THE PSYCHOPATHS IN CAROLINE ROBERTS’ NOVEL THE LOST GIRL
A THESIS BY:
MIA PRATIWI TARIGAN REG. NO. 080705055
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES
UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA
MEDAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Background of the Study ... 1
1.2 Problem of the Study ... 4
1.3 The Objective of the Study ... 5
1.4 The Scope of the Study ... 5
1.5 The Significance of the Study ... 5
1.6 The Method of Study ... 5
1.7 Review of Related Literature ... 6
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 9
2.1 Novel ... 9
2.2 Character ... 13
2.3 Psychopath ... 15
CHAPTER III METHOD OF STUDY ... 19
3.1 Source of Data ... 19
3.2 Data Selecting ... 20
3.3 Data Analysis ... 20
3.4 Method ... 21
CHAPTER IV THE PSYCHOPATHS IN CAROLINE ROBERTS’ NOVEL THE LOST GIRL ... 23
4.1 Fred West’s psychopathic attitude ... 23
4.1.1 Fred West’s Background ... 23
4.1.2 Fred West’s Crimes ... 24
4.2 Rosmary West’s psychopathic attitude ... 30
4.2.1 Rosemary West’s Background ... 30
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ... 33
5.1 CONCLUSION ... 33
5.2 SUGGESTIONS ... 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 35 APPENDICES
i. Author’s Biography and Works
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Literature sprang up from the imaginative mind of people who had the talent
to create stories. They perceived what was happening around them from natural
phenomena to the lives of the people in their community. There have been three
genres of literature known up to the present time: Drama, Poetry and Prose. Drama
has subgenres such as: tragedy, tragi-comedy, melodrama, etc; Poetry has subgenres
such as: ballad, elegy, pastoral, ode, sonnet, etc; and Prose has subgenres such as:
short story, romance, novel, etc.
To be more specific, this study merely focuses on a novel. Novel is a book
of lon
beings and their actions over a period of time and displaying varieties of human
character in relation to life. Novel is a fiction, that is a world specially made in words
by an author. It means that a novel is not a real life but it exists in the way and the
author made it as a creation from imagination. Novel pictures the experiences of
actual life and manners at the time it was written, but it does not present a
documentary picture of life. It just a representation of life in which the characters
look at the people in the society. ( Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel ).
The Lost Girl novel is a true story that tells about the author, Caroline
Roberts’ experiences when she accepted a job at 25 Cromwell Street, the infamous
something very malevolent about the couple, so she left their employment soon after,
glad to be rid of them. The story should have ended there, but a month, later she was
abducted by the West and suffered violent sexual abuse at their hands before being
told that she would be killed and buried. Through a combination of luck and quick
thinking, despite the trauma of what had happened, Caroline managed to escape to
freedom. This story is actually like a diary because it is written about the life
experience of Caroline on each page. This novel has been translated into Indonesia.
In this thesis I just analyze two characters, they are Fred and Rose West.
This couple abduct, rape, torture, kill, and mutilate several young woman then bury
them under Gloucester home included Caroline. When Caroline Back at 25
Cromwell Street, after initially making her welcome with the promised cup of tea,
soon afterwards Rose started kissing her, bound her heavily with bondage tape, and
both raped her. According to Roberts, Fred had remarked that "her vagina was
unusual" and that he "would have to change that". When she screamed, Rosemary
smothered her with a pillow and she was bound even further around the neck. Fred
threatened her that they would keep her locked up in the cellar and let Rosemary's
black male visitors "use" her and that when they had finished they would bury her
under the paving stones of Gloucester. Fred boasted that they had killed hundreds of
young girls and the police would never find them. Quickly realizing that they would
kill her, Caroline gave into them and let them sexually do whatever they wanted to
her without a fight. Those criminal acts related to personality disorder which called
For example:
“Rose grabbed my hair and pulled me towards her while cursing me. They were both talking at the same time, calling me names. I thought they were going to kill me there and then, which would have been a relief at the time. To my horror, they spoke words to me that I will never forget:’we are going to keep you in the cellar and let our black friends use you and when they have finished with you, we will kill you and bury you under the paving stones of Gloucester. There are hundreds of girls there, the police haven’t found them and they won’t find you!’.”
(Roberts, 2005:56)
“I found out, much later, that Fred had already confessed to Heather’s murder before the police had interviewed me on the Saturday, and that he had been taken back to 25 Cromwell Street on the Friday evening, while Rose was being questioned at Cheltenham Police Station, to point out where he had buried Heather. The police had already started digging in another spot and Fred told them they were digging in wrong place.”
(Roberts, 2005:165)
Psychopath currently labelled as antisocial personality disorder, but the term
psychopath was replaced since 1952 with sociopath in the DSM (Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder) II 1968 and officially named sociopath.
Harvey Cleckley in Wade (2007:343) describes that psychopath is a person who has
absolutely no conscience, "Likeable," "Charming," "Intelligent," "Alert,"
"Impressive," "Confidence-inspiring," and "A great success with the ladies" but also,
of course, "irresponsible," "self-destructive," and the like. It is a phenomenon that
had always been considered dangerous and disturbing the public. The basic
characteristic of psychopath is inability to feel the normal emotions. Even though the
psychopath may use words to express emotions, there is no real sentiment behind
these words. Consequently, psychopaths can commit acts that are harmful to others
the sense of regret, and also they have no fear of punishment, shame, guilt, and
empathy for the suffering caused by themselves to others.
Most cases of antisocial personality disorder are far less extreme, yet all
share a lack of concern for what is right or wrong. People with this disorder bring
great disaster in their society, and for this reason they have been the focus of a great
deal of research. Antisocial personality disorder is disturbingly common, with an
estimated lifetime prevalence of 4,5 percent of the adult males and 8 percent of the
adult females in the United States. I choose this title because nowadays many people
who can not interact normally with their environment, maybe because they do not
accept by society caused by their past which not good, consume drugs and alcohol or
their trauma when they were child. Their bad habits makes them unacceptable in
society, so it makes them do not care about what they do, they feel free to do
anything without fear about the punishment. Beside that the story of this novel makes
me interested in studying about psychopath through analyzed the background of the
characters and their crimes.
