A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY AS REFLECTED IN THE NOVEL THE TRAVELLING
TO INFINITYBY JANE’S PERSPECTIVE
THESIS
Submitted as partial fullfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Degree at English Department Faculty of Arts and Humanities State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel
Surabaya
BY :
AZHAR ABDI RAMADHAN Reg. Number A03213010
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA
ABSTRACT
Ramadhan, Azhar Abdi. 2017. A Biographical Study as Reflected in the Novel the Travelling to Infinity by Jane’s Perspective. A Thesis. English Department, Faculty Letters and Humanities, Sunan Ampel State Islamic University Surabaya.
Advisor: Wahyu kusumajanti, M.Hum.
This research aims to discover the experiences of Jane Hawking that reflected in her novel Travelling to Infinity. Jane Hawking is an English author and educator. She is the author of the novel Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, And also the wife of a famous physician Stephen Hawking. In analyzing this research describes Jane Hawking’s experience that reflects in her novel.
This research is divided into some factors. Those are analyzing the
influence of the author when she writes the biography and authentic fact appear in her literary work. To make clearly the researcher determines the analyze using a Biographical criticism as the main theory and. The result of the research shows that the novel as the author perspectives. Jane was writing about her 25-year marriage with one of the most scientist and popular icon Stephen Hawking as husband too. Those are struggle, optimism, and a love story. All the factors represent her experiences before divorce happens.
She is write a novel and seems mostly at peace with her past. For all she has been gently judged at times, from her books it's clear she is just as hard on herself. She is proud that she is now highly regarded in the scientific world for the contribution she made to her husband's career.
INTISARI
Ramadhan, Azhar Abdi. 2017. A Biographical Study as Reflected in the Novel
the Travelling to Infinity by Jane’s Perspective. Jurusan Sastra Inggris. Fakultas Adab dan Humaniora. Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya.
Dosen Pembimbing: Wahju Kusumajanti, M. Hum.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengalaman Jane Hawking yang terefleksi dalam novel Traveling to Infinity. Jane Hawking adalah seorang penulis dan pendidik bahasa Inggris. Dia adalah penulis biografi Traveling to Infinity: Hidupku bersama Stephen, Dan juga istri seorang fisikiawan terkenal Stephen Hawking. Dalam menganalisa penelitian ini dijelaskan pengalaman Jane Hawking yang tercermin dalam novelnya.
Penelitian ini terbagi menjadi beberapa faktor. Penelitian ini menganalisis pengaruh penulis saat dia menulis biografinya dan fakta otentik yang muncul dalam karya sastranya. Untuk memperjelas penelitian ini menentukan analisis dengan menggunakan kritik biografi sebagai teori utama dan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa dalam novelnya berasal dari sudut pandang sebagai penulis. Jane sedang menulis tentang pernikahannya selama 25 tahun dengan salah satu ikon ilmuwan paling populer Stephen Hawking yang juga sebagai suaminya. Semua Itu adalah perjuangan, optimisme, dan kisah cinta. Semua faktor mewakili pengalamannya sebelum perceraian terjadi.
Dia menulis sebuah novel dan yang tampaknya telah berdamai dengan masa lalunya. Untuk semua yang telah dia setujui dengan lembut, dari buku-bukunya jelas bahwa dirinya sangat sulit. Dia bangga bahwa dia sekarang sangat dihargai di dunia ilmiah karena kontribusi yang dia berikan pada karir suaminya.
`
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Inside Cover Page...i
Inside Title Page...ii
Declaration Page...iii
Dedication Page...iv
Motto...v
Advisor’s Approval Page...vi
Examiner’s Approval Page...vii
Acknowledgement...viii
Table of Contents...x
Abstract...xii
Intisari...xiii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...1
1.1. Background of the Study...1
1.2. Statement of the Problems...5
1.3. Purposes of the Study...5
1.4. Significance of the Study...5
1.5. Scope and Limitation...6
1.6. Method of the Study ...6
1.6.1. Research Design ...7
1.6.2. Source of Data...7
1.6.3. Collecting Data...7
1.6.4 Data Analysis...8
1.7. Definition of Key Terms...8
1.7.1. Reflection...8
`
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE...9
2.1. Theoretical Framework...10
2.2 Biographical Criticism...12
2.3. Kinds of Biography...13
2.3.1. Informative Biography ... 13
2.3.2. Critical Biography...14
2.3.3. Standard Biography...15
2.3.4. Interpretative Biography...15
2.3.5. Fictionalized Biography...16
2.3.6 Fiction Presented as Biography...17
2.3.7 Special-Purpose Biography...17
2.4. Review of Previous Study...18
CHAPTER III ANALYSIS...21
3.1 Depression...22
3.2 Optimism...25
3.3 Experience...28
3.4 love Story...31
3.4 Divorce...40
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION...43
WORK CITED...45
SYNOPSIS OF THE NOVEL...46
R A M A D H A N | 1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study
Aristoteles said about the art “Ars Imitatur Naturam”, the art is a
miniature life. Related to this, the literature a part of art, it can be said that the
literary work is a miniature life. Literature is expression especially thought,
feeling, enthusiasm, and concept in certain description. It can be said that the
scope of literature is very wide since there are so many things which can be talked
to, for example about the situations which happen in the world today or even
criticize the social problems in the world through literature. But it is also
important to notice whether the literature is good or not. That is why in order to
make good literature, there should be noticed some of these qualities, such as
psychological truth or holding the mirror up to nature, originality, workmanship,
and a consciousness of moral values in literature. (Sumarjo and saini, 3)
Literature is form of expression in the words of some of the thoughts or
feelings or ideas about life and the world (Rees: 9). Literature was also an
inscription or the study of the book, appreciated as works of art such as drama,
fiction, essays, poetry, prose, biography, etc. Into the bargain it can be function
which humans can definite his or her ideas or protest against different norms of
society. Those works that deal with a normal issue are particularly subject purpose
in mind. An author can communicate with the readers of a literary work if they
R A M A D H A N | 2
feeling, thought, ideas, or arguments about the social issues by writing Reviews
those issues in a form of literary work. That is why, it is important to tell about the
definition of literature, so either the writer or the reader can be understand about
literature itself.
Besides that literature proof and shows how literary criticism works with
interpreting, analyzing, understanding and evaluating. Literature is most
commonly defined as works of writing that have lasted over the years because
they deal with ideas of timeless and universal interest with exceptional artistry and
power. This can include poems, novels, essays, drama, and prose.
