Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: Character Analysis of Gwenda Cataret in May Sinclair’s The Three Sisters: A Psychological Case Study T1 4101013 BAB IV

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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1. Characterization Analysis and Interpretation
4.1.1. The characteristics of Gwenda as seen through her appearance
Eventhough, in real life to judge people by looking at the appearance can be a
misleading way to know or to understand other, but in fiction, the character's
appearance contains a significant aspect of information about the character's self.
It is one way an author presenting her characters. In The Three Sister, Gwenda
Cataret's characteristics through her appearance take from the narrator's
description in a passage from chapter II of the novel:
She was the tallest and the darkest of the three. Her face followed the
type of obscurely; and vividly and emphatically it left it. There was dusk
in her honey whiteness, and dark blue in the grey of her eyes. The bridge
of her nose and the arch of her upper lip were higher, lifted as it were in a
decided and defiant manner of their own... (Chapter II: 4).

Taken from the description above, Gwenda physical appearance is vividly
presented by the narrator. Gwenda is the tallest among her two sisters: Mary, the

older, and Alice, the younger. She also has the darkest skin compares with her
sisters, the narrator describes her skin as having dusk effect in the honey
whiteness (as for additional information to compare with, the narrator says about
Mary's and Alice's skin to be milk white). It explains how Gwenda has become the
darkest one among the three sisters. Gwenda also has the different eyes pupil's
colour, she has dark blue in her grey eyes (her two sister and the father has the
grey one), perhaps she inherits the dark blue from her ancestor or her mother who
was death after giving birth of Alice. However, even from the beginning of the
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story the narrator emphasizes Gwenda difference among the sisters, it shows in
the appearance's description that giving impression about her very typical to be
the different one, and this difference also contains message of her characteristics
that will be seen thoroughly on her further relationship and interaction with other
characters in the novel.
Further, still from her appearance description by the narrator, Gwenda's
manner is also seen vividly from her facial appearance, as the narrator calls it the
type of obscurely; and vividly and emphatically it left it. I would say that Gwenda

is not pretty as well as not ugly neither, the way to show that her strong character
has passed over the meaning of a merely physical beauty into a more deep real
beautifulness comes from inside human's soul. Still from her face type
appearance, the narrator also put an emphasized about Gwenda's certain
characteristic, it obviously can be seen in the way the narrator says about
Gwenda's bridge of nose and the arch of her upper lip which are higher, lifts as in
a decided and defiant manner of their own. This information contains Gwenda's
characteristics, as if the narrator would tell about her that she is to be the one who
has decided and defiant manner, even the reader can recognized it, as seen through
her face.
As an introduction about the character performance, the narrator has put a
basic impression about Gwenda Cataret's characteristics through her appearance
that has said much about her, even before the main story goes. However, all the
basic information about Gwenda's characteristic taken from her appearance, that
she is the one who has different and strong character compare with the other two

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sisters as shows in her decided and defiant manner, to be the cornerstone of her
whole characteristics as studied further on the next part of this analysis and

interpretation process.

4.1.2. The characteristics of Gwenda as seen through the narrator's
description
Characterization through what has described by the narrator is another
simple way to say about a character. It can be taken place anywhere in the plot
story as explanation of a character situation. In this study I uses The Three Sisters
by May Sinclair as the object of the study, in which it contains many information
about the character's description through narrator's point of view. I takes some of
them that involving significant ideas about Gwenda's characteristics in support to
the psychological study side.
4.1.2.1. Gwenda as smart and independent character
The quotation below consist personal information about Gwenda Cataret,
taken from introduction passage in chapter II of the novel:
The Three Sisters, Mary, Gwendolen, and Alice, daughter of James
Cataret, the Vicar of Garth... (Chapter II: 3).

Gwenda or Gwendolen Cataret is one of three daughters of James Cataret, the
Vicar of Garth; besides the other two: Mary and Alice Cataret.
Gwendolen, the second sister, sat leaning over the table with her arms

flung out on it as they had tossed from her the book she had been reading
(Chapter II: 4).

Gwendolen is the second daughter, and she loves to read books, it can be
seen further through the whole story – how does she spend many of her time by

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reading, it makes her more intelligent than her sister, even her father can not
balanced his steps along with his second daughter. Gwenda's intelligent makes her
more independent too, it supports with the quotation below :
... About Gwenda there was something alert and impatient. Her very
supineness was alive. It had distinction, the savage grace of a character
utterly abandoned to a sane fatigue (Chapter II: 4).

The narrator wants to say about Gwenda as smart and independent person.
Her alertness and impatient look are indication of independence as a result of
intelligent process of thought, as describes through the quotation. Her aliveness
that has distinction of gracefulness, showing the author's intention to shape her
character, Gwenda Cataret, as a smart independent creature, it can be explained

through the savage grace of a creature utterly abandoned to a sane fatigue is
another way to say it so. Human pictured as savage, who is gracefulness as the
product of civilization, a vice versa to primitiveness, and a sane fatigue is another
word for intellectual busy activities, it needs knowledge that only can be gained
and reached by a sane and healthy mind, the fatigue itself is the result of the
mind's busy activities. Therefore, based on this explanation derives from the
narrator description, Gwenda is characterized as a smart and independent woman,
her intelligence forms her independence tendency.

