AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SENNY PERMATA SARI Student Number: 044214089
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
HOPE IN DONA MARIA DEPICTED IN THORNTON WILDER’S THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SENNY PERMATA SARI Student Number: 044214089
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2009
“ And seek first the
kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all
these things shall be
added to you.”
Matthew 6 : 33
I dedicated this thesis to
My Late Granpa
ABBAS YONG
And
YONG FAMILY
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First of all I would like to thank Lord Jesus for His providence, provision, protection and guidance during my hard times and especially during the finishing of this thesis. I would never be able to pass all of these tests without His mercy and love. My best gratitude goes to Dra. Th. Enny Anggraini, M.A. for every help and advice as my advisor and Adventina Putranti, S.S, M. Hum as my co-advisor.
I thank my father and mother for the understanding and patients. For my brothers Yohan and Christian, I thank God so much I have them both as my brothers because, whether they realize it or not, they both have become source of strength and passion for me to finish this thesis and I miss those times when we quarreled a lot. My special gratitude also goes to my uncle Francisco Yong and family for their unquestionable kindness and careness as my sponsor during my study in Sanata Dharma University.
To my beloved spiritual friend Jane, thank you for lending me your computer and for your availability every time I need a prayer. I thank all of my unpredictable and precious friends in Komunitas Gayam 16 for all the unforgotten experiences in the last 2 years and all the supports. Last but not least, I thank my two best friends ever, Uke and Ningsih, for their countless support, advice, books, chats, laughs, tears, passions, precious experiences and all the encouragement lines that we share for the last 5 years and hopefully this friendship will last forever. I thank them very much.
vii C. Objectives of the Study……….. D. Definition of terms………. CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW………..
A. Review of Related Studies………. B. Review of Related Theories……….. 1. Theory of Character………. 2. Basic Evil, Hostility, and Anxiety………... 3. Theory of Hope……… B. Approach of the Study………... C. Method of the Study………. CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS………
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ABSTRACT
SENNY PERMATA SARI. Hope in Dona Maria Depicted in Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009
The topic of this thesis is based on the background perception that a person with neurotic behavior characteristic is supposed to have no future hope. However, the writer finds that that perception is not exactly true. Therefore, this study aims to prove that hope can exist inside a person with neurotic behavior. In this study, the writer uses Thornton Wilder literary work titled The Bridge of san Luis Rey and chooses one of the major characters, Dona Maria, as the object of the study. From the background of the study, the writer develops two problem formulations which cover (1) the identification of Dona Maria’s characteristic and (2) finds hope in Dona Maria’s character and how she sees the hope.
To do the analysis the writer uses psychological approach and theories. Theories that are used are theory of character by E. M Foster and M. J Murphy, theory of basic evil, hostility and anxiety by Karen Horney and also the most fundamental theory of this study that is theory of hope by C. R. Snyder.
By using the theory of character, the writer figures out that Dona Maria is very care and passionate to her daughter which makes her optimist that she can get her daughter’s love. It can be said that if Dona Maria does not care and passionate to her daughter, Dona Maria will not give any care whether Dona Clara loves her or not. All that she has done to Dona Clara is the reflection of her careness. Dona Maria also has perceived problem-solving ability which enables her to perform her hope. Those two characteristics enable the writer to do the second analysis toward the existence of hope in Dona Maria. After doing analysis on the elements of hope, the writer figures out that there is hope in Dona Maria. Despite the fact that she is different, because of her neurotic behavior, she is realizes that that she has hope and it is showed by her high mental willpower and waypower. She knows what she wants most and that becomes her hope.
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Topik dari skripsi ini berdasarkan pada pandangan bahwa seseorang dengan mental yang terganggu tidak mungkin memiliki sebuah harapan untuk masa depan. Tetapi penulis menemukan bahwa pandangan tersebut tidaklah selalu benar. Oleh karena itu, studi ini bertujuan untuk membuktikan bahwa seseorang dengan mental yang terganggu dapat memiliki harapan di dalam dirinya.
Di dalam studi ini, penulis menggunakan karya sastra dari Thornton Wilder yang berjudul The Bridge of san Luis Rey dan memilih salah satu dari tiga karakter utama, Dona Maria, sebagai objek studi. Berdasarkan latar belakang dari studi ini, penulis mengembangkan dua permasalahan yang meliputi (1) Pengidentifikasian karakter Dona Maria dengan cara menelusuri masa lalu nya dalam hubunganya dengan keberadaan nya sebagai seseorang dengan mental yang terganggu dan (2) penemuan harapan di dalam diri Dona Maria dengan mengacu pada efek yang ditimbulkan oleh karakter yang dia miliki dan cara pandangnya terhadap harapan.
Dalam melakukan analisa, penulis menggunakan pendekatan psikologis dan teori-teori. Teori-teori yang digunakan adalah teori karakter dari E. M Foster dan M. J Murphy, teori basic Evil, hostility dan anxiety dari Karen Horney dan juga teori yang menjadi dasar dari studi ini yaitu teori harapan dari C. R. Snyder.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
It is very commonly said that human being is social creature who is not able to live by themselves without getting involves with others for the sake of their existence in this world. From that-very-common statement, it can be said that human being is very connected with the environment around them. The writer may say that human being lives under the influence of a couple elements, the external factors and the internal factors. It may be similar to the elements that can be found in, for instance, a literary work such as a prose like the extrinsic and intrinsic elements.
In a prose, the intrinsic elements consist of theme, characters, plot, symbolism, atmosphere, tone, setting of time and place and others which influence the work from ‘inside’, whereas extrinsic elements are elements which influence a work from the ‘outside’ of the work, for example the author or the social and historical background of the story. These two elements are combined together to make one unity of a story and without both or one of them the story may not exist as a complete story.
Actually that kind of process also happens in one’s life. Basically, an individual lives under the influence of the external and internal factors of the environment. The external factor could be the culture, social life, economy, community idealism, family tradition, childhood experiences, etc. Those
examples of external factors of one’s life give a big contribution to the internal factors of one’s life. The internal factors can be faith, beliefs, life’s vision, etc. Both elements contribute the shaping process of one’s character or personality which also helps in determining actions which may be taken by a person as the response of certain circumstances.