Prose is the written equivalent of the spoken language. It is written in
words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and chapter. It utilizes punctuation,
grammar and vocabulary to develop its message. Prose is the way you speak every
day. If someone followed you around and reported on your action and
conversations, the result would be prose: Novels, Mystery, Romance, Detective
and so on. (Rai:3)
Fiction is a term used to denote anything, mainly stories or accounts that
are not real. Can you recall the fairy tale or other stories that your mother or
grandmother used to tell you about animals, monsters, or even human beings that
existed in faraway countries or in the primordial times. These are fictional
narratives. Fiction is therefore any form of narrative which deals, in part or in
whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, are imaginary and invented by
R A M A D H A N | 3
fiction is identically about something that really happened.
Non-fiction also applied to any story of actual people and actual events told with the
dramatic techniques of the story. Many various include all kinds of things, for
example: biographies, autobiographies, histories, memoirs, essays and etc. (Rai:
12)
First, the thesis will present a brief history of the biographical genre,
commenting the important concepts in biography, and on some of the most
prominent biographical works Then, through analyzing novel entitled “The
travelling to infinity” by Jane hawking. it will attempt to highlight the differences
between the two types of writing. It will discuss how the biographical criticism
works to shape the non-fictional narrative of the novels.
Biographical criticism begins with the simple but central insight that
literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can
help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work. It often affords a practical
method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a biographical
critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writer’s life too far in
criticizing the works of that writer. The biographical critic focuses on explicating
the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life.
Second view from (Gillespie: 23) also describes that there is a relationship
between a writer’s life and work and that we can understand in the literary work.
Knowing something about an author, we can seek connections between personal
R A M A D H A N | 4
incident, people and historical occurrences in author’s life. This is very useful for
our understanding of literary biography. Biographical criticism focuses on literary
works and that relates the author's life, biographical data should give the meaning
of the text, not drown it out with irrelevant material.
The kind of story life like Stephen Hawking also happens at the present
time. It can be found in literary works. It contains about human’s life, what is
good and bad for people to gain happiness. That means, the story life of Stephen
Hawking as reflected in the novel by Jane Hawking entitled Travelling to Infinity
can be experienced by people in the past and nowadays. This is similar with
literature that also expression of human experience or people's life.
Based on the resumes above, the researcher is interested in studying the
biographical criticism in “Travelling to Infinity” as the novel by Jane Hawking. Before the literary analysis, it might be useful to briefly summarize Hawking’s
life. Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. At an
early age, hawking showed a passion for science and sky. At the 21, while
studying cosmology at the University of Cambridge, he was diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Despite his debilitating illness, he has done
innovative work in physics and cosmology, and his several books have helped to
make science accessible to everyone. Part of his life story was depicted in the
R A M A D H A N | 5
1.2 Statement of Problem
Based on the background of the study explained above, the writer is interested
in analyzing the problems, which are the following below.
1. How does the author’s life influence her work The Travelling to Infinity?
2. How does the author convey her experience through her work The
Travelling to Infinity?
3. What is the category of biography Jane uses in writing her novel entitled
Travelling to Infinity?
1.3 Purposes of The Study
In according with the statement of the problems above, this study has two
objectives that can be stated as follows
1. To describe the influencing factors that influences the author when wrote
the biography
2. To find out experiences of the author appear in the literary work
3. To find out the category those appear in the novel entitled Travelling
to Infinity
1.4 Significance of the study
This research is hoped that can provide the contribution which is valuable,
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be useful for the reader in understanding some works that related with author and
relationship work. Jane Hawking's life as a writer as reflected in the work also can
enrich the knowledge of the reader's life, in particularly for people who have
interest in literature study.Practically, it is hoped that this research can be used as
reference, particularly for students who analyze this work or other work that uses
biografical criticsm. Moreover, for bachelor of art or people who interest in
literature, this research can be compared as comparison for other research, even it
can be discussed to be more perfect with using biografical criticsm or other
theory. Since this research talks about author that reflected from her life based on
the novel entitled Travelling to Infinity, it is also hoped that this research will be
useful for public to understand their phenomena in real life.
1.5 Scope and Limitation
To avoid a broad discussion, the analysis will be limited in the novel of
Jane Hawking entitled Traveller in Infinity. This research only focus to author in
the novel. To answer the main problem, discussing biografical criticsm that
experienced by author Jane Hawking is point of this analysis. Therefore, the scope
of this research focus on Jane Hawking as the author, based on what is perceived
an author and wife of Stephen Hawking that underlie the creation of literary
works or this novel. Biographical criticism will be the scope of this research.
1.6 Method of The study
Research method plays an important role for getting a valid data and
R A M A D H A N | 7
some methods which are used. Those are research design, research data, data
collection and data analysis.
1.6.1 Research Design
To answer the first and second statement of problem, the research uses
library research by using some books and other references like websites relate to
the subject matter that will be analyzed. This research also uses descriptive
qualitative research methods by explaining the result of analysis in the form of
words and sentences since the result is not statistic or numeral data. Substantively
it employs words to answer questions.
1.6.2 Source of Data
There are two sources of data, primary data and secondary one. In this
research, the source of primary data comes from the novel itself that is written by
Jane Hawking. Whereas the secondary data comes from some critical works,
website and some books that concern with the novel and explanation about
biografical criticsm.
1.6.3 Method of Collecting Data
Since the data becomes the most important aspects in conducting a
research, so it must be collected effectively. Method of data collection is one of
the research methods parts that will explain how the data are collected to support
the research. In collecting data for the research which based on the qualitative
R A M A D H A N | 8
A. Preparing the novel entitled Travelling in infinity as the main data. B Collecting the data from the novel by reading comprehensively to get the accurate data.
C. Selecting related references that can support the research data.
D. Rereading the novel many times to get the best understanding on the whole story.
E. Selecting and collecting the narration and conversation from the novels that are related to the problem.
F. Classifying the data based on the objectives of study.
1.6.4 Method of Data Analysis
Data analysis according to Patton (103) is the process of arranging the data
sequence to classify in a pattern category and description of the basic unit. As the
data in this research is written text come from a novel, the data that have been
collected will be analyzed using literary theory. The analysis data will involve
some steps, those are:
A. Analyzing the collected data based on the theory and concept in theoretical framework
R A M A D H A N | 9
1.7 Definition of Key term
1.7.1 Reflection: is an analytical practice in which the writer describes a real or imaginary scene, event, interaction, passing thought, memory, form, adding a
personal reflection on the meaning of the item or incident, thought, feeling,
emotion, or situation in his or her life. Many reflective writers keep in mind
questions, such as "What did I notice?", "How has this changed me?" or "What
might I have done differently? (Wikipedia)
1.7.2 Novel: Novel is a prose narrative fiction. (Taylor:46) stated that a prose works of quite some length and complexity which attempts to reflect and express
something of the quality or value of human experience or conduct.