4.1.2.2. Gwenda as energetic character
From the beginning of the story, the narrator has described Gwenda as a
smart and independent young woman, in her leisure time she loves to read books
or to walk over the moors around the village of Garthdale, where she and her
family live in. Gwenda's love for the walking activity and sight - seeing of the

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sceneries, in which she does it full of joy as described by the narrator, shows her
youth energetic passion.
... She was in white ... and she carried herself like a huntress, slender and

quick, with high sharp – pointed breasts (Chapter XII: 39).
... She flashed by like a huntress, like Artemis carrying the young moon
on her forehead ... (Chapter XII: 40).
... she was the darting joy and the poignant sweetness, and the sheer
extravagant ardor and energy of life (Chapter XII : 41).
Gwenda's joy was pure and profound and sufficient to itself
(Chapter XXX: 158).

Some quotations above are taken from different passages, but similar in
context. All of them take place when Gwenda walks over the moor as her habitual
activity in her leisure time, besides book reading. She enjoys very much the
walking time activities, as described by the narrator when telling Gwenda's joy
was pure and profound and sufficient to it self. It shows her joy is the joy of her
natural loves for walking, and her consciousness to the beautifulness of the nature
scenery. She travels down the moor with full of her youth passion and energetic
enjoyment of the activity, the narrator describes her as flashing slender and quick
like a huntress; like Artemis, a Greek goddesses myth, whom strong, smart,
independent and loves for adventure (http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen
/papers/coffeyartemis/artemis.html), similar to Gwenda typical as emphasized by
the narrator from the beginning of the story. She is full of passion and energy to

life, one form of channeling her passion and energy is through the walking
activity over the moors around Garthdale. Therefore, Gwenda is described as an
energetic character.

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4.1.2.3. Gwenda as compassionate character
The central story of The Three Sisters is about three sisters, the daughters
of Vicar of Garth, who live in small village of Garthdale, and fall in love with a
man, that in the small village was lacked of marriageable men. The only man in
the story who tells to be the marriageable one is Dr. Steven Rowcliffe. The story
tells he is in love with Gwenda, the number two daughter, and vice versa.
Unfortunately, in other side, Gwenda's younger sister, Alice, who in loves with the
same man, is dying of her anemic – in other explanation, she gets ill because of
her love she has for Dr. Rowcliffe, in whom he even does not realized her
infatuation for him. Further, Gwenda, soon after finding out that her sister is
going to die if she does not married – while she realizes her sister's infatuation for
Dr. Rowcliffe, feels pity and regret for her sister that she decides to leave her lover
and the village to her step mother, Robina, in London. In the purpose that is by her
leaving, Dr. Rowcliffe will forget about her and marry her sister, Alice. Gwenda

sacrifices her own love and life option to save her sister's life, even there is pain in
her very deep part of heart as the narrator describes below:
And since she was the one – she knew it – who stood between him
and Ally, it was she who would have to go away.
It seemed to her that long ago – all the time, in fact, ever since she had
known Rowcliffe – she had known that this was what she would have to
face.
She faced it now with strange courage and a sort of spiritual
exaltation, as she would have faced any terrible truth that Rowcliffe had
told her, if for instance, he had told her that she was going to die.
That, of course, was what it felt like, she had known that it would feel
like that.
And, as sometimes happens to people who are going to die and know
it, there came to her a peculiar vivid and poignant sense of her
surroundings. Of Rowcliffe's room and the things in it, - the chair he had
sat in – the pipe he had laid aside, the book he had been reading and that
had flung away. Outside the open window the trees of the little orchard,
whitened by the moonlight, stood as it fixed in a tender, pure, and
supernatural beauty. She could see the flags on the path and the stone in

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the gray walls. They stood out with a strange significance and importance.
As if near and yet horribly far away, she could hear Rowcliffe's footsteps
in the passage.
It came over her that she was sitting in Rowcliffe's room – like this –
for the last time.
Then her heart dragged and tore at her, as if it fought against her will
to die. But it never occurred to her that this dying of her was willed by
her. It seemed foredoomed, inevitable (Chapter XXXVI: 184 – 185).

The narrator, as quoted above, tells how Gwenda sacrificing her love and
her life chance to her beloved sister, it shows Gwenda's compassionate sacrificing
action to her dying sister, Alice. Eventhough, it is a hard decision to make, but
still, Gwenda's basic nature as strong, smart, and independent person, tend to
shape her as a big sister who is willing to protect and to save her dying sister,
instead of taking her own chance of marrying the man whom loves her. Her
sacrificing action is not only because of a moral decision nor her merely love for
Alice, but it is a compassion heart in action. For, in another side, follows after her
decision to leave Dr Steven Rowcliffe for Alice, she seems to experience a dying

trance, that she feels like it is her last time for meeting and seeing Rowcliffe; his
room, his chair, everything in his house, and as describes by the narrator that
Gwenda feels like her heart is dragging and tearing from hers, but it againsts her
will to die. The last part of the quotation shows Gwenda's true feeling that the
decision to choose Alice rather than Dr. Steven Rowcliffe for her self is a hard
decision, is not her true self willingness, but somehow she can feel, long time ago
– since her knowing of Dr. Rowcliffe; that she will have to face this foredoomed
inevitable experience. Only a compassion heart that can take her into this
unselfish decision, it explains her situation as quoted above.
From the characterization analysis and interpretation based on the situation

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of the plot story and Gwenda's basic nature, the narrator's description as quoted
above shows Gwenda's compassion to her sister as one of her quality trait: a
compassionate sister.

