THE WOMEN’S STRUGGLES FOR THEIR AMBITIONS AS
REFLECTED IN SIDNEY SHELDON’S NOTHING LASTS FOREVER
A THESIS
BY
SRI SEVENTINY
REG. NO. 070721019
NORTH SUMATERA UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF LETTERS
ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTEMENT
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the almighty God for his mercy
that enables me to write this thesis to fulfill one the requirements to obtain a Sarjana
Sastra from the English Department, Faculty of letters, North Sumatra University. This
thesis looks at the women’s struggle for their ambitions depicted through some characters
in Nothing Lasts Forever written by Sidney Sheldon.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisors and also as
the chairman of the English Department Dra. Swesana Mardiah Lubis, M.Hum, for her
careful attention and valuable ideas during the completion of this thesis. I also owe
sincere gratitude to my co-supervisor, Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M.Hum, for his
willingness to share his knowledge and precious time during the writing process of this
thesis.
I would like to thank Drs. Yulianus Harefa, Med TESOL, as the secretary of
English Department, for his kindness and help.
I am also indebted to the Dean of the Faculty of Letters and all lecturers and staff
of the English Department for their contribution of knowledge during my study in
English Department and improving my intellectuality and thought.
My only special thank is due to my beloved parents, Drs. E. Siagian and M. Br.
Hutagaol who have given their moral and material supports and my husband, Victo
And finally, I also owe my special thanks to my friends, Ida, Junita, Eva, Nella,
Dian, Maria, Dina, etc, for their moral supports and exiting times we shared together
during I wrote this thesis.
May God bless all of us forever.
The writer,
Sri Seventiny
ABSTRAK
Skripsi ini menelaah tentang kekuatan wanita dalam memenuhi ambisi- ambisi
mereka yang diangkat dari sebuah novel yang berjudul Nothing Lasts Forever karya
penulis novel Amerika yang terkenal Sidney Sheldon.
Novel ini mengisahkan tentang kehidupan wanita-wanita dalam memperjuangkan
cita-cita atau ambisi mereka, dimana ketiga wanita dalam novel ini memenuhi ambisinya
dengan cara yang berbeda-beda. Ada yang menempuh jalan yang baik tetapi ada pula
yang menempuh jalan tidak baik.
Karena ambisi itu pula para wanita ini mengalami banyak persoalan didalam
menjalani kehidupannya. Adapun persoalan-persoalan itu seperti dalam memenuhi
ambisinya dia rela untuk menjual diri dengan kata lain sex adalah menjadi senjatanya
untuk memenuhi ambisinya, penghianatan dan pemerkosaan juga salah satu dari
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKKNOWLEDGMENTS……… i
ABSTRAK………... iii
TABEL OF CONTENTS……… iv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……… 1
1.1 The Background of The Analysis……….. 1
1.2 The Problem of The Analysis……… 2
1.3 The scope of The Analysis………. 3
1.4 The Objective of The Analysis……….. 3
1.5 The Significance of The Analysis………. 4
1.6 The Method Of The Analysis……… 4
1.7 The Review Of Related Literature………. 6
CHAPTER II: THEWOMEN’S STRUGGLES IN SIDNEY SHELDON’S NOVEL, NOTHING LASTS FOREVER. ………. 8
2.1 General Concept of Woman……….. 8
2.1.1 Definition of Woman……… 9
2.1.2 Feminism……… 14
CHAPTER III: THE ANALYSIS OF THE WOMEN’S
STRUGGLES FOR THEIR AMBITIONS
REFLECTED IN SIDNEY SHELDONS’S
NOVEL, NOTHING LASTS FOREVER. 26
3.1 Paige Taylor’s Ambition……….. 26
3.2 Kat Hunter’s Ambition………. 29
3.3 Honey Taft’s Ambition……… 32
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION………. 38
4.1 Conclusion……… 38
4.2 Suggestion………. 40
BIBILIOGRAPHY……… 41
APPENDICES: THE BIOGRAPHY OF SIDNEY SHELDON,
HIS LITERARY WORKS AND SUMMARY
OF THE NOVEL………. 1
1. SIDNEY SHELDON’S BIOGRAPHY ……… 1
2. SUMMARY OF NOTHING LAST FOREVER………. 7
ABSTRAK
Skripsi ini menelaah tentang kekuatan wanita dalam memenuhi ambisi- ambisi
mereka yang diangkat dari sebuah novel yang berjudul Nothing Lasts Forever karya
penulis novel Amerika yang terkenal Sidney Sheldon.
Novel ini mengisahkan tentang kehidupan wanita-wanita dalam memperjuangkan
cita-cita atau ambisi mereka, dimana ketiga wanita dalam novel ini memenuhi ambisinya
dengan cara yang berbeda-beda. Ada yang menempuh jalan yang baik tetapi ada pula
yang menempuh jalan tidak baik.
Karena ambisi itu pula para wanita ini mengalami banyak persoalan didalam
menjalani kehidupannya. Adapun persoalan-persoalan itu seperti dalam memenuhi
ambisinya dia rela untuk menjual diri dengan kata lain sex adalah menjadi senjatanya
untuk memenuhi ambisinya, penghianatan dan pemerkosaan juga salah satu dari
INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of The Analysis
Literature springs from human inborn love of telling a story, of arranging
words in pleasing pattern of expressing in words some special aspect of human
experience. It is usually set down in printed characters for the reader to read,
though some forms of it are performed on certain social occasions.
There are a number of different branches of literature such as drama,
poetry, and prose. Prose itself can be divided into novel, short stories, romance,
etc. In this thesis; my main object to be discussed is novel. A novel is a story of
book length written in prose. It is about imaginary people and events. Novel also
is a part of literature or art. In general, novel reflects the author’s experience or
true story combined with author’s imaginary to make the writing more alive,
artistic, and interesting.
From the explanation above it can be summarized that novel is a reflection
of man’s life experience through the novelist’s skill in expressing the ideas. These
ideas could be social, political, economic, or even cultural matters. To say simply,
those matters are related to human matter in wider scope. The matter I choose in
this thesis is female character’s ambition as portrayed in Sidney Sheldon novel:
“Nothing lasts forever”.
I found three female characters, which are very dominant. They are Paige
Taylor, Kat Hunter, and Honey Taft. Each of the female character is portrayed to
The word “ambition” itself is always closely connected with the
achievement of success, and the word “struggle” is related to subconscious mind
psychologically. It is an effort to get free; to make great effort under difficulties;
to be content with or against act, and to be confused. To quote oxford dictionary
of current English. Thus, struggle may mean choices of action to do an effort,
whether the way is true or wrong.