Knowing better and deeper about characteristics of a particular character in a story is needed in order to have an image toward any changing and development of the character itself. Conducting study about character means dealing with the variety of people in the world which is possible to be found in all literary works.
Identifying the characteristics of each character may be the next difficult task to do. However, every author usually provides the character with motivation, “…a sufficient reason to behave as they do” (Kennedy, 1998: 60) in order to help the analysts to understand the character and even to have a future image of what the character will do or take an act toward certain circumstances.
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may be difference with the way people in general sees hope. The study attempts to discover and to make clear the hope in the character of Dona Maria. Dona Maria is one of three major characters in the novel. She is chosen because she has unique characteristics that the writer has already mentioned it before. The unique here means that she is different from the other three characters. She is assumed to have less life consciousness than the other three characters and because of that she has a different way to see hope.
A. Problem Formulation
Considering topic and the background of the study, the problem formulation covers the exploration of one of the intrinsic elements as the part of analysis in relation with the outside elements, that is, hope. Therefore, the problems are formulated as follows:
1. How is the characteristic of Dona Maria described?
2. How does her characteristic help to reveal hope in Dona Maria?
B. Objectives of the Study
Regarding to the problem formulations, the objectives of the study is first of all to identify the characteristics of Dona Maria. The answer of the first problem formulation will be used to find out its influence toward the way Dona Maria sees hope and to help the writer to reveal hope itself inside Dona Maria.
C. Definition of Term
In order to have a general understanding on the topic that is going to be analyzed later, definition of related term will be explained briefly in this part. Considering the topic, the term that is going to be used is hope from psychology viewpoint.
In the analysis, the writer takes the definition of hope formulated by C. R Snyder. In his book titled The Psychology of Hope, he determines hope as “the sum of the mental willpower and waypower that you have for your goals” (Snyder, 1994: 5). In other words, hope is the combination of both mental willpower and waypower in order to reach goals. Here, Snyder uses three key words that are mental willpower, waypower and goals.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is one of famous works in the world of
literature, no doubts that since its publishing day it arises many compliments and even criticisms in forms of analysis, studies, essays and articles. One of the essays about the novel is entitled “The Bridge of San Luis Rey by
Thornton Wilder: Some Observation by John Barich”. In his essay, Barich’s
concern is on the theodicy element of the novel and he relates it to the author. In short, Barich’s essay discusses Wilder’s attitudes as a Christian on putting the themes of love, hope and death in the novel which are influenced by Wilder’s belief in God. Barich attempts to observe Wilder’s point of view toward life and death and “…Good befalls the evil and evil befalls the good”
(http://www.rjgeib.com/barich/papers/bridge-san-luis-rey.html). The result is
not far from the idea of binary opposition by looking at the negation side. Death is meaningless without the existence of life and death will make sense whenever it is seen in a context of life particularly life that is dedicated to love and care to others.
Meanwhile, another study related to this thesis’s topic is about the intrinsic elements, the episodes in relation with religious aspects. Gregorius Winarno (1994) in his undergraduate thesis titled “Religious aspects in The Bridge Of San Luis Rey: An Analysis of The Episodes and The Setting
Description” attempts to discover the way Thornton Wilder presents the religious aspects inside The Bridge Of san Luis Rey’s episodes. Here, his object is in the form of a play.
The next study may be not really related to the object of the study of this thesis but it is more related to the topic analyzed in this thesis. It is a discourse that is given by Debora Eggelletion at The PLIM 1997 Retreat in White Cloud, Michigan as reported by Dr. Lee Warren, B.A., D.D. titled
Psychology of Hope: The Power Latent of Man.
In this short lecture, she tries to give a clear image or even meaning of what hope is and what is not. She states that “…there are certain spiritual intangibles that humankind needs in order to develop psychologically and spiritually. Hope is one of the spiritual principles needed to sustain man’s mind and soul.”(http://www.plim.org/psychology.html). Here, she focuses on the principle of hope psychologically and spiritually as the additional element to be considered because according to her, hope also can not be separated from spiritual viewpoint.
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“…without the spiritual principle of hopes, goals, dreams, visions, or challenges in life could nor materialize for mankind and the world would sink into the doldrums of despair”. (Eggelletion, par 5)
Unlike the discourse above, in this thesis the writer tries to do the application of the theory of hope which involves a literary text as the field of the application. Furthermore, the analysis will also involve the exploration of an intrinsic element, characters, as the important elements of analysis.
A. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Character
Since the writer analyzes the character in this analysis, the theory of character as a part of theory of intrinsic elements is used. X. J. Kennedy and Dona Gioia in their book titled an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama state that a character is “…an imagined person who inhabits a story” (1998: 60).
The character in the story tends to be individual rather than stereotype and each of individual character has motivation which refers to a particular reason to behave like they do. Moreover, E. M. Forster in his book titled
Aspect of Novels and Related Writings (1947) divides character into a couple
type that is flat character and round character.
circumstances created around the character. Some critics call it as static character.
Meanwhile round character is likely to be said as the opposite of flat character. A round character tends to have a quick understanding and learning process toward an experience. In other words, the character will change as the result of the effects created by the circumstance. Some critics call it as dynamic character. In simple way, the key to determine whether a certain character is round or flat lays in the reaction of the character which leads to a change in any term such us point of view or characteristics.
In doing this analysis, the writer has a fundamental perception that the analysis will reach its goal if the character is flexible. Meaning to say, the character still has chance to change. Therefore this theory is used in order to prove and convince the writer that the character as the object of the analysis is a capable source.
