Analysis of The Theme of H.G.Wells' 'Love and Mr.Lewisham'.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya menganalisis sebuah novel yang berjudul Love and Mr. Lewisham karya H. G. Wells. Novel ini menceritakan seorang pria yang berani mengorbankan segalanya demi wanita yang dia cintai.

Pelaku utama novel ini bernama Mr. Lewisham. Mula-mula dia memusatkan diri untuk belajar dan bekerja. Lewisham juga mendapat banyak penghargaan ketika dia masih bersekolah. Namun, fokusnya menjadi terganggu ketika dia bertemu seorang wanita yang bernama Ethel Henderson. Hidupnya perlahan-lahan mulai berubah. Dia rela mengorbankan segalanya untuk wanita yang dia cintai. H. G. Wells menunjukkan bahwa Mr. Lewisham rela bekerja lebih keras dan mengorbankan pekerjaannya untuk Ethel. Bahkan ketika Ethel kembali ke London, Lewisham memutuskan untuk mengikutinya. Dia rela meninggalkan sang ibu dan lingkungan yang ia sukai. Dia juga melepaskan persahabatannya dengan Miss Heydinger demi menjaga perasaan Ethel.

Dengan membaca novel ini, pembaca dapat merasa bahwa kekuatan cinta itu sangat besar. Ketika seseorang sedang jatuh cinta, dia dapat melakukan apapun demi orang yang dia cintai. Setelah menganalisis tema novel ini, saya merasa bahwa saya dapat mengerti lebih banyak tentang novel tersebut.

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Mr. Lewisham is a hardworking man. He both studies and works as an assistant master in the Whortley Proprietary School, Whortley, Sussex. He also works with Mrs. Munday at a little shop in the West Street. Lewisham focuses on his studies. He gets lots of achievements from his studies. As a matter of fact, Lewisham has a target in his life; in six years he will have learnt five or six languages.

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Ethel feels jealous when she reads Miss Heydinger’s letter for Mr. Lewisham. Ethel and Mr. Lewisham quarrel but fearing that he will hurt her feeling, he is ready to end his friendship with Miss Heydinger. He sacrifices his friendship just to make Ethel happy.

Biography of H. G. Wells

H.G. Wells was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent. His father was a shopkeeper and a professional cricketer, and his mother served from time to time as a housekeeper at the nearby estate of Uppark. His father’s business failed and like his brothers, Wells was apprenticed to a draper, spending the years between 1880 and 1883 in Windsor and Southsea. Later he recorded these years in Kipps (1905).

In 1883 Wells became an assistant teacher at Midhurst Grammar School. He obtained a scholarship to the normal school of science in London and studied biology under T.H. Huxley. However, his interest faltered and in 1887 he left without a degree. He taught in private schools for four years, not taking his B.S. degree until 1890. In 1891 he settled in London, married his cousin Isabel, and continued his career as a teacher in a correspondence college. Starting from 1893, Wells became a full-time writer. Several years later, Wells left Isabel for one of his brightest students, Amy Catherine, whom he married in 1895.

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(1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and The First Men on the Moon (1901). Love and Mr. Lewisham appeared in 1900, Tono-Bungay and The History of Mr. Polly in 1909. Between the years 1924 and 1933 Wells lived mainly in France. From 1934 to 1946 he was the International president of PEN.

Wells lived through World War II in his house in Regent’s Park; he did not want to leave London. He died in London on August 13, 1946.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

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feel compelled to pursue love when he/she is in love.

I have chosen the novel Love and Mr. Lewisham because the story is interesting to read. This novel mostly tells about love and sacrifice. Mr. Lewisham is a man who has a great ambition in his life but when he falls in love, he gradually sacrifices his ambition to be a lecturer. After reading this novel, whose theme is closely connected with love, I want to analyse the theme more deeply using formalism approach.

The author of this novel is H.G. Wells, a novelist who mostly writes science fiction. However, Love and Mr. Lewisham is not a science fiction; it is mainly concerned with love. Through this novel, he wants to tell the reader about his life when he meets his first wife. Love and Mr. Lewisham is an autobiographical novel. ‘It was his first serious novel of social manners, which he took much time over. For it is essentially a memorial to his meeting his cousin Isabel Wells, to be his first wife’. (Lung, n.d)

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Statement of the Problem

The problems which I would like to analyse are: 1. What is the theme of Love and Mr. Lewisham?

2. How does the portrayal of the protagonist help to reveal the theme?

Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study are:

1. To show the theme of Love and Mr. Lewisham.

2. To show how the portrayal of the protagonist helps to reveal the theme.

Method of Research

The method of research is library research. First of all, I begin my analysis by reading the primary text, Love and Mr. Lewisham, by H. G. Wells. I then continue by reading several books that can be used to support the analysis. I search for some references and material from the Internet to support the analysis. Finally, I gather and use the data for my analysis before I draw the conclusion.

Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After analysing the theme of H. G. Wells’ novel Love and Mr. Lewisham, I come to the conclusion that the novelist succeeds in revealing the theme through Mr. Lewisham, the protagonist of the novel.

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Wells reveals several things to show that Mr. Lewisham is willing to sacrifice for love. The most important sacrifices are:

1. He is willing to neglect his studies for the sake of Ethel so that he cannot achieve his goals to gain a university degree and to be a lecturer. This shows that Mr. Lewisham sacrifices his ambition for the sake of love. 2. He works much harder although the burden is more than he could bear.

This is to fulfill the family’s needs, which he otherwise would be unable to meet. In this case, he also sacrifices because he does not want Ethel to be involved in the séances which he considers to be some sort of wicked trickery. This apparently shows that Mr. Lewisham sacrifices his main principle of honesty for the sake of love. The novelist also exposes Mr. Lewisham’s readiness to go against his own principle through Mr. Lewisham’s action in forgiving Mr. Chaffery, Ethel’s stepfather, who cheats in Mr. Lagune’s performances.

3. Mr. Lewisham’s leaving his beloved mother, who actually needs his care and attention very much, also illustrates a great sacrifice that Mr. Lewisham is willing to do for the sake of meeting his darling, Ethel.

4. Another obvious sacrifice that Mr. Lewisham makes is his readiness to end his friendship with Miss Heydinger, who is a close friend of his and his colleague, with whom he frequently shares interests. He does this to prevent his wife from being jealous.

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develops. Love has changed Mr. Lewisham from being ambitious for studying into being ambitious for pursuing love. Mr. Lewisham also changes from an honest man into an unscrupulous person. That Mr. Lewisham is ready to neglect his relationship with his mother and to end his friendship with Miss Heydinger also gives ample evidence that Mr. Lewisham’s characteristic has changed.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Belgion, Montgomery H. G. Wells Biography Great Britain: Longmans, Green and CO LTD, 1953.

Kenney, William. How to Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1966.

Internet Website

Lung, Richard. H. G. Wells. Scientific romance, ‘free love’ and marriage. 15 Nov 2005. 5 March 2007 (http://www.lit4lib.sky7.us/us/wells.htm) Wikipedia. Biography H._ G._ Wells. 24 Oct 2007. 6 March 2007.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._ Wells)

Amazon.com. H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells (1866-1946). 20 March 2007. (http://www. kirjasto. Sci.fi/hgwells.htm)

Primary Text