A Study of Plot, Character, and Setting to Convey the Theme As Seen in Hemingway’S the Garden of Eden
A STUDY OF PLOT, CHARACTER, AND SETTING TO CONVEY THE THEME AS SEEN IN HEMINGWAY’S THE GARDEN OF EDEN
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement For Degree of Sarjana Sastra In English Letters
By
MG. LIA ROSARIA I
Student Number: 994214147
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF ENGLISH LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2004
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ...... i APPROVAL PAGE ...... ii ACCEPTABLE PAGE...... iii MOTTO PAGE ...... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... v TABLE OF CONTENTS...... vii ABSTRACT...... ix ABSTRAK ...... x
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...... 1 A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Problem Formulation ...... 4 C. Objective of the Study ...... 4 D. Definition of Terms ...... 4
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW...... 6 A. Review of Related Studies ...... 6 B. Review of Related Theories...... 8 1. Theory on Character and Characterization...... 8 2. Theory on Plot ...... 11 3. Theory on Setting ...... 14 4. Theory on Theme ...... 15 5. The Relationship between Character, Plot, Setting, and Theme...... 17 C. Theoretical Framework...... 19
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ...... 20 A. Object of the Study...... 20 B. Approach of the Study ...... 21 C. Method of the Study...... 22
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS...... 23 A. The Analysis of the Plot, the Character, and the Setting ..... 23 1. The Plot ...... 23 a. Exposition...... 23 b. Complication...... 26 c. Crisis...... 30 d. Climax...... 37 e. Denouement...... 40 2. The Characters ...... 41 a. David Bourne ...... 41
b. Catherine ...... 49 3. The Setting ...... 56 B. The Analysis of the Theme...... 62
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ...... 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 71
ABSTRACT
MG. LIA ROSARIA INDAH (2004). A Study of Plot, Character, and Setting to Convey the Theme as seen in Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
This study analyzes one of Hemingway’s novels entitled The Garden of Eden which was first published in 1986. The novel tells the story of young couple, David Bourne and Catherine, who has a honeymoon in French Mediterranean coast. The happy honeymoon has gone because of Catherine’s jealousy toward David’s writing. The whole story is constructed by the plot, character, and setting. This study deals with the plot, character, and setting to convey the theme of the story. The aim of this study is to find out the theme of the story that is conveyed through the plot, character, and setting. This study discusses 1) the analysis of the plot, character, and setting of the story, 2) the significance of the plot, character, and setting to convey the theme of the story. In collecting the sources, the writer uses library research. New Criticism will be the appropriate approach to analyze the problem together with the theories. The theories applied are concerned with character and characterization, the plot, the setting, the theme, and the relationship between the plot, character, setting and theme. The results of the study are 1) in the first analysis, it is found the plot of the story. The exposition introduces the main characters, David Bourne and Catherine, who have happy honeymoon in the French Mediterranean coast. It grows to the complication, David decides to write again. Catherine can not accept the decision and she is jealous of the writing. In the crisis Catherine’s jealousy grows deeper and she acts out of control. She creates an androgyny by cutting and coloring their hair to match and swapping the gender and creates a manage trios by bringing another girl to the marriage. The climax is Catherine and David get into fight because Catherine burns the writing. Then the denouement is Catherine leaves and David stays with his new girl. The main characters of the story are David Bourne and Catherine. David Bourne is passive and unassertive. He always follows his wife’s whim without trying to examine it first. Catherine is a jealous wife. She is jealous of David’s writing. The setting is in French Mediterranean coast. The place is beautiful. The hotel where the couple stays symbolizes the couple’s short married life. The ocean with its lovely place symbolize Catherine’s characteristic that is beautiful, lovely, and unpredictable. It also symbolizes the Garden of Eden, the place of misfortune of romantic love and vanished dream. 2) in the second analysis, the theme of the story is reflected by the mixture of the plot, character and setting. It is found that the main conflict is Catherine’s jealousy of David’s writing. Catherine’s jealousy becomes the main factor that makes the story move on. In the end, it can be found that the jealousy turns the happy marriage into the unhappy one. Therefore, the theme that can be conveyed, as it is reinforced by setting, is “jealousy may lead into the unhappy marriage”.
ABSTRAK
MG. LIA ROSARIA INDAH (2004). A Study of Plot, Character, and Setting to Convey the Theme as seen in Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menganalisa salah satu novel Hemingway berjudul The Garden of Eden yang pertama kali diterbitkan pada tahun 1986. Novel ini menceritakan kisah pasangan muda yaitu David Bourne dan Catherine. Pasangan ini berbulan madu di pesisir pantai Perancis. Bulan madu yang bahagia hilang karena Catherine cemburu pada buku David. Keseluruhan cerita dibentuk oleh alur, tokoh dan latar cerita. Skripsi ini membahas alur, tokoh dan latar untuk merumuskan tema cerita. Tujuan skripsi ini adalah untuk menemukan tema yang dirumuskan melalui alur, tokoh dan latar cerita. Skripsi ini membahas: 1)analisa alur, tokoh dan latar cerita, 2)makna penting dari alur, tokoh dan latar dalam merumuskan tema cerita. Data-data dikumpulkan dengan menggunakan metode riset pustaka. Pendekatan New Criticism dengan menggunakan teori-teori penunjang dianggap cocok untuk menganalisa masalah. Teori-teori yang diterapkan adalah teori tokoh dan penokohan, alur, latar, tema dan hubungan antara alur, tokoh, latar dengan tema. Hasil dari analisa yang dilakukan adalah: 1)Pada analisa pertama, ditemukan alur cerita. Pembukaannya mengenalkan tokoh utama yaitu David Bourne dan Catherine yang berbulan madu di pesisir pantai Perancis. Cerita ini berkembang pada komplikasi yaitu David memutuskan untuk kembali menulis. Catherine tidak bisa menerima keputusan itu. Dia cemburu pada buku David. Pada krisis, kecemburuan Catherine semakin dalam. Tindakannya menjadi tak terkontrol. Dia menciptakan androgini yaitu memotong dan mewarnai rambut mereka sama persis, berganti jenis kelamin dan menciptakan hubungan segitiga dengan membawa wanita lain ke dalam perkawinannya. Klimaxnya adalah Catherine dan David bertengkar karena Catherine membakar naskah cerita David. Penyelesaiannya yaitu Catherine pergi dan David tinggal bersama kekasih barunya. Tokoh utamanya adalah David Bourne dan Catherine. Sifat David adalah pasif dan tidak tegas. Dia selalu menuruti keinginan Catherine tanpa mempertimbangkannya. Catherine adalah istri yang cemburuan. Dia cemburu pada buku David. Latar cerita ini di pesisir pantai Perancis. Tempatnya indah. Hotel tempat pasangan ini tinggal menyimbolkan kehidupan perkawinan mereka yang singkat. Laut dan tempat yang indah menyimbolkan sifat Catherine yaitu cantik, menarik dan tak dapat ditebak. Tempat ini juga menyimbolkan taman surga, tempat kehilangan cinta dan harapan. 2)Pada analisa kedua tema cerita dimunculkan dengan menggabungkan alur, tokoh dan latar. Permasalahan utama cerita adalah kecemburuan Catherine pada buku David. Kecemburuan Catherine menjadi factor utama yang mengembangkan cerita. Pada akhir cerita, ditemukan bahwa kecemburuan itu mengubah perkawinan mereka menjadi perkawinan yang tidak bahagia. Oleh karena itu, tema yang ditemukan, yang juga diperkuat oleh alur, adalah “kecemburuan bisa menyebabkan perkawinan yang tidak bahagia”.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literary work is a portrait of human’s life. What is pictured there is generally based on the fact and experience which happened in the past or the dreams about future. The mixture of experience and imagination is expressed through the medium of written language that is literary work. As Hudson says in
An Introduction to Study of Literature,
Literary is the expression of life through the medium of language. It can be regarded as something essential since it contains about real life, people, thought, and their feeling about life (1958: 10).
Since literary is the expression of life, it might contain an essential idea about life that can be learned. Therefore, every literary work has a meaning, no matter what the form is. The meaning of it can be gained when the readers read it carefully. Reading literary work can give readers pleasure, excitement, understanding, new perception, knowledge, etc. Literary work helps readers to be more human, because through the written language, literary work shares readers the condition of life such as sadness, happiness, struggle, peace, war, etc. Through the story the readers involve to the situation presented.
In the preface to his book, Making Sense of Literature, John Reichert says,
The forms of literature are the forms of life. We make a sense of a character, a dialogue, a plot, as we make a sense of each other and of our lives, and the shapes our experience takes provide the shapes of literature and give them their only value (1977: x).
Based on John Reichert's statement above, a novel as one kind of modern literary genre, mostly takes real life as the inspiration in creating the plot, the characters, the setting and the theme of the story. The plot, the character, the setting, and the theme, as the intrinsic elements are related to each other and cannot be separated in order to make the good unity of the story. There must be something that the author wants to say through the unity of the story. The good creation of those elements will help the author to transfer the thing that he is going to say, to reveal the issue that he wants to share, that is a central idea of the story or a theme.
Ernest Hemingway is one of American great writers. He was born at Oak
Park, Illinois, near Chicago in July 1899. He is a master of the short story form and a reasonably good novelist. He has written the great works, such as The Sun
Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), To Have and Have Not (1937), For
Whom the Bell Tolls (1939), Across the River and Into the Trees (1950), and The
Old Man and the Sea (1953). In 1954 Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize in literature “for his powerful, style-forming mastery of the art of narration”
(www.books.guardian.co.uk). There are also his works that published after his death, such as A Movable Feast (1964), Island in the Stream (1970), The
Dangerous Summer (1985), and The Garden of Eden (1986).
The Garden of Eden, one of his posthumous works is possibly his finest achievement (Http://gutsche.com/burkhold/writing/bookreviews/eden.html). The
Garden of Eden is the last uncompleted novel of Hemingway, which he worked on intermittently from 1946 until his death in 1961. The story is generally talking
about the jealousy of young woman, Catherine, toward her husband’s activity, which is writing. The effect of the decision to write again is the unhappy honeymoon. It seems to her that she cannot accept the decision and she starts to act out of control. The story is presented in excellent words. The scenery is pictured clearly and beautifully. The setting where the story takes place is romantic and enchanting. The madness brought by Catherine as one of the main characters, the sexual fantasies, and the cruelty is very interesting. On the other side, David, as a husband who is easily trapped into Catherine’s games that sounds ridiculous, dangerous and nonsense is the other interesting point of the story.
Finding how excellent the story is revealed, the theme will be the next idea that appears in mind. Through the setting that is delivered clearly, the main characters David Bourne and Catherine, who takes the important roles of the story, and the plot as the organized events developed attractively, the theme is found. Those intrinsic elements support each other and cannot be separated. Since there is still no other thesis discussing about this study, the writer comes to the idea to go deeper in analyzing the contribution of the plot, character, and setting in order to find out the theme of the story. The theme of the story is crucial because it gives the story focus, unity, impact, and “point”. Therefore, the theme will not be stated in easy way. It needs more attention to get it. That’s why the intrinsic elements above are needed in this study. Knowing the theme means understanding the main point of the story, the central meaning of the story. It is one of thousand
reasons why people spend their time to read literary work, to catch the insight meaning of the story.
B. Problem formulation
In order to reach the target that is finding the theme of The Garden of
Eden, by analyzing the plot, the character, and the setting, the problems are formulated as the following:
1. How are the plot, the main characters, and the setting revealed in the story?
2. What are the significance of the plot, the main characters, and the setting in
conveying the theme of the story?
C. Objective of the Study
This study aims to reveal the organization of the plot, the description of the main characters, and the picture of the setting of the story in order to get a brief explanation about those elements. The brief explanation of those three intrinsic elements is used to convey the theme of the story. Hopefully, by stating the theme, the meaning of the story will be found.