One fact that is very crucial about character is the motivations inside the character. A character is a person and every character or person created in the story must have motivations. These motivations will lead to the characteristics of the character. Character’s motivation is the focus of the analysis. It is already mentioned that motivation is the thing that drives a character to behave like it does. Every behavior from the character shows the characteristic of the character itself. However, the writer wants to emphasize an important thing that is said by Robert Forster in his book titled In
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and basic motivation. Specific motivation is the character’s “…immediate
reason, perhaps unconscious, for any particular speech or act” (Forster, 1965: 17). Here, the writer wants to underline the words ‘perhaps unconscious’. The writer is doing so because the understanding of specific motivation will contribute the analysis later for the analysis itself involves what is called unconscious. Meanwhile, for the basic motivation of a character, Robert Forster says:
“…basic motivation is an aspect of his general character: it is the
continuing desire or intention that governs him throughout the story, the direction toward which almost all his specific motivations tend.” (Forster 1965: 17)
From both understanding it is clear that each character usually has both of the motivation which is related one and another. One thing to be considered is that actually analyzing a character is analyzing its motivation which also means analyzing its characteristics. It is because the fact that each character has each motivation. The motivation helps the reader to see and understand the characteristics of a character from the speech and the act that the character does.
In order to support the above theory, the writer looks further on the other theory of character taken from M. J. Murphy Ph. D on his
Understanding Unseen. According to Murphy, authors have ability that the
the reader, authors use a few ways. These ways are created to help the reader to understand the characteristic that the character carries in the story.
a. Personal Description. The author helps the reader to understand the
characteristics of a character by describing its appearance and clothes.
b. Character as Seen by Another. Instead of telling the character to the
reader directly, the author describes the characteristics of the character from another character’s point of view.
c. Speech. The author describes the character from the way they speak in a
dialogue.
d. Past Life. By offering the story of the characters’ past life, the author
attempts to help the readers know the character by themselves.
e. Conversation of Others. Conversation of people may give a clue to the
person’s characteristics.
f. Reactions. The way a person reacts toward his or her surrounding can
give a clue to their character.
g. Direct Comments. In respond to point b, the author can also use direct
descriptions or comments to describe the character.
h. Thoughts. In this point, the author does something, by which the reader
cannot, that is, describe what a person is thinking about.
i. Mannerisms. Description of a person’s mannerisms or habits may also
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2. Basic Evil, Hostility and Anxiety
Actually these three theories are a set of a domino effect. It comes one after another. It begins with basic evil then it becomes basic hostility and then turns to basic anxiety. These three theories are introduced by a psychologist named Karen Horney who is one of Freud pupils. Horney believes that the cause of neurosis is disturbed human relationship. Moreover, in a book titled
An Introduction of Personality (1990), she emphasizes that “…the rudiments
of neurotic behavior are found in the relationship between parent and child” (Horney, 1990: 129). Here, Horney wants to say that early childhood experience plays the important role to determine the personality and the character of child during the grown up phase which exactly will affect the adult phase.
child’s security which Horney called basic evil. A Child who suffers from those kinds of abuses is then experience basic hostility, a situation where “…The child is caught between dependence on the parents and hostility toward them…” (Horney, 1990: 130). It is a situation where a child feels hatred and fear toward the parents but can not demonstrate the feeling. It is because the child is afraid that the parents will leave him or her whereas he or she still needs the parents. This condition shows the parents’ failure in fulfilling the child’s needs of security and freedom of fear. In simple way, the abused child feels hatred and fear toward the parents.
Unfortunately, Horney adds that the condition of undergoing the feeling of hostility caused by the parents “…does not isolated; instead it generalized to the entire world and all the people in it” (Horney, 1990: 130). It causes the child becomes fully convinced that everyone is potentially dangerous and can do harm on them just like what the parents have done to them. In this phase, the child experiences basic anxiety.
3. Theory of Hope
Regarding to the topic, the analysis involves the concept of hope. When we are talking about hope, it means we are talking about something that is expected to happen at the future. Many people attempt to define the meaning of hope from many aspects of life.
Monika L. Hellwig, in her book titled What They Are saying about
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spiritual side. She implies that the way people see hope is rather influenced by certain religious aspect and here, she uses Christian’s point of view. In her explanation she defines hope as:
“…one of the ways to express our intended toward future realities that we wanted to be inside our selves or even in universe by negation some things we experience in the present…” (Hellwig, 1978: 18). In simple way, it can be said that hope is some kind of way in which we can claim what we believe to gain in the future, in present. In other words, hope is the way of speaking of the future outcome of human life. Hope happens normally at the present time.
Hellwig’s thought about the relation between hope and Christianity is related to the concept of hope in the Holy Bible. Christian’s belief toward hope in God is very strong. Book of Romans shows how hope plays the important role in one’s life within God. Romans chapter 5 verses 1-5 mentioned the relation between faith and hope and the power of hope in God in a bad circumstance:
“ THEREFORE, having been justified by faith, we have piece with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 and not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 And perseverance, character; and character, hope; 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us ” (Romans 5: 1-5)
psychologically as well as spiritually, are taking part on balancing one’s mind and soul. As it is already said by Debora Eggelleton that hope is not only related to man’s psychology but also affects man’s spiritual life.
That is hope in the opinion of Hellwig and Eggeleton. Another theory about hope comes from a Catholic pastor named William F. Lynch, S. J. He writes a book in 1966 titled IMAGE OF HOPE Imagination as Healer of the
Hopeless. Lynch defines hope as:
“I define hope… as the fundamental knowledge and feeling that there is a way out of difficulty, that things can workout, that we as a human persons can somehow handle and manage internal and external reality that there are ‘solution’ in the most ordinary biological and psychological sense of that word, that, above all there are ways out of illness” (Lynch, 1966: 24)
Lynch writes this book after he read a testimony written by a suicidal person who desperately wants to be healed from the condition of being depressed. He says that basically people with no hope or hopeless is a sick people.
From the definition that he makes, it is clear that hope is a kind of mind set in which one is convinced that he or she is capable to handle problems. The definition also implies that every person is blessed with capability to handle bad things in their life. In simple way, Lynch advices people to keep thinking positive.
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theory with steps or methods on how to determine a person is hopeful or helpless. This theory only gives approximate statements about findings hope and hopeless in one’s character.