4.1.2.4. Gwenda as sensitive character
Taken from chapter LV of the novel the narrator explains Gwenda further
situation after all the tragic things happen in her life, she becomes a more

sensitive person. In brief, the situation occurs in which after Gwenda’s sacrificing
action by leaving her chance of marrying the man she loves, and who loves her,
for her dying sister, Alice. She leaves the village to London and stays with her
step mother whom loves her. Moreover, outside her power and authority of will,
Alice was not interested anymore to Dr. Rowcliffe, instead she prefers to marry
John Greatorex, a local farmer who is rough but very kind to her. In other side, by
Gwenda's leaving the house, Mary, her two years older sister, takes her chance by
chasing after the young doctor Rowcliffe, whom gets catch into Mary's trap. They
marries then, Dr. Steven Rowcliffe and the big sister, Mary. While, Alice
marriages with John Greatorex has saved her life, but turns the father, Mr. James
Cataret, into a half paralysis invalid because of heart attack. For the horrified
father's thought of the local rough farmer, John Greatorex, is only seducing her.
However, Mr. James Cataret's stroke has brought Gwenda backs from London to
the village, since there is no one to take care of him, but her. However, her two
sister's unpredictable marriages and her living with the dependence father have
transformed Gwenda into a sensitive one.

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But in two years, with the gradual lifting of the pressure that had
numbed her, Gwenda had became aware. Not of young Grieson, but of
her own tragedy, of the slow life that dragged her, of its relentless motion
and its mass. Now that her father's need of her was intermittent, she was
alive to the tightness of the tie. It had been less intolerable when it had
bound her tighter; when she hadn't had a moment; when it had dragged
her all the time. Its slackening was torture. She pulled then, and was
jerked on her chain.
... She was the more sensitive because of her previous apathy, as if she
had died and was new-born to suffering and virgin to pain
(Chapter LV: 336).

The quotation above is the narrator's description of Gwenda's situation in
two years after the life trials she should faced : Rowcliffe's marriage with her
older sister, Mary; Alice's runaway marriage with John Greatorex; her
dependence half paralyzed father; all the life pressure from those things happen
has numbed her life. After two years of slow motion life in her routines days,
Gwenda becomes aware of the tragedy in her life, it transforms her into a more
sensitive woman because of her previous apathy of her surrounding. Eventhough,
there is a young handsome man, Grieson, a curate from London, in whom send to
the village to help the Vicar of Garth to manage the service in Garthdale, due to
his stroke problem. But, Gwenda is not going to crush on the young handsome
man. The narrator says that she had died and was new-born to suffering and virgin
to pain, all those hard trials she has to face killing her very self and transforming
her into a more sensitive who is like a new born to feel any suffer, and a virgin for
any pains.
Deriving from the narrator's description as quoted above, it shows one of
Gwenda's personality traits as a more sensitive female.

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4.1.2.5. Gwenda as full of passion for life character
After all the tragedies occur in her previous life stages, Gwenda proves
herself as strong, smart, and independent woman who is capable to do anything.
The life trials does not make her down, eventhough she wants to, but her true-self
does not allow her, as described by the narrator from the quotation below:
There were moments when she saw herself as two women. One had
still the passion and the memory of freedom. The other was a cowed and
captive creature who had forgotten; where cramped motion guided her;
whose instinct of submission she abhorred (Chapter LV: 337).
Her woman's passion, forced inward, sustained her with as inward
peace, an inward exaltation. And in this peace, this exaltation, it became
one with her passion for the place.
She was unaware of what was happening in her. She did not know that
her soul had Joined the two beyond its own power to put asunder. She still
looked on her joy in the earth as a solitary emotion untouched by any
other. She still said to herself “Nothing can take this away from me.”
For she had hours, now and again, when she shook off the slavewomen who held her down. In those hours her inner life moved with the
large rhythm of the seasons and was soaked in the dyes of the visible
world; and the visible world passing into her inner life, took on its
radiance and intensity. Everything that happened and that was great and
significant in its happening - happened there.
Outside nothing happened; nothing stood out; nothing moved. No
procession of events trod down or blurred her perfect impression of the
earth and sky. They externalized themselves in memory. They became her
memory.
The days were carved for her in the lines of the hills and painted for
her in their colors, day that were dim green and grey, when the dreaming
land was withdrawn under a veil so fine that it had the transparency of
water, or when the stone walls, the humble houses and the high ramparts
drenched with mist and with secret sunlight, became substantial; days
when all the hills were hewn out of one opal; days that had the form of
Karva under snow, and the thin blues and violets of the snow. She
remembered purely; without thinking, “It was in April that I went away
from Steven,” or ”it was in November that he married Mary,” or “It was
in February that we know about Ally, and Father had his stroke.”
Her nature was sound and sane; it refused to brood over suffering. She
was not like Alice and in her unlikeness she lacked of Alice's resources.
She couldn't fling herself onto a Polonaise of a Sonata anymore than she
could lie on a couch all day and look at her own white hands and dream.
Her passion found no outlet in creating violent and voluptuous sounds. It
was passive, rather, and attentive. Cut off from all contacts of the flesh, it
turned to the distant and the undreamed. Its very sense became infinitely
subtle; they discerned the hidden soul of the land that had entranced her.
There were no words for this experience. She had no sense of self in it
and needed none. It seemed to her that she was what she contemplated, as
if all her sense were fused together in the sense of seeing and what her