A novel is almost the same as a short story; they both are included in prose
narrative fictions that have similarity in the intrinsic element such as plot,
R A M A D H A N | 10
CHAPTER II
LITERARY REVIEW
The research data is analyzed using some theories. The writer explains
about the theories that are going to be to analyze Stephen Hawking as the main
object in Travelling to Infinity. In analyzing this object, the writer use
Biographical criticism as the main theory. The researcher uses the biographical
criticism to understanding about the author’s life and to find out the answer of the
statement of problem in previous chapter.
2.1 Theoretical Framework
In doing this research, the writer wants to make easy in investigating some
problems of this research absolutely it needs a literary criticism. Those are kinds
of literary criticism such as interpreting, analyzing, investigating, and evaluating
works of literature. First, literary criticism improves your general reading skills,
giving you more tools to help solve problems of understanding as you read.
Second, literary criticism can help you in college by giving you more ways to
respond to what you read. Third, literary criticism supports the development of
critical thinking skills and the last for all those reasons, literary criticism can help
you develop your skills as an independent thinker and reader (Gillespie 6).
Charter defines with literary interpretation, if anything goes, and then
nothing comes of it. The more it seems like madness, the more need there is to
R A M A D H A N | 11
considered truly scientific. This concept enables on to identify many fields of
study, in addition to those of natural sciences, as incorporating rigorous criteria
for the truth value of their findings (19).
In the first instance, a theory must attempt to explain something. Its
proponents may believe that it does this successfully but others may not. Jonathan
culler, an eminent popularize of literary theory, has made a useful distinction. To
count as a theory, has made a useful explanation not be obvious, it should involve
a certain complexity (Culler, 95).
Furthermore, many theorists have been primarily concerned with
phenomena rather than literature. For example psychoanalysts with the human
mind, Marxist with the human existence in a capitalist society and Biography with
author’s life and etc. it has often been of only secondary importance to them
whether a text they are considering can be deemed to be literary or not. Which
may resemble each other in many ways, but which must be identified differently
(Charter 15).
The scope of literary theory provides a starting point for those readers who
wish to find out more about the main trends and concepts, strategies and
practitioners, terms and texts within a given theory. A key figure in literary theory
provides short biographies of some of the most influential theorists of the
twentieth century. These short lives are told, for the most part, through
bibliography, through institutional affiliations and specific contributions to theory.
R A M A D H A N | 12
texts designed to demonstrate techniques of application as well as to suggest how
different theories yield different results.
2.2 Biographical Criticism
Gillespie defines biographical criticism assumes that there is a relationship
between a writer’s lives and work and that we can understand the Literary work
better as we understand its creator better. Knowing something about the author,
we can seek connections between personal and artistic growth, even linking
particular stories, plays, or poems to particular incidents, people, and historical
occurrences in an author’s life (25).
Warren and Wellek proposed that biography as an account of person’s life
usually published in the form of book or essay, or in some other form, such as
film. A work is biographical if it covers all of a person’s life. As such,
biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray
a person’s life. Biography is principally the story that describes about the life of
some figure in certain duration of time. In this case, biography of the author in his
or her literary work will sometimes be reflected in the story. The author may
appear to works or give influences through the characters (67).
A biography is commonly a work of nonfiction, the usual subject of which
is the life of an individual. Starting in the 20th century, it can be said one of the
oldest forms of literary expression, the biography still typically seeks to re-create
in words the life of a human being as understood from the historical or personal
R A M A D H A N | 13
retained in memory as well as written, oral, and pictorial material. These portraits
may be of several types (Kuiper 199).
2.3 Kinds of Biography
Biographies are difficult to classify. It is easily recognizable that there are
many kinds of life writing, but one kind can easily shade into another. No
standard basis for classification has yet been developed. A fundamental division
offers, however, a useful preliminary view: biographies written from personal
knowledge of the subject and those written from research (Kuiper, 187).
2.3.1 Informative Biography
This biography is very common and as a prime example for writers who
have just wanted to write a biographical genre. Here the author searches the
chronological data that selected from several sources by comprehensively
This, the first category, is the most objective and is sometimes called “accumulative” biography. The author of such a work, avoiding all forms of interpretation except selection for selection, even in the most comprehensive accumulation, is inevitable seeks to unfold a life by presenting, usually in
chronological order, the paper remains, the evidences, relating to that life. This biographer takes no risks but, in turn, seldom wins much critical acclaim: this work is likely to become a prime source for biographers who follow (Kuiper, 187).
Informative biography is very effective and efficient because the author
does not want to be too critical in his work. The author here is very minimal risk
from the critics because it only takes chronology based on what the author knows.
Informative biography rarely gets praised. In the 20th century such works as
R A M A D H A N | 14
Alec Wilson’s collection of the life records of Thomas Carlyle (1923–29), in six
volumes, continue the traditions of this kind of life writing.
2.3.2 Critical Biography
This second category is written scientifically and critically. Here the
author describes the original life of the object that was studied from his work that
written from some sources such as notes, attachments and even bibliography,
usually this category is identifying a people who was famous and have a broad
insight. Therefore the author must take great risks and should not manipulate the
authentic of materials.
This second category, scholarly and critical, unlike the first, does offer a genuine presentation of a life. These works are very carefully researched; sources and “justifications” (as the French call them) are scrupulously set forth in notes, appendixes, bibliographies; inference and conjecture, when used, are duly labeled as such; no fictional devices or manipulations of material are permitted, and the life is generally developed in straight chronological order. Yet such biography, though not taking great risks, does employ the arts of selection and
arrangement. The densest of these works, completely dominated by fact, have small appeal except to the specialist. Those written with the greatest skill and insight are in the first rank of modern life writing (Kuiper 188).
In these scholarly biographies the “life and times” or the minutely detailed
life the author is able to deploy an enormous weight of matter and yet convey the
sense of a personality in action, The critical biography aims at evaluating the
works as well as unfolding the life of its subject, either by interweaving the life in
its consideration of the works or else by devoting separate chapters to the works.
R A M A D H A N | 15
clumsily intrudes upon the continuity of a life, or the works of the subject are
made to yield doubtful interpretations of character, particularly in the case of
literary figures.
2.3.2 Standard Biography
This category the author must balance in terms of objective and subjective.