Fortunately, there is another theory that looks more applicable to the analysis. That is the theory of hope conducted by C. R Snyder. The consideration to choose Snyder’s theory rather than other two theories is the non existence of spiritual influences within hope that is found in the character of analysis, Dona Maria.
Snyder’s theory of hope uses more psychological point of view. For the consideration, the analysis of this study also uses psychological point of view. Moreover, Snyder provides his theory with sufficient and complete steps to help the writer to apply the theory.
As it is already explained briefly in chapter I, and brief look at other theories above, the theory that is going to be used as the fundamental principle of the analysis is the theory of hope formulated by C. R Snyder in his book titled The Psychology of Hope You Can Get There from Here.
a. Goals
Along with the mental development of minds, human successfully develops many thoughts about the world around them. One of them is the linear sense of time in which human represent themselves as time travelers moving from past, present and end up in future. It is the same as the journey or the moving forward action from the first place to another directed place which is called the goal point. In order to reach that goal point, people give many careful thoughts, thoughts about goal.
People basic goals are food and shelter but surely there must be more than that because there are a lot of important goals that people want to gain and goals could take many shapes. According to Snyder, goals could be “… any objects, experiences, or outcomes that we imagine and desire in our mind” (Snyder, 1994: 5). In other words, goal is “… something we want to obtain (such as an object) or attain (like an accomplishment)” (Snyder, 1994: 5).
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importance of a goal can not be a measure rod to decide whether the goal is fit to hope or not.
Another thing that must be considered is that a goal involving hope should lay between an impossibility and a sure thing. If someone sure that a goal can be attained or a hundred percent impossible to attain, then hopeful thought toward the goal become irrelevant because the result has already known.
In the beginning of the book, it is clearly said that goals are mentioned as any objects, in other words it is realistic things that we can feel it by our senses. Basically, hope can not be mentioned as hope without any objects as its target or purpose.
b. Willpower
goal which has a higher priority in life such as a goal of getting married or having a child.
Second is that willpower will occur whenever a person exactly sure about the goal that is going to pursue. It would be difficult to see the willpower if a person is not able to determine a goal because it relates to the focus of the goal itself. Third, actually somehow, the producing of a mental willpower often based on the experiences of a previous history in which a person dealing with certain difficulties. However, Snyder also underlines an important thing that “…willpower is not acquired to life of ease in which goals pursuits occur without any hindrance” (Snyder, 1994: 7). It means that it is important to understand that willpower only occurs when it is hard for a person to pursue a goal.
c. Waypower
As in Snyder term, waypower is “…a mental capacity we can call on to find one or more effective ways to reach our goals” (Snyder, 1994: 8). Meaning to say that waypower is a planning capability of a person. Similar to willpower, waypower also requires a condition.
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This condition also brings a benefit. Basically, waypower capability does not only have a capability to produce pathways to reach goals but also help a person in dealing with blockage that may be faced during the journey to the directed goals. If the original way suddenly seems possible to success or even worse it has been blocked, waypower capability will help the person to find alternative ways because “…person with high waypower capabilities believe they can find several ways to reach goals, in any given situation they change this mental blueprint to fit the particular goal and barriers that must be faced” (Snyder, 1994: 9). In addition, Snyder also talks about the perceived problem-solving ability. It becomes the characteristics of a person with high hope.
d. Hope
After explaining the three basic components of hope, then Snyder put them together through a kind of a formula as below:
Hope = Mental Willpower + Waypower for Goals (Snyder, 1994:10)
rate inside a person then the person is called a high hope person. For the consideration, each of the components can not stand by itself. To complete his formula, Snyder also notes:
“It is worth highlighting again that hope is a process constantly involving what we think about ourselves in relation to our goals. Our thoughts, in turn, can influence our actual behavior. At times, the external environment obviously has an enormous impact on us. …Having acknowledged this point, however, I would emphasize that how we think about and interpret our external environment is
the key to understand hope. By analogy, a person high in hope
thinks of a glass as being half-full of water, while a low-hope individual thinks of this same glass as half-empty”. (Snyder, 1994: 12)
The quotation above emphasizes that environment and all activities inside it also become an important aspect in determining whether a person is hopeful or helpless. In addition to his theory, Snyder also shows that somehow several patterns may appear depending on the psychological condition of a person. It is very possible to find a person lives in high hope with high willpower and high waypower of goal but it is also not possible to have a person with the combinations of low willpower and low waypower; high willpower and low waypower; low willpower and high waypowers; or high willpower high waypower.
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as depression” (Snyder, 1994: 33). Thus, it can be said that depression is one of characteristics of a low-hope person.
A person with high willpower but lack of waypower will be categorized as a low-hope person if that condition goes over a long time. A person in this situation probably able to energize the mental willpower but also at the same time has no waypower at all. It may be caused by the fact that the person is “…not necessarily taught to think ways to get to the goals” (Snyder, 1994: 34). Another possible cause is that even the person has success in generating goals in the past however the person feels not really adapt to the process.
A person with low willpower but high waypower is a person who lack of the mental energy to carry out the plans. This kind of person somehow can make people impress with brilliant ideas but in the inside is somewhat depressed because the person always think that pursuing goals is a constant struggle. A person with high willpower and high waypower is categorized as a high-hope person. In order to help the writer identify whether a character is categorized as a high – hope person, there is a couple of psychological characteristics that go along with a higher level of hope:
i. Optimism
ii. Perceived Problem-Solving Ability
This characteristic relates to the ability of a person in anticipating any kinds of problem that may occur and also at the same time already has the problem solving. It means that this characteristic likely to have relation to the waypower elements.
These two characteristics are required to be existed inside a person with high hope. In other words, a high hope person must have these two characteristics.
B. Theoretical Framework
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey. It is one of the best works by Thornton Wilder. This book is written during his second year in Princeton University in purpose to earn a Master’s degree in French Literature in June, 1926. Then, in 1927 the book is accepted for publication and published by Washington Square Press, New York.