1.2 Problems of The Study
Based on the background of the study above, the problems discussed in this
thesis are:
1. Why do Fred and Rose West become psychopaths?
1.3 The Objective of The Study
There are two objectives to study this thesis, they are:
1. To describe why Fred and Rose West become psychopaths in the novel
The Lost Girl.
2. To find the characteristics of psychopath in the novel The Lost Girl.
1.4 The Scope of The Study
The study of The Lost Girl’s novel is limited to get deeper understanding by
only analyzing the psychopath through the characters who are found in the
story: Fred West and Rose West.
1.5 Significance of The Study
The practical significances of this study are to make the reader of this thesis
know what is novel, character and psychopath and also expected to give readers
knowledge of the characteristics of psychopath. It is as an additional reading material
for people who are interested to know, discuss and study about how psychology can
be involved in literary works which called as literary psychology.
The theoretical significance of this study is to add the literary analysis in
reference to psychological disorder matters in terms of psychopaths.
1.6 The Method of Study
In analyzing Caroline Roberts’ The Lost Girl, I used descriptive qualitative
method. Moreover, the extrinsic approach such as, the biography and psychology of
the characters, also applied to support the method. First, the novel as the source of
By using that method and the literary psychology principles, the data will be selected
from the text of the novel before it is interpreted and analyzed. Then, the conclusion
of the data will be made to support the ideas of the researcher.
1.7 Review of related Literature
To support the idea of studying this thesis, I collected several books which
related to the main object of the analysis, the book contains some informations which
is design to assist this thesis, they are:
Wellek and Austin Warren (1997:73) used to understand one of the extrinsic
approach to the study of literature; the relation of literature and psychology, by
“psychology of literature’, such as: the study of the creative process, and also the
study of the psychological types and laws present within works of literature, or,
finally, the effects of literature upon its readers. Both of the studies become the
analysis of this thesis. Researcher
Conclusion
Method:
Descriptive Qualitative
Data Selected- Interpreted-
Analysis Data: Characters and Quotation from the text
of the novel Source of Data:
Wade and Carol Tavris (2007:343), gives me information that psychopath or
antisocial personality disorder is the people who have absolutely no conscience. The
basic characteristic of psychopath is inability to feel the normal emotions and also
the psychopaths do not have the sense of regret, and also they have no fear of
punishment, shame, guilt, and empathy for the suffering caused by themselves to
others. The characteristics above clearly portrayed in Fred and Rose West in this
story.
Derek Russell Davis (1984:1), explains the causes of the disorder among
others: external agents affecting the brain directly, e.g. alcohol, drug or violence
producing injury; and events and circumstances outside the person which compose
his experience. In this story, Rose’s mother was consumed ECT to suffer from
depression. It caused prenatal injury to Rose and she grew up into a moody teenager
and performed poorly at school. Rose also worked as a prostitute. In addition, Fred
and Rose had a bad memory about their parents when they were child, Fred saw his
father had sex with his daughters, Fred also sexually abuse by her mother and Rose
sexually abused by her father.
W. Lawrence Neuman (1997:331) used to understand the qualitative method
and the characteristics of qualitative research, they are: importance of the context, the
case study method, the researcher’s integrity, grounded theory, process, and
interpretation. In qualitative methods, understanding the context is very important. it
is emphasize for understanding the social world. The researchers hold the meaning of
a social action or statement depends, in an important way, on the context in which it
appears. When a researcher removes an event, social action, answer to a question, or
conversation from the social context in which it appears, or ignores the context,
The case study method, the researcher may use a case study approach. He or
she might gather a large amount of information on one or few cases, go into greater
depth, and get more details on the cases being examined. The researcher’s integrity,
qualitative researchers ensure that their research accurately reflects the evidence and
have checks on their evidence.
Grounded theory, a qualitative researcher begins with a research question
and little else. Theory develops during the data collection process. This more
inductive method means that theory is built from data or grounded in the data.
Process, qualitative researchers look at the sequence of events and pay attention to
what happens first, second, third, and so on. Because qualitative researchers examine
the same case or set of cases over time, they can see an issue evolve, a conflict
emerge, or a social relationship develop. The reseacher can detect process and casual
relations. Interpretations, the data are in the form of words, including quotes or
descriptions of particular events. The researcher interprets data by giving them
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
a. Novel
Novel is a book of lon
dealing with human beings and their actions over a period of time and displaying
varieties of human character in relation to life. ( Quoted from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel ).
In analyzing a literary work, such as a novel, we need to apply some
approaches to get the better ideas of understanding of how to analyze this literary
work. These approaches can be applied to analyze a literary work from the inside,
outside, or from the both sides of aspects of literary work itself. In this case, the
writer applies extrinsic approach to analyze a novel from the outside of its text. The
novel of The Lost Girl bringing psychopath as its main topic brings the analysis of
the novel to psychological approach as well as extrinsic approach.
Richard Taylor (1981:1) in Mita Juniarta Tarigan’s thesis said that literature
is essentially an imaginative act that is an act of the writer’s imagination in selecting,
ordering, and interpreting life experience. Literature also refers to composition that
tells stories, dramatize situation, express emotions and analyze advocates ideas. It
enables us to recognize human dreams and struggles in different places and times
that we would never otherwise know. It provides the comparative basis from which
we can see worthiness in the aims of all people, and help us to see the beauty in the
world around us. It also exercises emotions through interest, concern, tension,
Psychology is the study of behavior and mental process, primarily among
humans. Human behaviors and mental processes are nothing less than the substance
of our lives: our actions, our thoughts, our attitudes, our moods, even our hope and
dreams.
Rathus (2007:4) gives explanation about psychology. He says that:
“Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Topics of interest to psychologists include the nervous system, sensation and perception, learning and memory, intelligence, language, thought, growth a development, personality, stress and health, psychological disorder, way of treating those disorder, sexual behavior, and the behavior of people in social
setting such as groups and organizations.”
