tersebut muncul sebagai akibat dari keadaan masyarakat yang menyedihkan
pada masa lampau yang diceritakan oleh tokoh utama yang hidup pada masa
lampau.
Dalam
novel
Looking
Backward
iii
2000-1887
karya
Edward
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Bellamy keadaan masyarakat tersebut disebabkan oleh penindasan orang kaya
terhadap orang miskin dan persaingan bisnis yang ketat. Keadaan ini
menyebabkan masalah lain, yaitu jurang pemisah antara orang kaya dan orang
miskin, dan juga masalah pemogokan kerja. Masyarakat dalam novel News from
Nowhere mengalami keadaan yang hampir sama ketika para buruh harus bekerja
keras untuk memproduksi barang dan masalah pengangguran yang diakibatkan
oleh penemuan mesin yang dapat memproduksi barang dalam jumlah besar.
Dari perbedaan pandangan masyarakat utopia dalam kedua novel, masingmasing pengarang memiliki tujuan yang berbeda. Edward Bellamy menulis novel
Looking Backward 2000-1887 dengan tujuan untuk memberikan solusi bagi
keadaan masyarakat yang menyedihkan pada saat ia hidup. Melalui novelnya,
Edward Bellamy menawarkan pandangan mengenai perubahan masyarakat ke
arah yang lebih baik, sedangkan William Morris menulis novel
News from
Nowhere dengan tujuan untuk mengkritik sistem industri dalam novel Looking
Backward 2000-1887 karya Edward Bellamy dan sekaligus mengkritik revolusi
industri pada jaman Victoria ketika ia hidup.
iv
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy
Julian West, the protagonist of the novel, was born in aristocratic family in
late nineteenth-century Boston. He finds that he lives in the midst of miserable
society in which the poor live in poverty while the rich live in prosperity. He also
finds that the rich compete with each other in fierce business competition.
Because Julian suffers from insomnia, he asks Doctor Pillsbury to make
him fall into a deep sleep. He then builds an underground sleeping chamber in his
house so that he is free from street noises. One night, on 30 may 1887 Julian
sleeps in his chamber.
In the twenty-first century, Doctor Leete, who is preparing the place for
the construction of his new laboratory, discovers Julian’s secret chamber. Waking
up in the twenty-first century on 10 September 2000 and getting explanation from
Doctor Leete, Julian finds that the society in the future is completely different
from that in the nineteenth century. He finds that the twenty-first century is an
astonishing utopian world with its modern public buildings, beautiful, clean city
of Boston and vast industrialization. He finds that the government controls all the
economic system.
37
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Synopsis of News from Nowhere by William Morris
The protagonist is William Guest, a rich man who has a house by the river
Thames at Hammersmith. One night, after attending a meeting of socialist league
he goes back to his house and goes to sleep. When Guest wakes up, he is surprised
that he is in the future.
Guest finds a historian named old Hammond, with whom he gets
information about society in future London. The society in future London lives
pleasantly and abundantly. They work in the traditional factory called Bandedworkshop. People work freely and they love working. All the things in the future
are mostly made in the traditional way by hands. He also finds people wearing
medieval clothes and living in medieval house.
Guest lives in the era when industries spread widely. But in the future he
finds that the industries have vanished; there are no industrial towns anymore like
Manchester but instead, all large industrial towns have shrunk and have been
made into countryside. At the end of the story, Guest ends his journey by hay
harvesting along with Richard Hammond. To Guest’s surprise, he is actually still
lying on the bed in his house and he can only remember about the dreams he has
while he is sleeping.
38
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Biography of the Author
Biography of Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was born on 26 March 1850 in Chicoppee Falls,
Massachusetts. Bellamy studied law and worked for a short time in the newspaper
industry in New York and in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1888, he published his
famous work entitled Looking Backward 2000-1887. By 1900 the novel became
as famous as Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Looking Backward 2000-1887 is a utopian fiction novel which takes place
in future America concerning nationalized industry, equal distribution of wealth in
which to overcome problems that occur in Bellamy’s contemporary society. In
this utopian world, the society has to dedicate themselves to the state with the
spirit of solidarity among them.
In 1888, Bellamy Nationalist Club was formed and it spread out all over
the country and attracted William Dean Howells and Edward Everet Hale. The
main purpose of the club was to create and promote the practical realization of the
utopian vision of Bellamy. The movement was over in 1894.
In 1897, Bellamy published his second novel entitled Equality. Soon after
the publication of this novel, Bellamy passed away in Chicopee Falls at the age of
forty-eight.
39
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
Biography of William Morris
William Morris was born on 24 March 1834 at Elm House, Walthamstow.
He was the third of nine children of William and Emma Shelton Morris.
Morris studied at Marlborough College in 1848, but after the riot happened
at Marlborough College in 1851, he left his school and continued his education at
home.
In 1853, Morris entered Exeter College at Oxford where he became a member of
an undergraduate aesthetic circle that was deeply interested in idealism of the
middle ages. Besides, Morris has deep interest in medieval art and architecture
and with the mediaeval ideals of courtesy and of the communal life.
Morris wrote his poetry entitled The Defence of Guenevere published in
1858. In 1867, Morris published his poetry entitled The Life and Death of Jason
and later his long poem entitled The Earthly Paradise appeared in 1868 and 1870.
Morris published his prose translation of the Volsunga Saga, The Story of the
Volsungs in 1870.
In 1883, Morris was made an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. In 1888,
he published Signs of Change,a collection of lectures and his first prose romance
entitled The House of the Wolfings. In 1889 Morris’ great work e ntitled News
from Nowhere began to appear serially in Commonweal. In 1894 Morris
published his fantasy prose, namely The Wood Beyond the World. In addition,
Morris established the Kelmscott Press at Hammersmith in 1891.
Morris died on 3 October 1896 at Kelmscott House and was buried in
Kelmscott Village churchyard.
40
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Utopian literature began in 1516 with the first edition of the book of Sir
Thomas More entitled Utopia. In its most common and general positive meaning,
utopia, ‘…refers to the human efforts to create a better society, a perfect society
that does not exist (yet).’ .
There are many utopian novels that have emerged not only in the United
States but also in England with their amazing story. On this occasion, I am going
to analyze two utopian novels written by two different authors; Looking
Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy and News from Nowhere by William
Morris. Both Edward Bellamy and William Morris got their fame soon after the
publication of their utopian novels. Edward Bellamy, ‘…a lawyer and writer from
western Massachussets, who wrote, in simple, intriguing language, a novel called
Looking Backward, in which the protagonist falls asleep and wakes up in the year
2000…’(Zinn, 1995: 258), while William Morris, ‘…was a writer of poetry and
fiction, and a pioneer of the socialist movement in Britain.’
.
1
Universitas Kristen Maranatha
In a utopian novel:
The author imagines a society with a given set of social conditions,
few in numbers, which are decidedly different from those of his
own society; they are decidedly different, there is discontinuity
between the author’s actual and his imagined society, but the
difference is not so great as to render his imagined utopian society
unrecognizable
to
his
fellow
citizens.