The story is divided into five chapters with introduction to the content of the story by Brother Juniper in the first chapter and then followed by three chapters which tell about three different major characters and endings with conclusion in the last chapter. Although the publishers think that the book has a little chance to success in public, in fact, public shows a great enthusiasm and causes the book winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1928. Recently, this story is depicted into play and even movie. The movie itself is played by a Hollywood famous actor named Robert de Niro.
Generally, the work tells about an experience of Brother Juniper, a Franciscan from Northern Italy, in doing a very controversial investigation that is, finding God’s intention in taking someone’s life by tracing the chronological lifetime of the three major characters. Here, Brother Juniper traces the lifetime of the three victims of the falling bridge, Maria de Montemayor, Esteban, Uncle Pio, and trying to find the relation among them.
However, at the end of the story, it does not even offer a precise answer toward Brother Juniper’s question which is stated in the first chapter, that is, whether the death of the victims in the falling bridge happens in an intention or it is just an accident.
A. Approach of the Study
Considering the topic, this study applies the psychological approach in analyzing the character of Dona Maria which is believed to have a contribution in the existence of hope within Dona Maria herself. According to Rohrberger and Woods, psychological approach is “the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent patterns, but from a different body of knowledge that is psychology” (1971: 6-5). This approach uses psychology theories to explain human motivation, personality and behavior patterns written in literary object”. Moreover, Wilfred L. Guerin gives another point of view toward psychological approach. He adds in his book, A Handbook of
Critical Approach to Literature in 1999, that psychological approach is
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B. Method of the Study
In doing the study, the writer used several books as the sources for it was a library study. Therefore, the primary source was Wilder’s novel titled
The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Meanwhile for the secondary sources, the writer
used theory of character by E .M Forster in his book titled Aspect of Novels
and Related Writings, by M. J Murphy in a book titled Understanding
Unseen, and by Robert Forster in his book An Introduction to Fiction. The
writer also uses theory of basic anxiety by Karen Horney in a book titled An
Introduction to Theories of Personality and theory of hope by C. R. Snyder in
his book titled The Psychology of Hope. Besides, the writer was also browsing in the internet for some information related to the novel The Bridge
of San Luis Rey.
The third step was answering the questions in problem formulation. Theory of character by E. M. Forster, Robert Forster and M. J. Murphy were used to figure out the characteristics of Dona Maria in detail along with her psychological condition supported by Karen Horney’s theory of basic anxiety with help of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by AS Hornby. After that, by using the theory of hope by C. R. Snyder and the answer of the first problem formulation, the writer tried to find out the hope in Dona Maria.
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
In this chapter the writer will answer the questions as stated in chapter I through the analysis below. This chapter covers two part of analysis. The first part will answer the question about the characteristics of Dona Maria’s character. The second part will be the analysis on how Dona Maria sees hope in her life by having such characteristic.
A. The characteristics of Dona Maria
In order to find the characteristics of Dona Maria’s character, the writer begins with using M. J Murphy’s theory of character. As it is already mentioned and explained in chapter II, Murphy suggests nine ways to make the character understandable. The writer will use past life, personal
description, and thought as ways to show the proofs to Dona Maria’s
characteristics.
As a character who is assumed to have hope, she supposes to have a characteristics that supports it. Dona Maria is a daughter of a cloth-merchant from Lima. She was born with full name Marquesa de Montemayor. As a merchant, her father seldom spends much time at home because he travels many times therefore she spends most of her time with her mother.
“She was the daughter of a cloth-merchant who had acquired the money and the hatred of the Limeans within a stone’s-throw of the plaza.” (Wilder, 1969: 13-14 line 17-19)
Although she lives as a merchant’s daughter who obtains so much money, it seems that her world is not as beautiful as little Dona Maria thought. She is born with the fate that she will live under the hatred from the people of Lima because of her father.
“Her childhood was unhappy: she was ugly; she stuttered; her mother persecuted her with sarcasms in an effort to arouse some social charms and forced her to go about the town in a veritable harness of jewels.” (Wilder, 1969: 14 line 2-6)
Despite of her unhappy childhood, Dona Maria is actually a caring mother. That characteristic slowly becomes clearer “…when an exquisite daughter was born to her she fastened upon her as idolatrous love…” (Wilder, 1969: 14 line 18-20). Dona Maria is so much falling in love with Dona Clara, her daughter, since Dona Clara was born. She pours all her love and attention for Dona Clara. When Dona Maria finds out that Dona Clara suffers a cold for weeks, Dona Maria sends a letter to Dona Clara:
“Are there no doctors in Spain? Where are those good men from Flanders that used to help you so? Oh, my treasure, how can they punish you enough for letting your cold endure so many weeks? Don Vicente, I implore you to make my child see reason. Angels of Heaven, I implore you to make my child see reason…” (Wilder, 1969: 22-23).
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encloses the letter with a kind of inhale medicine and present in order to make her daughter fells better.
“…I beg you, resolve that when the first warning of a cold comes you will steam your-self well and go to bed. …Do not be self-willed my beloved. God bless you. I am enclosing in today’s packet the gum of some tree which the sisters of San Tomas peddle from door to door. Whether it be of much use I know not…I am told that in the convent the silly sisters in-hale it so diligently that no one can not smell the incense at Mass. Whether it be worth anything I know not; try it. Rest easy, my love, I am sending His Most Catholic Majesty the
perfect gold Chain.” (Wilder, 1969: 23)
It can be seen that Dona Maria is a very caring mother to her daughter and again in the quotation above, Dona Maria performs her admiration to her daughter by calling Dona Clara ‘my love’.
This act can be said as the influence of her past life of being unloved by her mother. Therefore, Dona Maria tries to perform love of a mother toward a daughter that Dona Maria does not get when she was a child. Another event which proves that Dona Maria is very care to her daughter is when Dona Maria receives news from Spain about Dona Clara pregnancy. Soon, Dona Maria becomes so fuss about all the preparation for the delivery. Her care to Dona Clara becomes even greater than before.