Like other science, psychology has its own goal. Its goal is to understand
behavior and mental processes. In psychology, psychologists observe and record how
people relate to one another and to the environment. They also have learned much
that they can help people fulfill their potential as human beings and increase
understanding between individuals, groups, nations and culture (Quoted from
www.a2psychology.com/articles/psychology.htm).
Wellek and Austin Warren (1956:73) said that the most widespread and
flourishing methods of studying literature concern themselves with its setting, its
environment, and its external causes. They also brought an understanding of how
psychology enters into literature, such as : the study of the creative process, and also
the study of the psychological types and laws present within works of literature, or,
finally, the effects of literature upon its readers.
The object of psychology and literature is human being. Both of this
sciences study about human behavior or character and human development.
Literature consists of the psychology of the character who conducts a story while
part of psychology. Psychology of literature is a study of literature which values a
literary works as an activity of the psyche. The writer uses his feeling and emotion in
his works. It also happens on the readers, they will use their feeling and emotion in
reading the literary works because the works are coming from the experience of the
writer himself and the experience from other people (Wellek and Warren,
1956:81-93).
Wade and Carole Tavris (2007:195-196) said that Freud used
Psychoanalytic theory as the dominant approach to explain the difference of
personality. The view of the theory generally explains that conflict, guilt, self
defense, and how to make a relation to others can be traced to the dynamics of things
that are not recognized from childhood.
Wade and Carole Tavris (2007:195) also said that according to Freud,
personality consists of three main systems, they are: id, ego, and superego. Id is part
of the personality which contains of psychic energy derived, especially sexual and
aggressive instincts, ego is part of personality which represents the logic, reason, and
rational self-control, and the superego is part of personality which represents
consciousness, morality, and social standards.
A healthy personality should be able to balance the three systems in it.
People who are too controlled by the id appear impulsive and have a selfish desire.
People who are too controlled by the superego appear stiff, too cling to morality, and
love to rule others. People with the weak ego can’t balance the needs with personal
desires with social duties and limitations of realistic.
When desire is denied, a bad childhood memories, the influences of
environment, etc are not able to be controlled by ego or superego, the failure of a
kill, mutilate, and bury their victims including Caroline Roberts because they can’t
control their id. Freud theory implicitly assumes that people are basically evil
character. Human impulses, if not controlled, will aim for the destruction of another
human being, and also the destruction of his own.
Koswara (1986:117) said that Abraham H. Maslow has a different opinion
on Freud's theory, he said that human beings are basically good, or rather neutral.
According to the humanistic perspective, evil or destructive forces that exist in
humans it is the result of bad environment and is not innate.
According to the sub-forms of the novel, this novel can be classified as the
Bildungsroman novel, It is a kind of narrative work which describes the protagonist’s
apprenticeship before he becomes a mature person. A Bildungsroman tells about the
growing up or coming of age of a sensitive person who is looking for answers and
experience. The genre evolved from folklore tales of a
out in the world to seek his fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story there is an
emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on his journey. In
a Bildungsroman, the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and
with difficulty. The genre often features a main conflict between the main character
and society. Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the
protagonist and he is ultimately accepted into society – the protagonist's mistakes and
disappointments are over. In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and
help others after having achieved maturity. In this works, the novel teaches us not to
be a psychopath.
This thesis will be discussing about the characters as the elements of
psychology, focusing on Psychopath and the characteristic of psychopath itself,
like Theory of Literature by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren and an introduction of
psychopathology by Derek Russell Davis has become the basis in analyzing and
writing this thesis. Also, the Teori-teori Kepribadian by Koswara and Psikologi Edisi
Kesembilan by Carol Wade and Carole Travis help the writer in understanding the
term and the description of Psychopath itself. Character is an important element
because the actor is human, so the definition of character will be explained in the
next point.
b. Character
Kennedy (1991:47) said that character is an imagined person who exists in
the story. Moreover, characters in a novel have been specially created by the author.
Characterization is the author’s way of describing his characters in a literary work or
the author’s means of differentiating one character to another. Characters are closely
related to plot because character means actions, while actions from the plot of
literary work. An author may presents his characters in two general ways, they are:
(1) directly, telling his readers the characters’ qualities and (2) through actions,
showing the characters’ deeds by which his characters may be revealed.
It has often been assumed that characters in a literary work can be judged
from four levels of characterization. They are helpful for us to see the very basic
description of characters. The four levels are:
a. Physical: physical level supplies such basic facts, as sex, age, and size. It
is simplest level of characterization because it reveals external traits only.
b. Social: social level of characterization includes economic status,
c. Psychological: this level reveals habitual responses, attitudes, desires,
motivation, like and dislike-the inner workings of the mind, both
emotional and intellectual which lead to action. Since feeling, thought and
behavior define a character more fully than physical and social traits and
since a literary work usually arises from desires in conflict, the
psychological level is the most essential parts of characterization.
d. Moral: moral decision more clearly differentiate characters than any other
level of characterization. The choices made by a character when he is
faced with a moral crisis show whether he is selfish, a hypocrite, or he is
the one who always acts according to his belief. A moral decision usually
causes a character to examine his own motives and values, and in the
process his true nature is revealed both to himself and to the readers.
A character who stands as a representative of a particular
people is known as a type. Some types of characters are: Stereotyped characters do
not represent individuals but a group of people, profession, etc they act according to
a set of pattern; Stock characters appeared from dramatic situation such as triangle
love affair; Allegorical characters are usually not given human names but they
represent human attitudes and emotions and author uses names taken from the
characters’ role representing their attitudes, behavior, etc; Full-dimension characters
usually described at greater length, more detail and capable of greater individuation.
E. M Forster (1990:73-80) distinguishes two kinds of characters, those are:
Flat character is constructed round a single idea or quality, unchanging and static, at
the end of the novel he is essentially what he has been throughout, his response is
altered by his experiences, he does not embody a single idea or quality but it much
more complex, his responses take us by surprise.
From the explaination about character above, the character of Fred and Rose
West are type of round character because the portrayal of their character is described
with more detail and complex through the whole story of the novel. Her thoughts,
feelings, actions and attitudes are changed and also his responses take us by surprise.
Fred and Rose West suddenly become cruel people when they attack and torture their
victim but for a while they also can become very nice people.
c. Psychopath
Psychopath is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of
empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity and deceptiveness.