This genre is usually written for a literary biography. The methods used must be
honest from the original life of the author's
This third, and central, category of biography, balanced between the objective and the subjective, represents the mainstream of biographical literature, the practice of biography as an art. From antiquity until the present within the limits of the psychological awareness of the particular age and the availability of materials this kind of biographical literature has had as its objective what Sir Edmund Gosse called “the faithful portrait of a soul in its adventures through life.” It seeks to transform, by literary methods that do not distort or falsify, the truthful record of fact into the truthful effect of a life being lived (Kuiper 189).
From the quotation above, it is clear that the author wishes to convey the
experiences and sense through the writing that their using a biographical criticism.
This standard biography is often encountered with literary method and do not
distort and falsify records from actual events.
2.3.4 Interpretative Biography
This fourth category of life writing is subjective and has no standard
identity.
R A M A D H A N | 16
dramatic scenes that always have some warranty of documentation the dialogue, for example, is sometimes devised from the indirect
discourse of letter or diary. (Kuiper 189)
In the interpretative genre the author uses subjective methods and must
possess authorship standards. Usually the author gets his idea from a letter or
diary that will be narrated dramatically but still keep the authenticity of the object
that his wrote.
2.3.5 Fictionalized Biography
In this fifth, the genre uses the fiction biography but still polite and soft in
the writing style. This method is free to extract from any source and the author
still interpreting the original of the source. In this genre the author is free to
describe what he thinks and does not exceed the limitations.
In this fifth category belong to biographical literature only by courtesy. Materials are freely invented, scenes and conversations are imagined. Unlike the interpretive variety, fictionalized biography often depends almost entirely upon secondary sources and cursory research. Its authors, well represented on the
paperback shelves, have created a hybrid form designed to mate the appeal of the novel with a vague claim to authenticity. Whereas the compiler of biographical information risks no involvement, the writer of fictionalized biography admits no limit to it (Kuiper 189).
However, it has some freedom in terms of what the author wants to do
with the subject. For example, instead of using actual statements from the subject,
the author may invent the subject's statements based on the ideas the subject had.
Overall, fictionalized biography tries to personalize the subject more so that
R A M A D H A N | 17
2.3.6 Fiction Presented as Biography
The sixth and final category is outright fiction, the novel written as
biography or autobiography. It has enjoyed brilliant successes. Such works do not
masquerade as lives. Rather, they imaginatively take the place of biography where
perhaps there can be no genuine life writing for lack of materials (Kuiper 190).
2.3.7 Special-Purpose Biography
In addition to these six main categories, there exists a large class of works
that might be denominated “special-purpose” biography. In these works the art of
biography has become the servant of other interests. They include potboilers
(written as propaganda or as a scandalous exposé) and “as-told-to” narratives
(often popular in newspapers) designed to publicize a celebrity. This category
includes also “campaign biographies” aimed at forwarding the cause of a political
candidate (Kuiper 190).
In conclusion, the main of object biographical criticism is to do some
digging into the facts of the author’s life and times, then to relate that information
back to the author’s work. This theory we will understand and comprehend a
literary work by studying deeper about the life of the author. The writer will try to
understand in Hawking’s life and then know about how she through life was
reflected in her work “Travelling to Infinity”. Moreover, in using theory, we must
understand the biography or the personal life of Jane Hawking because the
R A M A D H A N | 18
Hawking will be the important thing as the main source to find the correlation of
Jane and her novels also her experience life was reflected through her novels.
2.4 Review of Related Study
The writer has found that there are some students who had used the
biographical criticism
Most of Maya’s poems have analyzed by some students from university,
such as Krisna and Solestiyo are the English Department student in Petra
Christian University, they have analyzed three of Maya’s poems in their Black
Power in Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman and Weekend Glory.
Their research tried to find out what ways Black Power is revealed in Maya
Angelou’s three poems. The analysis showed there are differences of ideas of
Black Power in each poem. Those are the way to survive in the society, the way to
express someone’s thought, and the ability to accept one’s identity as a Black
Woman.
The second research that analyzed about Maya’s poem is research from
Dian Rahmawati from State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah. She
has analyzed Maya’s poems in her The Image of Woman in Three Poems of Maya
Angelou (2011). She used Feminist criticism to analyze those poems and the result
is she described the image of Black Woman reflected on those poems which
Black Woman are independent, strong, brave, confident, outspoken, explicit,
R A M A D H A N | 19
This research has similarity with two researchers above which analyzing
about Maya’s poems, but they also have difference. In Krisna and Sulistyo’s
research, they analyzed about Black Power reflected in Maya’s poem and Dian’s
research, they analyzed the image of Black Woman reflected in Maya poem using
feminist criticism. While, in this research will analyze Stephen Hawking’s
Biography reflected on the novel by his wife Jane Hawking using Biographical
Criticism.
There also a research analyzed a literary work through biographical
criticism. It is the research by Primiaty Natalia Sabu Kopong, a student from
Udayana University. She has analyzed a novel using biographical criticism in her
Biographical Approach to analysis of Virginia Woolf’s Novel: To the Lighthouse.
She analyzed the relationship between the events happened surrounded her life
with the content of the story in her novels. The result is she describes the position
of woman in Virginia Woolf’s life time that reflected in her novel. Primarity’s
research has similarity with this research which both of them uses biographical
criticism as main theory and the differences are it used a novel as the research
R A M A D H A N | 21
CHAPTER III ANALYSIS
This chapter will describe several reasons that influence of the author
when she wrote his biography. After, finding the authentic facts and trying to
correlate Jane’s novel with her experiences, her feelings, her impressions like
optimism, love story, disappointed through biographical criticism.
The Travelling to Infinity is an honest memoir by Jane Hawking, first wife
of the most famous and remarkable scientist of our age, Stephen Hawking. In the
book Jane recounts the story of their extraordinary marriage, Stephen’s fight with
a rare motor neuron disease which rendered him disabled, the various elements of
marriage, the impact of fame and power on relationships, her traumatic divorce,
and her reconciliation with Stephen. She talks about her husband with respect and
honesty and how they managed to live an ordinary life despite all the odds.
Overall an inspiring tale at the core, this book is about a woman whose entire
being can be summed up in three words: courage, compassion, and commitment.
The writer hopes to gain profound knowledge about the biographical fact
clearly. After having background and a few influences when the authors wrote his
biography, then through reading the novel more intensively is intended to reveal a
fact that influencing Jane was published the novel. The writer uses a standard
R A M A D H A N | 22
In this analysis the researcher find some indications that relating to one of
type categories in authorship biography that has been discussed in the previous
chapter. Biographical informative and critical reflect the true experiences of the
author to the story. Jane who has the background of a writer and a former graduate
of Spanish literature, therefore she has a good talent in writing. She tries to keep
the authenticity of the story that experienced during marriage with Stephen.