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eyes saw they heard and touched and felt.
But when she came to and saw herself seeing; she said, “At least this
is mine. Nobody, not even Steven, can take it away from me.”
(Chapter LV: 339 – 341).

Gwenda's strong willed-self basic nature has saved her life from
nothingness. Her passion and appreciation toward nature of her surrounding has
shaped her way of viewing the things occurs in her life. Eventhough, all the tragic
happening occur in her life has made her experiencing suffer of misery and pain in
her deepest heart, but her true nature refuses to brood over suffering.
There is a time when she feels herself as passionate and freedom woman
who is capable to do anything as she wills. There is also a time when she seems to
be a cowed and captive creature who has forgotten by her surrounding, an
ignorant, that her life moves slowly in motion of monotonous routines. But her
passion of life creates peace and exaltation in her heart that it becomes one with
her passion for the place she lives in.
Gwenda's joy and love for the nature has taken place in her memory, the
memory of the visible world of the hill, the earth, the sky, the humble houses, in
which passing through into her inner life. Her passion for nature appreciation and
attention makes her days always be alive with her joyfulness in it; as the narrator
tells how Gwenda's days carve in the line of hill, and it paints in color which is
hers: the green and grey of dim day; or there is blue and violets of snow in winter
day. The certain colours represent Gwenda's pain; instead bright – cheer color as
light green, red, orange or yellow, she has dim green and grey as well as the blue
and violets for winter in her vision of the place, but still, there is her private joy in
seeing the things around her using her own senses, eventhough her emotion is in

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the lowest level of pain and misery.
In brief, the narrator's explanation on Gwenda's situation as quoted above;
I would say that it is the way of Gwenda seeing herself and the world around her,
the way in which has shaped by all the things happening in her life influenced by
her strong willed-self nature – another word for her independence. Gwenda's
sanity and strength determines her ways of seeing things and responding over
everything happen in her life. Eventhough, she has experienced tragic trials;
betraying lover and sisters, family scandalous by her younger sister, living with
her dependent father who is half paralyzed of stroke – that means limiting her free
soul, but, her passion for nature of her surrounding in Garthdale has helped her to
face the worst of all things occur in her life, it can be seen as described by the
narrator on how Gwenda sees her days through the description of her surrounding,
and the dim colours are the representation of her misery and pain. However, there
is passion in the way she experiences the things around her, in the way she sees
her surround as well as hears, touches, and feels at once as her personal attitudes
toward life. There is her passion for life.

4.1.2.6. Gwenda as fragile – hearted character
As a strong, intelligent, and independent person in character, Gwenda is
rarely to be in love with a man, it hards for her to be in love with or it also hards
for any men to make her heart surrender for them. However, when she is in love
with Dr. Steven Rowcliffe, it is because the man has touched her in her core heart,
he has understood her well and felt in love with her, in the state of her true nature

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– her differences among many other girls. He loves her as herself, with her
intelligence that sometimes he is afraid of, because she is too smart for him; with
her strong self or independence. Gwenda's nature is a free spiritful–soul, she is
capable of anything. Therefore, for most of men, Gwenda is not their typical for
woman to marry with, just like Mary, her older sister who always be meek, mild,
nice, sweet and good. In other side, Gwenda's strong willed-self, her intelligent,
her independence, her free spiritful–soul who loves of adventure also can not be
easily meet with an equal partner. Therefore, it is hard for Gwenda to be in love
with any man, unless the one who understands her well and sees her as the way
she is, the one who is equal with her true nature – who can balance her steps. The
one who is just like Dr. Rowcliffe.
In other side, because of her strong willed self, Gwenda also has to ignore
her true feeling and her self ego. She sacrifices her love for her lover to save her
sister's life. That Alice's weak nature has made her dying of her infatuation for Dr.
Steve Rowcliffe, and she can be death if she does not get married. Therefore,
Gwenda leaves the man. While she leaves him and the village, she stays in
London with her step mother. Her sweet and good natured older sister, Mary takes
her chance, using her sensual femininity side catches the Doctor. While Alice
involves in scandalous affair with a rough drunken farmer, John Greatorex. That
the scandalous affair has turned their father, Mr. James Cataret, into an invalid
because of heart attack.
Moreover, betrayed by her lover and sisters, feeling of doing useless
sacrifice action, and has to live with a dependent father, in whom at their past

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relationship she is the most trouble maker daughter for the father, Gwenda has
turned into a fragile hearted girl.
One moment showing this fragile characteristic of her is when Mary gives
born her first child, after three years of her marriage with Dr. Steven Rowcliffe.
And in the evening, when her sister stood against at her bedside,
as Mary lifted the edge of the flannel that hid her baby's face, she look at
Gwenda and smiled, not dreamy but subtly in a triumph that was almost
malign.
That night Gwenda dreamed that she saw Mary lying dead and
with a death child in the crook of her arm.
She woke up in anguish and terror (Chapter LVII: 346).