Psychopath currently labeled as antisocial personality disorder, but the term
psychopath was replaced since 1952 with sociopath in the DSM (Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder) II 1968 and officially named sociopath.
Though lacking empathy and emotional depth, they often manage to pass themselves
off as average individuals by feigning emotions and lying about their past.
Halgin and Susan Krauss (1997:310) recognized this disorder as a defect of
“moral character.” Widespread publicity still is given to this disorder, particularly
when it is reflected in violent crime. Consider the case of Ted Bundy, a serial killer
who sexually assaulted and ruthlessly murdered several dozen women, yet was able
to deceive people with his charming style. Bundy committed these brutal acts
without concern for right or wrong, and without remorse for his deeds. Fred and
stingy. They are able to torture, kill, rape, mutilate and then mutilate them with no
fear.
Most cases of antisocial personality disorder are far less extreme than that of
Ted Bundy, yet all share a lack of concern for what is right or wrong. People with
this disorder wreak havoc in our society, and for this reason they have been the focus
of a great deal of research. Antisocial personality disorder is disturbingly common,
with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 4.5 percent of adult males and 8 percent of
adult females in the United States.
Halgin and Susan Krauss (1997:310 said that according to Robert Hare
psychopathy remains a key concept in descriptions of antisocial personality disorder.
Two sets of traits in particular stand out as central to the notion of psychopathy. The
first set includes interpersonal and affective qualities, such as glibness and superficial
charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, a tendency toward pathological lying, lack of
empathy for others, lack of remorse, and unwillingness to accept responsibility for
one’s own actions. The second key set of traits revolves around impulsivity, a
characteristic that can lead to behaviors expressed in an unstable lifestyle, juvenile
delinquency, early behavioral problems, lack of realistic long term goals, and a need
for constant stimulation. These antisocial behaviors are likely to be linked with a
history of alcohol and drug abuse.
Psychopath or antisocial personality disorder has a history of failing to
comply with social norms. They perform actions most of us would find unacceptable,
such as stealing from friends and family. They also tend to be irresponsible,
impulsive, deceitful, and unable to sustain co-operative relationships with others or
cope with the ordinary demands of living. Barlow in his book Abnormal Psychology
want, indifferent to concerns of other people. Lying and cheating seem to be second
nature to them, and often they appear unable to tell the difference the truth and the
lies they make up to further their own goal. They show no remorse or concern over
the sometimes devastating effects of their actions. They also felt no sympathy, no
feeling for the pain that he caused, and do not care about the effect of their behavior.
These characteristics are sometimes referred to as the Harvey Cleckey
criteria and include:
Superficial charm and good intelligence; absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking; absence of ‘nervousness’ and other psychoneurotic manifestations, unreliability; untruthfulness and insincerity, lack of remorse or shame; inadequately motivated antisocial behavior; poor judgment and failure to learn by experience; pathologic egocentricity and incapacity for love; general poverty in major affective reactions; specific loss of insight; unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations; fantastic and uninviting behavior, with drink and without; suicide rarely carried out; sex life impersonal, trivial and poorly integrated; failure to follow any life plan.
(Cleckey, 1982, p. 204)
The problematic characteristics of people with antisocial personality
disorder are enduring in nature. That is their problems begin in childhood and
continue throughout most of their adulthood. As children, many of them had serious
problems with impuls control, the ability to restrain the gratification of one’s
immediate needs or desires, and were regarded as having a conduct disorder.
Children with conduct disorder get in trouble at home, in school and in their
neighborhood. The more frequent and diverse the childhood antisocial acts are, the
more likely the individual is to have a life-long pattern of antisocial disorder.
Barlow (1995:533-534) explains that the causes of antisocial personality
disorder are from biological dimension: genetic influences, family, twin, and
disorder and criminality. Derek Russell Davis in his book An introduction to
psychopathology, explains that the causes of the disorder among others: external
agents affecting the brain directly, e.g. alcohol, drug or violence producing injury;
and events and circumstances outside the person which compose his experience.
From the explanation about Psychopath above, the causes of Psychopath to
the character of Fred and Rose West are: first because of the drugs, it was explained
when Rose’s mother was consumed ECT to suffer from depression. It caused
prenatal injury to Rose and she grew up into a moody teenager and performed poorly
at school. Rose also worked as a prostitute. The second because of the environment
or experience, Fred and Rose had a bad memory about their parents when they were
child, Fred saw his father had sex with his daughters, Fred also sexually abuse by her
CHAPTER III METHOD OF STUDY
3.1 Source of Data
In this thesis, I applied the library research by searching and collecting
references that contain and support the topic from the library. I gathered the relevant
information from different reference books. I also applied the internet research,
collecting the data by browsing and researching some information from the internet
that support my thesis.
The primary source of data acquired from the novel which being discussed
in this thesis is a novel written by Caroline Roberts entitled The Lost Girl. This thesis
is used to obtain the analysis of psychopath through the character. The secondary
data are drawn from other books as the references which are the most concerned
about the conflict in the fiction work especially novel.
Several steps were applied in the data collecting procedure for this thesis.
Firstly, the data acquisition from the novel was gathered by reading the novel to get
full understanding about what is being told about. I read both the English version and
the translation version. The entire novel was read while identifying the psychopath
found from the characters based on the psychopath definition itself, then marked the
crimes that found in the novel in order to ease in classifying the characteristics of
psychopath found from the character belong to. Secondly, the secondary data were
gathered from several books that related to the topic of this thesis. The related books
that concern to the subject matter being analyzed are used as the source of the idea to
support the analysis of this thesis and also to give the additional information and
information from these books are marked and underlined so that it can be used to
support the analysis of this thesis, these books finally also used as the references for
this thesis.
3.2 Data Selecting
When all the data and information related to the topic of this thesis were
collected, then they were selected to the most significant data that would be used in
the process of finishing this thesis. In this step, the criminal acts committed by the
characters that found as the primary data for this thesis were classified according to
the characteristics of psychopath, so that the data analysis in this thesis will be easier
to describe. Meanwhile, the data and information found from the related books will
be drawn to this thesis in order to support the analysis in this thesis.