D. Definition of Terms
To get the clear understanding of the content of the study, there are some definitions of terms that need to be clarified. Those are plot, character, setting, and theme.
As stated in Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students by M.J. Murphy, plot is carefully
though-out plan in which all the events, all the action and reactions of the characters, contribute towards the forward movement of the story (1972: 134).
A Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams defines the word character as the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say — the dialogue and by what they do — the action (1981: 20).
Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and the English
Novel for Overseas Students by M.J. Murphy gives the definition of setting as the background against which the characters live out their lives. The setting can be concerned with the place in which the characters live and also the time in which they live (1972: 141).
According to An Introduction to Fiction by Robert Stanton, theme is a central meaning of the story (1965: 4).
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Study
Through literary criticism, the critics give comments, ideas, and reviews about a particular literary work. Literary criticism can also be the way to understand both an author and the work. In every study, the criticism is needed to support the idea or the topic discussed. There are some criticisms that will be presented to help the writer completing this study.
There are many critics who praise Ernest Hemingway as the most famous American novelist, short-story writer, and the essayist. He is awarded the
1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. He has written many novels and short stories.
According to Magill, Hemingway’s work has theme concerning usually with his obsession of the outdoor pursuit and sport, identification with the primitive, constant confrontation with death, fascination with violence, what he calls
“holding the purity of line through the maximum of exposure” (1989: 607-608).
The typical Hemingway’s hero, existential in particular American way, faced the sterility and failure and death of his contemporary world with steady-handed courage and a stoical resistance to pain that allows him a fleeting, but essentially human, nobility, and grace.
The Garden of Eden, his last uncompleted novel, which is published posthumously, is also a self-portrait of Hemingway. The honeymoon of the young lovers in the story is derived from the honeymoon that Hemingway has with his second wife.
Hemingway himself honeymooned there with his second wife Pauline and the events in the story are based loosely on his memories of this Mediterranean trip. The Garden of Eden was a labour of love for Hemingway (www.fetchbook.co.uk/search B00006hc/tab Reviews.html).
Thomas K. Burkholder in his review says that The Garden of Eden seems to be ruthless self-justification of an unsuccessful serial monogamist. It shows that through the novel, Hemingway wants to share his feeling by telling his love experience. David, the protagonist of the story, reveals the way Hemingway saw himself. This book is his most vulnerable, tender, and humbling portrait of so many of the central struggles of his life.
Yet it is plain why Hemingway may have agonized over this one and held it back from publication, for the man it reveals is not the public persona he cultivated for most of his life. The protagonist in this tale, an avatar of the author (as in most of his work), is here a passive and unassertive sort who is unable to deal effectively with the woman he has married (www.booksunderreview.com/arts/literature/authors/H/hemingway- Ernest/hemingway’_ernest_5.html).
There is another review written by Anders Hallengren. The review is about
Catherine.
“The anti-hero’s wife in The Garden of Eden, Catherine Bourne, is one of the most persuasive and lively heroines in Hemingway’s work. She is a more complex heroine and more fragile and intertwined relationship than are presented in any of Hemingway’s other works” (Http://www.fetchbook.info/search_0684804522/tab_reviews.html).
In the story the character is described as complex and well delivered. The character is worth to be explored deeper because it is well-built, attractive, and arising big curiosity.
The other reviews are found in www.booksunderreviews.com/hemingway.html.
The Garden of Eden was published approximately 20 years after Hemingway’s death. Carlos Baker, author of one of the most thorough Hemingway biography, described the manuscript as being lengthy and
not very good. Thus, many were surprised when The Garden of Eden was published in a shortened version, and was quite good. The novel explores themes of sexuality not touch on in Hemingway’s other work.
In this book, Hemingway finally takes on some of the painful issues of his life. There’s a great deal of sexual intrigue in The Garden of Eden, especially about gender and identity. David and Catherine, the two main characters, do some fascinating and disturbing play with their genders and their relationship with each other as a man and a woman.
Since the criticisms focus on comparing the novel and the author’s life and discuss about gender, identity and sexuality as the main issues, the writer attempts to see the novel from the different study that is analyzing the intrinsic elements of the work. There are few reviews on the characters, as the important intrinsic element. The studies of the intrinsic elements such as plot, character, and setting to convey the theme, have not existed yet. What makes this study different is that this study tries to answer how the theme of The Garden of Eden as the central meaning can be conveyed through the contribution of the plot, character, and the setting. Therefore this study will concern in finding the relationship between those three intrinsic elements to state the theme, by going deeper beyond the text.
B. Review of Related Theory
1. Theory on the Character and Characterization
In this study, the theory of character and characterization are important to help the writer in analyzing the main characters of The Garden of Eden.
In A Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams defines the characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the
reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say -the dialogue- and what they do –the action (1981: 20)
Abrams also stated that basically, based on the importance, the character can be divided into two categories. They are major character and minor character.
A major character usually appears in the whole of the story. He becomes the focus of the story. The events that appear in the story always involve him directly or indirectly. On the other hand, minor character is often said as the supporting character. The roles are less important then the main characters because they are not fully developed characters and their roles in a story are just to support the development of the major character (1981: 20).
Here, in this study, the character that will be discussed is the main character. The characteristic of the main character will be the next thing to be analyzed. Therefore the theory of characterization is needed to find out the characteristic of the main character.
According to Baldick, characterization refers to the presentation of persons in narrative or dramatic works by means of the characters’ action, speech, or physical appearance (1991: 34). It means that a character can be differentiated from others because they have their own personality and physical attributes.
An author may present his character either directly or indirectly (Perrine,
1974: 68-69). In direct presentation, or also called telling method, he tells us straight out, by exposition or analysis, what a character is like, or has someone else in the story tells us what he is like. The author describes the character directly by telling the readers what people look like. For example, in this study, Catherine
is described directly by the author. The author gives her physical description directly by giving the statement such as "She has long brown legs". In indirect presentation, or showing method, the author shows us the character in action. The author only simply presents his character talking, acting and the author leaves the reader to find out what motives and dispositions lay behind what they say and do.
According to Murphy (1972: 161-173), there are nine ways that an author tries to present the characters’ personalities to the reader. They are: a. Personal description
The author may describe a person’s appearances and clothes. b. Character as seen by another
The author may describe the character through the eyes and opinion of another
character. c. Speech
The author describes a character by giving us insight into the character of the
one person in the book. Through what he says, he is giving us a clue to the
character. d. Past life
The author describes the character by giving us a clue to past events that could
help to share a person’s character. e. Conversation to others
The author may describe the character through the conversations of other
people and the things they say about him. f. Reactions
The author describes the character by letting us know how the character
responds to various situations and events. g. Direct comment
The author describes the character by giving a description or comment on
person’s character directly. h. Thought
The author gives the reader a direct knowledge or what a person is thinking. i. Mannerism
The author describes a person’s mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies to tell
something about the character.
2. Theory on Plot
This theory is needed in order to analyze the plot that exists in the story.
The development of the plot in the study will be based on the pattern of development stated in this theory.
Robert and Jacobs’ Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing stated,
A plot is a plan or groundwork for a story, based in conflicting human motivations, with actions resulting from believable and realistic human response (1987: 9).
It means that a conflict is the basic part that needs to be created in order to establish a set of events in forming the story. A conflict will determine the next action or situation. It will be the determinant factor to create a major structure of the story.
Thus the plot of a story is the establishment of a conflict and the consequences, variations, and developments that stem from it (Robert and Jacobs,
1987: 9). Based on the statement, plot is important in making the arrangement of the story. Plot is the idea that determines how the story will flow. Plot will relate one action to another in order to make a good organization of the story. In well- plotted story, nothing is irrelevant; everything is related. In the story, time is important not simply because one thing happens after another, but because one thing happens because of another.
According to Robert and Jacobs (1987: 10-11) there will be the following aspects that form the backbone, skeleton, or pattern of development. a. Exposition.
Exposition is the lying out, the putting forth, of the material in the story: the main characters, their backgrounds, their characteristics, goals, limitations, and potentials. It presents everything that is going to be important in the story. b. Complication.
The complication marks the onset of the major conflict in the story. The participants are the protagonist and the antagonist, together with whatever the ideas or values they represent, such as good and evil, individualism and collectivization, childhood and age, love and hate, intelligence and stupidity, knowledge and ignorance, freedom and slavery, desire and resistance, and the like. c. Crisis.
The crisis is the turning point, the separation between what has gone before and what will come after. In practice, the crisis is usually a decision or
action undertaken in an effort to resolve the conflict. It is important to stress, however, that the crisis, though a result of operating forces and decisions, may not produce the intended results. d. Climax.
The climax is the high point in the action, in which the conflict and the consequent tension are brought out to the fullest extent. Another way to think of climax is to define it as that point in a story in which all the rest action becomes inevitable. e. Resolution or denouement.
The resolution (a releasing or untying) or denouement (untying) is the set of action bringing the story to its conclusion. The major actions are completed and the final action, the walking, underscores the note of finality (1987: 9-11).
Furthermore according to Stanton (1965: 16), there are two important elements of plot: conflict and climax. He divides conflict into two parts: a. Internal conflict
Internal conflict is the conflict between two desires within a character.
Here, the conflict happened because the opposing desires or values in the character’s own mind, and he has to choose the best one for him. b. External conflict
External conflict is the conflict between a character and his environment.
There maybe the conflict of character’s against fate and the circumstances that exist between him and a goal of himself. Besides, it happened because the different opinions of characters.
In this study, Stanton’s statement about the theory of conflict and climax is very important. It will be used in analyzing the second problem formulation.
3. Theory on Setting
According to Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing by Robert and Jacobs, setting refers to the natural and artificial scenery or environment in which characters in literature live and move (1987: 29). It means that everything related to the environment such as the time of day and the amount of light, the trees and animals, the society, the sounds described, the smells, and the weather are part of setting. The setting of a work is the description of the objects and physical appearance of the place where the story happens.
Rohrberger and Woods state that setting aids in establishing credibility; it can help to explain both characters and situation; it can give contribution to the atmosphere, or predominated mood; it can be active in foreshadowing; it can be symbolic (1971: 22).
In this study the writer will focus on the last statement that the setting can be symbolic. Later in the analysis, it will be found that the setting is used to symbolize the marriage and the main characters. It does not mean that the other uses of setting are not important. They are also important because it also helps the writer to understand about the setting.
Pickering et. al. states that setting refers to a location where an event takes place and time and time when it happens. There are four functions of setting:
setting as background, setting as antagonist, setting as a means of revealing characters, and setting as a means of reinforcing theme (1986: 39).
Therefore, in this study, the theory that will be used is setting as a means of revealing character. Pickering and Hoeper states,
Setting as a means of revealing character is a mirror of the character. An author makes the description of setting similar to the character. Hence, setting is a symbol for the character (1986: 39).
Besides to symbolize the main characters, the setting is also used as a means of reinforcing theme. It means that the setting is considered to have an important role in the story and analysis.
4. Theory on Theme
This theory is very important to help the writer in stating the theme of The
Garden of Eden as the final result of the analysis.
According to Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing by Robert and Jacobs, the theme of a story is whatever general idea or insight the entire story reveals. In literary fiction, a theme is seldom so obvious. That is, a theme need not be as a moral or a message; it may be what the happenings add up to, what the story is about. For the meaning, we must look to other elements in the story, besides what happens in it (1987: 59). As in Introduction to Fiction, Stanton states,
A central meaning of this sort corresponds to what, in a story, we call the “theme” or “central idea”. Like the central meaning of our experience, the theme of a story is both particular and universal in its value: it lends force and unity to the events described, and it tells us something about life in general. A theme may take the form of a generalization about life, a generalization that may or may not imply a moral judgment.” (1965: 5).
