FRANCESCA AS THE REFLECTION OF WOMEN IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE EMERGING FEMINIST MOVEMENT
AS SEEN IN WALLER’S
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
HERNITA PURNASARI Student Number: 034214062
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
FRANCESCA AS THE REFLECTION OF WOMEN IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE EMERGING FEMINIST MOVEMENT
AS SEEN IN WALLER’S
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
HERNITA PURNASARI Student Number: 034214062
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2008
Every dark light is followed by a light morning.
(unknown)
You ha ve to e ndure c a te rpilla rs if you wa nt to se e
butte rflie s
.
(Antoine De Saint)
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to:
My Lord, Jesus Christ My beloved parents My dearest brothers Adam Sapto Nugroho
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Praise to God, finally I could finish my thesis. I would like to thank Jesus Christ for his blessing and for guiding me in writing and completing my undergraduate thesis. He gives me strength to cope with the hard days of my life.
My deepest gratitude goes to Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka M. Hum., for his help, guidance, patience, suggestions and time during the writing of my thesis. I also thank Maria Ananta Tri S., S. S., M. Ed., my co-advisor, for reading my thesis and giving me suggestions in order to make it better. I also thank all my lecturers for their guidance and efforts to share me their valuable knowledge. To all of the secretariat staffs, I thank them so much for helping me in dealing with administration.
My greatest gratitude goes to my mom, Ny. Istinah, for her unconditional love and belief. Thanks to my brothers, Dwi Aryanto and Sunaryadi, for their supports and courage to help me finish my study. And for Adam Sapto Nugroho, thanks for being the part of me, giving me a lot of love and attention, and guiding me through this life patiently.
My special thanks go to my beloved friends: C.Max, Mbendhol, Adi “Mbings”, Agoeng Akakom, Tiok, Yeri, Jatip, SuShit, Cosmas, Superbay, Bagor, Danang, C.Nug TI. We have shared a lot of things and experiences that I will never forget. “Our friendship will last forever”. Thanks also to Jhony and Yabes and English Letters students of 2003.
Hernita Purnasari
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Theory on Character and Characterization……… 9
2. Theory on Feminism………. 13
C. Theoretical Framework………. 19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……… 20
A. Object of the Study……….. 20
B. Approach of the Study………. 21
C. Method of the Study………. 22
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS……….. 24
A. The Characterization of Francesca Johnson ………. 24
3. Francesca and Her Opportunity of Career……… 42 4. Francesca as Herself ……… 43 5. Francesca’s Idea in the Relationship between Men and Women 48
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION………. 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY……….. 53 APPENDICES……… 57 Appendix 1: Summary of Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison
County………. 57 Appendix 2: The Biography of Robert James Waller ………... 60
ABSTRACT
HERNITA PURNASARI. Francesca as the Reflection of Woman in the Middle of the Emerging Feminist Movement as Seen in Waller’s The Bridges
of Madison County. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.
Gender matter is an issue that has been discussed for a long time. There is a paradigm in society which believes that men are superior and women are inferior. This traditional belief strongly embedes on society and the result is discrimination toward women almost in all their aspects of life. This kind of situation commonly happens among the social community that adopts patriarchal system, in which men have an authority to take a control and make a decision. It can be predicted that women become victims and suffer from the unequal treatment toward them.
They are the feminists, who struggle for the women’s right to be of the same status as the men are. They try to fight against gender discrimination by so many forms of effort. One of them is to initiate women movement for the liberation from gender discrimination. The women’s consciousness of their rights is mark of the beginning of feminism era. Even though the feminism issues have been widely spread, still, there are some women who does not dare to declare themselves as feminist who adopt feminism ideas, although in fact they hold some feminism ideas on their minds.
The objective of the study is to answer two main problems. First, it is meant to identify Francesca Johnson’s characteristics described in the novel The Bridges of Madison County written by Robert James Waller. Second, it is meant to analyze the Francesca Johnson’s character as the representation of women in the middle of the emerging of feminist movement.
In the analysis, the writer employed library research to collect data relating to the topic of the study. This study applies some theories to answer the questions stated in the problem formulation. They are the theory of character and characterization and the theory on feminism. In this study, the writer also uses feminism criticism because the focus of the study is analyzing a character related with the issue of feminism.
The analysis result shows that Francesca is a woman character who holds some feminism ideas in her mind. She is aware of her life situation in which she feels oppressed by the treatment of her parents, husbands and children. She has a thought to free herself from the situation which places her in the corner but she does not have bravery to make a real act in order to fulfill her desire. The element which keeps her to be an oppressed party is the strong paradigm on society which says that the women’s duty is to do households, to be an obedient wife for her husband, and raising children, although she lives in feminism era.
ABSTRAK
HERNITA PURNASARI. Francesca as the Reflection of Woman in the Middle of the Emerging Feminist Movement as Seen in Waller’s The Bridges
of Madison County. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.
Masalah gender adalah sebuah isu yang telah didiskusikan sejak lama. Ada sebuah anggapan dalam masyarakat yang menganggap bahwa kedudukan pria lebih tinggi daripada perempuan. Anggapan kuno ini melekat erat pada masyarakat dan hasilnya adalah diskriminasi terhadap perempuan hampir di segala aspek kehidupan mereka. Situasi seperti ini biasa terjadi di komunitas sosial yang menggunakan sistem patriarki, dimana pria memiliki kekuasaan untuk mengendalikan dan membuat keputusan. Dapat diprediksi bahwa perempuan menjadi korban dan menderita akibat perlakuan yang tidak adil terhadap mereka.
Adalah para feminis yang memperjuangkan hak-hak perempuan untuk sejajar dengan pria. Mereka mencoba melawan diskriminasi gender melalui banyak cara. Salah satunya adalah memprakarsai pergerakan wanita menuju pembebasan dari diskriminasi gender. Kesadaran perempuan akan hak-haknya menandai awal era feminisme. Namun, meskipun isu-isu feminisme telah menyebar luas, masih banyak perempuan yang belum berani menyatakan diri mereka sebagai seorang feminis yang mengemban ide-ide feminis, walau pada kenyataannya, mereka memiliki ide-ide feminis itu dalam pikiran mereka.
Tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk menjawab dua permasalahan utama. Pertama, studi ini dimaksudkan untuk menggambarkan tokoh Francesca Johnson dalam novel The Bridges of Madison County karya Robert James Waller. Kedua, studi ini dimaksudkan untuk menganalisa karakter Francesca Johnson sebagai cerminan perempuan di era pertengahan kemunculan pergerakan feminis.