In the word, it is clearly portrayed that each of the female characters is
having her own way of materializing her ambition. One is ready to lose her
self-identity in order to get success. Although, she sells “herself” in order to get
success.
The other is related to family background that has been successful being a
doctor. It is a hereditary factor that makes her fight for her ambition. And the last
one is because of being degraded by man. The feeling of disappointment has
raised the spirit to get success for fulfilling the ambition.
The three phenomena above have given me to choose my analysis about
women’s struggles for their ambition through Sidney Sheldon’s “Nothing Lasts
Forever”. They are both my reasons as well as my background in analyzing the
novel in this thesis.
1.2The Problems of The Analysis
The problem of this thesis is focused on female characters as described in
Sidney Sheldon’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” and the problems I would like to put
1. What makes Honey Taft ready to sacrifice herself in order to fulfill her
ambition?
2. Why does Paige Taylor follow the family tradition to struggle for her
ambition?
3. What makes Kate Hunter awake struggle for her ambition after being
disappointed by a man?
1.3The Scope of the Analysis.
In completing the thesis, I limit my analysis in describing the female
character, which is represented by Paige Taylor, Kate Hunter and Honey Taft. The
three characters are all women who are portrayed to materialize their ambitions
differently. So I just analyze the three of them as expressed in the novel with
description of their personal reasons to achieve their ambitions. They are
restricted to personal sacrifice of being ready to be object of sexual fulfillment,
disappointment and family background.
1.4The Objectives of The Analysis
The objectives of the analysis are:
a) To identify the personal reason why Honey Taft is ready to be an
object of sexual desires by sacrificing herself in order to reach her
b) To clarify the reason why Paige is ready to be a doctor only
because of the family reason.
c) To find out the reason why Kate is also to reach her ambition after
being disappointed by a man.
1.5The Significance Of The Analysis
I hope my analysis could give contribution to the development of literature
analysis scientifically. Thus, the significance of the analysis is to add vocabulary
of literary study in terms of novel. This analysis can be made useful as reference
for further analysis especially about novel and its woman content or matters.
In addition, the other significance of the analysis is to prove that literature
can be studied intern disciplinary. Thus, student of literature can look that the
connection of literature and psychology in the same manner as would like studied
in this thesis. Thus, I hope this analysis can encourage students of literature to
make wider development of literary study by looking at this thesis as example.
1.6The Method Of The Analysis
In the present thesis, my source or data analysis is taken from Sidney
Sheldon’s novel “Nothing lasts forever”. I have read the novel several times in
order to grasp what it is about. Throw understanding the story as a whole has
data to prove my analysis to be true. The selection of the quoted text from the
novel is meant to strengthen my idea for the analysis. And the selection is taken
randomly and selected for what is needed in the analysis.
Since the text of literature is mostly connotative, the interpretation is
needed for the accuracy of the analysis. The way I interpreted is connected with
what I think right in the text of the novel. Thus my interpretation goes together
with the analysis based on the quotations I have selected. After that, I describe my
analysis is reference to one topic I chose in the Thesis.
Basically, in completing this analysis I applied both intrinsic and extrinsic
approaches. Intrinsic approach is meant to deal with internal elements of literature
such as plot, setting, character or point of view. While extrinsic one is related to
external element of literature. In this thesis, I have focused on the character. That
is female character and psychological problem of ambition through the female
character. So, in discussing the contents of this thesis I use both of approaches to
make the analysis.
The way I applied the approaches is through description of one character. I
describe my analysis the way I think right as proved by the quotations. Thus, the
1.7The Review Of Related Literature
The data of investigation will be all the events, which are described in the
novel that have the relationship with the psychological aspects of the main
character, such as: the main character’s personality, ways of thinking and of
making decisions, and his behavior.
The sources of data can be divided into the primary sources and the
secondary sources. To support my analysis, I have consulted and used some
books, which are absolutely relevant to this topic. The following books have
contributed a lot in writing the thesis.
Theory of Literature by Rene Welleck and Austin Warren (1977)
This book describes how literature as a social institution. Using language
as its medium in creating social relationship and the novelist himself
becomes the member of the society. Literature and society are closely
related.
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy (1989)
Dr. Joseph Murphy presents the difference between positive and negative
motivation.
Nothing Last Forever by Sidney Sheldon (1989)
This book is as the main source of the required data as it is the text of the
novel itself. From this novel, I can find the women’s struggle to get their
How To Study A Novel by John Peck (1986)
This book describes about how to write a novel, the real meaning of a
novel, and the part of literature.
The study of personality by Brand Howard (1984)
This book describes personality, social position, and social psychology.
The Little Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1989).
In collecting the data, I also find the materials from Internet. In doing the
Internet research, I looked for articles are relevant to the topic, then I studied the
CHAPTER II
THE WOMEN’S STRUGGLES IN SIDNEY SHELDON’S NOVEL,
NOTHING LASTS FOREVER
2.1 GENERAL CONCEPT OF WOMAN
. During the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985), women
from many geographical, racial, religious, cultural, and class backgrounds took up
organizing to improve the status of women. The United Nations-sponsored
women's conferences, which took place in Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in
1980, and Nairobi in 1985, were convened to evaluate the status of women and to
formulate strategies for women's advancement. These conferences were critical
venues at which women came together, debated their differences and discovered
their commonalties, and gradually began learning to bridge differences to create a
global movement. In the late eighties and early nineties, women in diverse
countries took up the human rights framework and began developing the analytic
and political tools that together constitute the ideas and practices of women's
human rights.
Women's lives involved much more than legal systems, work, and
religious life, of course, but it is as impossible to cover all aspects of their lives in
a relatively brief article, as it would be those of men's lives. In fact, including a
separate article on women—without a corresponding article on men—goes to
than the commonalities in women's experience across Europe. Even the
experience of the relatively small group of women who held political power was
diverse. Elizabeth It’s situation was very different from that of queen mothers in
France such as Marie de Médicis, female rulers of eastern Europe such as Maria
Theresa, tsarinas such as Catherine the Great, or mothers of the sultans (known as
the valide-sultan) in the Ottoman Empire. Thus perhaps the only generalization
safe to make is that gender shaped the lives of all early modern Europeans in
complex ways, and that every development of the period was shaped by, and in
turn shaped, ideas about or structures of gender.
2.1.1 Definition of Woman
According to “The concise oxford dictionary of current English” by
H.W.Fowler and F.G. Fowler (1951), Woman is adult human female, queen’s or
great lady’s female attendant, lady in waiting, and the feminine emotions.