Based on Stanton’s statement previously, it means that the theme is the important element of the story, in case that the theme is the central idea or the main point that the author want to share through the story. It can be any idea about life. The main idea of the story can be gained from the contribution of the events that create the story, since the events of the story can be seen through the mixture of character, setting, and plot, therefore the theme can be found by analyzing those elements.
Perrine in his book Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, states six principle in making up the theme. The first, theme must be in the form of sentence. It must explain something about the subject. The second, theme must draw a general statement about life. The third, theme can be gained only from the context of the story to show the specific purpose of the author in revealing specific problems. The forth, theme must include major details of the story to avoid partial interpretation. It means that theme cannot be in contradictory with the whole content of the story. It must be based on the source of the story itself.
The fifth, theme can be states as long as the view of life presented in the story is fulfilled. The last, theme must be different from familiar saying in terms of the main of its statement. It provides a wider knowledge than familiar saying (1974:
107-109).
Holman and Harmon in A Handbook to Literary, 5th Edition, state that theme is a central or dominating idea in a work. As the central idea of the story, theme unifies the elements of the story and makes them coherent because theme can connect the elements to form a complete and unified story. Theme overlaps
with all other elements of literary work that its existence is closely related to the characters, the setting and the plot. Therefore, to discover theme of the story, a comprehension of numerous elements of the work is needed (1986:502).
5. The Relationship between Character, Plot, Setting and Theme
Rohrberger and Wood reveal that the analysis involves a study of the various elements of the story in an effort to understand the theme of the story
(1971: 20). What are meant by the various elements are the important points that stand in the work and they are analyzable. In this study, the writer sees that the character, plot and setting in the novel can contribute to state the theme. The character and the setting have a very close relationship. Usually, the characteristic of a setting in a novel may influence the characters. Even, it can be said that the characteristic pattern of a person will be formed by the condition of his environment. The setting never exists by itself. It explains the characters and the situations and the influences the atmosphere. M.J. Murphy states,
The settings have a great effect upon the characters’ personalities, actions, and ways of thinking. The settings “where” and “when” they live in or at determine the characters in the novel (1972: 141).
The character and setting become the primary means in the making of the plot. The plot of the story is its entire sequence of events that directly cause or result from other events, and cannot be omitted without breaking the line of action. These events may includes not only physically occurrences, like as speech or action, but also a character’s change of attitude, a flash of inside, a decision, complexity of society, nature and the universe (Stanton, 1965:14). From Stanton's
statement, it can be gained that characters and setting give contribution towards the forward movement of the story. The story then moves on, carrying the reader with it up and over a series of crests until the climax of the story is reached and everything is resolve, generally to the readers’ satisfaction. Stanton also states,
The character, setting and plot are the factual structure of the theme of its particular nature. Implicitly, by factual structure of the story, we can get the record of an imaginable occurrence of every detail in the story. What we call the story’s factual structure is simply one way in which its details are organized. Those same details are also organized so as to form patterns that convey the theme (1965: 12).
The statement above shows clearly that the character, setting and plot are the important element to state the theme. It is mentioned that from those elements, as it is called the factual structure, the details of the event in the story are found. It means that the theme can be found by analyzing the character, setting, and plot. It is strengthened by Kresner’s statement that the combination of character, setting, and plot analysis can help the reader to get the theme of literary work (1962: 31).
Based on the explanation above, theme will never exist without the existence of the character, setting, and plot. The character creates conflict in which it shows the interest, desires, emotion, and moral principle. Then, the setting appears to evoke those definite emotion tone or mood that surround the character, and the plot takes role in showing the movement of the story, which designated by the character’s conflict or problem to some extent of having direct influences from the society, setting. Each element can convey some significant point that will lead to find the theme of the work.
C. Theoretical Framework
This study aims to find out the theme revealed by analyzing the characters, plot and setting in Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden. There are some theories related to this study that are used. They are the theory of character and characterization, and the theory of plot, the theory of setting, the theory of theme and the theory of the relationship of those elements. They are used in order to help the writer in analyzing the problems that have been formulated in the previous chapter. To answer the first problem that is about the description of the characters, setting and plot, the definition of the character and the characterization, the theory of plot, the theory of setting, the theory of theme is needed. The theories are important to reveal what kind of character, setting and plot that are presented in the novel. After finding the brief description of those elements, the writer will go further to answer the second problem that is about the theme conveyed from the contribution of those elements. In this concern, the writer uses the theory of the relationship between the plot, setting, character and theme. This theory is used to get the theme of the story. All theories used will definitely help the writer to analyze the study.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The novel that will be analyzed in the study is The Garden of Eden written by Ernest Hemingway. This novel was published posthumously in 1986, approximately 20 years after his death. The novel that the writer read is published by Simon and Schuster in New York. It consists of 30 chapters and 247 pages.
The Garden of Eden was not in finished form at the time of the author’s death. The novel is the last uncompleted novel of Hemingway, which he worked intermittently from 1946 until his death in 1961. Some cuts in the manuscript and some routine editing corrections have done in preparing the book for publication.
Nothing has been added, and it is the entire still author. The Garden of Eden, only the second posthumous novel, just might be Hemingway’s most surprising book of all, and it becomes a sensational bestseller when it appeared in 1986.
The story of The Garden of Eden opens with the honeymoon enjoyed by the young lovers, David Bourne and his beautiful wife, Catherine on the French
Mediterranean coast. Everything is going right until David decides it’s time to get back to work again on his next book. Fun-loving Catherine, a bit of rebellious wild child at heart, soon begins to resent her husband’s writing’s solitude. When he shuts himself away alone in his study to work, she starts to go recklessly out of control. She does take delight in being able to control and manipulate him to her will. She involves David in a dangerous erotic game with another woman. In the
top of her jealousy of his work, she does burning the writing. Her madness proves to be damaging to all involved.
B. Approach
There are several approaches that can be used in analyzing literary work.
This study will go deeper beyond the text. It will focus on analyzing the theme that can be conveyed through the unity of the intrinsic elements of the novel that are plot, setting, and character. Therefore, the appropriate approach that is used is
New Criticism.
As stated by Klarer in An Introduction to Literary Studies,
New Criticism concerns to free literary criticism of extrinsic factors and thereby shift the center of attention to the literary text itself… New Criticism does away with the use of ungrounded subjective emotional responses caused by lyrical texts as an analytical “tool” (1999: 68).
It means that New Criticism puts away the extrinsic elements such as the psychological conditions of the author, the biographical data, the historical background, etc. In order to maintain an objective stance, the critic must focus solely on textual idiosyncrasies. In other words, the study that uses New Criticism is only focusing on the analysis of a text, including the element in the text or the intrinsic elements of the text. Meaning to say, it solely will be based on the text’s intrinsic dimension. Furthermore Klarer also states,
A central term often used synonymously with New Criticism is close reading (1999: 68).
It means that the critic has to read and reread the work as many as possible until he feels that he has completely understood about the work. The critic has to master the work in details in order to make the precious analysis.
C. Method of the Study
The study was going to analyze one Ernest Hemingway’s literary works,
The Garden of Eden. When the study had found the work, reading it several times was very important to get the understanding of the whole story. Deciding the topic was the most important step to be taken, because it would determine the next step.
After deciding the topic, the study would be implemented into some steps.
The first step was doing library research to find some books, criticisms, essays, and also theories, which were needed. Browsing the Internet’s sites to find the reviews and criticisms was very important to collect data as many as possible.
Those data would be useful in finishing the study. The data would be divided into two categories: the first was primary data that were taken from the novel itself,
The Garden of Eden, and the second was secondary data that consisted of data from the thesis belongs to other researchers, data on criticism, the theory on plot, setting, character, theme, the relationship between those elements, and the theory on approaches. The next step was formulating the problems, which were going to be analyzed in the study. When the problems had been stated, deciding the appropriate approach that was going to be applied would be the next step. Then the study came to the important part that was the analysis. In this step, all problem formulations stated above would be discussed one by one deeply. Finally, the study came to the last part, which was deriving a conclusion. The conclusion was taken from the previous chapter until the latest chapter. It was made by concluding all the explanation above, in order to show the chronological relation between each part of the whole study. CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is going to analyze the problem formulations that have been stated in the first chapter. Based on the two problem formulations, this chapter will be divided into two major parts. The first part will analyze the first problem that is analyzing the plot, character and the setting of the story. The second part will analyze the second problem that is finding the contribution of the plot, the character and the setting to convey the theme of the story.
A. The Analysis of the Plot, the Character, and the Setting
1. The Plot a. Exposition
The exposition can be found in the opening chapters of the story. The story begins with the introduction of the main characters and the situation of the story.
The main character is a couple, Catherine and David Bourne. They have just been married and have their honeymoon on the French Mediterranean coast. The exact time they have married is three weeks. They have come down on the train from
Paris to Avignon with their bicycles, a suitcase with their town clothes, and a rucksack and a bag. They will ride to the Pont du Gard. But the mistral is blowing so they ride with mistral down to Nimes and stay there at the Imperator and then have the heavy wind behind them and then on to le Grau du Roi. Then they have been there for a while, before moving to visit the towns that are Hendaye and La
Napole.
There is a brief description about a happy honeymoon the couple has.
Every day for them is a great lovely day. David Bourne is 28 years old. Catherine is seven years younger. She is beautiful and charming. As a couple who is still burnt in deep love, the happy lovers spend their days for having fun. Their daily activities are breakfast in the fresh morning, wake (sometime wake up late and get breakfast in bed), drink, lunch, and siesta, make love, sleep, wake again, swim, tan and fish. They absolutely enjoy the honeymoon. The honeymoon has been wonderful and they have been truly happy.
There is only happiness and loving each other and then hunger and replenishing and starting over. (P. 14)
It is depicted that David Bourne is really in love with Catherine that he has thought of nothing, but being with his girl whom he loves and is married to. He feels that he is so close to his wife and everything he is thinking is all about happiness and love and thinks that there is no bad thing happens and will happen.
It was a very simple world and he had never been truly happy than any other (p. 14).
In this part, Catherine is introduced as the girl who likes surprise. The first surprise she has is she appears with her hair crops as short as a boy’s. She does it because she wants to be both as a girl and a boy. She likes it because according to her it is a dangerous surprise.
The next day, there is a postman delivering mails for the couple. Catherine got letters from her bank in Paris and David gets mails from his publishers. They are the clippings and the proofs of advertisement. The mails tell him about his book. His books are done very good.
He glanced at the clippings and then read the long letter. It was cheerful and guardedly optimistic. It was too early to tell how the book would do but everything looked good. Most of the reviews were excellent (p. 23).
This part of exposition gives information that the protagonist, David
Bourne, is a writer. He is a successful writer and doing well for his book. For
David, writing is his life; means that writing is not only his occupation, but it is everything. It is part of him that can not be separated from his life. And receiving the excellent reviews is a great thing for him.
On the other side, it is shown that Catherine can not see the writing as
David sees it. The success of David's novel is just part of his occupation and she can not understand why David has to consider it more than that. It is shown when
Catherine comes and joins him to read the letters, she does not like the reviews because according to her, the reviews are terrible and they can destroy her husband. There is nothing good about the reviews.
“Plenty of people would be happy if their damned husbands had good reviews.” “I’m not plenty of people and you’re not my damned husband. I know I’m a violent girl and you’re violent too. Please let’s not fight. You read them and if there is anything good you tell me and if they say nothing about the books that’s intelligent that we don’t know you tell me.” (p. 25)
It is the first time she does not like the writing. Because all she likes is enjoying the honeymoon without any interruption, including the writing.
According to her, one right thing to enjoy the honeymoon is to get the dark skin by tanning all day on the beach, as it is obsessed by her. She wants to have tanned skin as darker as she can. She really wants to change.
b. Complication
This part is started with David’s decision to write again. The decision is made when they are lying close together in the night by listening to the heavy fall of the surf on the beach.