The quotation above shows Gwenda's deep inside frighten heart. Outside,
the people around her still sees her as a strong girl among the three sisters. She
takes a good care for his father, defending her younger sister Alice, so that she can
married the young Greatorex. Even more, she is the one who accompanied her
betraying sister Mary when she gives born her first baby. She stands against her
sister bedside, while Mary smiles at her in a triumph and almost malign, and
Gwenda stays there to receive this scene with her strength. But, inside her heart
there is pain, she refuses neither to feel nor to realize its existence that revealing
itself the night after in the guise of dreaming about Mary and her child death. She
wakes up in anguish and terror, as the narrator said, the dream reveals her deep
pain and misery. She is afraid of her true felling and she does not want to feel the
hurt, it makes her strong heart turning into fragile inside the very core of it. In her
fragility she kills her betraying sister and her child in the form of dream.
There is also another moment showing this fragile heart of Gwenda, as
described by the narrator below:
... Her heart hid in her breast. It was so mortally wounded as to be

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unaware that it was hurt.
But at the turn of the white road her heart stirred in its hiding place, it
stirred at the sight of Karva and with the wind that brought her the smelt
of the flowering thorn – trees.
It discerned in these things a power that would before long make her
suffer. She had no other sense of them (Chapter LXVI: 387).

As the narrator says Gwenda's heart so mortally wound as if unaware that
it was hurt, it is another indication of showing Gwenda's fragility. As if the burden
pain and sorrow has overwhelmed her with bitter misery she can not take with her
own strength, she prefers to hide the wound under. Further, her painful heart stirs
from its hiding place, when Gwenda has to follow the white road of Karva, where
she used to spent hours of walking habit with her ex-lover. A place where she and
Rowcliffe had ever saw vision of flowering thorn-trees while it blooms. At the
sight of the flowering thorn-trees, Gwenda suddenly considers the hurt in her
heart, it reminds her to what has happened in her life, how she has betrayed by
two persons she loves and cares about. There is only pain left at the sight of this
vision that makes her suffer, she has no other sense of them at all, unless the hurt.
It makes her fragile.
Further, Gwenda who is always strong, that in her personal strength
refuses to sense her wounded heart, at a certain moment has shown fragility
occurrence in her strong– self character.
Far off in the bottom the village waited for her.
It had always waited for her; but she was afraid of it now, afraid of
what it might have in store for her. It shared her fear as it crouched there,
like a beaten thing, with its huddled houses, naked and blackened as if
fire had passed over them (Chapter LXVI : 387).

The quotation takes place at the final part of the novel, when Gwenda
walks back home from Mary and Rowcliffe's house. Gwenda, who used to be

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loves for walk miles away, stills enjoy the activity, although there is something
missing in her true self that is her youth energetic. In her youth energetic, she
used to be enjoying the sight of the hills, moors, houses, lambs and sheep, she
loves adventures, and in her strength she is not afraid of anything. However, life
trials has shaped her into a more fragile creature, she feels the sense of fright as
she sees the village where she lives with her father, now. She is afraid of what
other frighten things left for her in that place, where she has to experience the
tragic situation in her life. The narrator describes her feeling the same as the
village situation seeing from her wounded heart; it likes a beaten thing, naked and
blackened after a big tragedy as fire passing over. The sad thought of the village
shows Gwenda's frighten attitudes; it is an indication of her fragility.

4.1.3. The characteristics of Gwenda as viewed from dialogue
Characterization through dialogue is one of indirect method of
characteristics analysis develops by Pickering and Hoeper, in “Concise
Companion to literature”, 1981. It includes what has been said by a character in
a story; the way she or he speaks out their mind or the content of the conversation
that might reveal their characteristics. Besides, there is also another characters
whom talks about a character's attitude or behavior, giving comments about a
character, that also gives impression about a character will be like, what other
characters said about a character is another characterization method as develops
by Roberts and Jacobs in Fiction : An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 1989.
There are many other methods of characterization through dialogue, but I

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only uses both methods of what is said by the character and what other
characters said about the character studied, for the reason that those methods are
the most suitable in the purpose of this study and applicable to the analysis
process.
However, since novel involves not only dialogue, just like in drama, but
there is also another element such as plot and setting in a certain context that build
the dialogue circumstance, there is also narrator’s interfere in explaining or telling
about a character's thought, or another character's about the character studied. The
data for characterization through dialogue will include the character's selfmonologue, her thought, and her conversation with others, also another character
says about her, in the forms of conversation and thought processes as told by the
help of the narrator. There will be a mixing part between what the character says
and what other characters say about her in the conversation of quotation.