Dalam analisa, penulis menggunakan metode penelitian pustaka untuk mengumpulkan data yang berhubungan dengan topik dari studi ini. Studi ini menggunakan beberapa teori yang digunakan untuk menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang ada di rumusan masalah. Teori-teori yang digunakan adalah teori tentang tokoh dan penokohan dan teori tentang feminisme. Dalam studi ini, penulis juga menggunakan pendekatan feminis karena fokus dari studi ini adalah untuk menganalisa tokoh yang berkaitan dengan masalah feminis.
Hasil analisa menunjukan bahwa Francesca adalah tokoh perempuan yang mengemban ide-ide feminis dalam pemikirannya. Dia sadar akan situasi hidupnya dimana dia merasa tertekan oleh perlakuan orangtua, suami, dan anak-anaknya. Dia punya gagasan untuk membebaskan diri dari situasi yang menyudutkannya, namun dia tidak memiliki keberanian untuk melakukan langkah nyata untuk memenuhi keinginannya. Faktor yang mendorong Francesca untuk tetap bertahan sebagai pihak yang tertindas adalah kuatnya paradigma di masyarakat bahwa kewajiban perempuan adalah untuk mengurus hal-hal yang berkaitan dengan rumah tangga, menjadi istri yang menuruti suami, dan merawat anak-anak, meskipun dia hidup di era feminisme.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature is the product of the creative thought of human being. Therefore, there are a lot of literary works which contents are based on the realities that happen in the real life. Many issues can be the main topic to discuss in a literary work, such as politics, economy, social and culture, and other issues that are up to date in the era in which the literary work is written.
While Abramsin his Glossary of Literary Terms states that a literary work can be a good reflection of a society where the works are written. By regarding a literary work, we can dig out many values that implicitly set in it. Literature is one element of culture. It contains values, thoughts, problems and conflicts. Literature functions as a representation of the situation happening in certain setting of time and place (Abrams, 1981:1). Literature can be found in oral language such as folktale, epic, legend, myth, ballad, and oral poetry, and written language such as poem, play, drama, novel, and short story. It is possible that in the future, there will be some new form of genre that can be categorized as work of literature.
In this study, the writer uses novel as the main source. Abrams describes novel as a fiction literary work that reflects the reality of human life by presenting complex character with their motives based on their social class and their interaction with others. It is also described as the experience of daily human life. That can be said that novel is the illustration of one’s experiences in facing the problem in the real life and how to deal with it (Abrams, 1981:16).
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The novel chosen for this study entitled The Bridges of Madison County. It is a novel written in 90’s by Robert James Waller, photographer, author and a professor of management at the University of Northern Iowa. This novel is best sold in the United Stated. Several years after the novel firstly published, the film was made with the same title The Bridges of Madison County. The same as the novel, the movie also won a lot of movie awards. It is not merely because this novel is best sold and the movie that is derived from it won a lot of awards that the writer chooses this novel as the subject matter, but it is more because of some uniqueness of this novel .
When the reader reads the novel, it seems that the introduction and conclusion of this novel seem to indicate that it is a true story written at the direct request of Francesca Johnson's children, based on their mother's journals and on Waller's firsthand research of Robert Kincaid's photography career. However, it is entirely a work of fiction fabricated by the author imagination. (http: //www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/dbdc/bridgesof madisoncounty.asp).
most people try to bring the equal right between men and women in reality. This novel was published in 1992, yet the author chose to set it in Iowa, 1965. That is five years after the second wave of American Feminism that happened in 1960’s, which marks the establishment of the modern Women’s Movement. In other words, the setting of this novel is in the middle of the emerging feminist movement.
Feminism is an issue that has been discussed for a long time. There are various opinions about where the position of women toward men should be, since in fact God creates human as man and woman to live together in the same place called earth. Some say that man and woman are different, but the differences itself depend on one’s point of view.
Men and woman are, of course, different. But they are not as different as day and night, earth and sky, yin and yang, life and death. In fact, from the standpoint of nature, men and women are closer to each other than either is to anything else – for instance, mountains, kangaroo, or coconut palms. The idea that men and women are more different from one another than either is from anything else must come from somewhere other than nature (Glover and Caplan, 2000: xxiv).
From the quotation above, it can be assumed that what makes man and woman different is not nature, but something else, let say society. In the past, the traditional society made such a stereotype that the women’s position is lower than man.
Jo Freeman in her book Women, A Feminist Perspective states that the traditionalist view look at the many way in which women differ from men concludes that these differences that far transcends reproductive capacities. The traditionalist notes that historically women have always had less power, less influence, and fewer resources than men, and assumes this must accord with some natural order (Freeman, 1984: xiii).
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The stereotype made by the society had placed women in a difficult situation. There is an unseen border which restricts them to develop. As Montagu says that in the society there was conditioned norm, which stated that women can do and can not do. (Montagu, 1953: 38) This norm makes women lack of opportunities to develop their intelligence and skills, and they have different opportunities to men. This situation inflicted a loss upon women because in almost everyday society there is a belief that men are superior and women are inferior. In past, limited by the norm, women can not have their opinion to be heard. Women think that the belief is right, because it is believed as what really happens. (Montagu, 1953: 23)
Facing for the bad situation for long enough time, the women then try to find a solution for the problem which is basically appeared because of the patriarchal system on society. What the women need is the equal rights on many aspects as what is owned by the men. The women’s courage to struggle in order to get the equal rights as the men is known as the born of feminism.
holds out in her family’s situation in which she feels oppressed; put away her mind to escape from that situation and buried her dream of finding the true love on someone. Later, it can be seen that in fact, Francesca does not struggle to get out from her difficult life situation by radical rebellion, but she has a tendency to deal with her situation by realizing and accepting the situations that in fact, happen to her.
The Bridges of Madison County, that title on its own is already enough to scare half of the male population away. They know it's a romantic drama and don't even need to see it, they are already convinced that they won't like it. And yet, if only they took the time to give it a try, they might be surprised by it. I know I was, so why should’t others have the same feeling about it (Philip Van der Veken, 2005)
The same with Philip Van der Veken from Tessenderlo, Belgium who says that he is surprised by the things that he finds in the story, the writer is also interested by the fact that besides being rich and dominated by symbols, there is another thing that is interesting enough to be discussed further as the main topic in this paper, that is Francesca Johnson as the reflection of women in the middle of the emerging feminist movement.