According to the Merriam- Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, Woman
is an adult female person, feminine nature, and a female servant or attendant.
According to literature and language dictionary, that woman is:
1. Female human being past adolescence.
2. An adult female human.
3. Women considered as a group; womankind: “Woman feels the invidious
distinctions of sex exactly as the black man does those of color” (Elizabeth
4. An adult female human belonging to a specified occupation, group,
nationality, or other category. Often used in combination: an
Englishwoman; congresswoman; a saleswoman.
5. Feminine quality or aspect; womanliness.
6. A female servant or subordinate.
7. Informal.
a. A wife.
b. A female lover or sweetheart. See Usage Note at lady, man, person
According to Saint Jerome, Woman is a temple built over a sewer. It is
contrary to the order of nature and of the law for women to speak in a gathering.
According to Plato, Woman are those who fell prey to their irrational,
emotional side, and are therefore incapable of reason and making rational choices.
Moreover as irrational beings, women may not always know what they really
want, and so it is the man’s domain to decide for them.
According to Aquinas, woman is defective and misbegotten.
According to Truth, 1870 by Jules Joseph Lefebvre
A woman is an adult female human being. The term woman (irregular plural:
women) usually is used for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a
identify a female human, regardless of age, as in phrases such as "Women's
rights".
According to Pope Innocence III, said that the wickedness of woman is
greater than all other wickedness. A dragon is more curable than the familiarity of
a woman. Avoid them like poisonous animals.
According to King James, said that to make women learned and to make a
fox tame works out to the same end, educating a woman or a fox simply makes
them more cunning.
There are some opinions about woman from many sources:
Do not admire your wife’s beauty . . . from the time women are fourteen
years old they think of nothing and aim at nothing except going to bed with men.
(Epictetus).
Even the most virtuous of women is a witch. (Oral Jewish Law).
The courage of a man is shown in his ability to command. The courage of
a woman is found in obeying. (Aristotle).
By all means get married. If you get a good wife, you will be happy. If you
get a bad wife, you will become a philosopher. (Socrates).
Because of you we are punished by death… because of you, women, the
Men should not listen to a woman even if she says admirable things or if
she says saintly things. They are of little consequence since they come from the
mouth of a woman. (Origen).
A man may marry again if he has divorced his sinful wife because he is
not restricted in his right as is the woman, because he is her head.
(Ambrose).
We have courtesans for our sex and pleasure. We have young slave
prostitutes for our physical use and we have wives to bring up legitimate children.
(Demosthenes).
By herself woman is not of the image of God. The man, on the other hand,
alone, is the image of God. (Agustine).
For a man to go to a woman for advice is like going to the lowest kind of
animal to seek advice. (Chrysostom).
There is no gown or garment that worse becomes a woman than when she
would be wise. (Martin Luther).
All women are born that they may acknowledge themselves as inferior to
the male. (Calvin).
Womanhood is the period in a female's life after she has transitioned from
girlhood, at least physically, having passed the age of menarche. Many cultures
in some branches of Christianity, bat mitzvah in Judaism, or even just the custom
of a special celebration for a certain birthday (generally between 12 and 21).
Currently in the English language there is no commonly used word for a
woman who has passed menopause, although historically a woman in the third
part of her life was known as a crone, which was originally not a pejorative term.
The three ages of woman were historically known as "maiden, matron, and crone"
and are sometimes quoted as "maiden, mother and crone". This could perhaps be
rendered in modern English as "little girl", "woman of reproductive age" and
"older lady".
The word woman can be used generally, to mean any female human, or
specifically, to mean an adult female human as contrasted with girl. The word girl
originally meant "young person of either sex" in English; it was only around the
beginning of the 16th century that it came to mean specifically a female child.
Nowadays girl sometimes is used colloquially to refer to a young or unmarried
woman. During the early 1970s feminists challenged such use, and use of the
word to refer to a fully-grown woman may cause offence. In particular, previously
common terms such as office girl are no longer used.
There are various words used to refer to the quality of being a woman. The
term "womanhood" merely means the state of being a woman, having passed the
menarche; "femininity" is used to refer to a set of supposedly typical female
qualities associated with a certain attitude to gender roles; "womanliness" is like
"femaleness" is a general term, but is often used as shorthand for "human
femaleness". "Distaff" is an archaic adjective derived from women's conventional
role as a spinner, now used only as a deliberate archaism. "Multiversity" is a
"neologism" (derived from the Latin) meant to provide a female counterpart of
"virility", but used very loosely, sometimes to mean merely "womanhood",
sometimes "femininity", and sometimes even as a collective term for women.
2.1.2 Feminism
Feminism is a relatively recent term for the politics of equal rights for
women. It came into use in English only in the 1890s, and many languages do not
have this noun at all. It is also a system of critique and has as its central focus the
concept of patriarchy, which can be described as a system of male authority,
which oppresses women through its social, political, and economic institutions.
Feminism is therefore a critique of patriarchy, on the one hand, and an ideology
committed to women's emancipation on the other.
Feminist theology is a movement that reconsiders the traditions, practices,
scriptures, and theologies of religions from a feminist perspective. Some of the
goals of feminist theology include increasing the role of women among the clergy
and religious authorities, reinterpreting male-dominated imagery and language
about God, determining women's place in relation to career and motherhood, and
The most far-reaching social development of modern times is the revolt of
women against sexual servitude (Margaret Sanger, 1920). While feminism takes
many forms and cannot be characterized in any seamless way, it nonetheless
encompasses the struggles of women to secure their economic and political
agency. From the Women's Suffrage Movements of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries to the Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s,
feminism is typically associated with particular historical moments when a
coalition of women succeeds in bringing issues of gender equality, sexual
oppression, and sex discrimination into the public arena. Whether it takes the form
of an explicit demand for the vote (as did the Suffrage Movements) or a more
generalized demand for women's freedom (as did the Women's Liberation
Movement), feminism is invariably engaged in resistance to prevailing notions of
women’s’ nature’.
Feminism often consolidates into a political movement as a result of
women's participation in other radical, reformist, or revolutionary activities. For
example, women were active in the anti-slavery movements of the nineteenth
century. Yet, at a World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840,
Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were forced to sit in the gallery because
the convention's organizers had determined that women could not be delegates.
Eight years later, Mott and Stanton convened the Seneca Falls Women's Rights
Convention, which adopted a platform explicitly revising the US Declaration of
Independence to accord women the same guarantees that it granted to men. (‘We
In addition, it specified a set of grievances regarding the usurping by men
of women's political, legal, and economic autonomy. It would not be the last time
that the hypocrisy of demanding rights for some while denying them to others
would initiate a women's movement. Women's experience as coffee makers,
typists, and sexual attendants to men in the anti-war and civil rights movements of
the 1960s similarly activated both the demand for women's full participation in the
public sphere and denunciation of masculine sexual prerogatives.