Clearly, it shows that Dona Maria is a caring mother. Actually, behind Dona Maria’s great care to Dona Clara, lays a great passion. When her only daughter, Dona Clara was born, the pasion slowly becomes clearer. She keeps a vast of passion toward her daughter which is she can not even control it: “…her love to her daughter was vast enough to include all the colors of love,…but the passion was too fierce to cope with.” (Wilder, 1969: 21 line 22-23). In another part of the novel, it is written there that “She wanted her daughter for herself…” (Wilder, 1969: 22) shows that she is obsessed to have her daughter as a ‘whole’ not only her body but also her mind, love, and attention. Dona Maria also wants her daughter to say “…You are the best of all possible mothers…” (Wilder, 1969: 22) which means Dona Maria also wants Dona Clara’s appreciation toward everything that she has done for Dona Clara.
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Perichole instead of showing anger for thing that she has done in the opera especially when Perichole asks Dona Maria’s permission to kiss her hand.
“Dona Maria held out her hand astonished. She had not for a long time been addressed with such consideration. Her neighbours, her tradespeople, her servant—for even Pepita lived in awe of her,--her very daughter had never approached her thus.” (Wilder 1969: 34)
She is very touch by the attitude of Perichole as a young lady like her own daughter, Dona Clara. It slightly brings certain emotional feeling to her which results in the praising of Perichole.
“Offended, offended at you, my beautiful, . . . my gifted child? Who am I, a . . . an unwise and unloved old woman, to be offended at you? I felt, my daughter, as though I were---. . .” (Wilder 1969: 35)
Dona Maria sees something through Perichole’s attitude. The way Perichole addresses Dona Maria is pleasing Dona Maria because Dona Maria sees Dona Clara inside Perichole, a love from a daughter which is reflected in the way Perichole addresses Dona Maria. Surely, it is caused by her passion toward the love of her daughter.
Those two events show the most closes proof that Dona Maria is a passionate woman. Afterward, her uncontrollable passion slowly turns into an obsession. The passion itself actually grows since Dona Maria is still a child. Living without love from her parents especially from her mother, shapes Dona Maria into an obsessed woman toward the condition of being loved. Since she was a child she never experiences the love of her mother particularly the love between a mother and a daughter. Therefore, it becomes the reason she turns into an obsessed woman when she has a daughter of her own. She becomes obsessed with Dona Clara’s love. In this phase Dona Maria is also experiencing what it is called by basic evil, basic hostility and basic anxiety. It is the process, conducted by Karen Horney, that forms a person into a condition of having neurotic behavior, “…an abnormal sensitivity or obsession” (Hornby, 1974: 567).
According to Karen Horney, the cause of neurotic behavior is disturbed relationship. She said that “…the rudiments of neurotic behavior are found in the relationship between parent and child” (Horney, 1990: 129). In simple way, the cause of neurotic behavior is the disturbance of relationship between parents and children. However, before a person is judged to have neurotic behaviors it requires several conditions. The persons must experience basic evil, basic hostility and basic anxiety.
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“She (Horney) believed that the two basic needs in childhood are safety and satisfaction,…The need for satisfaction refers to the child’s needs for food, water, and sleep…By the need for safety Horney meant the need for security and freedom from fear…”. (Horney, 1990: 129).
Meanwhile, indifference toward the child, rejection of the child, hostility toward the child, obvious preference for a sibling, unfair punishment, ridicule, humiliation, erratic behavior, unkept promise and isolation of the child from others are the sample list of behaviors of parents that undermine a child. In the case of Dona Maria, the writer finds indifference toward the child, rejection of the child and humiliation.
A child who experiences one or more of the behaviors of parents that undermine a child means that the child is in the phase of basic hostility. This is the phase where a child is caught between hatred toward the parents and the fear of losing the parents. The child does not have any courage to perform the rage because of the fear of losing the parents and the condition that the child still needs the parents. In the case of Dona Maria, she does not show her refusal when her mother forces her to wear veritable harness of jewels and walk to town but she becomes a solitude person who “…lives
alone and thought alone” (Wilder, 1969: 14 line 7). This also drives her to
become an introvert person. Until this point, Dona Maria has been experiencing basic evil and basic hostility.
The last is what Karen Horney called basic anxiety. Basic anxiety is the condition where a child is being trapped too long in the basic hostility. Dona Maria’s feeling of being hostile by her mother remains inside her and spreads to all worlds around her which then makes her thinks and, even worse, believes that anyone can be a person like her mother who also possibly can do harm to her.
The bad relationship with her mother drives Dona Maria into a thought which she believes about love, being loved and family.
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Moreover, still in the same page, the author states precisely the way Dona Maria sees people in general.
“She saw that people of this world moved about in an armour of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closes friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires.” (Wilder, 1969: 21 line 10-16)
In above quotation, the author gives us a clear image of Dona Maria’s thought. It slightly shows that Dona Maria generalizes people according to what her mother does to her. From that fact, it can be said that Dona Maria experiences basic anxiety. She uses her childhood experiences to put value to everything around her. The two quotations above also show that the solitude characteristic is already strong inside her.
According to Horney, “…a child with basic anxiety is well on the way to becoming a neurotic adult…” (Horney, 1990: 131). For Dona Maria is proved to experience basic anxiety. Dona Maria is also proved to have a big opportunity to grow up as neurotic adult and she does grow up with neurotic behavior. The unhappy childhood and her loneliness are assumed to be the cause of her neurotic behavior. Her neurotic behavior is shown through the quotation below:
Moreover, people in Lima start to ridicule her appearances and acts. They consider Dona Maria as an old mad woman and try to make her stay away from being around the town.
“Lima was a city of eccentrics, but even there she became its jest as she drove through the streets of shuffled up the steps of its churches. She was thought to be continuously drunk. Worse things were said of her and petitions were afloat that she be locked up.” (Wilder, 1969: 16 line 9-14)
The process above is the process of Dona Maria becomes such an obsession woman. However, it brings a will source to Dona Maria to become an optimist person. As a character who is care to her daughter so much and having a vast passion toward her daughter’s love make her a character with a great will of not to give up to get her daughter as a whole together with her daughter’s love, like Pepita’s love to Madre Maria, attention, like what Dona Maria has done to Dona Clara, and appreciation, like Perichole’s way of addressed her. If she does not care about her daughter, she probably will take no care whether her daughter loves her or not. The fact is she cares her daughter and wanted her daughter to care to her too. It is the source of will for Dona Maria which comes from her obsession to keep approaching her daughter which also forms her into an optimist mother who never has a willing to give up her daughter.