“We might stay a few days and see.” “Good. If we do I’d like to start to write.” (p. 37)
As the decision is made, he works on the writing, and Catherine has gone out leaving him to work in the room. After writing, he goes to the hotel bar and meets Catherine there. It seems that she encourages him on his writing by asking him about it. But as the conversation moves, they get to urge about it. It is the first strong argument they get after they are married.
“Why?” she said, leaning toward him and speaking too loudly. “Why should I shut up? Just because you wrote this morning? Do you think I married you because you’re a writer? You and your clippings.” (p. 39)
The quotation above shows that the clippings and writing actually make her feed up. Here, her dislike of the writing turns into anger. But Catherine seems to understand that the quarrel is her fault. She is such a fool to debate about the writing. She is sorry about that.
However, while David has to work on his writing, Catherine has to spend the day by her own activity. That morning when they have breakfast she says she will go to Biarritz. Although she knows that her husband has to work, she still tries to ask him to go with her. Again, she talks to him about surprise.
David on the other side is thinking about the writing. He thinks that he makes no progress. He is too slow on working. He does not like to be slow and it, anyway, annoys him.
You didn’t work enough this morning to make your brain that stupid or are you just hung over from yesterday. You didn’t work at all really. And you better soon because everything’s going too fast… (p. 45)
Catherine comes back bringing the surprise. She is very excited. She kisses David again and again. David is confused with what’s going on. After giving him once more kiss, she explains. She actually wants to please her husband.
She came back and stood by the bed with the sun on her through the window. She had dropped the skirt and was barefooted wearing only the sweater and the pearls (p. 45).
She is very excited finding her beautiful body and she wants to surrender herself for her husband. She wants to show it combined with the long dark legs, the straight standing body, the dark face, and the sculptured tawny head to surprise her husband, because that is the way she looks like now. Her husband likes it and says that it is wonderful. He is thinking that she is a new girl. They are full of love and have sexual intercourse through the night. In the morning they have breakfast in bed. Catherine plans them both to stay on the beach tanning there all through noon.
She is also sorry about the quarrel about the clippings. She says that it is because she has drunk too much. She is crying because she has hurt him. David understands that she does not mean it. She assures him that she does not want to do anything to him nor has any bad effect on him. She thinks that she can understand his work. In this part, it seems that she is able to encourage David to work on his writing. It seems that the writing and the honeymoon can go together.
They are befriends again. They have a happy day as they use to. They spend their morning to breakfast at Prado. They eat and drink more of Manzanilla, which is light and nutty tasting. They have nice talking about the food, African wine, and pictures of Castilla. Everything is good, although Catherine is moaning about her inability of painting and writing. She wants herself to go back to her world. She also wants David to back to the honeymoon, means that he has to spend his whole time for the honeymoon, do not work on the writing. All she wants is they come back to their world that is the marriage and enjoy their honeymoon.
She is frustrated because it does not work like what she wants. She acts as a girl all that afternoon. But later, when they are lying quiet for a long time, she starts to be a boy again. David rejects it. When she persists to be a boy, he gives up. Catherine is so excited. After that she has her own plan that she has a wonderful surprise for herself tomorrow. She is going to Prado to see all pictures as a boy.
They have been married three months and two weeks. David is sitting in the café, reading the reviews of his book. The reviews have been the understanding and perceptive reviews and it is a great advantage that this is his second novel. He is still thinking about them, when Colonel John Boyle is coming. They are very happy to meet each other. David tells him that he is in his honeymoon and they talk about Catherine. Colonel congratulates David for his book. He appreciates David’s work.
“Well anyway, have fun. You know, I liked the book. Has it done well?” “It’s done pretty well.”
“It moved me very deeply,” Colonel said. “You’re a deceptive son of a bitch.” (p. 61)
Catherine is coming, and David introduces them to each other. Colonel likes Catherine. He adores her as a beautiful girl and he likes her dark tanned skin.
She is very happy. She tells him that she acts as a boy this day. It remains a question in Colonel’s mind. Before leaving Colonel warns David about Catherine.
He finds something uncomfortable about the way she tells him about changing as a boy and a girl. Here is what Colonel said to David.
“Remember everything is right until it’s wrong. You’ll know when it’s wrong.” “You think so?” “I’m quite sure. If you don’t it doesn’t matter. Nothing will matter then.” (p. 65)
When they lie on the bed for taking rest in the afternoon, he shares her about that matter, the change. But Catherine insists that it is fine. He thinks that there will be no end to change.
Actually David is thinking about “no end to change” of Catherine. It turns him into a bad mood and Catherine does not understand. It brings them into a quarrel. Catherine keeps talking about the change. She irritates him by telling him that she will be back to be a girl, not because she wants it. She did it because
David forces her.
“Because I’m a god damned woman. I thought if I’d be a girl and stay a girl I’d have a baby at least. Not even that.” (p. 71)
Then she discusses about the work. Her husband is so sure to start the work now.
Although she says that it will be wonderful and she will have her own activities, what exists in her mind was the contrary. She is fed up of the writing.
In this part, David decides to work on his writing again. He spends his time to work. He knows that he should manage his time for the writing and his wife. He writes in the morning, and therefore he still has time to join his wife. On the other side, Catherine is jealous about the writing. She is often mad at David because she misses much time to be with her husband. She has to go everywhere by herself. She spends her days by own activities. She changes her hairs to turn her husband’s attention. She changes her gender to disturb her husband. She does anything nonsense to prevent her husband from writing.
c. Crisis
In this level, the story goes as the way Catherine’s jealousy grows deeper and uncontrolled. David spends much more time on his work. He is in the time of concentrating to the writing.
He had worked very hard for four days. (p. 76)
In achieving to turn David's attention from writing, she makes a lot of plans. She assures David that this time she is not going to start so bad and wild.
But the fact, it is still ridiculous. It is about to get her husband’ hair cut as the same style as hers. She wants him to be identical with her. She has planned every thing. She has found the coiffeur who can make it as fair as Scandinavian, the one she likes. It will match with their dark skin. The quotation below shows the way
Catherine persuades her husband to follow her plan.
“This would be much fairer. He said he could make it fair as Scandinavian. Think how that would be with our dark skin. And we could make yours lighter too.” “No. I’d feel funny.” (p. 77)
As Catherine is success in persuading David, they go to the coiffeur. The coiffeur, Monsieur Jean, firstly cuts Catherine’s hair. She wants it to be fair. There she lies to the coiffeur that David has given his decision to make the hair as fair as her pearl. She is also the one who makes the decision for David’s haircut. They go back to the hotel with the result of the cropping, the same style hair cut. It pleases her so much. She is very happy and satisfied of the result. David is the one who does not know exactly how he is, what he has done. In the hotel he tries to think about what happens. He tries to see what’s going on toward him actually. He matches himself, and is trying hard to like the way he looks now. He does not get it at all.
He looked at the face that was no longer strange to him at all but his face now and said,” You like it. Remember that. Keep the straight. You know exactly how you look now and how you are.” Of course he did not know exactly how he was. But he made an effort aided by what he had seen in the mirror. (p. 85)
In the night, when they are in bed, Catherine asks David to be a girl. The reason is that according to her it is not so easy to be a girl.
Another achievement is that she wants her husband to write her down in his writing, no matter it is where she has been bad put in; she wants him to include her in the writing. She demands it and does not want the writing to be copied for sell. She will keep the writing for them. She does not want the writing to success.
She is too jealous to let it happen.
“I’m so proud of it already and we won’t have any copies for sale and none for reviews and then there’ll never be clippings and you’ll never be self conscious and we’ll always have it just for us.” (p. 78)
The next day, as to prevent her husband from writing, Catherine has created her other whim. She has brought him a girl. The girl is the one whom they saw yesterday when they sit in the cafe. Catherine is so impressed with the girl’s beauty and she likes the way the girl to blush. It is a surprise that Catherine brings the dark handsome girl. The girl is uncomfortable, because she does not want to disturb David’s day. But David welcomes her. The thing that he does not welcome is that then Catherine invites her to stay with them in the hotel. David does not show his objection in front of the girl. While he is alone with Catherine, he shows his anger and asks Catherine for kind of nonsense surprise she makes right now. Catherine explains that the girl, named Marita, is a nice girl and she likes her. She needs the girl to accompany her while David is working. She wins over her husband.
“Don’t be so violent. She’s a nice girl and I like her. I know it was unforgivable to bring her up without speaking to you. I’m sorry. But I did it and it’s done.” (p. 100)
Starting from that day, three of them are going to any where together. It is because Catherine wants them to always being together. She always asks the girl to join. David is so upset. The existence of the girl is annoying. But he does nothing. He just keeps silent. He shows his anger by giving rude responds to
Marita. He is not too enthusiastic to make any conversation with the girl.
“When I drink I want to say things I should never say, “the girl said. “Then don’t say them.” “Then what’s the use of drinking?” “It isn’t these. You’ve only had one.” “Were you embarrassed when we swam?” “No. Should I have been?” (p. 101)
The girl is nonsense in some points, especially when she says that she loves David. David does not believe her although she has convinced him that she does fall in love with him in the odd way, the way that she does not even know either.
The condition of the relationship is growing bad. Catherine always offers him the ridiculous whims. At the time three of them are together, Catherine makes a rule that Marita is now David’s girl too, so that David should treat her as his girl. It surprises him so much. He does not think that it can grow that way.
Catherine gives her the ridiculous relationship and he is in it. Poor David passively accepts the situation after Catherine asks him to kiss Marita. First time
David kisses Marita, Marita is crying and he blames Catherine for that thing.
David put his arms around the girl and kissed her and she started to kiss him and turned her head away. Then she was crying with her head down and both hands holding the bar. “Make a joke now,” David said to Catherine. (p. 103)
Instead of feeling guilty, Catherine is attacking David back as the one who should take a responsibility that he makes Marita crying.
“I tried not to.” “I egged her on about you. I’ll go out and find her.” “No. Wait a little while. She’s too sure of herself.” “How can you say that, David? You just broke her all up.” (p. 104)
Catherine does not stop to that point to hurt and undermine David.
Catherine creates a scandal. She has kissed Marita when they are going to the town.
“This morning I stopped the car on the long clear stretch and kissed her and she kissed me and on the way back from Nice too and when we got
out of the car now,” Catherine looked at him lovingly but rebelliously and then said, ”It was fun and I liked it. You kiss her too. The boy’s not here.” (p. 110)
For Catherine it is game. It is a kind of fun that she has her own pleasure by playing her husband’s feeling. She wants him to think about the relationship’s problem, in which he will feel disturb to do his writing. It does work. David is so sad that he can say nothing. David can understand whatever she does, but not this part. Catherine is terrible of thinking that David can be leaving her. When David appears, he is shocked at the dead way she looks and at her toneless voice. His appearance relieves her worries. He comes back, hurts, but still stays.
In this part, David starts to have a real conversation with Marita. They talk about his novel. The novel is about East Africa. Marita knows about the book, she ever reads it, she likes it and it gets David’s attention. They discuss it. Marita is crying when reading the story. She understands enough how the story goes. It irritates Catherine so much. She surely does not want Marita to like David's writing. She plans Marita's existence to be one way to separate David and his writing. Catherine becomes rough and sarcastic.
“What I wanted to say when you interrupted,” Catherine said,” was did you think of him as a writer when you kissed him and liked it so much?”
“”Wait until you read it,” Catherine said. “It’s a book you had to die to write and you had to be completely destroyed. Don’t ever think I don’t know about his books just because I don’t think he’s a writer when I kiss him.” (p. 112)
The desire to control David comes to her again as soon as she feels better.
She asks David to always be kind to Marita, as she is also his girl. In David’s side, he starts to get close with Marita. Marita, who at first she likes David, gives the
nice respond. He recognizes his different feeling toward Marita, he falls in love with her.