Accumulative becomes the first indication because Jane uses the most common
category to write a biography and Jane in her novel can inspire and amaze anyone
who has read the biography. Stephen became an important figure as being a
famous physicist and has many works that until now still in use therefore critical
biography has a role in his novel Jane Here the researcher wants to answer
questions above.
3.1 Depression
Jane reveals a collection of memories that have been formed for years. It
conveys the message of an English family in the late twentieth century
As well as in the acclaim that Stephen enjoyed. As the words flowed, I discovered that the voice and the register were there within me, ready and waiting to surface and express that mass of memories
accumulated over the years. They were memories which might simply be seen to relate the saga of an English family in the latter part of the twentieth century. Much of it would be quite ordinary, quite common to most people’s lives, were it not for two factors: motor-neuron disease and genius. (287)
Jane realizes that his family is not normal but genius makes his forget about
the sadness, fatigue, frustration and despair of motor neurological disease in his
R A M A D H A N | 23
Jane can’t do anything when her family is on the verge of divorce from
media coverage that seems to attack her.
Alone in my room after the first wave of attack had finally subsided, helplessness reduced me to hot, angry tears. My spirit rebelled at the shallowness of so many of the people who had recently come into our lives. (275)
They had never come face to face with successions of multiple crises.
They had never had to confront the overwhelming trauma of living in the face of
death.
One day is where Jane is tired when she has to fight for her to take care of
Stephen and his son
The reality of everyday life always began the night before, when, after giving Stephen his medications and putting him to bed, I would lay out the breakfast things for the children. (148)
In the morning she would get Stephen out of bed, dress him and give him a
cup of tea and his early-morning vitamins, before taking Lucy to school on the
back of my bike. On my return, usually laden with shopping, she would give
Stephen his breakfast and attend to his personal needs before he went to work.
Jane was complained, their family desperately needs donations in terms of
wealth and energy and to facilitating every activity they do.
R A M A D H A N | 24
That Stephen was at last able to enjoy the basic human right to move about
freely, as and when and where he chose, was not a result of any government
provision or benefit, it was the result only of his own hard work and of his own
success in physics.
By the 1980s, Hawking's marriage had been strained for many years. Jane
felt overwhelmed by the intrusion into their family life of the required nurses and
assistants. The impact of his celebrity was challenging for colleagues and family
members. In the late 1980s, Hawking had grown close to one of his nurses, Elaine
Mason, to the dismay of some colleagues, caregivers, and family members, who
were disturbed by her strength of personality and protectiveness. Hawking told
Jane that he was leaving her for Mason and departed the family home in February
1990. After his divorce from Jane in 1995, Hawking married Mason in
September, declaring, "It's wonderful – I have married the woman I love
Day after day, the truth forced itself remorselessly on me that his smiles and his interest were reserved for Elaine, and I had no doubt that he was being encouraged to despise me because I was flawed and did not conform to the image of perfection with which he was
constantly being tantalized. He was being persuaded that I was no longer of any use to him, that I was good for nothing. Elaine was in a position of strength: her responsibilities were minimal and she could indulge Stephen by doing anything he asked; she could wheedle and coax, and her specialized training enabled her to attend to his every whim. Since his work and his physical condition were his two
principal preoccupations, my role was logically much diminished, and hers was ostensibly greatly enhanced. (273).
One of her divorce factors when Stephen decides to divorce and chooses
R A M A D H A N | 25
In this exceptionally open, moving, and often funny memoir, Jane
Hawking confronts not only the acutely complicated and painful dilemmas of her
first marriage, but also the relationship's fault lines exposed by the pervasive
effects of fame and wealth.
“Clearly here was someone, like me, who tended to stumble through life and managed to see the funny side of situations. Someone who, like me, was fairly shy, yet not averse to expressing his opinions; someone who unlike me had a developed sense of his own worth and had the effrontery to convey it,” (149)
quotes Jane revealing her love for Stephen. Despite knowing that Stephen
might survive for only two years, she decides to marry him. Though, this decision
is a bit difficult for the reader to understand since her relationship with Stephen
had barely started when they decided to marry. However, her deep love is evident
when she quotes,
3.2 Optimism
Jane has also talked about the optimism of his relationship that they are
not a normal family. It's in her personality, she realises, to care for others and,
while submerging herself in nurturing Stephen cost her and her children dearly,
caring is not a role she will ever give up - though she seems to have learned to
keep it in perspective. "I never sacrificed myself, I did what I did out of love," she
says.
R A M A D H A N | 26
True to her words indeed, Jane helps Stephen in fulfilling himself. She
dresses him, feeds him with her own hands, takes Stephen to attend the lectures
while he reclines his head on her shoulder, holding her arm as support while
walking, accompanies him on all his travels abroad, and manages the household
while simultaneously raising their children. However, while playing the various
roles, she somehow loses her individuality. As she says,
But in the process I was beginning to lose my own identity. I could no longer call count myself as a Hispanist or even a linguist, and I felt that I did not command respect anywhere, in California or
Cambridge. (157)
When she tried to find herself and retain her individuality, she was
accused of being selfish and an unfaithful partner. Jane’s perspective is true and
she gives her all to her family; however, as a reader, one fails to understand her
love for Stephen. It feels more akin to compassion than love. Further, Jane fails to
distinguish reason from emotion and intellect from the heart. She laments a lot
when she is not able to give enough time to Stephen while being a mother or to
her children while being a wife. She gets too hard on herself at times, making the
book feel more like a lamentation at times rather than her journey with Stephen
Hawking
These quotation below Jane states that it is better for her to telling the
story when spend much time with Stephen at the time by her perspectives. (287)
R A M A D H A N | 27
public property as a result of Stephen’s fame, and it would be only a matter of time before biographers started to investigate the personal story behind his genius and his survival: that would inevitably include me. I had no reason to suppose that they would treat me with any more consideration than the press had in the past. (310)
Indeed motor-neuron disease provided a further equally powerful motive
for putting pen to paper, in the desire to awaken politicians and government
officials to the heart-rending reality faced daily in an uncaring society by disabled
people and their careers the battles with officialdom, the lonely struggles to
maintain a sense of dignity, the tiredness, the frustration and the anguished scream
of despair.
One day in Moscow Jane missed a speech from Bill loveless that he
considered a good leader; Bill will retire from church in the spring. One of his
speeches reflects the story that Jane experienced with Stephen at the time.