4.1.3.1. Gwenda's characteristics through her thought or said about herself
a. Gwenda as a strong girl
Gwenda has never been in love before; she is the type who is not easily in
love creature. She is the kind of strong willed–self who always considers on most
of her thought, action or decision. Her family's moving from London to the small
village, Garthdale, because of their younger family's member suffer of anemia
whom needs a fresh air surround for the cure treatment, has made Gwenda meets
her first love with a man whom loves and understands her as the way she it. This
man is young Dr. Rowcliffe. This man has caught her heart and she feels like to

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surrender her heart to him, therefore, there is a time when Gwenda tries to catch
his attention by walking over the moors in time of Dr. Steven Rowcliffe's driving
home.
Gwenda thought, “I will go out to the moor again. I don't care if I am
late for prayer. He will see me when he drives back and he will wonder
who is that wild, strong girl who walk by herself on the moor at night and
is not afraid. He has seen me three times, and every time he has looked at
me as if he wondered. In five minutes I shall go.” She though (for she
knew what she was thinking), “I shall do nothing of the sort. If I never see
him again, I don't care.” (Chapter V: 10).

Since the beginning of the story, the narrator has already mentioned
Gwenda's habit of walking over the moors in the morning or late of the evening as
her pure joys of the place and her sport activity. Another way to emphasize her
strong characteristic of independent female who loves outdoor sport activity. The
quotation above, takes place inside Gwenda's mind, she thought of meeting the
man she flirts at by planning coincidence. She plans to put an impression of being
a wild strong girl to the man whom has stolen her heart. Both persons are
interested to one another. And Gwenda, who never does such a thing; looking for
attention from an adorable man, feels uncomfortable when she realizes her own
silliness, and she pretends herself not to worry or really care if she does not meet
the young doctor. However, seeing from what has been thought about her, the
reader can recognize Gwenda as strong girl. She says it by herself when she want
to make an impression about herself to the man she adore: “he will wonder who is
that wild, strong girl who walk by herself on the moor at night and is not afraid”.
The quotation above shows Gwenda's characteristic as a strong girl, in
which the opinion takes from her idea or awareness about her self.

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b. Gwenda as a compassionate sister
There is a moment when Gwenda has to choose between her own need and
feeling for her lover or her sister's life that’s dying because of her infatuation to
Gwenda's lover; that her sister is weak in her nature. Caught in the middle of this
situation, Gwenda prefers to sacrifice her own true feeling to save her younger
sister's life; it shows a compassionate at heart.
She could see it now
It had been approaching her; her idea, from the very instant that she
had come into the room and had begun to speak to him. And with every
word that he had said it had come closer. But not until her final appeal to
him had she really faced it. Then it became clear. It crystallized. There
was no escaping from the facts.
Ally would die or go mad if she didn't marry.
Ally (though Rowcliffe didn't know it) was in love with him
And, even if she hadn't been, as long as they stayed in Garthdale there is
nobody but Rowcliffe whom she could marry. It was her one chance.
And there were the three of them. Three women to one man.
And since she was the one – she knew it – who stood between him and
Ally, it was she who would have to go away
(Chapter XXXVI: 184).

The monologue occurs in Gwenda's mind. Eventhough, there is a narrator's
interference, but still the quotation tells about Gwenda, about what is occurred in
her thought, about the way she sees

things and about her decision making

process. It is about Gwenda as seen from her very deep side of heart.
Ally her younger sister, will go mad or die if she is not married. This
younger sister is weak in her true–self, not like Gwenda with her strong willed–
self. Alice, or Ally the family calls her, is very weak in her physical and
sometimes mental state, perhaps there is an influence from the over protected
father, whom left by his wife for childbirth of Alice. However, Alice has the worst
physical health compares with the other two sisters, and there is also a weak
nature in her psyche that almost creates her into a neurotic, as diagnosed by Dr.

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Steven Rowcliffe, that Alice will go mad or die if she is not married. While, in
other side, Dr. Steven Rowcliffe does not even realize Ally's infatuation for him.
When Gwenda realizes the true situation and her position, she has made up
her mind. She considers herself as the one who stands between Rowcliffe and
Alice. Eventhough, the man does not realize the younger sister's fond of him, but
Gwenda does, and she also realizes Ally's condition of dying, the reason or the
cause of her condition, and also the cure for it. Gwenda choose to left her lover for
the dying sister, she chooses to sacrifice her own true feeling and only chance, in a
hope for saving her sister's life. Gwenda's decision shows her compassion attitude
for her dying sister.
The ironic part is Dr. Steven Rowcliffe who put the idea on Gwenda's
mind that she chooses to leave him and to sacrifice her love life for her dying
sister, Ally. However, Gwenda decisions to sacrifice her own true feeling and
lover for saving her younger sister life shows her compassion for her sister. One
of Gwenda's quality trait; a compassionate sister.

c. Gwenda as sensitive character
Further in the story, Gwenda has to experience a betrayal action by her
lover and her sisters, one whom takes her lover, and the other whom makes her
does useless sacrificing effort to save the sister's life. Moreover, she has to live
with the most hateful character in the story, the father, whom turns into invalid
caused by a heart attack, has made Gwenda into a more sensitive character.
As she went home she tried to recapture the magic of the
flowering thorn – trees. But it had gone and she could not be persuaded
that it would come again. She was still too young to draw joy from the