The Women's Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the backdrop
to contemporary feminism, is characterized by two intersecting trajectories. On
the one hand, in spite of the liberalization of non-marital sex (occasioned in part
by the wide distribution of the birth control pill), women remained men's sexual
subordinates. Feminists challenged ‘sexist’ images of women in popular culture
and in the pornography industry in relation to a growing understanding of
“women's political subordination under patriarchy”. Women's bodies, then,
became the ground on which the struggle for liberation was waged. On the other
hand, a connection was made between women's ‘consciousness’ and their sexual
subordination.
While feminists like Margaret Sanger had long before identified women's
complicity in perpetuating their own subordination, the concept of ‘consciousness
raising’ as an instrument of liberation emerged only in this later period.
Consciousness raising, a collective activity of mutual support and critique,
conformed to a particular set of ideological presuppositions about women's nature
and women's roles.
Though this characterization of consciousness raising might appear a
parody of the concerns of middle-class married women, the fact that such women
were drawn into the movement in large numbers was crucial to the widespread
recognition that women were no longer content to sit on the sidelines of
political/public life. The slogan ‘the personal is political’ captured the
Movement's insistence that what goes on behind the closed doors of the domestic
sphere has everything to do with what goes on outside it. On this basis, despite
serious differences among feminists as to whether the goal was equality with men
or freedom from them, a broad agenda for change could be articulated.
The women's health movement demanded everything from an increase in
the number of women doctors, to access to abortion and contraception, to freedom
from sterilization abuse, to a full understanding and celebration of women's bodies
in feminist terms. (Our Bodies/Ourselves, still the principal women's health
handbook, was first published in 1971) More generally, women demanded ready
access to the political arena, to economic self-sufficiency, to childcare, to freedom
from male violence, to divorce, and to workplaces free from sexual harassment
While feminism must be seen as an activist demand for political and
economic reform, it has always been informed by serious reflection on the nature
of sexual difference and the mechanisms by means of which sexual difference is
Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792), John Stuart Mill
(The Subjection of Women, 1869), Margaret Sanger (Women and the New Race,
1920), Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex, 1949), Betty Friedan (The Feminine
Mystique, 1974), and bell hooks (Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism,
1981) are among the many feminists who have endeavored to understand the
causes and forms of women's oppression, and to reconceptualize sexual
difference.
Contemporary feminism has achieved more systematic interventions into
the arenas that authorize representations of sexual difference, in large part because
feminists have secured a greater presence in academia (and in elite domains of
business, politics, medicine, science, and the mass media). For example, feminist
historians have unmasked the assumption that history is determined by great wars
and great men, and have succeeded in drawing attention to the ways in which
women's work has significantly affected historical developments.
At the heart of feminist social and political analysis is the challenging of
the public/private divide in politics, which has historically denied women access
to the public political space and therefore representation of their interests. Starting
from a point of unity—‘sisterhood is global’—feminism today is an ideology with
many practitioners that have situated themselves on various theoretical
intersections—Marxist feminists, anarchist feminists, radical feminists, liberal
ideologies but has also made a significant contribution of its own in the field of
theory and praxis.
Feminist methodology, which arose from a tradition of ‘consciousness
raising’ in the women's movement and by drawing upon women's subject
experience to extend the boundaries of theory has, for example, found an
important place in the field of methodological analysis. Issues such as race,
sexuality, class, and ethnicity have served to disperse the idea of an essential
‘woman’ in which all women would recognize as themselves. Critiques of first-
and second-wave Western feminism by black and Third World women, and
lesbian groups, have introduced a diversity of approaches to appear within the
feminist discourse.
This tendency has been further reinforced by feminism's encounters with
post-structuralism and post-modernism. Feminism today is not simply an ideology
but a growing academic discipline. While this is making issues of gender
accessible to women in education in a systematic way, its incorporation into
academic curricula is also causing concern among many women who see the
cutting edge of feminism—its political activism—being blunted in this process.
Feminism In France has shared many features familiar to the Anglophone
world through the feminist movements in the United Kingdom and the USA: on
the one hand, the desire and the struggle to attain equal rights for women; on the
other, involvement with political movements that contested the republican state
The influence of feminism on socialism, or the effect of socialist feminism on
women's lives and status, is harder to gauge, as it cannot be judged by concrete
achievement. The struggle of socialist women meant that they engaged with the
Republic, which oppressed them as workers and as women, with the theory of
Marx, which ignores gender, and with the misogyny of their socialist brothers.
This multiple struggle continues within all the parties of the Left on the level of
theory and in daily practice.
Feminist epistemology has asked whether different ways of knowing, for
instance with different criteria of justification, and different emphases on logic
and imagination, characterize male and female attempts to understand the world.
Such concerns include awareness of the ‘masculine’ self-image, itself a socially
variable and potentially distorting picture of what thought and action should be. A
particular target of much feminist epistemology is a Kantian or Enlightenment
conception of rationality, which is seen as a device for claiming mastery and
control, and for refusing to acknowledge differing perspectives and different
relations to life and nature. Although extreme claims have been made, such as that
logic is a phallic and patriarchal device for coercing other people, it is still unclear
how capacities, training, and culturally reinforced aspirations, work together in
explaining how people acquire knowledge. Again there is a spectrum of concern,
from the highly theoretical to the relatively practical. In this latter area particular
attention is given to the institutional biases that stand in the way of equal
in the way of women seeing themselves as leading contributors to various
disciplines.
However, to more radical feminists such concerns merely exhibit women
wanting for themselves the same power and rights over others that men have
claimed, and failing to confront the real problem, which is how to live without
such asymmetrical powers and rights Disagreements between feminist reformers
and radicals were present from the beginning. At first these conflicts were more
over lifestyle than politics. Reformers observed existing social codes (dress,
comportment, family obligations, respectability).
Although "feminism" is a nineteenth-century neologism, it is now
generally accepted in Anglophone historiography as a shorthand label for
discourses that criticize misogyny and male dominance, argue for an improvement
of the female condition, and demand a public voice for women speaking on behalf
of their sex. A large corpus of writings, published all over Europe from the
fifteenth to the eighteenth century, can be considered "feminist" in this sense.