He had a fund of wisdom of which I had only scratched the surface; indeed, one of his last sermons, on the theme of the search for a quiet mind, had impressed me deeply. In it he uncovered every aspect of my own lack of peace: my concerns, my fears – for Stephen, for my children and for myself, my inability to rest, the tensions and the cares, the frustrations and the uncertainties. He also broached that other group of emotional disturbances associated with an unquiet mind, those evoked by guilt, to which I was no stranger. Self-reproach trailed me like a menacing shadow. I listened for whatever scraps of comfort he could throw in my direction. Live in the present, he said (243).
Those sentence make Jane confident and she had has told love for everyone,
abundant maternal love for each of the children, love for Stephen as well as love
for Jonathan. Love had many facets, Agape as well as Eros, and I wanted to
R A M A D H A N | 28
that love became so entangled with the legion of worries generated by the
responsibility for his care that it was hard to know where anxiety ended and love
began.
3.3 Experience
In Seattle 1995, after divorce was completed it is also being last season for
Jane. When she was move to France Jane thought to wrote a book detailed
“Travelling to Infinity” about relationship and life with the scientist, Stephen
Hawking
That I began to contemplate writing the long memoir of my life with Stephen. I was surprised therefore to find an invitation from a publisher to do just that awaiting me back in Cambridge. That
September the words flowed quickly and passionately, as if urging me to free myself of a past that had often scaled the giddy peaks of
impossible achievement and yet had plumbed the depths of heartbreak and despair. I had to exorcise that past and clearly define the end of a long era before embarking on a new future, and it was to their credit that the publication team allowed me to tell my story spontaneously. That first edition represented a great and cathartic outpouring of optimism, euphoria, despondency and grief. (245)
Jane should be run out from along his past and start a new sheet. Inside the
story represent the outpouring, optimism, euphoria, despair and great sorrow
Officially, Jane Hawking published a memoir, describing her marriage to
Hawking and its breakdown. Its revelations caused a sensation in the media, but as
was his usual practice regarding his personal life, Hawking made no public
comment except to say that he did not read biographies about himself. After his
R A M A D H A N | 29
For a period of about five years in the early 2000s, his family and staff became
increasingly worried that he was being physically abused
soon after the divorce had been finalized and a year after the eventual publication of At Home in France, that I began to contemplate writing the long memoir of my life with Stephen. I was surprised therefore to find an invitation from a publisher to do just that awaiting me back in Cambridge (286).
I had no reason to suppose that they would treat me with any more consideration than the press had in the past. It would therefore be far better for me to tell my own story in my own way. I would be revealing truths which were so deeply and painfully personal that I could not bear to think that their music might resound only with the ring of the chaudron fêlé, Flaubert’s cracked kettle (287).
As a result of the literary work was published. She is received much of
supporting letters, mostly from women who empathized, cares about her situation.
The novel also imagined how the struggles woman has married with a genius man
and recounted the story of their own often troubled lives. This study try to answer
the influence of the author’s as reflected in her life experience.
Among the sources of conflict between them were: religion (she was a
believer, he a fervent atheist), his family (described as definitely not nice to her),
and his devotion to physics:
I sensed that there was yet another partner lurking in our already overcrowded marriage. The fourth partner first appeared in the form of a trusted and quiescent friend, signalling the way to success and fulfilment for those who followed her. In fact she proved to be a relentless rival, as exacting as any mistress, an inexorable Siren, luring her devotees into deep pools of
R A M A D H A N | 30
She describes how, during his work on black holes leading up to the
discovery of Hawking radiation, Stephen would isolate himself.
Stephen was diagnosed with ALS, a form of Motor Neurone Disease,
shortly after his 21st birthday. In spite of being wheelchair bound and dependent
on a computerised voice system for communication Stephen Hawking continues
to combine family life (he has three children and three grandchildren), and his
research into theoretical physics together with an extensive programme of
travel and public lectures. He still hopes to make it into space one day.
Suddenly Diana asked, “Have you heard about Stephen?” “Oh, yes,” said Elizabeth, “it’s awful, isn’t it?” I realized that they were talking about Stephen Hawking. “What do you mean?” I asked. “I haven’t heard anything.” “Well, apparently he’s been in hospital for two weeks –Bart’s I think, because that’s where his father trained and that’s where Mary is training.” Diana explained, “He kept stumbling and couldn’t tie his shoelaces.” She paused. “They did lots of horrible tests and have found that he’s suffering from some terrible, paralyzing incurable disease. It’s a bit like multiple sclerosis, but it’s not multiple sclerosis and they reckon he’s probably only got a couple of years to live.” (235)
Although known at school as "Einstein", Hawking was not initially successful
academically. With time, he began to show considerable aptitude for scientific
subjects and, inspired by Tahta, decided to read mathematics at university.
Hawking's father advised him to study medicine, concerned that there were few
jobs for mathematics graduates. He also wanted his son to attend University
College, Oxford, his own almamater. As it was not possible to read mathematics
there at the time, Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry. Despite his
headmaster's advice to wait until the next year, Hawking was awarded a
R A M A D H A N | 31
Among the sources of conflict between them were: religion (she was a believer,
he a fervent atheist), his family (described as definitely not nice to her), and his
devotion to physics:
I sensed that there was yet another partner lurking in our already overcrowded marriage. The fourth partner first appeared in the form of a trusted and quiescent friend, signalling the way to success and fulfilment for those who followed her. In fact she proved to be a relentless rival, as exacting as any mistress, an inexorable Siren, luring her devotees into deep pools of
obsession. She was none other than Physics, cited by Einstein’s first wife as the correspondent in divorce proceedings.
She describes how, during his work on black holes leading up to the discovery of
Hawking radiation, Stephen would isolate himself.
Jane married and took on the responsibilities associated with a brilliant but
increasingly ill man. The rigors of their lives and the physical and emotional
hardships were perhaps made more difficult, rather than less, with a husband who
was a scientific genius. Everyday people would have most of the same strains but
presumably not the added pressure of a brain which far outstripped anyone else’s.
Jane’s persistence and determination and her family’s support are remarkable. The
sheer generosity of Stephen Hawking’s students and colleagues is also amazing.
3.4 Love Story
It was an unusual marriage and in exceptional circumstances," Jane says
now. "You only need a few wild-cards thrown into the mix. We were surrounded
R A M A D H A N | 32
became his wife was seeking to undermine me and there were wider influences
too, following the runaway success of A Brief History of Time."