She was gone for about ten minutes and he felt of the girl’s drink and decide to drink it before it got warm. He took it in his hand and raised it to his lips and he found as it touched his lips that it gave him pleasure because it was hers. It was clear and undeniable. “You’re very beautiful,” he said. “And I love you.” (p. 127)
This level reaches the point where David is trapped to his wife’s whim that is a triangle relationship. He makes progress on his writing. Whenever he finishes from working, in his loneliness, Catherine is not the only one he misses like yesterday, but Marita has taken her own place in his heart. Marita is the one who understands about the writing. He lets Marita to read the story when the story about his father has finished. This is the first time he shares what he has written to someone. He discusses it with Marita, the way he never does before. He knows that it is ill manner and stupid. He has never done before with anyone and it is against everything he believes about writing but he does enjoy the moment when he shares it with Marita. He can not help wanting to read it with her and he can not help sharing what he has never shared and what he has believed can not and should not be shared.
Catherine wants to go to Prado and she asks David for that. Marita is opposed her, because David has to work. Marita and Catherine are arguing.
Catherine is selfish. She persists to go. Catherine is jealous to Marita.
“Who is the third drink for?” “Marita.” “Your paramour?” “My what?” “Your paramour.” (p. 155)
The effect is she attacks Marita and David’s writing when she is joining them. She becomes so rude. When knowing that Marita has read the story, she also wants to read it. The story is about David’s childhood in Africa when he is hunting an elephant with his father. She wants to read it not because she cares about the writing but because Marita has read it. Catherine reads the story. She is very disappointed because according to her the story is bestial. She also mocks
David’s handwriting by saying that it is horrible. She can not keep her anger so then she tires the cahier and throws it on the floor. She accuses Marita and David that they both conspire to make her read it. She mocks him as a monster and she hates him. They are in their bedroom. Catherine is still mad at him. David is at her side to calm her down. She asks David whether he is going to write again next morning. It knocks her down when he says yes.
“I’ll sleep then. Are you going to work in the morning?” “Yes. I might as well.” “You’ll work well,” she said. “I know you will. Good night David. You sleep well too.” (p. 158)
Catherine does not want to lose her power in stirring David. She tries to create another whim to stir David. She asks him to go to Jean’s again. David refuses her. She reminds him that if she wants it so bad, David will do it to please her, like usual. Then, they go to Jean’s and they are back identically like when they are in Grau du Roi.
The crisis of the story goes to the worse part of Catherine’s jealousy.
Catherine persuades Marita to read the narrative because it is the story about her and her honeymoon. She wants Marita to be jealous. She tells Marita to read it although David does not allow her. She undermines him by making decisions and
planning things as she wants about the story. She plans to get the book out. She is going to have the manuscript typed up to where it is now and sees about getting illustrations. She has to see the artist and makes the arrangement. David absolutely disagrees with her. Because it is his writing and it must be him the one who makes decision for his writing. She is so uncontrolled. She mocks David by saying that the stories are just David’s way of escaping his duty. When it seems that she does not success to undermine David, she also decides to have an affair with another woman. It shocks David so much.
“But she may decide to have an affair with another woman if she ever takes it up again. There is quite a bit about another woman.” “Christ I never thought it would go this way.” (p. 191)
She becomes brutal. She talks so rude. She has dumped Marita. Marita is not her type at all. She gives Marita up to him. She calls Marita as “the gamin type”. She is not interested with gamin type. She acknowledges that she does break herself in pieces in Madrid to be a girl. That is the reason that all she wants is for David and Marita to be happy. The thing she needs now is asking them to forget it all and just being friends. It hits David deeply. He is angry to himself and to Catherine. She is very disappointed and hurts. It is found that Catherine is changing fast to be someone else because of the jealousy. And Marita is there with no jealousy of the work. She understands about the writing.
d. Climax
The climax opens with Catherine and David is sitting at the bar. Catherine is reading the Paris Herald and David is drinking. Catherine irritates him about the story of his father as usual. She mocks his father as a “bogus drunken father”.
She accuses his father has defraud his wife and all his friends. She continues to hurt David by telling him that he certainly makes his father despicable by writing about him. David explains that his father is not “bogus drunken father”. David tries to sober himself down, that his anger will not blow out. He feels empty. All
Catherine’s works breaks his heart. She undermines him by underestimating the story, but David knows that he has worked well. The writing is meant so much for him. He assures himself that he must stand and go on, faces what he has to face without being irritable or hurt when someone does not understand and appreciates what he wrote.
He feels better after thinking that the writing do good at all. But, then he faces the game made by Catherine again. When he wants to ask the girls swimming, he finds Marita and Catherine are in bed. They are lying on a big bed together side by side; the sheet is pulled up under their chins. Marita is silent and serious. Catherine is laughing to see David shocked. The terrible one, Catherine is so excited and invites David to join them. She challenges him to sleep with them both. She absolutely wants to hurt him.
He opened the door. They were lying in the big bed together side by side; the sheet pulled up under their chin. “Please come in, David,” Catherine said. “We’ve been waiting for you.” … Catherine was laughing. “Won’t you come in too, David?” (p. 212)
Finding how rude Catherine is, he only asks Marita to go swimming with him. But Catherine insists to go with them. Catherine tells him that it is a joke, but
David is still angry with her. On the beach, Catherine judges him by telling Marita that he actually has a wonderful life, but he screws it up with all he wrote about
Africa and his drunken father and his press cutting. She tells Marita that the clippings are hundreds and they are all the same pictures. It is horrible. She complains about anything related to his writings and clippings. She murmurs about the wastebasket, the ridiculous child’s notebook and David’s grammar.
David’s French is worse. He fakes along well enough in conversation and he is amusing with his slang. The whole business is a fraud really. David and Marita are there listening all what she said. She is also the one who burns the clippings.
David feels completely hollow. Catherine is satisfied. She feels win; her face is calm and reasonable.
The top of these happens in the evening when David opens the big Vuitton suitcase. He finds the pile of cahiers that the stories have been written in was gone.
Now there was no danger and no emergency. It was only disaster now… He still could not believe that she had done it but he felt sick inside himself when he close and lock the door (p. 219).
But he knows that it has happened. It is so empty and dead in his heart. He can not stand with the worse possibility that Catherine has done something bad to the writing. He comes to see her and asks her where she puts them. The worse thing truly happens. She does the cruelest thing above all her insanity that is burning the writing. She says that she does it for him and for all of them. She burns them all so that David can concentrate to write only the narrative.
“Where did you burn them, Devil?” “In the iron drum with holes that Madame uses to burn trash,” Catherine said. “Did everything burn up?”
“Yes. I poured on some petrol from a bidon in the remise. It made a big fire and everything burned. I did for you, David, and for all us.” (p. 220- 221)
David is on the top of his anger. His anger blows up. All of his words are to show that he is really angry with Catherine. He is explicitly expressing his anger. He is terribly sorry that he ever met Catherine and ever married her. He becomes heartless. He is sad, mad, and terrible. He is afraid of her no more. He does not care about his love he has for her. All he feels is he truly can kill her.
“All I want to do is kill you,” David said. And the only reason I don’t do it because you are crazy.” (p. 223)
Everything he has achieved, his writing he has worked on for months has gone just in a nonsense way, burns by his nuts wife. She succeeds in breaking him!
e. Denouement
After the burning, David awfully gives up about Catherine. In the morning, Catherine says to David she is feeling sorry that she has done a great unforgivable fault. It is one reason she decides to go to Paris. He just lets her go, because he does not even know what he feels toward her, he does not even know what he is going to do toward her.
“Except for the fact that I feel I’ve probably done a great wrong to you that I must try to set right I feel very well,” Catherine said. “That was one reason I was going to Paris. I didn’t want to tell you.” (p. 227)
The next day, Madame gives a letter to David. It is from Catherine.
Catherine is leaving. In the letter, Catherine writes that she loves David and she always will. She is sorry for everything. As her letter says,
I won’t end as I’d like to because it would sound too preposterous to believe but I will say it anyway since I was always rude and presumptuous and preposterous too lately as we both know. I love you and I always will and I’m sorry. What a useless word. (p. 237)
It is the first letter that he receives from Catherine. So that is going on. She does leaving. At last, David is staying with his new girl, Marita. He is broken and in pain. He tries to accept everything. He tries to work again, although firstly it does no good. There has been too much emotion, too much damage, too much of everything and his changing of allegiance, no matter how sound it has seemed, no matter how it simplifies things for him, is a grave and violent thing and
Catherine’s letter compounds the gravity and the violence. He has to try to recover everything. He does not want to spend his time thinking how bad things are. He decides that he has three choices. They are try to remember one that is gone and write it again, try to write the new one, or write on the god damned narrative. He finally chooses the first choice.
And Marita with her patience always stays beside him. She loves him, cares of him, encourages him, and understands him and his writing. The story is closed with his ability to write the story about his father again. He finds that he knows much more about his father then before. He writes steadily and well. The leaving of Catherine and his ability to write steadily and well are the actions to bring the conflicts into its denouement.
2. The Characters a. David Bourne
David Bourne is one of the main characters in the novel that will be analyzed. He is the protagonist that the story focuses on. He is 28 years old. He
has just been married Catherine and he has the honeymoon in the French seaport village of le Grau du Roy. He loves fishing.
He fished for some time with no luck and watched the mackerel boats tacking back and forth out on the blue sea and the shadows the high clouds made on the water. Then his float went under in a sharp descent with the line angling stiffly and he brought the pole up against the pull of a fish that was strong and driving wildly and making the line hiss through the water. (p. 7)
He likes drinking. It can be seen from the way the author describes his habit or manner. He drinks wine very often; no matter it is in the morning, afternoon, or at night. He drinks wine, brandy, vermouth, or whiskey whenever he wants; after making love, after swimming, before going to bed, in the morning in the café while reading or waiting for his wife, Catherine. He has his own rules of drinking.
This was the first time since they had come on the wedding trip that he had taken a drink of brandy or whiskey when they were not together. But he was not working and his on rules about drinking were never to drink before or while he was working. (p. 14)
He has a professional preoccupation that is writing. He is a good writer and is successful on his book. In the beginning he is described as a novelist who enjoys his early success. He is brilliant in writing. His first and second books are satisfied. The books are sensationally sold. He receives excellent reviews. The publisher wants him to write more. His next book is expected to be better than the first and second book. It pleases him.
The point was that book could not have been better received. (p. 23)
David Bourne is described as a man who is so much in love with
Catherine. He has been truly happy for marrying her. He has not known that he
can love her so much that he cares about nothing else. Other things seem inexistent for him. He thinks of nothing but being with Catherine whom he loves and is married to. He puts aside everything except enjoying honeymoon, sharing affection and love with her.
David absolutely falls in love with Catherine. He can not handle his felling toward his wife. He is really flattered, burning into the flame of love. He realizes that he is deep in love with his wife and feels that he can not be happier than this time. All he truly knows is he feels good at all. So the thing he does is filling his days only with caring, cheering and loving. He has deep love for her. He is in passionate love. He wants to share and gives the full affection to his girl. His days are full of happiness and love. It can be seen from the David’s words below.
…that showed the beautiful new strange line of her head as she slept on her side he leaned over and said to her but not aloud, “I’m with you. No matter what else you have in your head I’m with you and I love you.” (p. 20)
Because of his deep love toward her, David becomes sensitive, full of love and tender, so that he always fulfills his wife’s will. He is actually an introvert husband that he seldom shows how he feels. He rarely shares what happened inside his heart. All he does is just keeping it in and feeling it by himself. He keeps his dislike, his objection in order to please his wife. He keeps anything to make her happy. He does not tell his wife about his true feeling.
… she had made the dark magic of the change again and he get not say no when she spoke to him and asked the question and felt the change so that it hurt him all through… (p. 20).