Until now the matter of gender discrimination still becomes a popular issue in society. In fact, the existence of discrimination toward female is caused by social culture. The stereotype on society which said that women is in the second class of social, while the first class consists of parents, man, and society seems never faded. So that woman often feels being harassed in almost all aspects of life.
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dare to be feminists in order to minimize the oppression toward them. Through Francesca’s story of life in this novel, the readers will find a situation in which a woman, in this case Francesca Johnson shows her courage to solve her problems of life by sacrificing herself as a woman to lose her hopes and dream. She recognizes her position as a woman who lives in a society with it’s paradigm that there are some things that women should not do. The uniqueness of Francesca’s character is that she knows how to be a tough woman without merely complaining, and also has no anger and egoism to be understood by men or by the other, but she prefers to maintain her desire and try to put up with her life situation.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background above, this study formulates two questions: 1. How is Francesca Johnson described in Robert James Waller’s The
Bridges of Madison County?
2. How does Francesca Johnson reflect the life of women in the middle of the emerging feminist movement?
C. Objectives of the Study
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation in understanding this thesis, there should be some explanation about some words, which are mostly used and widely related to the topic that is going to be analyzed. Those words are follows:
1. Feminine
Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language define feminine as having quality regarded as gentleness, weakness, delicacy, and modesty; womanly (1989).
2. Feminism
According to Maggie Humm, feminismis the ideology of women’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief that the women suffer because of their sex. (1990: x).
3. Feminity
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The Bridges of Madison County is the novel written by Robert James Waller. This novel is firstly published in1992 and was best sold in the United States. Here can be seen that Waller as the writer was competent to catch the readers’ desire, it is to get the novel in which the story derived from the affairs which usually happen in daily life situation so that they get a great enjoyment to play with their feeling when they read it.
Therefore, only two years after it’s firstly published, the movie of The Bridges of Madison County was made. There are a lot of comments about this novel which has been filmed. Much of them give positive opinions about this novel. Some readers and viewers said that this novel brings a new interesting thing that is closely related to the issue of feminism.
Leo Goldsmith, in his review states that it is crucial in both versions that Francesca does not leave her husband for Kincaid, but in Waller’s estimation her gesture is one of feminine self-sacrifice, a relinquishing of her desire in the service of both of the men she loves. Only in Eastwood’s version is Francesca’s choice made something subtler: Francesca’s is a denial of something very like “true love,” but it is emphatically her decision to do so. She is not compelled by a woman’s sense of duty nor by the world’s cruel gender inequities, but by a practical unwillingness to ruin several lives (including perhaps her own) by pursuing an ethereal “true love” (Goldsmith, 2007)
In his review above, Goldsmith reveals his finding that the Francesca’s character in the novel represents a woman who does a feminine self-sacrifice, meaning to
say that Francescais one who faces a situation in which she becomes a party who should give in to the moral value.
Another researcher the writer chooses as the references for her review of related studies is Eka Wahyuning. She is a graduate student of English Letters Study Programme, Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, generation of 1995, who had done to analyze Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County on her project for final thesis. She takes The Significance of The Symbol of The Covered Bridges Toward The Main Characters as Seen in Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County as the topic on her thesis. On her thesis, she had focus on all symbols used in the novel and also the relationship between the characters, especially Robert Kincaid and Francesca Johnson.
Different from Eka Wahyuning, in this thesis, the writer will focus to study the character of Francesca Johnson and discuss her position and life situation as a woman in the middle of the emerging feminist movement.
B. Review of Related Theories
In order to analyze the problem formulation, the writer employs two kinds of theories.
1. Character and Characterization
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20). It can be concluded that characters can be analyzed by their dialogue and their action.
Roger B. Henkle divides characters in two kinds, major character and minor character. Major characters are the characters that are observed most often in the story. These characters are given a good deal of attention and shoved onto the background or off scene as attention turns elsewhere (Henkle, 1977:90). The minor characters or secondary characters in the story performed more limited functions. They can function in various ways; is elements of society that’s makes up the human context, as average or normal points of reference, as foils to the major characters or they can be symbols of aspects of the governing state of being (Henkle, 1977: 100).
In his An Introduction to Fiction, Stanton says that a reader can understand a character in a story by simply paying attention to the evidences shown in the story. Firstly, we can understand the characteristic of the character from the character’s name where sometimes the sound of the name fits the character. Then the author explicitly describes the physical look of the character and comment upon it. We can see it also from the other character in the story and their attitudes toward the major character. The last we can see it from the character’s own dialogue and behavior (Stanton, 1965:17-18).
a. Personal description
The author directly describes the character’s physical appearance and clothes in the way telling an accurate description.
b. Character as seen by another
Instead of describing a character directly, the author describes the character through the eyes and opinion of the others, so that the reader can get a reflected image.
c. Speech
We can understand the characters by the way they speak. Whenever they speak, or in a conversation with the others, they give us a clue to their characters.
d. Past life
The author lets the readers learn something about character’s past life by giving them clues through his comment, conversation or through the medium of another character.
e. Conversation of others
The author can give the readers clues about the character through the conversations of other characters and what they say about him/her.
f. Reaction
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g. Thoughts
The author gives the readers a direct knowledge about character is thinking about.
h. Mannerism
The author explains about his character by describing the character manner or habits.
Different from M.J. Murphy, Perrine in his book Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense divides character into two categories, based on ‘motivation’ and based on ‘development’.
Based on ‘motivation: - Flat character
Character which is characterized by one or two traits. - Round character
Character which is usually complex and many sided. - Stock character
Character as the stereotyped figure who occurs very often in fiction that his nature is immediately known.
Based on ‘development’: - Static character
- Dynamic character
Character which undergoes a permanent change in his character personality or outlooks.
In relation with character, it is important to understand the characterization, because both of them are undivided. According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature characterization is a character which has particular personalities and physical attributes that differs them from other characters, that is shaped by the process of an author creates a characters themselves ( Rohrberger and Woods,1971:20). 2. Feminism
There are many arguments about what feminism is. Feminism in general is the ideology of woman’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief that women suffer injustice because of their sex (Humm, 1990: 74). Maggie Humm adds that feminist theory reveals the importance of women as individual. It analyzes how sexual differences are constructed within any intellectual and social world and build accounts of experiences from these differences (Humm, 1990: x).
Sexually, human being divides into two, male and female. The biological differentiation between two kinds of human being is called gender. Talk about feminism will be never far away from the matter of gender classification.