The first systematic feminist treatise is probably Christine de Pizan's Le
livre de la cité des dames (1404–1405; Book of the city of ladies." Women's
reason and sense of justice were in no way inferior to those of men”, she
contended. Pizan's City of Ladies, built on "the field of Letters" and consecrated
by the Virgin Mary, is an allegory of the female voice in history, which, once
raised, will never be silenced. The opposition of feminine piety, virtue, and
literature. Another popular genre, found all over Europe from the fifteenth to the
eighteenth century, is the galleries of illustrious women, proving by historical
example that they could equal men in every respect.
Finally, different feminisms and "feminist moments" should be
interpreted in the context of struggles over particular practices, such as literary
authorship and taste, elite sociability, female networks, university politics, forms
of religious worship, marriage laws and customs, and social and political issues.
Many feminist utterances that seem outlandish at first sight only disclose their real
meaning and significance when read in their specific context. The feminism of the
early.
Feminist theory is an extension of feminism into theoretical or
philosophical fields. It encompasses work in a variety of disciplines, including
anthropology, sociology, economics, women's studies, literary criticism, art
history, psychoanalysis and philosophy. Feminist theory aims to understand
gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations, and sexuality.
While providing a critique of these social and political relations, much of feminist
theory also focuses on the promotion of women's rights and interests. Themes
explored in feminist theory include discrimination, stereotyping, objectification
2.2 GENERAL CONCEPT OF AMBITION
Ambition is the possession of motivation for power. Ambitious persons
seek power either for themselves or for others. People can wield their acquired
power in the name of a vague or clear ideal or multiple ideals. When ambition is
used to seek a clear ideal, it develops a close relationship to extremism. In the
history of human kind many examples can be found of people who were
extremely ambitious, for better and for worse. The notorious Greek Herostratus
had the ambition to become famous by destroying the Temple of Artemis.
We realize that having an ambition is an important thing in human life.
Ambition is an eager or strong desire to achieve something such as fame, fortune,
or success. To achieve something worth in life, it is necessary to set a high goal.
There is a proverb, which says that, a person without ambition has a failure in life.
Ambition makes someone becomes apathetic, pessimistic, and easy going.
Definition of Ambition according to English Dictionary and Thesaurus:
Ambition is an eager or strong desire to achieve something, such as fame
or power.
The possession of motivation for power. Ambitious persons seek power
either for themselves or for others.
The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of
desire; canvassing.
superiority, and power.
Desire for success: a strong feeling of wanting to be successful in life and
achieve great things attainment of something.
Objective or goal: a goal or objective that somebody is trying to achieve.
According to Niccolò Machiavelli
Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast that however high
we reach we are never satisfied.
According to Thomas Otway
Ambition is a lust that is never quenched, but grows more inflamed and
madder by enjoyment.
According to Oscar Wilde
Ambition is the last refuge of failure.
According to Henry Wheeler Shaw
Ambition is like hunger; it obeys no law but its appetite.
According to Joseph Conrad
All ambitions are lawful except those that climb upward on the miseries or
credulities of humankind.
According to Philip Sidney
To be ambitious of true honor and of the real glory and perfection
of our nature is the very principle and incentive of virtue; but
to be ambitious of titles, place, ceremonial respects, and civil pageantry,
According to William Shakespeare
The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.
According to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with
great ambition.
According to Charles Caleb Colton
Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes
concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness,
and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end.
According to Sir Henry Taylor
Wisdom is corrupted by ambition, even when the quality of the ambition is
intellectual. For ambition even of this quality, is but a form of self-love.
According to Sallust
It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the
truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their
mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own
interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will.
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing.
According to Oscar Wilde
CHAPTER III
THE ANALYSIS OF THE WOMEN’S STRUGGLES FOR THEIR
AMBITIONS REFLECTED IN SIDNEY SHELDON’S NOVEL, NOTHING
LASTS FOREVER
The character in any short story or novel initiates the action and develops
the plot: as soon as this happens, readers naturally begin to question the motives
and personalities of the certain characters, comparing them to other characters.
Generally the protagonists are round characters. That is the character changes and
changes. Therefore, the characters will not be the same individuals at the end of
stories.
There are three protagonists in this novel, Nothing Lasts Forever. They are
Paige Taylor, Kate Hunter, and Honey Taft. I will show the ambitions and the
struggles of main characters and how do they achieve their ambitions in order to
reach their goals.
3.1 Paige Taylor’s ambition
Paige Taylor was a tall, slender, attractive young woman, with her eyes
were dark brow, and she was friendly, intelligent looking, and self-confidence.
Her father, Dr. Curt Taylor was a medical cadre of WHO to Third World
Countries, fighting exotic and virulent diseases. Her father was a popular doctor in
Taylor, and then she began to help her father to care for patients. She loved and
adored her father and wanting to be like her father was her faith. Because of that
Paige decided to be a doctor like her father.
“There’s nothing to discuss,” Paige informed to her uncle. “I’m going to be a doctor”. (Sheldon, 1985, pg.77).
Paige thought that a woman doctor to be equalized to a man doctor. And then
Paige and the other women doctor fighter for it. As the result, they were finally
successful in their struggles.
“Meanwhile, if you don’t want to dress with the nurses….” “I’m not a nurse, “Paige said firmly. “ I am a doctor.” “Of course, of course. Well, we’ll do something about accommodation for you, doctor”. (Sheldon 1985, pg.54)
None can accept that decision. Several of them disagreed, and that made them
angry with Paige and hated her.
“ On Friday when Paige went into changing room to put on her scrubs, the world ‘bitch’ had been written on them with a black maker pen”. (Sheldon 1985, pg. 84)
They tried many ways to make Paige down. They decided to steal her book and all
her lab work notes, which contained the important details of her patient’s
electrolytes, and other cases, and of course she couldn’t work perfectly without
tires had been slashed. She suspicious to them. Many of senior doctors jealous to
her, because of Paige were a good woman, clever, and friendly.
Some of the doctors tried to tempt and make a date with Paige, but Paige
refused the all men. Because Paige didn’t feel congenial with them and she
wanted to focus with her job as a doctor. Paige had assisted in hundreds of
operations, and she has ambition to be a cardiovascular surgeon. But her ambition
hadn’t been reached yet. Paige became frustrated because she did not do operation
by herself. With patience and no complain she kept doing her job as well as she
could, working hard every shift.
Finally, according to George Englund the chief of surgery gave to her the
opportunity to do an operation by herself.
“I ‘m going to do my first operation! I’m going to hold a human being’s life in my hands. What if I’m not ready? What if I make a mistake? Thing’s can go wrong. By the time Paige was through arguing with herself, she was in state of panic”. (Sheldon 1985, pg. 145).