3.3 Data Analysis
The data analysis was applied when all the primary data from the novel had
collected and selected. The data from the novel are in a form of written text which
concern about the characteristics of psychopath found through the characters that
have been chosen to the most significant data, then the data will be interpreted and to
be brought into this thesis as the subject matter of the analysis, that is the characters
as the psychopath found from the novel. Next the analysis will be stated by
explaining the characteristics of psychopath of the characters based on the definition
and the criminal acts that committed by the characters which reflected in Caroline
3.4 Method
In writing and analyzing the data in this thesis, I used the descriptive
qualitative method in order to understand how and why something is happened.
Qualitative research results the descriptive data and consist of the explanation about
variable which examined by giving the explanation from another reference.
W. Lawrence Neuman (1997:331) said that there are six characteristics of a
qualitative style research they are:
1. Importance of the context, it is emphasized for understanding the social
world. The researchers hold the meaning of a social action or statement
depends, in an important way, on the context in which it appears. When a
researcher removes an event, social action, answer to a question, or
conversation from the social context in which it appears, or ignores the
context, social meaning and significance are distorted.
2. The case study method, the researcher may use a case study approach. He
or she might gather a large amount of information on one or few cases,
go into greater depth, and get more details on the cases being examined.
3. The researcher’s integrity, qualitative researchers ensure that their
research accurately reflects the evidence and have checks on their
evidence.
4. Grounded theory, a qualitative researcher begins with a research question
and little else. Theory develops during the data collection process. This
more inductive method means that theory is built from data or grounded
in the data.
5. Process, qualitative researchers look at the sequence of events and pay
qualitative researchers examine the same case or set of cases over time,
they can see an issue evolve, a conflict emerge, or a social relationship
develop. The reseacher can detect process and casual relations.
6. Interpretations, the data are in the form of words, including quotes or
descriptions of particular events. The researcher interprets data by giving
them meaning, translating them, or making them understandable.
Moreover, library research and internet research are applied to support the
method. Firstly, the source data, the novel of The Lost Girl by Caroline Roberts, is
read for several times to find out problems which are faced by the characters in the
story. Then, by using the principles of literary psychology and the extrinsic approach
which is explained before, the data will be selected before it is interpreted and
analyzed. So, the conclusion of the data will be made to support the ideas of the
researcher.
Researcher
Conclusion
Method:
Descriptive Qualitative
Data Selected- Interpreted-
Analysis Data: Characters and Quotation from the text
of the novel Source of Data:
CHAPTER IV
THE PSYCHOPATHS IN CAROLINE ROBERTS’ NOVEL THE LOST GIRL
4.1 Fred West’s Psychopathic Attitude 4.1.1 Fred West’s Background
Fred has a bad attitude when he is young, he does something that
should not be done by other children. He does an uncommon thing in his life
and gets imprison for his bad attitude. He gets imprison because molesting a
child, stealing some things, running over until strike and killing a four-year-old
boy. His bad attitude, crimes or lack of personality integration make him
ignored by the society. The ignorance of society makes him does not care about
others, able to kill and torture other person and his feeling of guilt is usually
only temporary.
Fred injured his head seriously in a motorcycle accident and also in a
fall from a building's fire escape. His family reports that after the accident he
became prone to sudden fits of rage. He can’t control his anger because there is
a disorder in his emotional. He has an irritability anger which is the part of
emotional disorder. The term "emotional disorders" is not a fully accurate
medical term, but is commonly used in ordinary context to refer to those
Raleigh M. Drake, Ph.D (1962:62) said that irritability anger occurs
because no adequate response has been made to many anger provoking stimuli
in the past, there may develop a generalized state of ‘nerves’ in the form of
explosions, although inadequate to relieve the individual, usually are out of
proportion to the stimuli presented. Temper tantrums may be of this sort
although they may also be just ways of controlling the environment. So, this
anger may be to cover the deficiency or abnormality that was in him. So,
people not daring to find out some more about Fred’s life. Thus, his crimes will
be covered because of ignorance of society towards his life.
Fred comes from a family where incest was common. His father has
him from the age of 12. It has been suggested that incest was an accepted part
of the household. It makes a psychic trauma for Fred that proved by the
symptoms sadism. Fred has sadistic sexual demand, he is receiving pleasure
from inflicting pain upon another, especially a loved one.
From the explanation above, the psychopathic attitude of Fred West
comes from some factors. In childhood he did irritability and easily aroused to
anger. Then, when he grows up his characteristic becomes dificient in moral
conscience includes sadism behavior and self-control, inadequate judgment in
social and personal matters and feeling guilt temporarily.
4.1.2 Fred West’s Crimes
In this novel, Fred West does some crimes such as Verbal Abuse,
• Verbal Abuse
Verbal abuse (also known as reviling or bullying) is best described as
a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any
response thus defining the target as non-existent. If the abuser doesn't
immediately apologize and rarely indulge in a defining statement, the
relationship may be a verbally abusive one.
Verbal abuse includes the following: countering, withholding,
discounting, verbal abuse disguised as a joke, blocking & diverting, accusing &
blaming, judging & criticizing, trivializing, undermining, threatening, name
calling, chronic forgetting, ordering, denial of anger or abuse, and abusive
anger. The verbal abuse which spoken by Fred can be seen in the quotation
below:
“They stood me up and started to undress me, still cursing me: ‘keep fucking quiet, you stupid fucking bitch!’
Fred raised his clenched fist to me and said, ‘do you want some more of this bitch?’.”
(Roberts, 2005:44)
• Sexual Assault
Sexual Assault takes many forms including attacks such as rape or
attempted rape, as well as any unwanted sexual contact or threats. The term
sexual assault is used, in public discourse, as a generic term that is defined as
any involuntary sexual act in which a person is threatened, coerced, or forced
to engage against their will. The threaten makes a person feel fear to against
and force also makes a person weak and powerless to resist or fight the sexual
forced
Assault by Fred can be seen from the quotations below:
“The abuse went on into Anne-Marie’s late teens. She had even been made pregnant by her father at the age of fifteen, but had miscarried his child. The Wests had let other men have sex with her too and had also forced her into prostitution.”