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memory of joy, and what Greatorex had told her seemed incredible.
She said to herself “Is it going to be taken from me like
everything else?”
And a dreadful duologue went on in her.
“It looks like it”
“But it was mine, it was mine like nothing else.”
“It never had anything for you but what you gave it.”
“Am I to go on giving the whole blessed time? Am I never have
anything for myself?”
“There never is anything for anybody but what they give. Or
what they take from somebody else. You should have taken. You had your
chance.”
“I'd have died, rather.”
“Do you called this living?”
“I have lived”
“He hasn't. Why did you sacrifice him.”
“For Mary”
“It's wasn't for Mary. It was for yourself for your own wretched
soul.”
“For his soul”
“How much do you suppose Mary cares about his soul? It would
have had a chance with you. It's one chance.”
The unconsoling voice has the last word. For it was not in
answer to it that a certain phrase came into her brooding mind.
“I couldn't do a caddish thing like that.”
(Chapter LXII: 370 – 371).

The setting of the quotation above occurs inside Gwenda's mind, after her
trips visiting her younger sister's family of Alice and John Greatorex, with their
five children. Before return to her house, Gwenda and her brother in law, John
Greatorex, in whom rejected by the father, walk over the moor and both of them
sighting the flowering thorns – trees in bloom. The unexpected thing occurs when
there is nobody staying with her, the young Greatorex is the only one whom
understanding her. He is not only seeing the flowering thorn – trees vision, but he
also feels the pain in her at the moment. It makes her feeling better that she is not
alone, however, on her way backs home she tries to recapture the vision of the
flowering thorn – trees, and appears in her very deep painful heart the duologue of
hers.
She thinks about all the moments she has passed through and by, how she

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should take her chance – while in his marriage with Mary, Dr. Rowcliffe tried
approaching her, but her own true-self not allows her to do a caddish thing by
snapping behind her sister back to take anything for her own self. She is not going
to let her young sister dies nor goes mad, as well as, she lets Mary to take the
chance, eventhough, it cuts off her heart into a bleeding one. However, her
sensitivity has made her sense for the flowering thorn – trees disappear. She can
not feel her own pain; instead, she becomes a more sensitive creature that does not
aware on her true feeling.

4.1.3.2. Gwenda's characteristics through what other characters said about
her.
In this part of analysis and interpretation discussion, the data will be in the
form of dialogue and also quotation from a character's thought about Gwenda as
states by the narrator.
a. Gwenda as energetic youth female
Since the beginning of the story, the narrator emphasizes Gwenda's habit
of traveling along the moors over the village, where as their family just moves in.
The traveling habit shows Gwenda's interest toward nature and also an indication
of her energetic attitude in her youth that brings a good future impact on her
health. It also a certain way in which the author tries to perform Gwenda as a
strong and healthy character, an energetic youth.
If he thinks he's punishing me he's sold,” Said Gwenda.
“He couldn't have stuck you in a rottener hole.”
Gwenda raised her head
“A hole? Why, there's no end to it. You can go for miles and miles without
meeting anybody, unless some darling mountain sheep gets up and looks

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at you. It's – it's a divine place, Ally.”
“Wait till you've been another five month in it. You'll be as sick as I am.”
“I don't think so; You haven't seen the moon get up over Greffington
Edge. If you had – if you know what this place like, you wouldn't lie there
grizzling. You wouldn't talk about punishing. You'd wonder what you'd
done to be allowed to look at it – to live in it a day. Of course I'm not
going to let on to Papa that I'm in love with it.
Mary smiled again
it's all very well for you, “she said. “As long as you've got a moor to walk
on you're all right.”
“Yes. I'm all right,” Gwenda said (Chapter III: 6-7).

The dialogue occurs in the beginning of the story, when the three sisters
talks about the village where they just moved in for about three weeks. Alice, the
younger sister, feels not good about the village, she thinks it is a punishing from
their father to move the whole family into a small village of Garthdale. They
comes from a big city, London, moving to the village to cure Alice's health
problem of anemia, she need fresh air to live in. Therefore, the father, Mr. James
Cataret, decides to leave the town and go to the small village. Since, he is a
widowed, he always makes decision by himself and his authoritative figure never
allows his daughters to give votes for any matter to decide. However, moving into
the small village of Garthdale means a punishing for Alice, nothing for Mary, but
it is great for Gwenda whom finds the place so adorable. She finds herself as a
nature lover, she loves the moors, the sheep and the moon gets up for her as she
travels down the miles path of the village. She loves it. And Mary very well
understands her when she said “it's all very well with you as long as you've got a
moor to walk on you're all right.” Mary considers Gwenda's love for the nature.
Her loves for the nature surround her, has made her a new habit of walking, and
sometimes running over the moor of the village. An outdoor sport activity that can
only be done by a strong healthy spirited soul, in this situation I call Gwenda as

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youth of energetic.

b. Gwenda as stubborn or strong willed – self character
Here is a dialogue between Gwenda and her beloved father, Mr. James
Cataret, in whom she opposites with always. As a smart, strong and independent
character as portrays by the author, Gwenda, sometimes appears as stubborn or
the one with strong willed – self, specifically in her relationship with her father,
who plays as the antagonist part in the story. The antagonist father always tries to
control his daughters behavior, it is no problems with Mary who always be meek,
mild, sweet and good, nor Alice, who is weak in nature, but there is always a big
matter with his number two daughter, Gwendolen Cataret, her intelligent and her
strong character makes both of them always in vice versa position. In her father
eyes Gwenda is the most stubborn daughter out of the three.
“It's no use Papa. You'd far better give it up. You know you can't do it.
You can't stop me. You can't stop Jim Greatorex. You can't even stop
peacock. You don't want another scandal in the parish.”
He Didn't
“Oh, go your own way.” he said “and take the consequences.”
“I have taken them,” said Gwenda (Chapter XXXIX : 207).