The above quotation points out that Paige did not have a strong self-
confidence and she worried too much about her reputation. She really seemed to
be very doubtful of her self- competence.
Anyhow, she tried her best to handle her hesitate. Before the time of the
operation came, she spent much of her time practicing applying all the devices
and tying the surgical knots on table legs and also the lamps used for the sake of
the operation. By doing this, the result was that she was able to do her work very
work, she had the opportunity at the hospital to replace the position of Dr.
Lawrence Barker, one of the most famous cardiovascular surgeons in the world.
And finally she became a very competent and brilliant doctor.
From the above, I think that it is a natural thing if someone wants to
achieve his/her ambition, desire, or even dream. And later on he/she must be
successful if she/ he struggle hard and patiently to fight through any challenges or
difficulties that might arise in the time of achieving the ambition.
3.2.2 Kat Hunter’s ambition
The other woman doctor was Kat Hunter. She was a beautiful black
woman, tall, large boned, intensely graceful, and her carriage was cool. Kat
Hunter had a terrible childhood, because her stepfather raped her when she was
thirteen years old. Kat runs away when she realized that she was pregnant. She ran
to her aunt’s house and had abortion.
Her life began to change completely after she had run away from home.
Her aunt’s admonition was that she had to stop running away and hiding. Her aunt
suggested that Kat be able to stand up for herself and decided to be someone
important.
These words built up Kat’s spirit and she became an ambitious woman.
She decided to take school and spend her days on a lot of books. As the result of
Kat’s hard work, she managed to be the top one in her class. One day in her
school library, she read Agnes Cooper’s” Promises to keep”, and “woman
surgeon” by Dr. Else Roe. And it opened up a whole new world for Kat. “I’m
going to be a doctor. A famous one”, she said to herself. Kat Hunter also got
experience about the sexual harassment. The men doctors were flattering Kat and
Paige and treating them as sexual objects. Kat and Paige’s feelings were hurt and
ignored.
Kat Hunter had a pressure from Margaret Spencer, she was a nurse chief.
She had the power to assign an inept scrub nurse to assist on a complicated
surgery, or if she liked to the doctor she would send the most competent nurse to
help him with a simple surgery. Margaret Spencer was an antipathy to black
women doctors. Kat Hunter was one of the black women.
Margaret Spencer had planned to get rid of Kat Hunter by making her life
so miserable. By doing so, she hoped that Kat would be forced to quit, regardless
of Kat’s dedication and her ability.
“I’m not going to let that bastard beat me down. I’m not.” Kat said. (Sheldon 1985, pg.178).
Kat Hunter made the real breakthrough. It happened because what to be
Levy. He was in an automobile accident and lost great deal of blood, needs
immediate transfusion. But the hospital is short of blood and try t find from his
family, but his family already made they mind to refused to donated because they
afraid will infection with AIDS or another infectious dieses. None doctors or
nurses could change their minds. But after Kat told to his family that she will give
pig blood on him as the way out. Finally they agreed to make a blood donation.
Kat solved the problem just in fifty minutes. The story became an instant legend
around the hospital.
After a few years, Dr. Curtis went into private practice and affiliated with
the prestigious North Hospital. Unfortunately, the destiny played a dangerous and
bad game for Kat Hunter. Handsome and attractive playboy doctor, Ken Mallory,
touched her heart. She was so in love with Ken that she even had a baby with him.
Luck was not on her side; Ken was not serious with her. He even killed her
because she forced him to marry her.
In here I look that Kat Hunter always disappointed by man. The first she
was pregnant because of her stepfather violence her when she was thirteen. And
then she was killed by a man, he is Ken Mallory because she falling in love to him
whereas he wasn’t serious love to Kat. Actually Kat is a woman who has strong
ambition, she is an ambitious woman. Because she able to awake from her
problem and she has spirit to reach her ambition to be a doctor. But because of her
love to a man, she became killed by the man, because her love is blind she love a
3.2.3 Honey Taft’s ambition
The last woman doctor was Honey Taft. She was a young woman, with a
thin, curly hair, gray eyes, and has not so beautiful face. Honey had the bad
fortune to have been into family of overachievers. She was not as brilliant as her
parents and didn’t have face as beautiful as her twin sister, didn’t smart and
popular.
“ Honey was our little accident.” Her mother would tell their friends. “ I wanted have an abortion, but Fred was against it. Now He’s sorry.”
We call her ‘the dummy’. Her father would laugh. Honey is the ugly duckling of the Taft family. Only I don’t think she’s going to turn into a swan.” (Sheldon 1985, pg.105).
From this we can understand that consciously or unconsciously, the family
had implanted in her a feeling of deep inferiority. This case caused her greatest
desire to please her parents, her sister, and make them love to her.
One day when Honey was in high school, she found the way to get her
parent’s attention to make her ambition to come true. She discovered that making
love was a way to lease a man. Starting from that she began to learn a dozen
books on eroticism, which showed hundred ways to make love. Since then, many
boys were asking Honey for dates, and then she started going out every night. The
boys were happy and made Honey very happy too.
Honey grades improved dramatically, and she was suddenly even more
popular than her sister in their school. Her hard work made Honey’s parents
attention to her.
“It took our girl a little while to bloom.” Her father said proudly.
“But now she’s turned into a real Taft.”(Sheldon 1985,pg.111)
Honey didn’t only to gain her popularity, but also to make her subjects
passed in her school by seducing her teachers because she knew that she was not
intelligent enough, and the most important thing was that she didn’t want to see
her parents disappointed and later her parents would turn to ignore her again.
Having graduated from her college, Honey and her parents discussed
Honey’s future, but her father disagreed on what she wanted to be:
“……….. I want to be a nurse.” Her father’s face reddened.” You mean a doctor.” “No, father. I ………”
“You’re a Taft. If you want to go into medicine, you’ll be a doctor. Is that understood?”
“Yes Father.” (Sheldon 1985, pg.111).
Her parents really didn’t care about what her daughter wanted and needed.
They just thought about their reputation and dignity. Honey knew it when she told
her father she wanted to be a nurse. She loved taking care of the people, helping
them and nurturing them. She was terrified by the idea of becoming a doctor and
being responsible for people’s lives. But on the other side she knew once again
that she must not make her parents disappointed and she didn’t want to lose their
Because of that, she threw away her desire. She took medical school in
Knoxville and even Honey’s college grades were not good enough to get her into
medical school, but her father’s influence was a heavy contributor to that medical
school that made Honey able to pass the test of entrance. Honey did fairly well in
medical school, but she lacked dedication. She was there only to please her father.