He is a man who is not able to say no his wife. It shows that when his wife starts to change, he seems to disagree. He hurts when he sees the change that is his wife becomes a boy with short hair cut. His reaction to that situation is just keeping silence. He follows any idea that his wife has. He never interrupts or rejects although he knows that the idea is disturbing, nonsense and ridiculous.
When his wife persists to do anything crazy, like cutting his hair the same way as hers and changing her gender as a man and David must act as Catherine, he just goes for it.
When his wife wants to change to be a boy, the truth is that it confuses him. He does not understand why she does it. He does not want her to change, especially that way. But he pretends that it is all right, and just asks her whether she really wants to be a boy. He is full of love and tender. Above all, he wants to see her happy. When his wife says yes, he instantly says yes. It is bothering him, but he just agrees with her idea. It indicates that actually there is no good communication in the marriage.
It can be seen when his wife asks him to go to coiffeur, Monsieur Jean, he reacts in the same that is he does not have any idea what to do. He wants his hair to be cut shorter. But his wife insists to be cut the same way as she has. He actually thinks that it is not a good haircut for him. It is ridiculous to have the same style as his wife and he does not want it. Without knowing what’s for, except to please his wife because he knows that his wife really wants it, he just lets it happens as the way his wife wants. The way he feels continues the next hours after they comes into their room. Still, he does not like the new hair cut. He tends to keep his feeling and he forces himself to like it. He convinces himself in
his mind to like it. The truth he feels like someone else. He can not get the point where he can like the haircut. It is still strange for him, although he has convinced himself that it does well. But it does not work. He does not even know the one whom he looks at the mirror.
David Bourne is a compliant husband. He is always being compliant when he gets a strong argument or quarrel with his wife. For instance, they are arguing because Catherine wants to go to the café.
…Do you mind if we do?” “No, Devil. Why would I?” “I didn’t want to if you didn’t.” “You said you wanted to.” “I want to do what you want. I can’t be more compliant than that can I?” … “Let’s clean up here and go.” “Where?” “Anywhere. The god damned café.” (p. 88)
Through the conversation between Catherine and David above, it seems that David wants to calm down the situation by being the one who losses. The last sentence is the expression of David's anger. It is his rude words to call a cafe as
"the god damned cafe". It shows that actually Catherine's manner irritates him.
But, he does not want to urge longer about the simple thing. The best way is just being a compliant.
David Bourne is passive and unassertive in facing his wife’s whims. When his wife promotes another woman to their marriage and creates a ridiculous plan that is involving David into her dangerous erotic game, David is accepting what happens. He does not try to oppose it. He is mad and angry, but that is all. Then he makes an effort no more to break the situation that his wife creates. Gradually he
is trapped into his wife’s madness. He is trapped by the situation of accepting two women at once. It is absolutely nonsense, considering that he actually realizes that the relationship is in danger because Catherine is out of control. As a man and as a husband, he does not have a strength and effort to rebel and fix it. He, confusingly, gets involve and allows her to pull him into the crazy game that somehow unmans him. His wife undermines him. His wife wickedly uses his passive reaction to influence and control him.
Firstly, Catherine wants the woman, named Marita, to stay with them.
David surely disagrees at all. He felt that he needs to reject it because he dislikes it. It is nonsense. He only wants to be with his wife, no one can interfere. But again, the objection is only in his mind, and what comes out was the contrary.
“Please stay a few days,” Catherine said. “David and I would both love to have you...Tell her David.” The hell with her, David thought. Fuck her. “Don’t be silly,” he said. “Call Monsieur Aurol please,” he told the boy who served. “Well find out about the room.” (p. 97)
David’s speech above shows that David pretends to be happy accepting
Marita's existence. He does not try to speak up his mind that he actually does not agree if Marita is staying with them in the hotel. Then when they are in their room, David tries to share his wife about his objection. But again, his wife is able to control him by assuring him that Marita is nice and it will be fun if she can stay with them for a while.
His weakness brings him to Catherine’s game to accept Marita as his girl.
He helps Marita to move to the hotel where they stay, means that he helps himself bringing the badness to come closer. The other evidence of his weakness in
following his wife’s demand is when he kisses the girl because Catherine asks him for.
He knows that it is strange to him because he knows the girl a few hours before. He does not give a firm rejection to Catherine’s odd demand. He is unassertive that he falls to the situation, follows it and does not try to get out from it, although he actually does not comfort with it. It is to undermine him when
Catherine tells him that she has made a scandal by kissing Marita in the car when they took a walk to the town. He is sad and desperate. He is angry to Catherine.
Below is the conversation to show David’s feeling.
“I can’t help you.” “You can. You can’t go away. I couldn’t stand it if you went away. I don’t want to with her. It’s only something that I have to do. Can’t you understand? Please understand. You always understand.” “Not this part.” “:Please try. You always understand before. You know you did. Everything. Didn’t you?” “Yes. Before.”(p. 114)
From the previous conversation, it is discovered that he can take a right action in facing Catherine's odd whim by showing his real feeling to Catherine that he is angry with her. But, again, that is all. When Marita tells him that
Catherine is terrible because Catherine thinks that David is leaving, he gives up.
He is shocked at the dead way she looks and at her toneless voice. He forgives his wife and acts that nothing bad happens.
Although he does not like the existence of Marita between Catherine and him, he is gradually attracted by her attitude; for instance, he liked the way she blushed. It happens because Catherine always persists that three of them must do the activities together, like swimming, tanning, eating, drinking, etc. Because of
his unassertiveness, he is terribly easy to fall in love with Marita. It means that he comes into the trap made by his wife. He is too weak to face his loneliness.
Although he knows that it is wrong to want them both, he does want them both. It firstly comes when he finishes writing. He feels lonely, begins to think about them, and misses them. It is strange, but he does miss them both.
He seems to realize that Catherine is going out of control, but he does not want to think about it further. He just wants to follow the game; so far he has involved and enjoyed it by letting himself to fall in love with Marita. Falling in love with Marita does never exist in his mind. After it happens, he is trapped deeper to the game Catherine made. The pressure that is made by Catherine toward him, his weakness to face it, his habit to always follow anything Catherine wants, his passionate love that he can not handle make him falling to the ridiculous situation of their marriage. He is too weak to face the pressure that is given by his wife. He uses to follow anything Catherine wants. It does truly unman him when Catherine asks him to marry Marita, so that he will have two wives.
“I told Heiress everything about my new leaf,” Catherine said. “The one I just turn over and how I want you to love her too and you can marry her too if she’ll have you.” “Would you really?” David asked the dark girl. “Yes,” she said. “Ask me.” (p. 144)
At first he tries to ignore it, but Catherine forces him to do it. Again in this case, David does not reject it; even more he asks Marita to marry. He is trapped to his wife’s nonsense’s will. He does trap to his wife’s insanity. He succumbs to one of his wife’s whims after another. He starts to realize that everything changes;
himself, his wife, and the relationship. And he is tired to think about the change.
He does not think at all. Thinking does no good and he just lets it be. He has thought that if he does not think then everything that is wrong might go away.
He realizes that everything goes wrong. He regrets it so much. He is tired.
He is broken. He knows that he is tired of all things happen. He finds in his own story that he wrote, about his father. The understanding is the beginning and he realizes it as he wrote in the story of his father. Actually he has thought about it.
Tiredness brought the beginning of understanding. (p. 182)
It is actually his own conscience that in his life, he also comes to his understanding about his life, his wife and his relationship. Starting from this point,
David begins to change. He begins to give notice to his wife’s whims and he begins to aware of what happen. But it is all too late. His wife is growing uncontrolled.
b. Catherine
The second main character that will be analyzed is Catherine. Catherine is
David’s wife. She is truly happy about the honeymoon. Catherine is seven years younger than David, means she is 21 years old. She is glamorous and attractive.
The author gives the brief physical description of Catherine directly. She has beautiful appearance with her long brown legs and beautiful body tanned. She has lovely face with her heavy tawny hairs and her golden face with tiny freckles on it. Every one in the village where they stays likes her.
Like her husband she also loves drinking and she is obsessed with tanning.
She wants to be as darkest as she can. She is so obsessed that she wishes she has some Indian blood. It can be seen from her words below.
“How dark are you going to get?” “As dark as I can. We’ll have to see. I wish I had some Indian blood. I’m going to be so dark you won’t be able to stand it. I can’t wait to go up on the beach tomorrow.” (p. 31)
Her speech shows that it is truly her obsession to change her skin becomes so dark. It is her favorite activity to go up on the beach and getting tan there for the whole day. As she obsessed, she is getting dark and Colonel John Boyle, a friend of David, adores her as the darkest white girl he has ever seen. He is asking her questions how she can be so dark and it flatters the girl so much. Therefore the dark skin that she gets is not satisfied her. She still keeps her desire to have the darker skin. She still wants to be darker.
From her manner, it can be seen that she cares about fashion and the way she looks. As it is narrated, she goes to the coiffeur at Aigues Mortis and cuts her hair as short as a boy’s. Her hair is cropped as short as boy’s. It is cut with no compromises. It is brushed back, heavy as always, but the sides are cut short and the ear that grows close to her head are clear and the tawny line of her hair is cropped close to her head and smooth and sweeping back. She likes it firstly because the style of cropping is different. It is something new and that kind of hairs is rare for the girl in the village. Below is the example of the way the author shows that she likes fashion.
She wore her old Grau du Roi striped shirt fresh-washed and shrunk now and much faded, new gray flannel slacks, and espadrilles.
“Hello” she said.”I couldn’t sleep late.” “You look lovely.” "Thank you. I feel lovely." “Where did you get those slacks?” “I had them made in Nice. By a good tailor. Are they all right?” (p. 79)
She is described as a lovely and charming girl. She is also cheerful. It can be seen from the way she reacts when her husband gets fish on the day he is fishing. Her expression is full of cheers and happy.
There were many other people now and as they went by the hotel the girl saw them out of the windows and shouted. “Oh what wonderful fish! Wait for me! Wait for me!” (p. 9).
Catherine is rebellious and childish. She is a spoiled woman. She only thinks about having fun and spending day for pleasure. All that she wants must be fulfilled. When it does not, she will whimper like a child, and it will not stop until her husband said yes for the thing she asks for. Her husband is kind and compliant, so she usually gets what she wants.
She is demanding wife. She is selfish that she wants her husband to always follow what she wants to do. She is emotional and spoiled wife. She often cries and usually her husband tries to calm her down. The example that she is spoiled can be seen from her reaction when the coiffeur crops her haircut and she sulks because the haircut is not like what she wants.
“Don’t be desperate, Madame,” he said. Why would I do anything against your beauty?” “I am desperate and there isn’t any beauty.” (p. 81)
Catherine is mad of making love. She is excited to please her husband, to give pleasure and brings her husband to the passionate love that full of wonder
and fantasy. She is sensuous and erotic lover. She says that she is the destructive type.
