CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Brief description of Novel
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Brief description of Novel Literature is an interpretation of man’s life by using language as its medium.
According to (Robert, 1993: 1) literature is writing which expresses and communicates thoughts, feelings, and attitudes toward life. It is also happened on novel as one of the genre of literature. Novel is one of the literary works that are part of prose. Novel is a fictional prose narrative of considerable length, typically having a plot that is unfolded by the actions, speech, and thoughts of the characters. By analyzing a novel, the writer wants to get interpretation of life. Here, the writer will analyze the novel by its intrinsic elements.
According to (Robert, 1993: 1), a learning to read fiction well, we must understand something about its technique. One useful way to approach the techniques of fiction is to describe a basic elements or characteristics: plot, character, setting, style, and theme. For analyzing this novel, here are the descriptions of those elements:
Plot, the action element in fiction is the arrangement of events that make up story. A story’s plot keeps us turning pages: we read to find out what will happen next.
But for a plot to be effective, it must include a sequence of incidents or bear a significant causal relationship to each other. Causality is an important lecture of realistic fictional plots: it simply means that one thing happens because as a result of something else.
Many fictional plots turn on a conflict, or struggle between opposing forces. That is usually resolved by the end of the story. Typical fictional plots begin with an exposition that provides background information we need to make sense of the action, describes the setting, and introduces the major characters: these plots develop a series of complications or intensifications of the conflict that lead to a crisis or moment og great tension. Whatever the plot or a story may be, the writer has ordered the events with a view born to the overall meaning and to the responses of readers. To appreciate fictional plot. Therefore, we should think about our experience in reading a story and remember what we thought and felt at different points.
Character in fiction can be conveniently classified as major and minor, static and
dynamic. A major character is an important figure at the center of the story’s action or theme. Usually a character’s status as major or minor is clear. On occasion, however not one but two character’s may dominate a story.
The major character is sometimes called a protagonist whose conflict with an antagonist may spark the story’s conflict. Supporting the major character are one or more secondary or minor characters whose function is partly to illuminate the major characters. Minor characters are often static or unchanging: they remain the same from the beginning of a work to the end. Dynamic characters, on the other hand, exhibit some kind of change of attitude, of purpose, of behavior of the story progresses.
Setting is the place or location of a story’s action along with the time in which it
occurs is its setting. For writer like James Joyce and William Faulkner, setting is essential to meaning. Functioning as more than a simple backdrop for action, it provides a historical and cultural context that enhances our understanding of the characters.
Style is the verbal identify of a writer, as unmistakable as his or her face or voice.
Reflecting their individuality, writer’s style convey their unique ways of seeing the world. In the discussion of the language and style of fiction, we will concentrate on diction, the kind of word choices a writer makes: syntax, the order those words assume in sentences; and the presence or absence of figurative language, especially figures of comparison (simile and metaphor).
Theme is its idea or point formulated as a generalization. The theme of a fable is
its moral: the theme of a parable is its teaching: the theme of a short story is its implied view of life and conduct. However, most fiction is not designed primarily to teach or preach. Its theme, thus, is more obliquely presented. In fact theme in fiction is rarely presented at all: it is abstracted from the details of character and action that compose the story.
Theme is related to the other elements of fiction more as consequence than as a parallel element that can be separately identified. A story’s theme, that is arrows out of the relationship of the other elements. Perhaps the most important thing to remember about theme is that it is an abstraction from a story’s complex uses of language to describe and action, epic, setting, and portray character. A statement of theme derives from the particulars embodied in language and action.
2. 2 Characteristics of Romanticism
Frankenstein’s first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818 as the romanticism era and has some elements of the Romantic movement. There is a web sites addressed on http://www.buzzle.com/articles/romanticism-characteristics-of-
romanticism.html telling the characteristic of romanticism. Romanticism emerged as a
reaction against 'The Age of Enlightenment', which emphasized on reason and logic.Pioneers of the Romantic period wanted to break away from the conventions of the Age of Enlightenment and make way for individuality and experimentation. The Romantic movement is said to have emerged in Germany, although the main source of inspiration came from the events and ideologies of the French Revolution. The Industrial Revolution, which began during the same period, is also said to be responsible for the development of this movement.
Literature was the first branch of art to be influenced by the waves of Romanticism, although the concepts remain the same in all the art forms. Let us look at some of the characteristics which influenced the Romantics, such as: love of nature, emotion vs. rationality, artist or the creator, nationalism, exoticism, and supernatural. Below is the explanation of this 6 terms :
Love and nature, the Romantics greatly emphasized the importance of nature
and the primal feelings of awe, apprehension and horror felt by man on approaching the sublimeness of it. This was mainly because of the industrial revolution, which had shifted life from the peaceful, serene countryside towards the chaotic cities, transforming man's natural order. Nature was not only appreciated for its visual beauty, but also revered for its ability to help the urban man find his true identity.