The quotation above happens when Gwenda has made up her mind and
decided to leave the village for London, where she will stay with her step mother,
Robina. She is Mr. Cataret third wife who left him because of different
perspective. He hates her so much, but the daughters love her, and she loves them.
When Gwenda asks permission to his father to go to London and stay with her
step mother, she has already known that her father will not allow her. But she has
made her mind up, and she has also known that her father could not stop her. It

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also what Mr. Cataret has to face when he should make a decision about his
second daughter, there will be no other result comes from him, but from her only.
She is the most stubborn one compare with the other two.
Gwenda says that her father cannot stop her, she says all the effort he
would do are useless, because no body can not stop her. She also knows that her
father does not like scandal in the parish. Therefore, the father keeps quite,
nothing can happen, but lets her daughter go to her step Mummy. Mr. James
Cataret does not say a word about Gwenda's stubbornness, but the dialogue shows
it. Most of Gwenda's relationship with her father implies her stubborn
characteristic, as daughter. The other one as follows:
“I can do anything when I'm driven.”
The vicar groaned.
“You're right, “ he said.” You are different from Alice. You're worse then
she is – ten times worse. You'd stick at nothing, I've always known it.”
“... It's not a bit of good trying to bully me. You'll be beaten every time.
You can bully her till she's ill. You can shut her up in her bedroom and
lock the door and I dare say she won't get out at the window. But even
Alice will beat you in the end. Of course, there's Mary. But I shouldn't try
it on with Mary either. She's really more dangerous than I am, because
she looks so meek and mild. But she'll beat you, too, if you begin bullying
her.” (Chapter XXXII: 165).

The vicar, Mr. James Cataret, the father of the three sisters who widowed
for three times, was left by his latest wife, Robina, who is as smart as his second
daughter, Gwendolen. He cannot manipulate or bully on her as what he used to do
over his previous wifes and also the daughters, but of course he can not do it to his
number two daughter. However, his first wife, Mary Gwendolen, was death of
child birth of Alice, and his second wife, Frances, has turned into invalid in his
hands before death (Sinclair, 1984: 20-21). Mr. James Cataret authoritative
manner makes him the most unfavorite character in the novel, by manipulating or

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bullying his daughters, he can control them, but not with Gwenda who has her
own privilege and freedom. She always gets his father track that he can not
bullying her. In their relationship, the father and the daughter always against one
toward another. In the quotation above, Gwenda shows her intelligent side while
arguing with her father, that he can not stop her in his strictness. Eventhough Alice
and Mary is easy to handle, but in the end they will beat him as well, if he
continues to bully them, she tells her father his position. In the eyes of the father
she is the most stubborn daughter, Gwenda is ten times worse than Alice, as he
always knows.
However, the dialogue above shows how strong willed Gwenda's self is, as
well as how stubborn she is against his father.
Gwenda's stubbornness or strong-willed self also appear in her relationship
with her lover, Dr. Steven Rowcliffe, the one whom understand her well. The
quotation below shows her strong willed – self:
He made an impatient movement
“But you knew without telling. You know then”
“I didn't. I didn't”
“Well, then, you know now. Will you marry me or will you not? I want it
straight.”
“No. No”
“And – way not?”
He was horribly cool and calm.
“Because I don't want to marry you. I don't want to marry anybody.”
“Good God! What do you want, then?”
“I want to go away and earn my own living as other women do”
... All the time she had kept her hands locked behind her
(Chapter XXXVIII: 197).

Gwenda has to decide to leave her lover and the village, to save her dying
sister's life, Ally. This younger sister is weak in her nature, living with a strict
father makes her fragile and gets sick easily – she was in love with Dr. Rowcliffe

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and this infatuation has brought her into a madness or worst she could died, a
hysteria case. Gwenda, as she realizes the true situation, has made up her mind.
She is the one who stands between Ally and Dr. Rowcliffe, thus, she thinks she is
the one who should go. Dr. Rowcliffe does not know about Ally's infatuation to
him, as well as Gwenda's reason to go away from the village. He tries to stop her,
when she tells him about her going plan. He tries to tell her about his feeling to
her, he proposes her that she rejects. Gwenda has made up her mind, and nobody
can not stop her, even her – own self, because the decision she makes against her
own will, but still she should go away – in a thinking for saving her sister life.
However, the way she defends herself after the young Dr. Rowcliffe performing
her stubbornness or strong willed- self

c. Gwenda as capable of anything or independent character
In The Three Sisters, the most unfavorable character