“I’m the destructive type,” she said. “And I’m going to destroy you. They’ll put a plaque up on the wall of the building outside the room. And I’m going to wake up in the night and do something to you that you’ve never even heard of or imagined." (p. 5)
She has many whims and it becomes her habit to make it. Sometimes the whim is odd or ridiculous. For instance, she is cropping her hairs like a boy because she thinks that it is a kind of bore to be a girl, she says that she is tired to always be a girl. She finds that it is fun to be a boy sometimes. She tells her husband about it, but whatever her husband’s opinions, she will do the change as a boy. She loves the whims, without compromises. There are many whims of hers,
“No. I have to go alone. It’s about the surprise.” (p. 13)
“I’m so happy. I’ve made a lot of plans,” she said. “What sort of plans?” (p. 76)
“I had a fine day. I made decisions and planned thing.” “Oh God,” David said. (p. 188)
David’s job becomes a problem for Catherine, in case that she wants all her husband's time for the honeymoon. Catherine does not really like her husband’s writing. One day when her husband receives a mail from his publisher about clippings and reviews of his book, she shows that she dislikes them by giving bad comments on them. She says that she does not like the way they say about David. According to her the reviews turns David to someone else. The reviews do not reflect David as the one she does know. The reviews are not true,
moreover they are terrible, and so they can destroy him. As it is proven by the way she comments on the reviews below:
“They’re terrible,” she said. “They could destroy you if you thought about them or believed them. You don’t think I married you because you are what they say you are in these clippings do you?” (p. 24)
It seems that the writing takes her husband away from her. Gradually it creates jealousy inside her heart. The clippings and the writing make her sad and annoyed her. After married, she has the whole time of her husband. But now, her husband turns his attention to them and she, who still enjoys the honeymoon, feels that his husband’s time will be split into the writing and the honeymoon. Every little thing related to the writing makes her upset. She is so rude by calling him as a clipping reader.
But she had said it and he said to her, “Why you don’t just shut up about the clippings.” “Why?” she said, leaning toward him and speaking too loudly. “Why should I shut up? Just because you wrote this morning? Do you think that I married you because you’re the writer? You and your clippings.” (p. 39)
From the jealousy of the writing, it can be found implicitly that actually she is a possessive wife. She really enjoys the honeymoon. She is happy of having marriage and being together with her husband all the time. So then when her husband has to his time between writing and her, she can not handle her feeling.
She becomes sad and frustrated.
Firstly Catherine has tried to understand her husband’s job. Catherine knows that she is terrible to think that the writing is so annoying. She feels sorry about it. She regrets it. It seems that she encourages David to write and tries to
spend her time to go to the town, busy with her own activities, such as swimming, tanning and fashion.
“No. I’d rather drink the wine. Do you have to work tomorrow?” “We’ll see.” “Please work if you feel like it.” (p. 85)
Days after days, David has to concentrate to his writing, in which he spends much time to work. She feels that she can not stand with the condition anymore. His husband actually still has time for her; the problem is that the time that he shares with her is not as much as before. The result is she can not deal with the writing. She is not able to tolerate it any longer. She is completely jealous of the writing. When her husband writes, she wants him to write about her, about the days they has in the honeymoon.
The jealousy affects her so much. She becomes frustrated and grows insane. She wants to be dominant. When she can not prevent her husband from writing, she has to turn her husband to be a man she wholly controls from the other side. She manages everything. The first thing she manages is creating an androgyny. It is about she and David cut and color their hairs to match. She wants him to be the same with her. She asks her husband to join her to the coiffeur and asks the coiffeur to crop their hairs in identical style.
She also brings the androgyny in bed by changing the gender. She acts as she is a man, named Peter, and David acts as girl, named Catherine. Firstly her husband does not agree with her. When finally her husband accepts it, she is very excited. She has her own pleasure, because she can stir her husband in this part.
As it is quoted in the following speech:
“You’re Catherine.” “No. I’m Peter. You’re my wonderful Catherine. You’re my beautiful lovely Catherine. You were so good to change. Oh thank you, Catherine, so much. Please understand. Please know and understand. I’m going to make love to you forever.” (p. 17)
The next thing she does is creating a manage trios. Catherine undermines
David by promoting another woman to their marriage. She brings the girl whom they saw when they were sitting in the café. The girl, named Marita, is her other whim that surprises him. She plans that Marita has to stay with them because she is felt lonely when David is working, and she needs a friend to go around with.
She insists to bring Marita as a part of the marriage. Marita belongs to their relationship. And for that, Marita has to join them wherever they go, whatever they do, such as swimming, breakfast, drinking, and whatever the activities of the day. She wants David to accept Marita as his girl, too. She demands David to kiss the girl. She disturbs him, actually, by demanding such strange treatment to her husband and the girl whom they knew a few hours before. She also destroys him by supporting him to marry Marita. He will have two wives at once.
“I’m still your wife,” Catherine said. “We’ll start with that. I want Marita to be your wife too to help me out and then she inherits from me.” (p. 144)
Through her speech above, she also shows her power over David by declaring that
David is hers for two days and David is Marita's for the next two days.
Being jealous toward the writing makes Catherine does not appreciate her husband’s writing at all. David is still working on his new stories, that are the narration that telling about the honeymoon and the story about his childhood and his father. She can deal with the narration. She encourages David to write about
the narration because she is in the story. But she can handle no more to not insult the story about David’s father. After reading the story, she finds that David father is terrible. She calls David’s father with “bogus drunkard father” and accuses him that he must be the one who defrauds his family and his friends. According to her the story about the hunting doing by David’s father in his childhood is a bestial.
She wants to tell David that the writing is terrible in order to underestimate and hurt him. She mocks David by calling David's notebook as a ridiculous child's book. She says that David just crosses things out and writes along side of the pages. She judges David's writing as a fraud job. She also adds that David's
French is worse and he fakes along well enough in conversation and he is amusing with his slang. Moreover she mocks him as an illiterate man.
Her top of jealousy causes the burning of the clipping and the story about
David’s father. She lets the narration in tact because she has a strong reason not to burn it. The narration is about her. She wants David wrote nothing, except writing the narration about the honeymoon.
“Now you can go right on with the narrative and there will be nothing to interrupt you. You can start this morning.” (p. 222).
The result of her jealousy is that she goes out of control. All she wants to do is getting the whole time of his husband again, and all of his attention. It is better to lose him rather than she has him but she has to share it with the writing.
3. Setting
This analysis will show how the setting takes a role in the story. The whole story is set in the French Mediterranean coast in 1920s. The story starts
taking place in the south of France and ends up at Prado. The exact places where the story happens are in the village of le Grau du Roi, Hendaye and La Napole.
During the honeymoon, David Bourne and Catherine, live in the hotel. The description of the hotel shows that the hotel is a pleasant place to stay. In le Grau du Roi, David and Catherine stays in the hotel that is on the canal that runs from the walled city of Aigues Mortes straight down to the sea. Here is the description of the hotel where the couple stays in.
…and the young couple like the hotel, which had four rooms upstairs and the restaurant and two billiard tables downstairs facing the canal and the lighthouse. The room they lived in looked like the painting of Van Gogh’s room at Arles except there was a double bed and two big windows…(p. 4)
Then they move to another hotel in La Napole. There, they stay in the long low rose-colored Provencal house. They have three rooms at the end of the house.
Their bedroom is the big room at the end. It has windows on three sides and is cool at summer.
It is stated by Rohrberger and Woods that setting can be symbolic (1971:
22). From the description that is found, it can be seen that the hotel is symbolic. It is also found that the place where the couple lives in is symbolic. In here, a hotel is a place where people are just staying in a short time. Generally people stay in the hotel just for having fun, spending holiday with family or friends, taking vacation or refreshing. After staying for a while, people usually will move or go back to their town. A hotel is not a permanent place to live. The hotel is used to symbolize the marriage itself. A hotel is a symbol of the short relationship. The marriage will not stand for a long time. It can become a clue that the marriage will not last forever. It indicates that the relationship will not be able to survive in
facing the problems in future. Like the hotel as the temporary place to live, the marriage is also not an endless relationship to have.
The environment where the couple lives is depicted clearly. It is found that from the hotel, at night they can smell the pines and the sea. The couple likes the place and they are happy to be there. The environment is illustrated in the quotation below:
Out of the windows there was the sea and from the garden in front of the long house where they ate under the trees they could see the empty beaches, the high papyrus grass at the delta of the small river and across the bay was the white curve of Cannes with the hills and the far mountains behind. (p. 75)
From the description of the environment, it can be seen that the scenery of the place is wonderful and lovely with the real perfect nature. The existence of the sea gives the different beauty of the place. The ocean is combined with the green plant and surrounded by the hills and mountains. It is quite sure that the place is provided with beauty.
Pickering and Hoeper state” Setting as a means of revealing character is a mirror of the character. An author makes the description of setting similar to the character. Hence, setting is a symbol for the character” (1986: 39). In here, the setting of the ocean and its beautiful scenery is a symbol of Catherine. The physical description of the place symbolizes Catherine’s physical appearance that is beautiful and charming. It also symbolizes Catherine’s character. Below are the proofs.
In the morning the ocean is always pictured as fresh and lovely. The morning is such a wonderful time to start every activity for the whole day. The
sun is bright on the beach and the sea is dark blue. The hills show green and new washed. As it is stated below:
The tide was far out when David Bourne woke and the sun was bright on the beach and the sea was a dark blue. The hills showed green and new washed and the clouds had gone from the mountains. (p. 42)
The scenery that is wonderful in the morning is used to symbolize Catherine’s physical appearance that is also beautiful. As it is depicted:
She looked particularly beautiful that morning and she smiled at their secret and he smiled at her and then took his remorse to the café (p. 68)
In the night the ocean is depicted as silent and cold. There is moonlight and the only sound that can be heard is the sound of the heavy fall of the surf on the beach. It is quiet and sleepy. The place with the sound of the water creates the romantic and lovely night.
The night the wind rose and in their corner room high up in the big hotel they heard the heavy fall of the surf on the beach. In the dark the young man pulled a light blanket up over the sheet…(p. 36)
As it is depicted that the night is lovely and romantic, basically Catherine is a sensuous and romantic lover.
In the night she lay curled around him with her head below his chest and stroked it softly across him from one flank to another and then came up to put her lip on his and put her arms around him and said, ”You’re so lovely and loyal when you are asleep and you didn’t wake and didn’t wake…(p. 47)
The finding above proves that the setting do reflecting Catherine. It is also found that an ocean itself is a mirror of Catherine. An ocean is usually calm on the surface, but it actually contains thousands mystery inside. What happened in the deep down water is unpredictable. The ocean’s stomach is full of things that
people can not guess. It is quiet on the surface, but flaring inside. The ocean’s characteristic is used to reveal Catherine’s characteristic. People around her know
Catherine as a cheerful and charming girl. It seems that she can deal with everything. She is friendly to every one and she is such an ideal woman to marry.
When looking in deeper, it can be found that actually she is a woman who is full of desire. No one knows that she keeps many things inside her heart. As the ocean that is unpredictable, she is also full of unpredictable whims. She changes fast, as her husband can not guess it. She actually has a rebellious heart.
Dealing with Catherine’s characteristic, it is found that there is a strange weather exists in the story. The weather is unfriendly and blows strongly. It is strange that it blows in the bright summer. The weather is strange and it is not normal, because it is rare for the wind to happen in that kind of season.
The weather was insane now. Monsieur had undoubtedly noticed that. If anyone kept track of it they would know that it had not been normal since the war. (p. 94)
The odd weather comes in the story as the time Catherine is starting to be insane.
It seems to mark Catherine’s change, meaning to say that the weather symbolizes
Catherine’s insanity. It becomes a sign of Catherine’s jealousy of David’s writing.
That day, she starts her insanity by bringing another woman to their relationship.
That day is the day of the insane weather comes to the town. As Monsier Aurol says, that not only the weather, everything changes and what does not change is changing fast, so that what happens to the honeymoon. The honeymoon is changing from happy honeymoon to the sad one.
Not only the weather, said Monsieur Aurol, everything was changed and what was not changed was changing fast. It might very well all be for the best and he, for one, did not oppose it. (p. 94)
As it has been stated previously, the ocean with its surrounding is magnificent and wonderful. It is such a romantic and lovely place to stay. It is a pleasure place for the couple who in deep love. The place where they live is also cheerful and friendly. It can be seen when David gets fish in the first day he is fishing. The people see David fishing, support and encourage him to handle the fish.
Several men were pounding the young man on the back and putting their arms around him and a woman from the fish market kissed him (p. 9).