(Roberts, 2005:239)
Rape is a type of
persons against another person without that person's
theory that conclusively explains the motivation for rape; the motives of rapists
can be multi-factorial and are subject to debate.
Several factors have been proposed:
as well as sexual gratification an
below, Fred has raped Caroline because he can not control his anger when
Caroline refuses to follow what Fred and Rose want. Fred also threatens
Caroline that he would kill her if she makes a sound to attract the guest in
Fred’s house. So, Caroline chooses to be quiet and follow what was said by
Fred in order to save herself by not provoke the anger of Fred. The desire of
Fred to kill Caroline is a trigger become psychopath, because the psychopathic
person does not fear to injure even kill someone.
“I began to sob, really sob. I wasn’t sobbing because he had raped me, but because now even he had gone too far, and because of his actions he would definitely have to kill me. The consequences of his behaviour didn’t stir him because he knew he could get away with it.”
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain (whether
confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has taken
on a wide variety of forms, and has often been used as a method of political
sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on
others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture
can also be for th
the Physical Torture to Caroline like the quotation below:
“He turned around in his seat and started lashing out at me, landing a punch on the side of my head. As he was doing this, I could see his tongue jutting out of the side of his lips as if he was concentrating on hitting me on the right spot, the temple. I felt several blows strike me and then I blacked out.” (Roberts, 2005:41)
Rudeness is a display of disrespect by not complying with the social
"laws" or
the essential
unwilling to align one's behavior with these laws known to the general
population of what is socially acceptable is to be rude.
Similar terms include:
offensiveness,
cases,
can be seen from the quotation below:
“When I came around, my hands were securely tied behind
was gripping me in a bear hug; her clasp was holding me still
while Fred wrapped brown sticky tape around my head and
mouth-gagging me.”
(Roberts, 2005:41)
Fred commits an offense, as abortion to some young women. These
woman also become the object of sexual pleasure of Fred because he helps
them to do the abortion. It can be seen from the quotation below:
“At 31 years of age, Fred West was a big man trapped in a little man’s body. He clearly thought of himself as a gynaecologist and Warren Beatty lookalike all rolled into one; the surgeon and the stud. The reality was that he worked in a factory, doing the occasional odd job on the side. This budding ‘surgeon’ bragged that he had performed abortions for girls in trouble; according to him, they were usually so grateful to him that they would offer themselves to him for his sexual pleasure as soon as the foetus was removed. I’ve had thousands of woman,’ he told me; they would, he claimed, fall at his feet.”
(Roberts, 2005:27)
• Cruel Murdering
Mutilation is one of the example of cruel murdering. Mutilation or
maiming is an act of physical injury that degrades the appearance or function
of any living body, usually causing death. Maiming, or mutilation which
involves the loss of, or incapacity to use, a bodily member, is and has been
using by many societies with various cultural and religious significances, and is
also a customary form of
principle of
But in this novel, after kills the victim, Fred mutilates his victim. It
to kill his victim and he will receive a pleasure from inflicting pain to his
victim. It can be seen from the quotation below:
“Later that day, the police found what was later identified as Heather’s remains. Her body had been cut up, her head and legs removed and squashed in next to her torso, in a hole which was only one foot across. After the first thigh bone had been examined, the police knew they were looking at two sets of remains.”
(Roberts, 2005:166)
Fred does some cruel murdering to his victim like mutilate, handcuffs
on, hit in the mouth, tied them with noose around the neck, white material,
fingernails pulled, whipped, hanging the victim, and burying. It can be seen
from the quotations below:
“This was Fred’s place, only Fred came here. He would bring girls back here to use for himself. He would hang them up and leave them cold and naked and starve them. They were chilled to the bone. When they were completely disorientated, he would take them somewhere else for others to use.”
(Roberts, 2005:269)
The quotation below shows the next crimes of Fred to cover and hide
his sadistic acts by burying them and also hang them up far from his house.
“By 8 March 1994, Fred had admitted to killing twelve girls. Nine of these girls were buried at 25 Cromwell Street, some beneath the garden, some underneath the cellar floor and some under the walls. Two more, his ex-wife and another pregnant ex-lover, were buried in two adjacent fields in Kemply, near the cottage he was raised in. At the former home of Fred and Rose, 25 Midland Road, another victim was found buried under the kitchen floor.”
4.2 Rosemary West’s Psychopathic Attitude 4.2.1 Rosemary West’s Background
Rosemary grows up into a moody teenager and performed poorly. It is
because the prenatal injury which caused by her mother. Her mother suffered
from
performed clearly seen in her bad treatment to Charmaine (Fred’s stepdaughter
from his first marriage). She often beats and finally kills Charmaine because
her uncontrollable temper.
Rosemary comes from a family where incest was common; her father
was prone to violence and repeatedly
She also has sexual disorientation and gets lesbian urges when she pregnant.
The sexual disorientation are inspectionism and sexual inversion. Raleigh M.
Drake, Ph.D in Abnormal Psychology (1962:58) said that inspectionism is an
abnormal object of love, person with this disorder has a tendency to inspect the
body of others. Rose inspects Caroline’s body like a gynaecologist, it is
uncommon treatment to normal person.
While sexual inversion is a persistent love for person of the same sex;
she loves for one of the same sex and sometimes no interest in either sex. It is
because of unusual physical and mental traits and for this reason she makes a
bid for the love of a member of the same sex because it seems more
heterosexual. The unusual physical and mental traits comes from her father
who was abuse her since she was young. This sexual inversion occurs when
Rose pregnant, she will more interesting in having sex with women than with
From the explanation above, the psychopathic attitude of Rosemary
come from some factors, they are: prenatal injury caused by the ECT which
makes her become moody and performed poorly, the background of her
incestuous family that makes her has a sexual inversion and her abnormal
objects of love called inspectionism.
4.2.2 Rosemary West’s Crimes
• Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse is unwanted sexual activity, with perpetrators using
force, making threats or taking advantage of victims not able to give consent.
Immediate reactions to sexual abuse include shock, fear or disbelief. Long-term
symptoms include anxiety, fear or post-traumatic stress disorder.