Ironically, she was particularly weak in several subjects, and it made her
confronted with some difficulties. As a result, she failed in some subjects, and
Finally it made her drop out.
“I can’t fail, Honey thought. I can’t let my father down. What would Baccaccio had advise?” (Sheldon, 1985, pg.114).
Realizing her weakness, she began to use love affair as her weapon in
order to pass the subjects. Before Honey finished her study at the Medical school,
she seduced some of her professors. She was graduated from there by seducing
her Dean, Dr. Jim Person, and then she got a glowing recommendation from him.
And later Honey went to Embarcadero Hospital and she planned to go into
internal medicine.
To be a woman doctor was not easy. Honey had some difficulties,
intimidation, and pressure. As a woman doctor she was not provided with
sufficient facilities. Honey Taft had a difficult situation. With the best
recommendation, the highest medical school grades that Embarcadero Hospital
had ever seen made Honey get special attention from senior doctors and Benjamin
seemed to like her a great deal, reliable resident and nurse kept reporting to Dr.
Wallace that Honey was incapable and incompetent of doing her job, and that she
also misdiagnosed cases and made serious mistakes. This report caused a big
question about her extraordinary high grades and glowing recommendation.
They tried to find an answer from her ex-dean of medical school, Dr. Jim
Pearson. But of course he couldn’t answer. He was more worried if what he had
done with Honey revealed his secret that could make his reputation down and his
marriage broken.
“Ben Wallace was thoughtful for a moment. “I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Saymor. Who’s the meanest son of a bith on your staff?”
“Ted Allison”
“Alright.” Tomorrow morning send Honey out of rounds with Dr. Allison. Have him gave you a report on her. If she say’s incompetent. I’ll get rid of her”
Saymor was saying to Dr. Allison. “I meant you to keep close eye on Honey Taft. If she can’t cut it out, she’s out. Understood?”
“Understood”. (Sheldon 1985, pg.130).
Honey Taft knew that she would face a serious problem, as the way out,
by seducing Dr. Allison; he was a senior assistant she could pass through that
problem.
“I’ll be dammed if I understood it.” He said. “In the morning, the complains about Honey Taft keep pilling up. She keeps making mistakes……….”
In that statement we could see that her act made Honey become an enigma
to most of the doctors at that hospital. During the morning rounds, she appeared to
be unsure of herself. But in the afternoon rounds, she seemed to be a different
person. She was surprisingly successful in her work toward each patient, crisp and
efficient in her diagnoses.
They didn’t know what Honey had done. She was able to know which
patient she would meet and what kind of diagnoses of patient she had to make
first and then she managed to learn whom the one that she should seduce; the
senior doctor or the assistant of the senior doctor got ready to help her make
correct diagnoses.
One day Honey had the misfortune to be assigned to her team. Honey had
already made very dangerous mistakes on her diagnoses.
“Dr. Ritter said,” This is your patient?” “Yes”
“And what was your diagnoses?” “Stomach flu”
“Did you take a stool sample?” “No, what for?”
Because your patient has cholera, that’s what for?”
He was screaming, “We’re going to have to close down the fucking hospital!” (Sheldon 1985, pg.246).
Cholera is one of infectious dieses. But after fifty hours his treatment
began, the patient was nearly back to be normal. Everyone could breath again that
infectious dieses must be immediately reported to the state health board and the
hospital must be closed.
“Ben, you’d better get rid of her before the hospital gets
into real problem again, and before she kill a patient or some “Dr. Ritter said.”
“Right. She’ll be cut here.” (Sheldon 1985, pg 249).
And again, by seducing Dr. Wallace, she could get rid of the trouble. From
that happening Honey realizes that she could no longer be a doctor. She also
realized that she already put everybody around her into a difficult situation just to
support her ambition. And love from her parents and the other members of the
family. Fortunately, at the same time Honey met her true love. The love, which
she had expected for a long time from her family, was not really found. So, she
made up her mind to marry him and then retired from being a doctor and became
a nurse, which had been her desire and goal since the past.
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
4.1 CONCLUSION
After analyzing the characters in the previous chapter, now I will make a
conclusion from what has been analyzed. From what I have read in the novel and
what I have analyzed, I find that this novel also describe about a moral lesson.
Moral is related to his social condition to the social approach.
The characters that are depicted in Nothing Lasts Forever had played
different ways. Paige Taylor as an attractive young woman, intelligent looking,
and friendly has a dream to be a doctor. She wants to be a doctor because her
father was a popular and professional doctor. She loves and adores her father, and
wanting to be like her father is her faith. Kat Hunter is a beautiful black woman,
cool, and graceful but she had a terrible childhood because her stepfather raped
her when she was thirteen. She awake from her problem and decide to be
somebody important. Kat’s spirit return and she became an ambitious woman.
And finally Kat decides that she wants to be a doctor. And the last woman is
Honey Taft. She is an ordinary – looking young woman and an unenviable figure.
Honey Taft comes from overachiever’s family but she has bad fortune, because
she was not as brilliant as her parents and not as beautiful, smart, popular as her
twin sister. Her family had implanted in her feeling of deep inferiority. Because of
order to they love to her. Honey Taft has ambition to be a popular woman, but her
through the wrong way. She began to learn a dozen books on eroticism, which
showed hundred ways to make love. One day her father forces her in order to her
to be a doctor. Her parents really didn’t care about what her daughter wanted and
needed. They just thought about their reputation and dignity. Realizing her
weakness, she began to use love affair as her weapon in order to pass the subjects.
She seduces her dean and lecturers. And finally Honey Taft can to be a doctor, but
when she started to working as a doctor in a hospital, she had some difficulties,
intimidation, and pressure, because she didn’t have ability and intelligent. She
throws the way wrong to achieve her ambition in order to make pleasure her
family.
From analyze the novel I can conclude that as human beings may have
ambition, because it is an important thing, but we must done with the true way. In
this novel we can find the three women as main characters have same ambition
that is want to be a doctor. But they throw the different way. According to my
analysis the character of Paige Taylor and Kat Hunter are not deviate, it means
they achieve their ambitions with the true way. But Honey Taft is a bad character,
she throw the wrong way for achieve her ambition so that she has some
difficulties finally. Goals, which are achieved by illegally and immorally, will
never bring happiness and peace in mind. We will have bad days, always be
4.2 SUGGESTION
On this occasion, I would like to provide a suggestion expected to be some
use for the readers. Setting goals for us is not easy. First of all, we must take a
look at ourselves to estimate our capacities and limitation, or otherwise we will be
frustrated. Of course, everybody likes to have an ambition, but it must be a good
ambition. Our goals must be realistic so that it is possible to be achieved.