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There is a kind of unpleasant feeling to know that women are often treated unfair because in fact, gender is destiny, it is not the matter of choice of picking up and discarding identities at will.
Despite their diversity, feminist critics generally agree that their goals are to expose patriarchal premises and resulting prejudices, to promote discovery and re-evaluation of literature by woman and to examine social, cultural and psychosexual context of literature and literary criticism. Feminist critics therefore study sexual, social and political issues once thought to be “outside” the study of literature (Guerin, 1999: 197). In his further statement, Guerin states that in its diversity, feminism is concerned with the marginalization of all women, that is with their being relegated to a secondary position (Guerin, 1999: 196).
Jo Freeman in her book Women, A Feminist Perspective states that there are discrimination between men and women. It has been for a long time that the society considers men as superior and women as inferior. This paradigm was started by the traditional thought and up to now, it is still strongly embedded to the way of thinking of the society.
The traditionalist view looks at the many ways in which women differ from men concludes that these differences reflect some basic intrinsic differences that far transcend reproductive capacities. The traditionalist notes that historically, women have always had less power, less influence, and fewer resources than men, and assumes this must accord with some natural order (Freeman, 1975: xiii).
Freeman divines the ideas feminism into several points, some of them are: a. Equality
The idea of equality is that behind all the differences, basically men are all the same in the matter of to have rights and to do their duties.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness (Freeman, 1975: 439).
God creates people as men and women in order to complete each others, to help each others to fulfill their needs and, in the most basic aim is to get happiness.
b. Freedom of Argument
The feminism reacts against belief which is exists on the society that a woman is placed under men’s control.
“Woman feels she is not made for command, and finds her truest happiness in submitting to those who wield a rightful scepter in justice, mercy and love” (Freeman, 1975: 421).
The idea of feminism is to give women awareness that they have a freedom in revealing ideas and thought. Feminism brings a thought that women are free in giving argument and finding happiness as long as they follow the legal rules of law.
c. Opportunity
Feminism demands for the woman equality of education and access to the profession. In other words, feminism help woman to fulfill their ambition to have an equal right as man in achieving a satisfaction through her own abilities.
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the family. He plays an important part as a head and a master of the family (Freeman, 1975: 73).
It is true that man is the leader of family, but he should give a wife (woman) her right to develop her abilities and to go work or to have a job. A wife is a homemaker, but she has a right to work because as same as man has, God gives abilities to think or to do some valuable things.
W.L. Guerin in his A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature stated that the domination of male characters toward female characters appears much more in the novel written by male writer and makes an ‘image of woman’ which is sometimes stereotyping woman and make a gender bias in the work itself. The consciousness gives an important from of literary point of view that has com to be called feminist literary criticism (Guerin, 1999: 245-249). Feminist criticism tries finding the equality for woman to speak about their needs and their consciousness on the gender equality as man can do.
As Sargent in his book Contemporary Political Ideology said, feminist argue that men socialize women to accept both physical and mental mistreatment, and that legal system has traditionally treated women as offender (Sargent, 1987: 220) it seems that there is a stereotype in society that there are two parties .The first party is women, and the second party is society which consists of general society, parents and men. There is such a rule that women in the first party have to obey what the second party wants them to do as woman especially as wives, that leads women become oppressed party.
concerning gender relations at a given time and place”. He adds that there is a form of equal worth between the ideas and activism. Thus without a commitment to action and social change, she is not a feminists, even if she holds feminist ideas (Gramstad, 2007).
Deborah L. Madsen in Feminist Theory and Practice has an argument that feminism is women’s struggle to obtain an equality between women and men stems from the premises that both sexes have the same human rights as well as opportunities to advance themselves in many aspects of life (Madsen, 2000:2). Still in the same book, she divides feminism in America into some points.
First Wave of American Feminism which began in the 1840’s and is commonly marked by the first Women’s Right Convention, held in Seneca Falls in 1848. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other women who had been denied a place at the international anti-slavery convention in London in 1840 (Madsen, 2000: 3-4). Women need to fulfill their personal and national destinies, but they also need to fulfill the spiritual destiny of humanity and it is men who have historically placed obstacle in their way (Madsen, 2000: 5).
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organizations merged in 1890 to become the National American woman’s Suffrage Association, which later became the League of Women Voters (Madsen, 2000: 6)
Number pro-suffrage groups sprang up in the pre-war years: Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch, founded the Equality League in 1907 and Alice Paul, who had been active in the British suffrage struggle, founded the more militant Congressional Union, which later became the Women’s Party. It was the Women’s Party that first proposed the Equal Right Amendment to Congress in 1923 – ‘Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction’- and although this move was unsuccessful, it did lay some of the intellectual groundwork for the second wave of American Feminism in the 1960s (Madsen, 2000: 6).
The Second Wave of American Feminism emerged in the early 1960s and focused upon an indictment of male sexism and the domestic oppression of women. Betty Friedan’s the Feminine Mystique called for women to renew the struggle of the first wave which had culminated in female suffrage in 1920, but now feminist attention was focused on the exclusion of women from the public sphere and sex-based discrimination in the work place (Madsen, 2000: 7).
B. Theoretical Framework
The theory of character and characterization is very important to answer the first problem in the problem formulation about how is the character of Francesca Johnson represented in this novel.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The Bridges of Madison County is a novel written by Robert James Waller. Robert James Waller was born in August 1, 1939 in Rockford, Iowa. He is an American author who is also known for his work as a photographer and musician. He received his Ph.D. in business from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington in 1968. Waller later taught at the University of Northern Iowa where he was also dean of the business school. He made a "seven figure" donation to his alma mater, Indiana U. Several of his books have been on the New York Times bestseller list including 1992's The Bridges of Madison County which is the largest selling novel in history. This novel is firstly published in1992 and has been made into motion pictures.
The publication of this novel acquires a good response from the novel lovers. The story derived from the affairs which usually happen in daily life situation. The story is about the meeting between two lonesome people, Robert Kincaid, a widower from Washington working as a photographer for National Geographic; and Francesca Johnson, an Italian wife of local Iowan. They make affair behind Richard Johnson, Francesca’s husband which leads them to have emotional and sexual relationship.
The major theme in this novel is about the internal conflict of Francescaas woman who is facing the situation in which she has a chance to decide her way of
life by herself, which in fact it will be the starting point for her to get freedom and happiness. The conflict arouse when Francesca should make a decision whether she will leave her family for Robert or decide to stay in her family with all the consequences she would face. As the final decision, Francesca prefers to stay with her family rather than to run away with Robert. Francesca and Robert keep their love feeling until they both die. Their ashes are scattered around Roseman Bridge, one of the covered bridge in Madison County, Iowa- as the symbol of their re-union.