In this novel, Rosemary West does some sexual abuse such as
Groping, Kissing, torturing her victim and sexual disorientations. The term
"groping" is used to define the touching or fondling of another person in a
sexual way (including through clothing), using the hands, without that other
person's consent. She gropes Caroline in order to inspect Caroline’s body. It is
an abnormal object of love called inspectionism. It can be seen from the
quotations below:
“With that, Rose grabbed my crutch. In a flash reaction, I pushed her hand away and stared at her in disbelief! Rose started laughing and began groping at my breasts.”
(Roberts, 2005:40-41)
• Sexual Inversion
Rose gets her lesbian urges which also called sexual inversion. In
part of perversions or sex neuroses that is a persistent love for person of the
same sex. She loves for one of the same sex and sometimes no interest in either
sex. It is caused by the unusual physical and mental traits. In this story, the
sexual inversion of Rose described when she began to kiss Caroline full on the
mouth. It can be seen from the quotation below:
“Rose finished her tea off by gulping the remains down and then put her arm around my shoulder and kissed me full on the mouth. I moved away from her and shut my lips up tight. My rejection only made things worse and she became angry.” (Roberts, 2005: 44)
The rejection by Caroline makes Rose can not control her anger. Rose
began torture Caroline by forced a fresh was of cotton into Caroline mouth,
tied her with a white material, pressed a pillow over Caroline face and put her
upper body weight on it and she also threaten Caroline that she will kill and
bury Caroline if Caroline rejects her desire. This sadistic and brutality acts
toward the criteria of psychopath. It can be seen in the quotation below:
“Rose grabbed my hair and pulled me towards her while cursing me. They were both talking at the same time, calling me names. I thought they were going to kill me there and then, which would have been a relief at the time. To my horror, they spoke words to me that I will never forget. ’we are going to keep you in the cellar and let our black friends use you and when they have finished with you, we will kill you and bury you under the paving stones of Gloucester. There are hundreds of girls there, the police haven’t found them and they won’t find you!’.”
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 CONCLUSION
Having the data from the character’s psychopathic attitude throughout
Caroline Roberts’ The Lost Girl, The writer puts some conclusions in this thesis, they
are:
1. Verbal abuse is one reason that brings one into a feeling of threatening,
weak, and inappropriate to have a better life so they disable to against
the psychopath.
2. The murdering by psychopaths is a reason to vent their anger to the
victim who rejects what they want.
3. Psychopathic act may include inspectionism, the abnormal object of
love which gives a pleasure to the psychopath when he inspects the body
of his victim.
4. Psychopathic act may include sexual inversion, a persistent love for
person of the same sex. The psychopath will be uncontrollable when he
5.2 SUGGESTIONS
After analyzing this novel, the writer thinks it is very interesting to talk
about the personality disorder especially psychopath. There so many points that we
don’t know about the causes of that disorder. It realizes us that drugs, alcohol,
refuses from the people in our environment, and bad memory from the environment
make somebody likely to be a psychopath.
By reading this thesis, the readers are invited to be sensitive on this
problem. The writers also suggest that government must give a great concerns about
the people with this personality disorder, and the parents or environment do not give
a bad memories and treatment to somebody. Society also should be more aware to
stranger person.
I also realize my limited knowledge and material in finishing this thesis. The
writer would be glad to invite the readers to give correction, suggestion, or any other
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Davis, Derek Russel.1984.An Introduction to Psychopathology-fourth edition.
Oxford: University Pers.
Drake, Raleigh M.1962.Abnormal Psychology. New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams & co.
Halgin, Richard P and Susan Krauss.1997.Abnormal psychology the human
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Approaches. New York: A Viacom Company.
Roberts, Caroline.2005.The Lost Girl:How I Triumphed Over Life At The Mercy of
Fred and Rose West. London: Metro Publishing Ltd.
Sarwono, Sarlito Wirawan.2006.Antara Psikopat Dan Sosiopat: Kajian Dalam
Jurnal-jurnal Barat. Retrieved fro
(April 2012)
Tarigan, Mita Juniarta.2011.Thesis: ‘A Study Of Moral Development in Angela’s
Wade, Carole & Carol Tavris.2007.Psikologi Edisi Kesembilan. Jakarta: Erlangga.
Wellek, Rene & Austin Warren.1956.Theory of Literature. New York: Penguin
Books.
http://fred-and-rose-west.html
http://Rape-And-Murder-House--The-Story-Of-Fred-And-Rosemary-West.htm
APPENDICES
i. Author’s Biography and Works
Caroline Roberts was born in Gloucester, United Kingdom in 1955. Her
genre of works are Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs. Caroline Roberts
(formerly Caroline Raine) became the live-in nanny to Fred and Rosemary
West's three daughters when she was 17-years-old. There are five works of
Caroline Roberts, they are: The Lost Girl,
ii. Summary of The Novel
Caroline Roberts was at home with her baby daughter when the news flash
16-year-old daughter and police believed the girl was buried under their patio in
Cromwell Street, Gloucester. Caroline stopped in her tracks and her heart began
to race. Traumatic memories she had suppressed for years flooded back.
“Straight away, I knew that they were talking about Fred and Rosemary West –
and the girl had to be their daughter Heather,” she says. “My head was spinning
with mixed emotions... anger, fear and sadness.”
Caroline had been the couple’s nanny long before their string of gruesome
-killings and rapes was discovered. They attacked and raped her too, but she
escaped with her life... unlike the 12 young women whose mutilated bodies were
finally discovered in 1994. Although she reported her ordeal to the police,
Caroline did not press rape charges and the Wests got away with a fine. For
years she has struggled with feelings of guilt that, if she had been more
determined, all those lives could have been saved. Now, 20 years on from that
first police investigation, she has told her story in a brave new book called The
One That Got Away.
It begins nearly 40 years ago in September 1972. Caroline was 17 and she
hitch-hiked everywhere to save money. One night a grey Ford Popular pulled up
to offer her a lift. It was Fred and Rose West. She got in, started chatting and,
when she said she needed a job, they asked her to be their nanny. It was an
encounter that would change her life forever.
