CHAPTER II A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTERIZATION. both first and last names; the countries and cities in which they live are modeled

Transcription

1 CHAPTER II A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF CHARACTERIZATION 2.1 Characterization Fiction is strong because it is so real and personal. Most characters have both first and last names; the countries and cities in which they live are modeled and real places; and their actions and interactions are like those which reader themselves have experienced, could experience, or could easily imagine themselves experiencing. Along this attention to character, fiction is also concerned with the place of individuals in their environments. Fiction is usually about the interaction among people, but it also involves these large interactions either directly or indirectly. Indeed, in a typical work of fiction there are always many forces, both small and large, that influence the ways in which characters meet and deal with their problems. The judgment of characters may be done from the word they express. Because from their word reflect experience which is related to setting an action expressed in the story. The themselves represent full significance that can be appreciated by literary reader, while reading it in relation to this Taylor, Richard stated (1981 : 62) A character is mere construction of words meant to express an idea or view express an idea or view of experience and must be considered in relation of other features of the composition, such as setting and action, before its significant can be appreciated.

2 In fiction, a Character may be defined as a verbal representation of a human being. Through action, speech, description, and commentary, authors portray characters who are worth caring about, rooting for, and even loving, although there are also characters you may laugh at, dislike, or even hate. John Peck and Martin Coyle in their book Literary Terms and Critism ( 1986 : 105 ) explained the definition of character as follows : Character in literary work are not like real life people for they have been specially created by authors. When authors create character, they select some aspect of ordinary people. develop some of those aspect whilst playing down other and put them together as they please, the result is not an ordinary person but a fictional character who only exist in the words of literary works. According the statements above that character is presumably an imagined person who inhabits a story although that simple definition mat admit to a view exceptions, but usually, we recognize, in the main characters of the story, human personalities that become function to us. If the story seems true to life, we generally find that its characters act in a reasonably consistent manner and that the author has provided them with motivation, sufficient reason to behave as they do. This not to claim that all authors insist that their characters behave with absolute consistent for certain contemporary stories feature characters that sometimes act without any apparent reason. Nor can we say taha in good fiction, character never change, or develop. Character also refers to moral qualities and ethical standards and principles. In literature, character has several other specific meanings, notably that a person

3 represented in a story, novel, play, etc. in seventeenth and eighteenth-century England, a character was a formal sketch or descriptive analysis of a particular virtue or vice as represented in a person, what is a more often called a character sketch. Finally. Character is the interest for the very personal that we want to see how others people live, how they pursue their goals. We measure our selves by them. Now, let us see what the characterization means. The author may depict his characters in some ways. He may do it directly, or he may make the other characters do it for him or he trusts it to the readers to infer from the passage. Martin Gray ( 1984 : 42 ) says that characterization is the way in which a writer creates his characters in a narrative, so as to attract or repel our sympathy. The varieties of characterization presented in literature are as numerous as those of the real people who surround us in the world ; but different kinds of literature have certain conversation of characterization. Often in dealing with a literary character we learn more of his or her motives than we would ever expect to be certain of in real life; consistency of motivation seems a necessary fact in literary characterization. 2.2 Division of Character Based on the main role or the importance level, the character in a story divided into two kinds. They are main characters and peripheral character. It also divided into two types based on character s appearance. They are protagonist and antagonist character.

4 2.2.1 Main Character and Peripheral Character Main character is the character that often appears in the almost each event and main character is the important and the special character, so that we fell is so dominates the story. In certain novel, the main character always appears in almost each event and can be found in each page of the novel. When we read a novel or any other literary work, we will usually deal with some character. There is character that classified as an important character and showed in the story continuously. In this case, main character has always related with other character. Peripheral character is the character that appears once or sometimes in a novel, and may be relatively in short portion. It is called peripheral character often provide, support, and illuminate the protagonist (as Nugriyantoro, Burhan, states in his book Teori Pengkajian Fiksi ) Protagonist character and Antagonist character Protagonist or main character is the central figure of the story. It is not necessarily clear what being this central figure exactly entails. The terms protagonist, main character and hero are variously (and rarely well) defined and depending on the source may denote different concept. The word protagonist derives from the Greek protagonists, one who plays the first part, chief actor. The term protagonist is defined to be either always synonymous with the term main character, or it is defined as a different concept, in which case a single