Emotion vs. rationality, unlike the age of Enlightenment, which focused on
rationality and intellect, Romanticism placed human emotions, feelings, instinct and intuition above everything else. While the poets in the era of rationality adhered to the prevalent rules and regulations while selecting a subject and writing about it, the Romantic writers trusted their emotions and feelings to create poetry. This belief can be confirmed from the definition of poetry by William Wordsworth, where he says that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. The emphasis on emotions also spread to the music created in that period, and can be observed in the compositions made by musicians like Weber, Beethoven, Schumann, etc. Beethoven played an important role in the transition of Western music from the classical to the Romantic age.
Artist or the creator, as the Romantic period emphasized on human emotions,
the position of the artist or the poet also gained supremacy. In the earlier times, the artist was seen as a person who imitated the external world through his art. However, this definition was mooted in the Romantic era and the poet or the painter was seen as a creator of something which reflected his individuality and emotions. The Romantic perception of the artist as the creator is best encapsulated by Caspar David Friedrich, who remarked that "the artist's feeling is his law". It was also the first time that the poems written in the first person were being accepted, as the poetic persona became one with the voice of the poet.
Nationalism, the Romantics borrowed heavily from the folklore and the popular
local art. During the earlier eras, literature and art were considered to belong to the high- class educated people, and the lower classes were not considered fit to enjoy them. Also, the language used in these works used to be highly lyrical, which was totally different from what was spoken by people. However, Romantic artists took no shame from being influenced by the folklore that had been created by the masses or the common people, and not by the literary works that were popular only among the higher echelons of the society. Apart from poetry, adopting folk tunes and ballads was one of the very important characteristics of Romantic music. As the Romantics became interested and focused upon developing the folklore, culture, language, customs and traditions of their own country, they developed a sense of Nationalism which reflected in their works. Also, the language used in Romantic poems was simple and easy to understand by the masses.
Exoticism, along with Nationalism, the Romantics developed the love of the
exotic. Hence, far off and mysterious locations were depicted in many of the artistic works from that period. Though this was not exactly apposite to the Romantic ideal of Nationalism, separate factions were never formed. Exoticism is also one of the most prominent characteristics in art, along with sentimentality and spirituality.
Supernatural, another characteristic of this movement is the belief in the
supernatural. The Romantics were interested in the supernatural and included it in their works. Gothic fiction emerged as a branch of Romanticism after Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. This fascination for the mysterious and the unreal also led to the development of Gothic romance, which became popular during this period.
From the explanation above, we can find some characteristics of Romanticism in the novel ‘Frankenstein’. There are the love of nature where the Victor Frankenstein uses some stuffs from nature like the bone, flesh and etc for creating the monster, emotions vs. rationality which showed by the action of the reason for creating until its effects, the point as the creator where Frankenstein as the creator creates the monster as his creature, exoticism where the novel describes many exotic places as its scene, and supernatural may seem less in the novel but when Victor believe of life by creating the monster, it can be considered as supernatural because he thought as if he were the God who create the Adam by making a life for his creature.
2. 3 Ambition Ambition a passion that never fails you and will never let you fail it, and this is
why it will ultimately cause the downfall of the individual. In this novel, ambition is the main theme because Frankenstein has great dreams of accomplishing certain things that defy a higher order. Ambition drove him to strive for what he wants and never give up on his dreams. Ambition without doubt help or even single handling brought Victor to their dreams. Ambition is the best quality that a person can have, it allowed Victor to achieve what they always wanted. Whatever can bring you to the top, also has the power to make you fall harder then you fell before, being overly ambitious can also destroy a person and people that surrounds this individual. Frankenstein succeeded in accomplishing their deepest desire but this does not mean they have succeeded in achieving happiness.
According to Napoleon Bonaparte, Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them. Everyone dreams about achieving goals and dreams in life that is nearly impossible to grasp due to certain circumstances. Why do some individuals still try in chasing their dreams even though they know that the chances of succeeding are very slim? In the novel Frankenstein, Victor has dreams of achieving goals that defy a high order which promises server consequences. Victor are examples of the individual that were driven by ambition, this ambition was so strong and relentless that it actually allowed Victor achieved their impossible dreams. In Victor’s case he succeeded in creating life and this was all due to being ambitious and determined.
Ambition is the best quality anyone can have, until we crossed the line of chasing a dream and just being obsessed. No one is born with the ambition that makes you obsessed with your goals and dreams in life. Certain incidents must occur to push this person to let ambition make you become obsessed with the goals and dreams in life. Yet, Ambition can be bad if someone allow their ambitious minds to take over. A determined and overly ambitious mind is a blind one.
You may spend your whole life striving for a dream or goal that you have. You work so hard in getting what you think you really want, but when you actually achieved and accomplished you goal or dream. You realized that you’re not happy and lost certain things that are so much more important to you then your so called dream or goal.
Knowledge is power and power can corrupt any human being. Victor and Macbeth had the opportunity to achieve their dreams and goals. This thought corrupted both their minds. Ambition can give bad effect if someone acted on impulse which caused them to do whatever it takes to succeed, which caused them to make mistakes that they regretted towards the end of their lives because they let their ambitious mind blind them of their senses and conscious of what is really important to them and what truly makes them happy. Chasing a dream is good, until the mind is obsessed and is poisoned with the ambition that will change you to a whole new person.