Adapted from the ordinary life story in a small country with all the pleasantness, this novel successfully arouses a big attention from the readers. Years after it’s firstly published, the movie of The Bridges of Madison County was made. Almost the same with the novel which was best sold, the movie which has the story adapted from the novel was also won for some award categories.
Generally, the story in this novel is about adultery for the sake of true love between two lonesome people. They can not bring their relationship into marriage because the main character, Francesca does not want to leave her husband. Francesca has a reason why she can not leave her husband and her to children, because if she does it, all people in Iowa will consider her as a woman with a bad reputation. This novel shows the representations of female stereotypes in 1960’s.
B Approach of the Study
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Wilfred Guerin in his book A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature stated that Feminist Literary Criticism is an approach which concern on women and their position.
Unlike the other approaches, feminist literary criticism is often a political attack upon other modes of criticism. It its diversity feminism is concerned with the marginalization of all women, that is with their being relegated to a secondary position (Guerin, 1999: 196)
The writer thinks that this approach is the most appropriate approach to the problem formulation. Feminist criticism uses to highlight gender stereotyping in literary form. It examines the ways in which literature has been shaped according to issue of gender. In other words, feminist criticism is used to bolded the stereotype of gender matter in literary form.
C Method of the Study
In finishing this paper, the type of study that is used by the writer is library research. It means that the writer collects all the sources that are available, like books of literature, criticism and dictionary. Besides that the writer also used internet as the media to collect the supporting data.
There were several steps in analyzing this novel. The first step, the writer read the primary source the novel entitled The Bridges of Madison County in order to understand the content of the story in order to be able to make a right interpretation about this novel.
In the third step, the writer applied the theories appropriate to be adjusted to answer the two problem formulation. Since the first problem formulation is about how the character of Francesca Johnson was represented in the novel, the writer used the theory of character to answer it. The second problem formulation was related with feminism issues portrayed through Francesca Johnson in The Bridges of Madison County; therefore, the writer used the theory of feminism to answer it. Those two problems formulation were discussed in the analysis.
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
Since there are two questions in the problem formulation, the analysis in this paper will be divided in to two sections. In the first section, there will be a discussion about the woman main character in the novel that is Francesca Johnson. The result of this first section of analysis will be the answer of the first problem formulation. The second section is discussing about Francesca Johnson, who reflects the life of women in the middle of the emerging feminist movement. The result of the section of analysis is the answer for the second problem of the problem formulation.
A. The Characterization of Francesca Johnson
This study concerns on the life of women in the middle of the emerging feminist movement which is represented by Francesca Johnson in Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County, that is why the writer wants to give a sufficient explanation of Francesca Johnson. It is important to take a look deeply on Francesca Character because the character that is discussed brings such an important role, that is as the representation of women on a certain era that is the middle era of the emerging feminist movement.
Francesca Johnson is the character that is observed most often in the story. This character is placed as the one that the readers will pay so much attention on. That is why, based on Henkle’s theory, Francesca Johnson is categorized as a major character of the story.
Based on another theory of character, Francesca Johnson is characterized as a round character. It is Perrine’s theory which says, a round character is the character which is complex and many sided. In the story of the novel, Francesca’s character is told as a woman who has two sides of life. On one side, she lives in the world of reality in which she is a wife, she has Richard as her husband and, Michael and Carolyn as her children. There she lives with her family and does her routines as an Iowan farmer’s wife, but on the other side of her life, she lives with her illusion and her dreams, to be one who is able to express who is she and what she want to be.
In this novel, Waller builds the character of Francesca Johnson with some characteristics. He illustrates Francesca’s personal description as a woman who has an interesting physical appearance. According to Murphy’s theory, the author can make his characters understandable by using some type of description, one of them is character as seen by another.
He took a small drink of tea and watched her. She was about five feet, fortyish or a little older, pretty face, and a fine, warm body. But there were pretty women everywhere he traveled. Such physical matters were nice, yet to him, intelligence and passion born of living, the ability to move and be moved by subtleties of the mind and spirit, were what really counted. That’s why he found most of young women unattractive, regardless of their exterior beauty. They had not lived long enough to possess those qualities that interest him (Waller, p.38-39).
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from another pretty girls that Robert ever met before. From this quotation, the readers will find that Francesca is a woman who possesses quality that not all of women have and also attracting a man. One of them is that Francesca is a woman who is not simply pretty, but also has a high quality.
Stanton’s theory says that a reader can understand a character in a story from the character’s own dialogue and behavior. In the novel, Francesca is described as a smoker.
Robert Kincaid pulled a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket, shook one halfway out, and offered it to her. For the second time in five minutes, she surprised herself and took the cigarette. What I am doing? She thought. She had smoked years ago but gave it up under the steady thumb of criticism from Richard… Francesca Johnson, farmer’s wife, rested against the dusky truck seat, smoked the cigarette, and pointed out, “There it is, just around the curve.” (Waller, p.33).
The quotation above shows that she used to smoke, but she gave it up because Richard wanted her to stop her habit. She goes back to her old behavior after her meeting with Robert.
“But” – she hesitated, smoked, looked across the table at Robert Kincaid – (Waller, p.42).
They both smoked, saying nothing, drinking brandy, drinking coffee (Waller, p.64).
Francesca really enjoys her habit to smoke. It seems that by smoking, she wants to shows her rebellion toward Richard’s rule.
Francesca snuffed out her cigarette in the ashtray, swung open the door, and put her boots on the gravel. She glanced around to make sure none of her neighbors’ car were coming and walked toward the bridge (Waller, p.35).
consciousness of her social environment, Iowa People. There is a quotation which shows Francesca’s reaction toward the society around her.
‘I’m supposed to say, just fine, it’s quiet. The people are nice. All of that’s true, mostly. It is quiet. And the people are nice in certain ways. We all help each other out. If someone gets sick or hurt, the neighbors pitch in and pick corn or harvest oats or do whatever needs to be done. In town, you can leave your car unlocked and let your children run without worrying about them. There are a lot of good things about the people here and I respect them for those qualities…” (Waller, p.42).
She realizes that she lives in a social community that is totally new for her. She tries to settle in the situation in it. Here, Francesca is portrayed as an outgoing person.
It is true that Francesca cares of the other like Iowa society, the society in which she lives, but since she moved to Iowa she becomes an introvert person.
