CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Literature ...

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Literature is identical with the words: the expression of human feeling,
imaginative process and creativity (Wellek, 1972:2). Literature is a written work and
exists in our society as a communicative means in our ideas of literature to show and
give such a greater understanding about this life. Taylor (1981: 1) says that literature,
like other parts, is essentially an imaginative act, that is, and act of the writers
imaginations is selecting, ordering, and interpreting life-experience’. It means that
literature is an interpretation of human’s mind that uses language as medium. It has a
large scope and fantastic. In literature, there are three branches of literature such as
drama, poetry, and prose. Meanwhile, prose can also be divided into novel, short story,
romance, etc.
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. Novel contains some aspects that reflected based
on the human real life. This aspects commonly concern with feeling, emotion, conflicts,
problem, etc. the elements that build up novel are plot, characters, theme, setting, point
of view, and language style. One of the most important elements of novel is characters.
Talking about the characters of a literary work means talking about their quality of mind,
behaviors, or personalities.
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A character is any person, personal, identity, or entity whose existence originates
from a fictional work or performance. A character is a participant in the story, and is
usually a person, but may be any persona, identity, or entity whose existence originates
from a fictional work or performance.
Leading character is the centered individual very dominant. As an individual, the
leading focused personality. Leading character emerged as long side the extraordinary
character, a character that might be called prototypical. The prototypical character is not
a stereotypical but a fully rounded, three dimensional character.
In this thesis, the writer chooses Mary Shelley’s novel entitled Frankenstein to
be analyzed. Mary Shelley was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist,
essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or,
The Modern Prometheus (1818). She also edited and promoted the works of her
husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley. And the
Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic
movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction.
Brian Aldiss has argued that it should be considered the first true science fiction story,
because unlike in previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later
science fiction, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern
experiments in the laboratory" to achieve fantastic results. It has had a considerable
influence across literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror
stories and films.
The writer wants to analyze two leading characters’ ambitions and explain the
effect of its ambitions to readers found in that novel. The leading characters in a story is
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the character that built up the story which revealed by responds to conflict, by his or her
dialogue, and through descriptions that being majority of the plot line and the reader is
intended to identify with while reading the story. The leading characters which will be
analyzed by the writer are Victor Frankenstein and his creature, the monster.
The novel “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley tells the story of the leading character
named Victor Frankenstein who is described as an ambitious man and a scientist that
really wants to create a man. However, his creation failed and turned into a monster. The
monster can be considered as the leading character too because they two, Victor
Frankenstein and the monster, are the main character who lead the whole story of the
novel. Victor Frankenstein is always interested about the facts and wants to know
everything in the universe.
The writer would like to propose an idea especially about the leading characters’
ambitions in Frankenstein novel written by Mary Shelley. According to Oxford (2000),
ambition is something that you want to do or achieve very much and ambitious is
determined to be successful, rich, and powerful by needing a lot of efforts, money or
time to succeed.
The writer chooses this novel because this novel is very interesting to read and
can give some information about the ambitions and its effects to the readers and the
writer herself. In nowadays, as the reality of life, we know that a lot of people in this
world want to get their ambitions by trying use many ways without to see its effect. The
reason of writer to choose this novel because of the author’s technique in describing the
events, character acting, and style of the novel into her literary works so the readers can
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ead it to be more interesting, enjoying the story, and can get messages from the story
itself.
For analyzing this thesis, the writer uses library research by collecting all
necessary information to support the writer idea in the analysis. The steps used in this
thesis are started by reading the novel, finding the related data and quotes that support
the theme, until finally making the conclusion of the analysis.
1.2 Problem of the Study
Based on the above explanation, the writer would like to concern the writer’s
thesis in the lading characters’ ambitions, which formulated into :
1. How are the leading characters’ ambitions in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley?
2. What are the effects of the leading characters’ ambitions in Frankenstein
written by Mary Shelley?
1.3 Objective of the Study
The objective of this thesis tends to answer the question or the problems of study.
Therefore, the purposes of this study are:
1. To explain the leading characters’ ambitions in Frankenstein by Mary
Shelley.
2. To describe the effects of the leading characters’ ambitions in Frankenstein
written by Mary Shelley.
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1.4 Scope of the Study
The writer limits the scope of the study by analyzing two leading characters’
ambitions and its effects in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, not from the other characters
and not on the other aspects of the novel. The writer believes that by scoping this study
on the leading characters’ ambitions, it will give contribute to us a lot of good messages
from this study in order to become more careful in choosing and running the ambitions.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The writer hopes that the thesis will enrich our knowledge and can give some
information to reader about the leading characters’ ambitions and its effects in
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and expected to give some good messages from the
leading characters’ ambitions and its effects itself.
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