She moved into 25 Cromwell Street the very next day, but quickly felt
uncomfortable. Rose, then only 21, would have explosive rages at their kids and
she often disappeared into a bedroom with male callers. Fred, then 31, talked all
the time about sex. “According to him, he was God’s gift to women,” says
else, he’d say. In reality, he was a short little man with piercing blue eyes, a flat,
wonky nose and thick lips that hid a gap in his front teeth. I couldn’t see how
anyone would find him attractive. Rose had a whiny, drippy way of talking... but
when she yelled at her little ones it was in ear-bursting howls.”
One night Fred and Rose sat her down in the living room and invited her to
join in regular group sex with them and their friends. “Rose was grinning at me,”
says Caroline. “Nudging me in the side, she said, ‘Go on Car give it a try.’ I
could see it wasn’t a joke.” Repulsed, Caroline fled the house and vowed never
to return. But a month later, she was walking home when the couple rolled up in
their car alongside her.
They apologised for upsetting her and offered her a lift. It was freezing cold
so she accepted, only to regret it within minutes when Fred turned around and
punched her repeatedly in the head. “I blacked out,” says Caroline. “When I
came around my hands were tied behind my back. Rose was gripping me in a
bear hug, while Fred wrapped brown sticky tape around my head and mouth,
gagging me.”
They bundled her into the house, stuffed her mouth with cotton wool,
undressed her on a dirty mattress and tied her arms. Then the couple beat and
sexually abused her while their three children slept unaware. “Rose grabbed my
hair, pulled me towards her and cursed me,” says Caroline. “They were both
talking at the same time, calling me names. I thought they were going to kill me
there and then, which would have been a relief at the time.
“They spoke words to me that I will never forget. They said, ‘We are going
to keep you in the cellar and let our friends use you and, when they have finished
There are hundreds of girls there... the police haven’t found them and they won’t
find you!’. “All I could think was how my poor mum would cope if I didn’t
make it home. I began to cry... not for me, but for her.” Eventually they stopped
and all three fell asleep in the same bed, with Caroline still tied up.
Next morning Rose got up to get the children ready and, in a final insult,
Fred locked the door and raped Caroline. She broke down and in a rare show of
emotion, Fred started crying too. He agreed to let her leave, as long as she
promised to return and carry on being their nanny. “An hour after being raped
and thinking I was going to die, I was sitting on the sofa drinking tea and
smoking a cigarette with Rose sat next to me,” says Caroline. “She was stroking
my hair and chatting as if nothing untoward had ever happened.”
Caroline fled home and confessed all to her mum, who called the police at
once. But she was so ashamed she couldn’t bring herself to reveal she had been
raped, so the Wests faced only indecent assault charges. They got off with a
£100 fine and a verbal slap on the wrists. “The fewer people who knew about it
the better,” says Caroline. “I didn’t talk about it to anyone. To me it was over.
But I would never forget what had happened.” Over the next 20 years she
struggled with depression, turning to alcohol, drugs and casual sex to help cope
with the pain.
After that shocking news flash about the Wests in 1995, she was determined
to do the right thing. “They had darkened my life, but now I was going to make
sure that I had the strength and courage I didn’t have then. This was a chance to
turn my whole life around. “I phoned the police and told them they had to keep
searching because Heather was there. That’s what they told me they were going
Heather’s body was found after Fred confessed to killing her and another 12
girls. Caroline blamed herself for not putting the couple in jail. “Each body
recovered added to my guilt as I blamed myself for not pressing rape charges,”
she says. “My stance seemed to have given them a licence to kill, kill and kill,
again and again.” Victim Linda Gough was murdered in April 1973, when Fred
would almost certainly have been in jail if he had been convicted of raping
Caroline. “It was her death I held myself mostly responsible for but I felt that the
others died because of me too,” she says. “Fred had let me go but he wasn’t
going to risk letting any of his future victims go free. I had sentenced them to
death.”
Caroline had nightmares about the other victims.“I could see them, bound
and taped up,” she says. “Tied to a chair, moaning from under their gags,
pleading with their eyes. While everyone was hugging me and telling me how
lucky I was to be alive, all I could think of was how terribly guilty I felt that I’d
survived.”
On New Year’s Day 1995, Fred killed himself in prison and the prosecution
needed a witness against Rose, who was still protesting her innocence. “I had
suddenly become a key member of their prosecution portfolio,” says Caroline. “I
was so scared. The victims were found bound with nylon rope and most had tape
around their heads in the same way that rope and tape were used on me.” She
had spent 20 years trying to forget that night, but knew she had a duty to re-live
it in court.
“I wanted to see Rose pay for the wicked things she had done... for the poor
girls that died. I felt guiltier than her about their deaths.” She was determined to
kept her nerve. “I looked up and there she was looking down on me,” says
Caroline. “I thought, this is it, don’t turn away. I gave her a long look and held
the stare. I noticed how old, frumpy and unfit she looked.
“I held my unblinking eyes on hers until she turned away. I looked at her
every time I mentioned something she had done to see her reaction, but she
never looked again. “I wanted her to see that I would not let her intimidate or
dominate me. She sat there looking down at her lap the whole time.”
Rose was convicted of murdering 10 of the girls and Caroline could at last
move on with her life. Now a mum of four, she lives with her husband Ian in the
Forest of Dean, Gloucs, and works as a mentor for young drug addicts and
alcoholics. “If I hadn’t experienced all this, I wouldn’t be a person with a
backbone of steel,” says Caroline. “You can’t keep being the victim. I always
used to feel jinxed, like nothing would ever go right for me. Now I have such a
zest for life and if I put my mind to something I can do whatever I want.”
But Caroline says the Wests’ victims are never far from her mind: “I
survived when others perished and for that I am truly grateful. “I have made a
promise to Rena West, Ann McFall, Charmaine West, Lynda Gough, Carol Ann
Cooper, Lucy Partington, Therese Siegenthaler, Shirley Hubbard, Juanita Mott,
Shirley Robinson, Alison Chambers and Heather West, that I will do something
positive with my life. “I could not prevent their deaths but I will help to prevent