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A. Hope in Dona Maria
As it is already explained in the first part, Dona Maria has characteristics of optimist that comes from her care, passion and obsession for her daughter and also perceived problem-solving ability characteristic which enable her to be hopeful person.
In order to see more clearly the hope inside Dona Maria, the theory of hope will be used. The theory itself is the combination of three elements. Therefore, this part covers three subpart of analysis that is willpower in Dona Maria, waypower in Dona Maria and the last, hope in Dona Maria
1. Willpower in Dona Maria
In this part Snyder’s theory of hope is used. As it is already explained in chapter II about theory of hope by C. R Snyder that in order to have hope, one has to have willpower and waypower of goal. First, the writer will analyze the willpower inside Dona Maria.
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Dona Clara is considered as Dona Maria first efforts to approach her daughter and it is her first ways to get her daughter’s love and affection. In other part of the story, it is described how deep Dona Maria’s love to Dona Clara is.
“…her love for her daughter was vast enough to include all the colours of love,…she loved her daughter not for her daughter’s sake but for her own.” (Wilder, 1969: 21 line 23-26)
The quotation is not only emphasizing Dona Maria’s love to Dona Clara but also shows that she expects a mutual love. It means that she also expects to be loved by Dona Clara.
When Dona Maria receives a letter from Dona Clara in Spain which delivers good news that Dona Clara is pregnant, Dona Maria becomes overprotected to Dona Clara. She pours Dona Clara with wisdoms about pregnancy.
“Now at length the Marquesa had something to be anxious about: her daughter was to become a mother…She became a mine of medical knowledge and suggestions. She combed the city for wise old women and poured into her letters the whole folk-wisdom of the New World.” (Wilder, 1969: 46 line 3-9)
Not only that, she also practices some myths about pregnancy in her house in Lima so that Dona Clara will deliver the baby safely.
This shows that Dona Maria cares to her daughter and she really does not want anything bad happen during Dona Clara’s pregnancy. Therefore she does any action related to the myths of pregnancy.
All of those cares she does are for the sake of getting her daughter’s love. She wishes that by doing so she would be able to experience love of mother and daughter that Dona Maria does not get from his mother. In other part of the story, the author writes explicitly how Dona Maria is longed to be loved by Dona Clara.
“She wanted her daughter for herself; she wanted to hear her say: “You are the best of all possible mothers”; she longed to hear her whisper: “Forgive me”.” (Wilder, 1969: 22 line 11-14)
Another proof can be found in the story which emphasizes how deep is Dona Maria’s willing to have the very lovely relationship of mother and daughter.
“Her religious beliefs went first, for all she could ask of a god or of immortality, was the gift of a place where daughters love their mothers; the other attributes of Heaven you could have for a song.” (Wilder, 1969: 21 line 3-8)
From those facts, it is clear that having the love of her daughter becomes the priority for Dona Maria and at the same time it fulfils the second point to be considered in willpower component. Dona Maria knows exactly that what she is going to pursue is the love and the care of her daughter so that she would feel wanted.
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Clara. Her condition of having neurotic behavior also contributes to her obsession to her daughter’s love. As it is said in the first sub chapter that neurotic behavior is kind of abnormal sensitivity and obsessed. It can be said that the failure of a childhood effort to make her mother loves her surely makes her afraid to fail again. In other words, she is afraid that that previous unhappy experience will re-occur within her relationship with her daughter Dona Clara.
The way Dona Maria treats Dona Clara with all the loves that she pours into Dona Clara somehow also supports the creation of high mental willpower inside Dona Maria. Frued believes that repressed hidden desire drives a person to do something. Being loved is Dona Maria’s repressed hidden desire. She is unconsciously being pushed by that hidden desire to do everything in relation to her daughter.
In sum, it is correct that Dona Maria is a ‘mad’ woman. However, she has one goal or destination in her life, that is her daughter’s love and affection. Dona Maria is grown up without enough love and affection from her parents. Thus, when she has a daughter, she does not want to lose her daughter’s love too. In this point, mental willpower is formed. By saying that, the first step of finding hope is fulfilled.
2. Waypower in Dona Maria
priority in life and she has a great willpower on that. In order to see the willpower more clearly, it can be traced from the analysis of the waypower.
According to Snyder, waypower is a planning capability of a person. In the story, the waypowers inside Dona Maria may not be found explicitly. However if it is analyzed deeper, it would turn the other way around. In fact the waypower in Dona Maria is very clear although, again, it is done unconsciously.
It starts from the moment Dona Clara is born. Dona Maria already fond of her. It is said that she attaches Dona Clara with a love that seems like idolizes Dona Clara very much. It is possible to think that she is doing that in order to make her daughter do the same thing to her. This fact can be seen from the last line in the quotation below:
“…her love for her daughter was vast enough to include all the colours of love,…she loved her daughter not for her daughter’s sake but for her own.” (Wilder, 1969: 21 line 23-26)
In addition, Dona Maria also has an enormous hope that her daughter will adore her too as a great mother and says an apology to her for not being a nice daughter.
“She wanted her daughter for herself; she wanted to hear her say: “You are the best of all possible mothers”; she longed to hear her whisper: “Forgive me.”” (Wilder, 1969: 22 line 12-14)
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at her age she is able to correct one’s speech but in another side Dona Maria dislikes it because she is the one who is being corrected by her own daughter. It is proved by an event that happens in Dona Clara’s early childhood.