Then, after twenty years of living the close life, a life of circumscribed behavior and hidden feelings demanded by rural culture, Francesca Johnson surprised herself by saying, “I’ll be glad to show it to you, if you want.” Why she did that, she never had been sure. A young girl’s feelings rising like a bubble through water and bursting out, maybe, after all these years (Waller, p.29).
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“She sat on the front porch swing. Richard came out after his program finished at ten o’clock. He stretch and said, ”Sure is good to be home.” Then looking at her, “You okay, Frannie? You seem a little tired or dreamy or somethin’”
“Yes,m I’m just fine Richard. It’s good to have you back safe and sound.” (Waller, p.121)
That is why Francesca prefers to hide her feeling rather than to tell Richard about what she feels and about what happened in their house when Richard and their children went to Illinois. She tries to keep that secret by herself instead of letting the others know it.
Although she is described as an introvert person, there is a time when she is able to share her feeling with someone she trusts, in this case Robert.
“But” – she hesitated, smoked, looked across the table at Robert Kincaid – “It’s not what I dreamed about as a girl. “The confession at last. The words had been there for years, and she had never said them” (Waller, p.42). That line gives an idea of Francesca’s disappointment of reality she faces up. She has a dream, but she can only keep it for herself for a long time, therefore she has a delusion world where she lives with all her dream.
Francesca lives in a situation which lacks of happiness. It is hard for her to stay in it, in the family in which she can not express her ideas and feeling freely. Her rights and ideas are limited by an unseen boarder that puts her in a corner. She is a woman who is seldom has a chance to choose something or makes a decision for herself, but once she has it, she becomes a woman with a firm attitude who is able to make a choice clearly.
The quotation above shows Francesca’s explicit decision. There is a moment when she has a chance to accompany Robert making picture in Cedar Bridge. After Francesca thinks deeply about the risk of her choice, she decides to take that chance.
Francesca is a woman with a firm attitude in making a choice. She never hesitates with the step she takes, but she always takes a choice with a deep thought before she decides to take it. It can be concluded that Francesca is a thinker. She always thinks about the problem she faces, analyzes it, before she decides what to do.
Then he added, “If you want to come along while I’m shooting, that’s fine. It won’t bother me. I could stop by for you about fine-thirty… Francesca’s mind worked the problem. She wanted to go with him. But what if someone saw her? What could she say to Richard if he found out? Cedar Bridges sat fifty yards upstream from and parallel to the new road and its concrete bridge. She wouldn’t be too noticeable. Or would she? In less than two seconds, she decides. “Yes, I’d like that. But I’ll drive my pickup and meet you there. What time?” (Waller, p.76-77).
Inside her heart, Francesca really loves Robert and she definitely wants to be with him. She thinks about the consequences and the safe plans to meet Robert in Cedar Bridge. As the last step, she decides that she wants to accompany Robert, and there is nothing that can stop her.
B. Francesca Johnson as the Reflection of Women in the Middle of the Emerging Feminist Movement
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the modern Women’s Movement. Than, it can be concluded that this story might represent the general situation of women in the middle of the emerging feminist movement. According to the background above, the writer tries to portray the women’s life in that era by analyzing the aspect of life of the character of Francesca Johnson. Here, the writer divides the second part of the analysis in this study into some point in order to make it easier for the readers to catch the writer’s idea.
1. Francesca and Her Past Life
It has been for a long time that the society considers men as superior and women as inferior. This paradigm was started by the traditional thought and up to now, it is still strongly embedded to the way of thinking of the society. The gender discrimination places women as a second sex and to be the party who should obey the rules of which are made by the first party which is consist of another elements of society: men and parents. There is such belief in the society which is said when unmarried, a woman was the property of her father, and once married, she became the property of her husband.
Simon De Beauvoir in Maggie Humm’s FEMINISM A Reader quotes ‘The female is a female by virtue of a certain lacks of qualities,’ said Aristotle; ‘we should regard the female nature as afflicted with natural defectiveness.’ And St. Thomas for his part pronounced woman to be an ‘imperfect man’, an ‘incidental’ being. This is symbolized in Genesis where Eve is depicted as made from what Bossuet called ‘a supernumery bone’ of Adam (Humm, p.47).
The oppression toward women was undergone by Francesca in her past life which in the end gives a big impact for Francesca’s life. She faced some experiences that placing her in a situation which harmed her.
a. Francesca’s Obedience toward Her Father
The first oppression is Francesca’s obedience toward her parents. Francesca’s parents are traditional parents who tend to force their daughter to accept the decision they make.
“She had been twenty-five when they met – out of the university for three years, teaching at a private school for girls, wondering about her life. Most of the young Italian men were died or injured or in POW camps or broken by the fighting. Her affair with Niccolo, a professor of art at the university, who painted all day and took her on wild, reckless tours of the underside of Naples at night, had been over for a year, done in finally by the unceasing disapproval of her traditional parents (Waller, p. 19).
That part of the story tells that as a woman, Francesca can not decide by herself what is good for her according her own thought and choice that she really want to choose. Here, her parents take a role to make a decision for Francesca to choose a man with whom she would live in the future. It is a proof that Francesca as a woman has no right to decide the thing that actually it is a very personal matter for her. Her right and her will are defeated by her parent’s superiority toward her.
Francesca’s parents’ involvement in making a decision brings a consequence that she does not have other choices anymore about with whom she can past the rest of her life.
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There is nothing else can be done by Francesca except to accept Richard as her life partner. She accepted Richard by the consideration that he might fulfill her needs and finance. As a woman Francesca thinks that financial matter is more important rather than the matter of love, and she thinks Richard is the one who is able to support her life, although there is no guarantee that she will get the happiness and the feeling to be loved by someone if she marries Richard. The most important thing for her was, Richard offered to take her to America, far away from her strict, disapproving parents.
b. Francesca’s Experience to be Abused
When Francesca studied in High School, she had faced an experience which is until now; it is not easy for her to forget.
But the bias against poetry they had picked up, the view of it as a product of unsteady masculinity, was too much even for Yeats to overcome… She remembered Matthew Clark looking at the boy beside him and then forming his hands as if to cup them over a woman’s breasts when she read, “The golden apples of the sun”. They had snickered, and the girls in the back row with them blushed (Waller, p.60).