From the way they react to David, it can be seen that they are very welcome to the couple. The feeling that the people have accepted their being there makes them comfortable to stay. Not only its beautiful place that makes the couple are comfortable to stay, but also the feeling of being accepted by the society makes them want to stay longer.
Therefore, the Garden of Eden, the setting in the Biblical creation narratives in Genesis is the garden that Lord God created. Lord God makes to grow every tree that is pleasant to sight and good for food. He also creates the man and woman. Everything exists there is perfectly peace and happiness.
The place in the story is a place for people who are full of cheers, happiness and dreams. The place deals with David Bourne’s dream of finding his paradise. His paradise is being together with the friendly people who accept him, being with the woman he loves and has a happy married life forever. The place symbolizes the place where David is willing to go. It seemed that he is living in the Garden of Eden, the garden of delight where there is no sadness or something bad, but happiness.
But among the flora in the Garden of Eden are the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. The peace is gone when the woman offers the man the forbidden fruit because the influence of the bad evil. Thus, all remain in the Garden of Eden is the lost of innocence. The happiness is changing into remorse because they have to go out from the Garden of Eden.
What happens in the Garden of Eden in the Genesis is a mirror of what happens to the couple. The happy relationship is surrounded by Catherine’s desire.
Catherine has a strong desire to control her husband. It makes the relationship grows bad and then finally unhappy. To submit, the place actually wants to symbolize the misfortune of romantic love and vanished happiness.
B. The Theme
As it is stated in the theory of the theme in chapter II, Holman and Harmon in A Handbook to Literature, 5th Edition, states that theme is a central or dominating idea in a work. As the central idea of the story, theme unifies the elements of the story and makes them coherent because theme can connect the elements to form a complete and unified story. Theme overlaps with all other elements of literary work that its existence is closely related to the characters, the setting and the plot (1986: 502). Kresner also states that the combination of character, setting, and plot analysis can help the reader to get the theme of literary work (1962: 31). This part of analysis will be based on those theories. From the previous analysis, the brief description of the plot, character and setting are found.
Therefore, in this analysis, the descriptions that have been found are used to convey the theme.
Stanton states that the character and setting become the primary means in the making of the plot (1965: 14). In order to show that the character and the setting are the primary means in making the plot, in this analysis the writer will discuss about the main character and setting of The Garden of Eden in their contribution to make the plot of the story.
As the character and setting become the primary means in making the plot, the characters and setting have a very close relationship. The setting is where the characters live in. It helps the way characters are presented and supports the idea of the characteristics of David Bourne and Catherine, as the main characters of the story. The main characters and setting are mixed to create the plot. The sequel events in the plot are opened by introducing the main characters, David Bourne and Catherine that have the happy honeymoon in the seaport village of Paris.
From the introduction, it can be found the characteristics of the main characters.
David Bourne is introduced as a successful writer and he is in love so much with his wife. While Catherine is described as a charming and beautiful girl and she is really obsessed with tanning.
Here is the mixture of the character and the setting to create the plot found.
The new couple, David Bourne and Catherine, is described as the happy couple.
They are having a wonderful time. They are in love. Therefore the place that is chosen is at the hotel in the place that full of beauty and cheers that is the magnificent ocean with its wonderful surrounding. In this part, the couple is
narrated to have a happy honeymoon and everything happens to them is all about happiness and affection. It is found that the hotel and the ocean with its beautiful surrounding has a meaning implicitly. The hotel itself, as it is found in the previous analysis, is interpreted to symbolize the marriage. The hotel seems to indicate what kind of married life that the couple has. It symbolizes the kind of married life that the couple has that is to have fun, to enjoy pleasure and to get happy time that they has in their honeymoon. As the hotel is the temporary place to live, the marriage seems to be a kind of the short relationship. It will be proven later as the plot goes on. The setting that is used the ocean with its magnificent surrounding. The honeymoon is set in the beautiful ocean that is full of cheers and happiness. The chosen place is interpreted to have the significant meaning that is to symbolize Catherine’s characteristic. Generally stated, the magnificent and wonderful place symbolizes Catherine’s physical appearance that is lovely and beautiful. And as the ocean is calm on the surface, but flaring inside, Catherine is also happy and simple outside, but full of desire inside. She seems to be able to deal with her husband outside, but the truth she keeps what she feels deep down in her heart. As the condition of the ocean that can not be guessed, she also has many unpredictable manners.
As the character grows, the plot is also growing. The plot grows to the level of complication. David decided to write again and Catherine is jealous of the writing. In the level of complication, the characteristic of the main characters grows. It is found that David Bourne is passive and unassertive. He never tries to show his feeling. He just follows his wife’s whims without trying to examine the
whims first, although he knows that the whim was ridiculous, even terrible. In the other side Catherine is described to be jealous of his husband’s writing. She can not accept the way David shares his time for the writing and her.
As it is stated by Stanton, the important elements of the plot are conflict and climax (1965: 16). The conflict and climax are born from the organization of the exposition and the complication. The conflict of the story is found in the crisis.
In the crisis, the conflict that the character has, as the result of the action in the complication, grows complicated. As it is mentioned in the theory, according to
Stanton (1965: 16) the conflict is divided into two parts: the internal conflict (the conflict between two desires within a character) and the external conflict (the conflict between characters and the environment). In the story, the crisis exists as the effect of Catherine’s jealousy. Catherine’s jealousy becomes deeper. The internal conflict happens in David. David, as the one who always follows his wife’s whim, actually realizes his wife’s odd behaviors. Inside him, he wants to reject them, but what comes out is he just accepts passively. His passiveness leads his wife’s whims becomes out of control. The external conflict happens between
Catherine and David. Because Catherine’s jealousy grows deeper, she terribly can not handle her feeling toward David. She becomes so rude. She starts to act out of control. She offers David the ridiculous relationship. She tries to undermine David by creating an androgyny, that is she and David clips and colors their hair to match and swapping the gender in bed, she acts as a boy and David acts as a girl.
She also undermines David by creating a triangle relationship that is bringing another girl to their marriage.
The setting, in the crisis, takes a role as the strange weather that blows through the town in the bright summer. The weather is blowing strongly and it is uncommon to blow in the middle of that season. It has an implicit meaning.
Dealing with the meaning of the ocean with its beautiful surrounding as the symbol of Catherine’s characteristic, the weather is interpreted as a symbol to mark the beginning of Catherine’s jealousy. The coming of the strange weather is a symbol of the coming of Catherine’s insanity because of her jealousy toward her husband’s writing. The day when the strange weather is blowing is the day when
Catherine brings another woman to the marriage in order to break her husband’s solitude to work on his writing.
From the crisis, it can be found that Catherine’s jealousy seems to be the starting point in the appearance of the conflict. Catherine’s jealousy seems to be the cause of her next actions that grows out of control. It leads the conflict to develop complicatedly that is Catherine’s insanity.
As the conflict is growing complicated, the conflict comes to the most complicated level that is the top of the conflict. The story comes to the climax.
The conflict between Catherine and David reaches the highest point. The climax is
Catherine’s insanity comes to the top that is burning David’s writing after mocking it for days. In this highest point, everything is broken up. David’s internal conflict, which he usually just accepts Catherine’s attitude passively, comes out by letting it turn to his anger. His anger is blowing out. And Catherine is coming to the top of her jealousy. Then here is the climax constructed.
Inevitably, the couple can not handle the conflict that exists between them. They get into fight. All remind is anger and badness.
After the climax, the story comes to the end of the skeleton that is the denouement. After getting fight because of the burning, Catherine is leaving and
David is staying with his new girl, Marita, the one who understands about his writing. In the denouement, it is found that the story ends with the unhappy marriage.
The setting of the story takes place in the French Mediterranean coast. It is the place where the couple has a honeymoon, the place where the couple tries to defend the beginning of the new kind of relationship. The setting is chosen not only for the background of the story but also as the representation of symbolic meaning. The setting that is chosen is the ocean with its beautiful scenery where the people living there is cheerful and happy. The place is considered as the garden of beauty, peace and happiness, but also considered as the place that is full of temptation and challenges. It is such The Garden of Eden with the man and woman living in it. As both first man and woman in the Garden of Eden fall into disobedience and lose their innocence, the couple in the story also loses their love and become unhappy. As Pickering et. al states that the setting is a means of reinforcing theme (1986: 39), the setting in this story is also used to reinforce the theme. If the story does not take on the French Mediterranean coast which has its own magnificent beauty, the whole story absolutely will be different, because the setting is used to symbolize the misfortune of romantic love and vanished dream.
From the above analysis, the theme exists through the contribution of the character, setting and plot. It can be gained that the arrangement of the whole story is started by the main point that is the jealousy. Everything is determined by one cause, the jealousy that Catherine has. Catherine’s jealousy becomes the starting point of the next actions that is the whole of her insanity. It means that her insanity happens as the effect of the jealousy. In other words, the jealousy is the factor that leads Catherine to go out of control. The feeling of jealous stirs
Catherine to be insane. The marriage is surrounded by the feeling of jealous and it screws up everything. The jealousy becomes the starting point in which the story moves on. It becomes the determinant factor that traps the relationship into fight and it finally makes the marriage breaks up. It is strengthened by the setting as a means of reinforcing theme. The means of the setting is to reveal the idea of the vanished dream and the end of romantic love. As in Introduction to Fiction,
Stanton states, “A central meaning of this sort corresponds to what, in a story, we call the “theme” or “central idea” (1965: 5). The theme that can be stated from the whole analysis, as the central point of the story, is “jealousy may lead into unhappy marriage”.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
Chapter IV has been made to answer the problems that formulated in the
Chapter I. As it is stated in the objective of the study, the analysis is completely finding the theme of The Garden of Eden from the contribution of the plot, character, and setting. Therefore in the last chapter, there are several points that need to be concluded.
The plot of the story is divided into five skeletons. The first is exposition.
In the exposition, it is found the introduction of the main characters, which are
Catherine and David Bourne, and the description of the setting, which is in French
Mediterranean coast. The second is complication. In the complication, the onset of the major conflict in the story is stated. It is Catherine’s jealousy toward David’s writing. The third is the crisis. In the crisis, the conflict is growing. Catherine’s jealousy grows deeper and it becomes the factor that leads her insanity. She creates an androgyny and manages a triangle relationship to undermine David.
The forth is climax. The climax is the highest point of all conflicts. The climax is the burning of the story by Catherine. It makes the couple gets in fight. The last is denouement. It is found that Catherine leaves and David stays with his new girl.
The main characters of the story that has been analyzed are David Bourne and Catherine. The dominant characteristic of David Bourne is unassertive and passive. The dominant characteristic of Catherine is that she is jealous of David’s writing, and because of that she becomes insane and out of control.
The setting of the story is in French Mediterranean coast in 1920s. There are found three significant meanings of the place. The hotel is the place where people usually stay in the short time. It symbolizes the short relationship which has by the couple. The ocean with its beautiful surrounding has two meaning which are Catherine’s characteristic and David’s paradise. The ocean is wonderful and magnificent. It symbolizes Catherine’s characteristic that is beautiful and charming. The characteristic of the ocean is calm on the surface, but full of unpredictable inside. It deals with Catherine’s characteristic. Catherine is simple and happy outside, but she keeps odd whims and has rebellious heart inside.
Dealing with David paradise, as the place is considered as the Garden of Eden, it is used to reveal the symbol of vanished dream and the end of romantic love.
The mixture of the character and setting can be found in the plot, and they are permanently united the story to show the theme of the story. The plot is used to perform the arrangement of events chronologically. As it is found in the plot,
Catherine is jealous of David’s writing. Catherine’s jealousy becomes the starting point where the whole of the insanity happens. The story develops to the end that is the unhappy marriage. The theme as the central idea of The Garden of Eden that can be conveyed, as it is reinforced by the setting is “jealousy may lead into the unhappy marriage”.
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