CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

Literature is a creative work. It is human creations that result from

imagination and reality. In this case, an author has freedom in writing and

expressing his imagination into a literary work. From a literary work, the

readers may get some experiences of life and enjoyment, because it has some

powers to move the reader’s heart. It helps them to love, to hate, to

sympathize, and to realize the reality. In other words, they can see another

side of life and make them experienced.

Reading a literary work is not only a matter of looking for pleasure,

but also learning of life. The readers can find many things closely related to

their daily life such as love, marriage and death. Literature is interesting to be

enjoyed, for it gives information knowledge, and pleasure. From literature,

people get information about a particular science or branch of knowledge,

enjoying the imagination which is created by the writer or knowing the

condition of society in a particular place. Griffith (1990:3) in Writing Essays

about Literature states “Literature is subject matter that creates certain

expectations your audience. Because literature is a complex product of the

imagination, readers of essays about literature expect you to interpret, to

explain, to clarify, to analyze, and to give the meaning of it”. It means that

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literature gives the reader some information of various experiences that are

likely to be the basic view of leading on the course of human life.

Literature has its roots in one of the most basic human desires, for

example desire for pleasure (Sunaryono Basuki Koesnosoebroto, 1988:1). It

means that the reader can feel an imaginative world about the human being

desire and pleasure. Since the invention of language, men have taken pleasure

in following and participation in the imaginary adventures and imaginary

experiences of imaginary people.

In writing literature, the authors must be creative to create the

literature in order to interest the reader to read, author is always concerned

about how truth and fact relate to each other. In addition, the authors of

literature often raise social maters of themes of their work. Novel is one of

writing form which consists of interpretation of the author’s emotion, feeling,

and idea through the imagination. Novel also shows human being’s life and

experience. It is reflection of the real life of human being’s experience.

Literature can encourage the readers to forget their troubles and get

pleasure. Beside that, through imagination, it enables the readers to

understand their troubles and make them understand the reality of life better.

As suggested by Laurence Perrine (in Alex Sobur 2003:32) “there are two

categories of literature: literature of escape and literature of interpretation, on

the basis of the aims of writing literature. Escape literature is that written

purely for entertainment, its only object is pleasure. While, interpretative

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literature is written to broaden and deepen .and sharpen of awareness of life,

its object is pleasure plus understanding.

Analyzing literature can be done intrinsically or extrinsically. It

means that the analysis refers to the intrinsic parts which build the whole of

literary works such as plot, character, characterization, theme and style.

Extrinsically means that the analysis refers to the extrinsic elements which

support the literary works. Siswantoro (2005:19) states “intrinsic approach

orient to masterpiece as quit of self-supporting of external world that it is

outside text”. Extrinsic method is concerned with literary background, the

environment, and the external causes (Wellek and warren, 1956:73).

One of the imaginative literatures which can be analyzed through the

extrinsic parts widely is novel. Novel is a long fictional narrative written in

prose, which developed from the novella and other early forms of narrative. A

novel is usually organized under a plot or theme with a focus on character

development and action.

(http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_no.htm),

accessed on April, 12th 2010. It means that novel is long prose fiction that can

accommodate further development of character, incidents, scenes, or

episodes, setting, and take place in a longer span of time.

The most common of imaginative literary works that can be found and

easy to be enjoyed is novel. It can be seen in the library or bookstore where

all kinds of novel are easy to be found. Literature is the result of human’s

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creativity and the creativity comes from the writer’s thought, imagination,

feeling, experience or society which is expressed into literary works.

Therefore, it is possible for the readers to know about the extrinsic parts of

literary works such as; the sociological background, the moral value

background, the historical background, the cultural background or the

psychological background which is reflected in the characters.

A story can not exist without character. Character is imaginary person

who inhabits in a story, acts in reasonable consistent manner and the author

has provided him motivation. Without character, novel can not be built and it

will be meaningless, therefore the author has many characters in his writing

and the character have different characterization. Characterization can be

regarded as variety aspects of a character. Character and characterization are

considered as necessary part in novel. Kennedy (1983:45) in his book, An

Introduction to Fiction defines that the character is as an imagined person

who inhabits a story.

Characteristic of character is called characterization. Characterization

is the process of conveying information about character in fiction. Every

character has different characterization. It must have at least three principles.