The quotation above shows Francesca’s disagreement toward what was done by Matthew Clark. Francesca loves poetry with its beautiful words, but she was disappointed by the act of man, in this case Matthew Clark who was abusing and humiliating women by interpreting the words on Yeats poetry as the description of the part of women’s body. For that, she could not do anything, although inside her heart she wanted to complain and fought for her self-respect as a woman.
Francesca suffers by her finding that men live with their attitude, that was to despise women. By the fact that she, herself and the girls in her poetry class had an experience to be despised by male students, she fells that she was an outsider in society. For her, it seemed that the society was authorized by men’s power.
2. Francesca and Her Marriage
Francesca is a married woman. She has Richard, an Iowan farmer, as her husband and Michael and Carolyn as her children. So, she has double role on her family, those are as a wife and as a mother. Here a quotation from the article written by Betty Friedan. She explains that a husband and children has a big involvement in woman’s consciousness of her identity.
There is an article which tells about Betty Friedan’s finding that women are victims of a false belief system that requires them to find identity and meaning in their lives through their husband and children. Such system causes women to lose completely their identity in that of their family (http://www. nytimes.com/2006/02/05/national/05friedanbox.html?r=1&oref=login).
In her book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan states that the feminine mystique permits even encourages women to ignore the question of their identity. The mystique says they can answer the question “Who am I?” by saying “Tom’s wife… Mary’s mother.” But I don’t think the mystique would have such power over American women if they did not fear to face this terrifying blank which makes them unable to see themselves (Friedan, p.79).
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identity, which began a hundred years ago and have to suffer it still today, simply to become fully human (Friedan, p.79).
Francesca’s role as a wife and as a mother both of roles on her family are also tyranny for her. In her double positions in her family, she actually never gets happiness but only to fulfill the society’s suggestion, that a woman becomes a complete woman when she has a family, a husband and children.
a. Francesca as a Wife
As Richard’s wife, Francesca is often being oppressed by Richard, both directly and indirectly. There are some points that exist in Francesca and make her decide to hold on in her family as good wife for Richard. They are more like a demand that comes from society and should be fulfilled by women in their role as wives.
i. Francesca’s Self-sacrifice for Richard.
In her marriage with Richard, Francesca is a faithful wife. It is told in the story that she is not happy to be Richard’s wife. There are so many things that she does not like from Richard. After she meets Robert, she feels that he is the one whom she loves and with whom she wants to live with. Ignoring her dreams and desire to pursue her own happiness, she prefers to stay with Richard rather than to go with Robert.
For maybe twenty seconds they sat there. He was up ahead, only thirty feet from her. She could still do it. Get out and run to Harry’s right door, climb in over the knapsacks and cooler and tripods (Waller, p.123).
use it as a justification for her decision to leave Richard. She realized that Richard was her husband and she had to respect him whatever he was, as her consequences to marry him.
Francesca is not only faithful but also responsible wife. She realizes that she has a family and she knows her duty as a wife and a mother.
But she sat frozen by her responsibilities, staring at that back window harder than she had ever looked at anything in her life. His left signal light came on. In a moment he’d be gone (Waller, p.124).
That is the moment when Francesca has a chance to leave Richard for Robert. The change to get freedom is definitely in front her face. She just needs to do a little step to make her dream come true, that is to be with Robert, the man she loves most. The thing that can restrain her is her responsibility toward Richard, her husband.
Behind her strength to hold on in her family, still, she is a woman who thirsts of a man’s love, care and attention. In all her life, she never get it, but from Robert.
“Robert, I’m not quite finished. If you took me in to your arms and carried me to your truck and forced me to go with you, I wouldn’t murmur a complaint. You could do the same thing just by talking to me. But I don’t think you will. You’re too sensitive, too aware of my feelings of my responsibility here (Waller, p.115).
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Francesca cannot deny her unhappy marriage because it lacks of romantics things. That reality bored her, but she tries to deal with this situation as much as she can, and again, her responsibility toward her marriage has important role in keeping her to stay.
“Yes, it’s boring in its way. My life, that is. It lacks romance, eroticism, dancing in the kitchen to candlelight, and the wonderful of feel of a man who knows how to love a woman. Most of all, it lacks you. But there’s damn sense of responsibility I have. To Richard, to the children. Just my leaving, taking away my physical presence would be hard enough for Richard. That alone might destroy him (Waller, p115).
That line proves that Francesca will never want to give her responsibilities up for the sake of her selfishness to pursue her own happiness. It is said that to leave her family will give a big impact for her life that is impossible to change something inside her. It means that her responsibility is a big deal for her that she would never leave it for any reason.
ii. Francesca’s Obedience toward Richard
Francesca is also a wife who always obeys her husband. Actually, Francesca is an intelligent woman with her education background. She has her own thought and idea, but most of the time, Richard’s will leads her to put them away. She thinks that she is a married woman, that is why she had to obey her husbands.
The quotation above shows that Francesca had ever worked, but she gave up because Richard did not like the idea of her working. As a wife, she would do what her husband wanted her to do. She just believed that Richard was able to support her and her children, and she did not want to underestimate Richard’s income, that was why she preferred to gave up from her job.
iii. Francesca as Richard’s Complement
In her marriage, in the matter of sex particularly, Francesca is a wife who is actually unhappy and never gets what she needs from her husband.
Richard was interested in sex only occasionally, every couple of month, but it was over fast, rudimentary and unmoving, and he didn’t seem to care much about perfume or shaving or any of that. It was easy to get a little sloppy… (Waller, p.67).
The passage gives an illustration of how Francesca wants to have a sex activity which makes her feel comfortable and completely satisfied by her husband courage to please her. For Francesca herself, sex is important because it is something that brings the relation between her and Richard closer. She thinks that in sex, they can express their love and care toward each other, but unfortunately, she does not get that sense from Richard.
iv. Francesca’s Subordination
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She was more of a business partner to him than anything else. Some of her appreciated that. But rustling yet within her was another person who wanted to bathe and perfume herself..and be taken, carried away, and peeled back by a force she could sense, but never articulate, even dimly within her mind (Waller, p.67).
That is the part when as a wife, Francesca thinks that she is better not to complain. She learns that a good wife should be silent and not to start the fire in her marriage.
Francesca is a woman who is open-minded to talk about sex and other issues which exist in a marriage, but it is not the same with Richard.
But there was something more going on here. Predictability is one thing, fear of change is something else. And Richard was afraid of change, any kind of change, in their marriage. Didn’t want to talk about it in general. Didn’t want to talk about sex in particular. Erotism was, in some way, dangerous business, unseemly to his way of thinking (Waller, p.89-90). Francesca feels that there is something wrong in her marriage, particularly in her sex-relationship with Richard. It is difficult for her, because in the matter of the way of thinking, Richard is totally different from her. She is open-minded and able to accept changes in their marriage, while Richard even does not want to talk about it or to accept changes.