The Hawking’s separation in 1990 and later divorce was widely covered in
the media, and the book doesn’t dwell on the depressing details. Stephen went to
live with one of his nurses, Elaine Mason (who at the time was married), and later
married her. Jane later married Jonathan Jones, a musician she had met a decade
earlier, partly through her church choir, and who developed a close relationship
with her and the rest of the Hawking family during the 80s. but it appears that
Stephen is now in the process of getting divorced from Mason, and has re-entered
Jane’s life.
The press finally learnt of our separation, literally as the result of an accident. One night, as Stephen was on his way back to his flat, he and the nurse in attendance (not Elaine) were knocked down by a speeding taxi. The wheelchair was overturned and he was left lying in the road in the dark. It was a miracle that he suffered nothing worse than a broken shoulder and spent only a couple of days in hospital. Inevitably the press got to hear of the accident, and naturally they wanted to know why his home was no longer at West Road. Reporters and cameramen, especially from the tabloids, came clustering round the gate like a pack of baying hounds, scenting scandal and terrifying Tim and me. We were being hunted. It was thanks to the good sense of the head porter at Harvey Court that they were put off the scent, and Jonathan, of whose existence they were unaware, managed to escape out of the back door. (282)
Another issue, as appear in the novel. Jonathan became part of the family,
sharing the workload of caring for Stephen with Jane, and helping bring up the
children. He had been widowed a couple of years before they met. “What brought
us together,” says Jane, “was loneliness. We were both very lonely people, and
R A M A D H A N | 33
Throughout the story, it’s get annoyed with Stephen Hawking’s selfish
disregard of his wife’s needs and lack of recognition of her academic ability
which is evident throughout the memoir. While not reaching Stephen’s standard
of genius, it’s plain that Jane is no slouch intellectually. However she sacrifices a
great deal for her husband’s well-being both physically and intellectually. He
appears not to have reciprocated her generosity or regard.
Jane realizes that getting closer to his relationship with Jonathan will
make her feel uncomfortable because she still has the responsibility to keep
Stephen.
Naturally my relationship with Jonathan featured large in the increasingly extravagant web of wile and deceit that was being woven and, as far as that was concerned, there was little I could say in my own defense, since clearly in the eyes of the world our relationship was a guilty one (277).
When the relationship Jane was getting closer to Stephen is a form of
expression of disappointment as well as a sense of boredom that she felt. For Jane,
a practising Christian with a deep faith, there was no shame in being involved
with Jonathan. After many years of giving her all, emotionally and physically, to
Stephen - whose condescending and entirely self-absorbed nature were qualities
that Jane has never griped about - she was like a thirsty plant. The arrival of a man
who not only loved but also nurtured her was almost a miracle in her eyes.
By December 1977, Jane had met organist Jonathan Hellyer Jones when
singing in a Church choir. Hellyer Jones became close to the Hawking family, and
R A M A D H A N | 34
Often during the course of each week we would come across each other quite by accident and wonder at the extraordinary coincidences which seemed to be bringing us together. We would stand by the roadside, talking, oblivious to what it was we were supposed to be doing or where we were going. We had so much to discuss, his bereavement, his loneliness, his musical ambitions on the one hand, and my fears for Stephen and the children and my despair at the difficulty of doing everything that was required of me with tolerance and patience on the other.
According to Jane, her husband was accepting of the situation, stating "he
would not object so long as I continued to love him". Jane and Hellyer Jones
determined not to break up the family, and their relationship remained platonic for
a long period. Jane was sacrificed 28 years of her life to keeping Stephen alive
and nurturing his career, has been maligned following revelations around the time
of their divorce. she had an affair with a family friend who joined the household
as one of Stephen's carers. The fact that Stephen wanted an open marriage and
encouraged the relationship between Jane and Jonathan.
Jane is a formidable woman. Most of people were think that it is very
fortunate to have a husband from a famous physician. Jane has an important role
in every stepping career success that continues to increase even though the illness
is not finished.
That I would not be well enough to travel, as he made such a
superhuman effort to overcome all obstacles, it was difficult for him to see why others, above all his wife, should not be capable of similar exertion and will power, especially since all other illnesses were insignificant by comparison with motor-neuron disease. It was clear that I could no longer live up to his expectations (253).
There was one function which she could not miss, however ill she felt: that
R A M A D H A N | 35
party for family and friends at the Royal Society on 16th June, a week after the
shingles struck.
Any voice belonged to a nurse who used to care for Hawking; she parted
company with him, reluctantly, after Elaine became the second Mrs Hawking in
1995.
Reports reached me that the nurse was already announcing her forthcoming marriage to Stephen (277).
I was threatened with being thrown out of the family home, and my role in Stephen’s life was being systematically denied, as if all reference to me, all memory of me, had to be erased from all the records (278).
She is the reason I left “Hawking said”. It’s impossible to reconcile the way
she treated Stephen with the ethics of our profession. She doesn’t want to say
anymore because it brings back painful memories.
Jane is a student who focuses on the field of literature. No wonder if he
found a poem that reflects what kind of similarity is being felt with their family at
that time.
Jane is a student who focuses on the field of literature. No wonder if he found a poem that reflects what kind of similarity is being felt with his family at that time (151).
By the same story that Jane can express and have a new friends in the every
R A M A D H A N | 36
Jane was suffering the turbulence of the mind when she was disturbed by
the behavior of the Stephen family should she get the appreciation when to trouble
treating the disease inside Stephen and take care of the son.
I was wrong. On our first visit to their rectory, they treated us, Stephen, the children and me, as if we were the most welcome visitors, as if they were really pleased to see us. Never did they pass even the slightest hint of judgment on us or on our situation (188).
As the pain gradually increases, This problem begins when Jane prefers the
Jonathan family of the Stephen family to help all the troublesome affairs. One
day, she thinks of her relationship with Jonathan - a musician a few years younger
than she - as a gift she deserves after so many years of hardship and neglect.
"Without him I would have been at the bottom of the river, I'm really grateful I
have a very happy contented life." It's rarely talked about, but marriages in which
one person is the "carer" soon become unbalanced, so that all the power and
influence is with the spouse being cared for. Jane's own needs were utterly
neglected by everyone except her parents, both of whom have died in the past
year. Throughout her marriage, she kept the quintessentially English stiff upper
lip. She was a fighter, continually confronting Cambridge intelligentsia with the
reality of Stephen's needs
The fortune crisis does not seem beside Stephen’s family; Stephen seen my
annoyance as the days went on. Lucky after receiving help from David Mason, he
is a skilled computer engineer and can make wheelchair tools utter sentences that
R A M A D H A N | 37
There were recurring crises when the newly invented mechanism developed teething troubles, just as there were recurring crises with Stephen’s own state of health. If David Mason were not called round as a matter of urgency at all hours of the day, then it was our faithful friend, John Stark, the chest consultant, or long-suffering Dr Swan or another duty doctor from the surgery, who would be summoned at all hours of the night. Physiotherapists were called out at weekends and our local chemist was roused after closing hours. In short, we
floundered in an endless state of crisis throughout November into December, with its usual round of school carol services and other preparations for Christmas. We were again piloting our boat across troubled waters. These uncharted waters were shrouded in darkness (230).