First, the characters must be consistent in their behavior. Second, the

characters must clearly be motivated in whatever they do, especially when

there is any change in their behavior. Third, the character must be plausible or

lifelike, credible, realistic, probable. If the writer can meet the second

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principle, the third will automatically be realized (Sunaryono Basuki

Koesnosoebroto, 1988:66).

Characterization relates with psychology of character. Psychology is

the study of behavior process or psychology is a science, a set of procedure

for systematically observing fact about behavior. Hilgert (in Alex Sobur

2003:32) states “psychology may be defined as the science that studies the

behavior of men and other animal”. According to Chaplin (in Alex Sobur

2003:32) states “…the science of human and animal behavior, the study of

organism in all its variety and complexity as it responds to the flux and flow

of the physical and social events which make up the environment” It can be

concluded that psychology does not only learn human behavior but also

animal behavior.

Psychological approach is a method to help problem that related in

the psychology. Psychology can not be separated from literature although

both of them have the differences. Literature is different from psychology.

Literature is connected with the world of fiction, drama, poetry and prose that

are classified into the art. Psychology is the scientific study of human

behavior, so that, psychology and literature have close relationship, literature

can be studied through psychological approach. Moreover, the psychological

view can be found on anyone into different problems.

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Depression could be closely related to psychology. Depression is an

illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts, that affects the way a

person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one

thinks about things. This feeling makes people feel lonelier and isolated,

making the depression and negative thinking worse.

Memories of Midnight is one of the novels which present a story of

Catherine Douglas’ life. The story tells about her life in the past. Her life fulls

of lies, threat and treason which make her life to be depressed. Therefore the

writer will analyze the depression of Catherine Douglas. This analysis focuses

on the main character of Catherine Douglas, who experiences depression.

That is why this research entitles “An Analysis of Psychological depression of

Catherine Douglas in Memories of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon”

B. Statements of the Problem

There are some problems that will be analyzed in this writing related

with the title in order to avoid ambiguity. The problems are identified into:

1. What are the psychological conflicts that make Catherine Douglas get

depression?

2. What kinds of depression that Catherine Douglas experienced?

3. What are the effects of Catherine Douglas’ depression into her life?

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C. The objectives of the Study

This study aims to answer some problems that are stated in the

statement of the problem. The objectives are as follows:

1. To identify the psychological conflicts that make Catherine Douglas get

depression.

2. To know the kind of depression that Catherine Douglas experienced.

3. To describe the effects of Catherine Douglas’ depression into her life.

D. The Significances of the Study

The result of the study will be useful for:

1. The Students

The students especially English Department who want to compose

any literature analysis as references of their study for doing research.

2. The Readers

The readers will have the deeper understanding of problem that

appears in the main character in the novel.

3. The Researcher

The researcher expects that the result of this study will enrich the

research in the field of literature.

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E. Methodology of the Study

Based on the study to describe some problem above, this research

is basically from the extrinsic point of view by analyzing the

psychological of Catherine Douglas. Here, the researcher uses qualitative

descriptive approach that kind of document analysis by researching

something from books, article, journal and others. Sutrisno Hadi (1980:3)

states “Pada taraf deskriptif, orang hanya semata mata melukiskan

keadaan obyek atau peristiwanya”. While Hadari nawawi (2005:63) in his

book Metode penelitian Bidang Sosial states:

Metode deskriptif dapat diartikan sebagai prosedur pemecahan masalah yang diselidiki dengan menggambarkan/melukiskan keadaan subyek/obyek penelitian (seseorang, lembaga, masyarakat, dan lain-lain) pada saat sekarang berdasarkan fakta-fakta yang tampak atau sebagaimana adanya

It can be concluded that descriptive method can be interpreted as a

procedure of investigation by depicting or defining of subject or research

obyek (someone, institute, society, and others). Here, the researcher uses

content analysis of novel in analyzing data.

F. Definition of the Key Terms

1. Literature

Literature is the expression and imitation of life through

language. It is an art, therefore people can read and appreciate it.

Wellek defines literature as a creative of art work (1956:15).

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2. Depression

The general definition of depression is a psychological disorder

that affects a person's mood changes, physical functions and social

interactions.

http://www.christianet.com/depression/definitionofdepression.htm,

accessed on April, 5th 2010

3. Psychology

Psychology is the study of behavior process or psychology is a

science, a set of procedure for systematically observing fact about

behavior.

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