So this novel is worth reading. Throw this novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Sidney
Sheldon; we can gain some worthy knowledge and the knowledge of life. We
should realize that dreams obtained through the wrong ways will never bring
happiness and peace in mind, but failure and destruction will happen and cause us
to have some serious burdens of live. This thesis reveals all these, even though
any constructive critical opinion will be accepted for the improvement of this
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Clay, Richard. 1989. The little Oxford Dictionary of English. New York: Oxford.
F. Calhoun, James and Acocella Joan Ross. 1978. Psychology of adjustment and
human Relationship. London: McGraw-Hill.
H. Maslow, Abraham. 1954. Motivation and Personalities. New York: Harper and
Row Inc.
Howard, Brand. 1984. The Study Of Personality. New York: John Wiley and Sons
Inc.
Murphy, Joseph. 1989. Power of Your Subconscious Mind. London: Prentive-Hall
Inc.
Peck, John. 1986. How To Study A Novel. London: Macmillan education Ltd.
Sheldon, Sidney. 1985. Nothing Last Forever. New Delhi: Harper Collins India
Pvt.Ltd.
Stonyk, Margaret. 1976. The Nineteenth Century English Literature. London:
Macmillan education Ltd.
Taylor, Richard. 1981. Understanding The Elements of Literature. London: The
Macmillan Press.
Tillotson, David. 1953. England in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.
Wallace, Rains, David. 1987. Live in Balance. New York: National Audubon
Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren.1977. Theory of Literature. London: Penguin
Book.
http://www.education.yahoo.com, downloaded on 10/22/2008 at 10:30 a.m.
http://www.women.google.com, downloaded on 11/2/2008 at 11:30 a.m.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/human/ambition/htm, downloaded on 11/6/2008 at
APPENDICES
BIOGRAPHY OF SIDNEY SHELDON, HIS LITERARY WORK AND
SUMMARY OF NOTHING LASTS FOREVER
1. BIOGRAPHY OF SIDNEY SHELDON AND HIS LITERARY WORKS
Sidney Sheldon was widely regarded as a master of modern storyteller, whose
works were mostly charted on the list of best- seller novel. He was born during the
depression in Chicago on February 11, 1917; with his parents were Otto Sheldon and
Natalie Marcus.
His first works was wrote a song and gave it to the orchestra leader at Bismarck Hotel,
where he had been working as a checkroom boy. It was then arranged and performed in
several nights’ time.
At the age of seventeen, he left Los Angeles because he had made up his mind to
enter on career as a screenwriter. Afterwards, he attempted to write and submitted a
synopsis of Stein beck’s, of Mice and Men, to the entire main studio. Within three days,
they gave him a reply and Sheldon then started to work for Universal Studios, where he
was paid $17 a week. During the occasions, he met Ben Robert who became his
collaborator in working on their own original stories in their spare time, eventually
writing a number of ‘B’ pictures for Republic Studio.
When World War II broke, he joined the USA Air Force and earned his pilot’s
revised ‘Merry Window’, ‘Jackpot’, and ‘Dream With Music’. Next, he wrote a play
‘Alice in Arms’, starring Kirk Douglas in his first Broadway appearance, and later
‘Redhead” with Gwen Verdon which rewarded him a Tony Award.
Living in Hollywood, Sheldon established a tremendous track record over the
next 12 years as a successful screen – writer at both MGM Studios and Paramount
Picture. Having won a Academy Award for ‘The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer’starring
Cary Grat, he wrote over 25 movie scripts including ‘Easter Parade’ with Judy Gartland
and Fred Asteire, ‘Annie’, ‘Get your Gun’, ‘Jumbo’ and ‘Anything Goes’ with Bing
Crosby, on March 28, 1951. He got married with Jorja Cartwright.
After leaving MGM as a writer / director / producer, he got involved in the
fledging television industry when ABC asked him to create a show for a new actress
called Patty Duke. The show was titled ‘ The Patty Duke Show’ for which he wrote 78
scripts over two years. Then he created, wrote, and produced “I Dream of Jennie’ in
1964, and at one point he was keeping up two script in the day the two shows schedule
were overlapped in the course of 1965-1966. In 1967, ‘Jeannie’ gave Sheldon an Emmy
Nomination for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy. It ran in ABC for five
years. He also created the extremely popular series: ‘Hart to Hart’.
Turning to be an author, his first novel’ The Naked Face’ was sold to William
Morrow after being rejected by five publishers. The novel described by The New York
Times as the first best mystery novel of the year. It got a critical success and presented
him and Edgar Allan Poe Award. Sheldon had an idea to write a story that was so
His second novel, “The Other Side of Midnight”, was a huge hit and it firmly
established him a best selling author. Each of his next successful novels ‘A Stranger in
The Mirror”, “Bloodline”, “Range or Angels”, “Master of the Game”, “ If Tomorrow
Comes”, “Windmills of the Gods”, “Memories of Midnight”, “ The Sand of the Time”,
“The Stars Shine Down”, and “Nothing Lasts Forever” were mega seller ones in both
hard cover and paper back. They have solidified his position as one of the top best selling
authors alive today. With nearly 200 million books in print, his novels had been
published in 56 languages in 100 countries worldwide.
Nevertheless, during 15 years of domination, his books once were banned, banned
and branded as ‘immoral’ by Reverens Jerry Falwen, Reverend Tom Williams and their
followers. Sheldon is also a national spoke man for The Freedom To Read Foundation
and has helped launch the student newspapers at Erasmus Hall, a Brooklyn High School,
and at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Bronx. He is a major contributor and an active
participant in charities related to literacy and in helping the homeless.
Considering his method of writing, Sheldon admitted working in an unusual way.
When he began a novel, he didn’t have plot in mind but only the central characters.
Dictating his draft to his secretary. He worked six days a week from early morning to late
dinnertime. Making each of his books in great detail, he would very often spend a year
traveling in foreign countries, observing their customs and actives.
Sidney Sheldon admitted that the books got harder to write all the time. However,
each of his books had been done 25% better than the one before it. In 1985, he suffered
and acting film.
Their only child, Mary Sheldon, followed her father into the literary world. A
published poet 16, her first novel, “Perhaps I’ll Dream of Darkness” was published by
Random House. She was an Oxford graduated. She was also completed “Rosemary is for
Remembrance” and “ The Tennessee Waltz” and has succeeded in winning the Brandles
University Library Association Award. In 1989, Sidney Sheldon married Alexandra