Jane says that some of her energy and time is just for Stephen; she was
relieved to be able to make Stephen get back to talking with the tools
designed by David Mason.
Jane thinks the analogy is correct. She tells how, after the initial 20
years of marriage in which the young couple struggled to survive with scant
outside help, Stephen's sudden celebrity changed everything. After caring
for him single-handedly for decades, Jane found herself surrounded by a
staff of nurses 24/7 who turned their home into a hospital-like institution.
Besides, being a personal nurse Jane who was takes care every day
about Stephen’s condition and as well as taking care of their son too. She is
active as a writer, and sometimes also often helps the future of Stephen to
work on the script.
R A M A D H A N | 38
1985, a New York editor started working on the manuscript, and his letter outlining preliminary criticisms was waiting for Stephen on our return to England (223).
She was approached one of Stephen’s former students named Brian Whitt,
to enlist his help with the rewriting. With the help that often comes from various
parties makes it easier to treat Stephen and do other important things.
Hawking has been mastered a big ego inside his personality and sometimes
also become sensitive to a thing. On the one hand, his pathetic physical state
expressed all too clearly his need for constant loving reassurance; on the other, he
made himself inaccessible, barricading himself behind defiance and resentment
It was natural that he would want to reassert himself, but no one was disputing his right to be king of the universe and master of the house. It was difficult therefore to understand why he seemed to want to make the daily routine even more fraught than usual by means of various disobliging ploys, which usually involved deliberately stationing his wheelchair in the most obstructive position imaginable (230).
Hawking has told to Jane that He needs a special room for himself and is far
from any activity to improve his skills to developing physics.
One day she found people as well as doctors who know the conditions of
Stephen more deeply. With situations like this often not need a friend who can
give advice and support to his family.
R A M A D H A N | 39
which are now affecting his behavior and his emotional reactions, although, thankfully for him, his intellect is intact (231).
Has become a responsibilities and this continues till right now that Stephen
can fight with his disease it’s aided by drugs and tools . It's no wonder Jane often
worried about the circumstances of Stephen at that time. Some people don't want
to know about it. The carer of the disabled person is always in the background.
People don't want to hear about the sleaze and the nitty-gritty and the hardship.
They want to think he did it all himself." Jane's partnership with Stephen began to
be eroded when - ironically - her 20 years' worth of calls for nursing assistance in
the home were finally heeded by the Cambridge hierarchy, assistance enhanced
when Stephen became wealthy.
Created by doctors in Russia and Cambridge, the programme uses brain-mapping
to find the part of the brain that is malfunctioning, then introduces mental
exercises and mild electrical stimulation to regenerate that part of the brain. So
far, the treatment has brought about a remarkable improvement in her grandson
William's mental capacities and behaviour and, Jane hopes, it will one day be
widely available.
Because of the insufficiency of time and the slowness of communication,
she got into the habit of preparing what she wanted to say to Stephen in advance.
She hoped that by presenting him with a succinct and logical argument, she could
simplify the matter, be it financial or family.
R A M A D H A N | 40
dispute my reasoning at every stage, sure of the superiority of his own arguments. Thus, minor matters became major issues, and the
cheerfully optimistic frame of mind in which I had entered his room would quickly disintegrate into defeat and disillusionment. As Stephen recovered his power of speech, I became nervously
withdrawn again, unsure of myself and so uncertain of my opinions that I ceased to voice them, as much the victim of psychological pressure as Stephen was the victim of illness (233).
Jane cannot do anything to stop what the hawking is talking about; she feels
like having a nightmare and cannot get out from the situation. It was a very, very
painful and difficult time. Stephen was being manipulated by outside forces and I
was reduced to a frazzle. I'm not sure I could have gone on living in the way we
did. I had probably got to the end of my tether," she says.
3.5 Divorce
According to Jane the one that causes him to be temperamental is the
presence of one nurse who excessively influences Stephen and deliberately makes
every difference between their families. While Jane refuses to comment on these
events, they do indicate the extraordinary tensions around Stephen as he became
an icon with a competitive court of assistants and nurses around him, some of
whom appear to have behaved like groupies fighting amongst themselves
R A M A D H A N | 41
Stephen, deliberately provoking and exploiting every disagreement between us (246).
From quotation above has proven that Jane was bored with Stephen
attitude. Should Stephen realize that Jane request to dismiss one of the
nurses who has influenced his mind. Actually Jane has a brilliant idea for
keeping their family harmony but Stephen replied "i need a good nurse"
Stephen hawking’s lack of respect and regard for his wife and her
significant contributions to his achievements. His fame seems to reflect this
grandiose view of himself, which is perhaps the real reason why he becomes
besotted by his nurse. Stephen and Jane had, for several years, lived in an
open ménage à trois with Jonathan - until Elaine arrived on the scene. It was
Elaine, says Jane, who fomented bitterness about the situation and
convinced Stephen to ask for a divorce. To paraphrase her book, Jane's
perception at this time was that Stephen wasn't thinking straight about his
emotional life.
The novel is mostly not a book about physics though, but very much
about what it was like to struggle with caring for someone coping with a
grave disability, a difficult and not always rewarding task even in this
remarkable case of someone who has overcome obstacles and achieved
about the highest pinnacle of success possible.
It's probably fair to say that without Jane Hawking, Stephen Hawking
R A M A D H A N | 42
become the most famous physicist after Einstein and play himself in The
Simpsons. When she married him in 1965 at the age of 21 - he was 23 - the
young couple had already been told that Stephen, who has motor neurone
disease, had perhaps three years to live and that there was no treatment
R A M A D H A N | 43
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
From the analysis proposed in this thesis, it is apparent that biography
categorized in non-fictional biography. A biographical criticism must be careful
not to take the biographical facts of a writer's life too far in criticizing the works
of that writer. The biographical criticism focuses on explicating the literary work
by using the insight provided by knowledge of the author's life.
Jane Hawking, relates the inside story o