Although in the most part of her role as Richard’s wife she is unhappy, but she still has a big care and attention for Richard and also her children.
“Yes, it’s boring in its way. My life, that is. It lacks romance, eroticism, dancing in the kitchen to candlelight, and the wonderful of feel of a man who knows how to love a woman. Most of all, it lacks you. But there’s damn sense of responsibility I have. To Richard, to the children. Just my leaving, taking away my physical presence would be hard enough for Richard. That alone might destroy him (Waller, p115).
he does not have what the men should have, understanding, love and enough attention toward their wives. Richard even seems does not know what she needs or what she wants. That is a situation which can be said as imbalanced, which woman had given anything they have, while in the other hand there is no equal response from man.
b. Francesca as a Mother
In her family, besides she has a role as a wife, Francesca also has a position as a mother. She has two children; Michael and Carolyn, the both of them live in another town. Her role as a mother is another burden for Francesca. Her two children, Michael and Carolyn are seldom visiting Francesca in Iowa. The two of them have their own career and business, that is why they cannot meet so often in a year. As a mother, Francesca always tries to understand her children.
The children had called. Neither of them could make it home again this year for her birthday, though it was her sixty-seventh. She understood, as she always did. Always had. Always would (Waller, p. 18).
That part above shows that in an occasion which should be special and most of parents want to pass it with their family or their children, Francesca should pass in alone. After Richard death, she passes almost all of her time by herself, including celebrating her birthday. It is her sixty-seventh and her children can not accompany her to celebrate her birthday ‘again’, but Francesca ‘again’ understands their reasons without any complain.
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This morning her friends from Winterset had stopped by with a birthday cake. Francesca made coffee, while the talk ran to grandchildren and the town, to Thanksgiving and what to get for Christmas for whom. The quiet laughter and the rise and fall of conversation from the living room were comforting in their familiarity and reminded Francesca of one small reason why she had stayed here after Richard’s death (Waller, p. 18).
The quotation above illustrates how Francesca’s children’s attention for her is nothing comparing with her friends’. Francesca, like other parents also has a wish to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and maybe her ‘lonely’ birthday together with her family, her children and her grandchildren. She wish that her living room is really ‘live’ and full of familiarity like when she is visited by her friends, but her wish is an empty wish since Michael and Carolyn never make it come true. Francesca is disappointed with Michael and Carolyn’s attitude, but she manages her self not to blame them.
Michael had touted Florida, Carolyn New England. But she had remained in the hills of south Iowa, on the land, keeping her old address for a special reason, and she was glad had done that (Waller, p. 18).
Although Michael and Carolyn have moved from Iowa, Francesca prefers to remain in her family’s old address with the hope that someday, when Carolyn and Michael have a time to go home again, they still have memories of their old house.
c. Francesca as a Housewife
Richard and the children were at Illinois State Fair, exhibiting the prize steer that received more attention than she did, and she had the week to herself (Waller, p.27).
Richard and her children go to Illinois exhibiting the prize steer. It seems that the event is more important for them rather time to spend at home, be with her and help her doing her ‘duty’.
Francesca always tries to be a good housewife, who is always at home, does domestic duties and takes care every little thing at home when her family leaves.
The shower shut off upstairs just as the phone rang. It was Richard, calling from Illinois. “Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
“Carolyne’s steer’ll be judged on Wednesday. Some other things we want to see next day. Be home Friday, late.”
“All right, have a good time and drive carefully.” “Frannie, you sure you’re okay? Sound a little strange.”
“No, I’m fine. Just hot. I’ll better after my bath.” (Waller, p.88).
Richard and the children can go home anytime they want. They thing it is enough just to phone her and they will know that everything is alright in home. They never think about how hard Francesca with all her courage handling everything by herself to make sure that when they come home again, everything is fine and in its place.
Francesca is a farmer’s wife, so she has to deal with farm life in her everyday. When another woman has a time to dress up their selves, Francesca has herself tackle her job in the farm.
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Francesca’s life is a hard life. She must be able to take over her husband role as a farmer when he leaves. And there is a contradiction between her wish and the reality she should face. As a woman, she wants to look pretty and has a time to take care of her self, but as a farmer, she does not have a time to spoil herself. Even it seems that it is only a little thing, but as a wife she might have a fear that she can not fulfill her husband’s need, that is for her to look pretty and like the other women who are well-taken care, although she never sure that Richard care much about it.
3. Francesca and Her Opportunity of Career
In patriarchal society, women are being inferior, ruled by men, assumed as second class of society. A woman’s life is under the control of a man. A girl often requires her father’s opinion or permission for her final decision, even in the most private matters like career or marriage.
In the story, Francesca is told as an educated woman. She is a woman who has an obsession and courage to make it real.
She had been twenty-five when they met-out of the university for three years, teaching at a private school for girls, wondering about her life (Waller, p.19).
In her hometown in Italy, she had her first career, that is as a private school for girls. Her career as private school girls brings a speculation that she wants to show her personal reason, that she supports the education for girls (women).
happy by the fact that her position as local man’s wife makes her easier to be accepted in her new social community.
Francesca hadn’t expected him to ask. She stammered for a moment. “Oh, gosh, nothing like you do. I got my degree in comparative literature. Winterset was having trouble finding teachers when I arrived here in 1946, and the fact that I was married to local man who was a veteran made me acceptable… so I picked up a teaching certificate and taught high school English for a few years (Waller, p.41).
The quotation above shows that Francesca is a woman who has a strong will to dedicate her life in the area of education. She uses any little chance to get a job in the field that she concerns on, that is education. She also has a will to fulfill the requirement even she must have extra-courage to complete it. It shows that she is a woman who is one-step forward comparing with the women around her in the place she lives.
4. Francesca as Herself
Francesca is a daughter, a wife and a mother. Almost in every aspects of her life, she is ruled by the other. It was started by her parents, who decided anything for Francesca in the past. Their choices for her even, have a big impact in Francesca’s present life and change her attitude to be a dependent woman.
Then her oppression is continued by the authority of Richard, her husband. Carrying out her duty as a wife, Francesca is totally under Richard’s control. She even does not dare to complain about Richard’s failure to be an ideal husband for her. He forces her to be a dependent woman.