5 character still may (and usually will) serve the function of both the protagonist and main character, or the functions may be split. In classical and later theater the protagonist is the character undergoing a dramatic change (peripeteia), both of his own character and external circumstances, with the plot either going from order to chaos, as in a tragedy, with reversal of fortune bringing about the downfall of the protagonist, usually an exceptional individual, as a result of a tragic flaw (hamartia) in his personality; or from chaos to order, as in a comedy, with the protagonist going from misfortune to prosperity an from obscurity to prominence. A story about an exceptional character being a driving force behind the plot, facing an opponent (the antagonist) and undergoing an important change like it is the case with the protagonist may be told from the perspective of different character (who may, but will not necessarily also be the narrator). The principal opponent of the protagonist is a character known as the antagonist who represents or creates obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. As with protagonists, there may be more than one antagonist in a story. An antagonist from Greek antagonists, opponent, competitor, rival is a character or group of characters, or, sometimes an institution of a happening who represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend. In the classic style of story where in the action consist of a hero fighting a villain, the antagonist is not always the villain, but simply those who oppose the main character.

6 2.2.3 Round character and Flat character Round character is a character who shows many different facets ; often presented in depth and with great detail. The basic of trait of round character are that they recognized, change with, or adjust to circumstances. The round character usually the main figure in a story profits from experience and undergoes a change or alteration, which may be shown in (1) an action or actions, (2) the realization of new strength and therefore the affirmation of previous decisions, (3) the acceptance of a new condition, or (4) the discovery of unrecognized truths.(robert,2003:133). Because round of they usually play a major role in a story. Round characters are often called the hero or heroine. Many main characters are anything but heroic, however, and it is therefore preferable to use the more neutral word protagonist. The protagonist is central to the action, moves against an antagonist, and exhibits the ability to adapt to new circumstances. To the degree that around characters are both individual and sometimes unpredictable, and because they undergo change or growth, they are dynamic. Flat character is a character who usually has only one outstanding trait or feature. In contrast, flat characters do not grow. They remain the same because they may be stupid or insensitive or lacking in knowledge or insight. They end where they begin and are static, not dynamic. But flat characters are not therefore worthless, for they usually highlight the development of the round characters. Sometimes flat characters are prominent in certain types of literature, such as cowboys, police, and detective stories, where the focus is less on character than

7 on performance. Such character might be lively engaging, even though they do not develop or change. They must be strong, tough, and clever enough to perform recurring tasks like solving a crime, overcoming a villain, or a finding a treasure. The term stock character refers to characters in these To the degree that stock characters have many common traits, they are representative of their class, or group. Such characters with variations in names, ages, and sexes, have been constant in literature since the ancient Greek Typical and Neutral Character Based on the reflecting story character toward human real life, story character can be distinguished into typical character and neutral character. Typical character is the character who show less individuality and more job s quality or something represented. Typical character is the description, reflecting or performance toward person or a group of tied people in a committee in real world. The description is indirectly and not whole and reader guess it based on knowledge, experience, and their opinion toward the character in real world and their understanding toward story character in fiction world. In another side, the neutral character is the story character who has existence for the story. He/She is the real imaginer character who live in fiction world. He/She presents for the story even he/she the owner of the story, action of story. Their presence does not represent or show something out of themselves one who is from

8 real world. At least, the reader get difficulty to guess it as the represented because there is no evidence of reflecting from reality. The characterization of story character typically can be seen as reaction, opinion, accepting, guessing of composer toward human character in real world. The opinion may sound negatively as seen in teasing, critical, and even caricatured story. The typical characterization which is not concerned with intentional and implicit meaning that told by the composer to the reader. The composer not only give reaction or opinion through that typical character, but also shows their attitude toward character, character s problem or its own action at once. Typical character in a novel maybe only one or some people, for example the main character or peripheral character. The typication of character does not need involve all their presence even it is impossible. There is only little aspect concerns with their self. For example, their reaction and action about something. The problem or conflict their faces, the action and word, the particular actions, etc. The typication in other side does not only show she/he has life attitude but there is character who has attitude, characteristic, action, problem, event, etc who told in a novel which has the similarity characteristics happen in real world. Thus, typical character has characteristic such as life, however life like character is not certain typical character.