“But little Clara took after her father; she was cold and intellectual. At the age of eight she was calmly correcting her mother’s speech and presently regarding her with astonishment and repulsion.” (Wilder, 1969: 14 line 20-24)
That event is the event that makes Dona Maria becomes submissive to Dona Clara. In fact, this event slightly shows that Dona Maria is happy because Dona Clara shows her attention to Dona Maria although Dona Maria does not like Dona Clara’s way to show it. Moreover, Dona Clara’s act in correcting her mother’s speech can be interpreted as showing that she does not like her mother because her mother is less clever than herself. However it does not prevent Dona Maria from her passion to pour her affection and love to Dona Clara.
“The frightened mother became meek and obsecuious but she could not prevent herself from persecuting Dona Clara with attention and fatiguing love.” (Wilder, 1969: 14 line 26-27)
It proves that Dona Maria’s journey to pursue her daughter’s love starts to meet obstacles. The attitude that Dona Clara shows in quote above when she shows her intelligent to Dona Maria is considered to be the first blockage that Dona Maria has to deal with. However, Dona Maria seems do not want to give it up though Dona Clara shows rejection toward her. As the result their relationship grows unhealthy.
Unfortunately, it proves that Dona Maria’s willing to have a good relationship with her daughter collapse right in front of her nose. This situation grows worse when Dona Clara finally decides to stay in Spain with her husband.
Although both of them live in separate islands, Dona Maria never stops to think a way so that she will have her daughter’s attention. This time she finds another way that is by sending Dona Clara “…a handsome
allowance…and frequent gifts…” (Wilder, 1969: 16 line 25 26). Dona Maria
thinks that money and presents could replace her affection for temporarily. Unfortunately, this creates misunderstanding between both of them. It seems that this time, her way is unsuccessful.
However, she still moves on. It proves that Dona Maria definitely has a great willpower which drives her planning capability to produce pathways. Meaning to say, her great willpower stimulates the occurrence of waypower inside her. This is also shown by her next pathway that she found. It is her departure to Spain to meet Dona Clara.
Dona Maria wishes that this meeting after four years will bring a good prospect and there might be reconciliation. Unfortunately, it fails. In fact, both of them hurt each other and themselves even more.
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Dona Maria, again, faces a failure. Seeing that there is no other reason for her to stay any longer at Spain, she decides to back to Lima with heart broken.
“At length one day Dona Maria rose before dawn, daring no more than to kiss the door behind which her daughter was sleeping, took ship and returned to America.” (Wilder, 1969: 18 line 7-10)
After her returning to home, she never stops getting connected with her daughter because “…Henceforth letter-writing had to take the place of all
the affection that could not be lived…” (Wilder, 1969: 18 line 11-12).
Seeing several efforts that Dona Clara does and also each of the failure she is also proved to have a great waypower capability. Even though her efforts always fail, she keeps approaching her daughter. However after her returning from Spain, she realizes that she will never have her daughter’s affection and love just like the last quote says about affection that could not be lived.
Although she finally realizes that she can not have her daughter’s love. It does not prevent her to keep in correspondence with Dona Clara. Then, she begins to find a way how to get rid of her loneliness. She, then, borrows a little girl named Pepita from a convent to be her private maid that will company her wherever she may go and provides her needs during the journey.
At first, Dona Maria considers Pepita’s existence on her side as only a maid, not more. However, then, an event changes Dona Maria way of thinking. It happens when accidentally Dona Maria finds and read Pepita’s letters that she writes for the owner of the Convent, named Madre Maria del Pilar, where she comes from. The content of the letter is about Pepita’s longed for the presence of Madre Maria del Pilar and tells about all the sufferings that she gets during her life inside Dona Maria’s house.
“Her eyes fell on pepita’s letter. She opened it mechanically and started to read. She had read a full half of it before her attention was aware of the meaning of the words: “…but all this is nothing if you like me and wish me to stay with her. I oughtn’t to tell you but every now and then the bad chamber-maids lock me up in rooms and steal things and perhaps My Lady will think that I steal them. I hope not. I hope you are well and not having any trouble in the hospital or anywhere. Though I never see you I think of you all the time and I remember what you told me, my dear mother in God. I want to do only what you want, but if you could let me come back for a few days to the convent, but not if you do not wish it. But I am so much alone and not talking to anyone, and everything. Sometimes, I do not know whether you have forgotten me and if you could find a minute to write me a little letter or something, I could keep it, but I know how busy you are…” ”. (Wilder, 1969: 53 line 15-26; 54 line 1-11)
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“Dona Maria read no further. She folded the letter and put it aside. For a moment she was filled with envy: she longed to command another’s soul as completely as this nun was able to do. Most of all she longed to be back in this simplicity of love…´ (Wilder, 1969: 54 line 12-17)
Dona Maria feels jealous to Madre Maria del Pilar because she can gain truly affection and love from a little girl who is not her own daughter. In fact, Dona Maria always tries to make her own daughter loves her but she keeps failing. However, the feeling of jealous does not drive Dona Maria to hate Madre Maria del Pilar or other possible negative responses. In fact, she starts realizing something that she has missed for a long time. She begins to have a new way to solve her last failure with her daughter. She remembers all events happened between her and her daughter from the day Dona Clara is born until her departure to Spain and all letters. It makes her comes to a decision
“She thought of the amulets and of her beads, her drunkenness…she thought of her daughter. She remembered the long relationship, crowded with the wreckage of exhumed conversations, of fancied slights, of inopportune confidences, of charges of neglect and exclusion…”But it’s not my fault,” she cried. “It²s not my fault that I was so. It was circumstance. It was the way I was brought up. Tomorrow I begin a new life. Wait and see, oh my child” ”(Wilder, 1969: 57 line 15-26)
“Then she took a candle into the next room and looked at Pepite as she slept, and pushed back the damp hair from the girls’s face. “Let me live now,” she whispered. “Let me begin again.” ” (Wilder, 1969: 58 line 25-29)
The last word that she said “Let me begin again” assigns that she is ready to try another pathway that she finds. Again, this proves that she still has a strong mental willpower and waypower.
As it is said by Snyder that waypower capability helps the person to find alternatives pathways if previous ways meet blockages and because of Dona Maria is considered having a high waypower, by looking at every way that she can produce to approach her daughter. Unconsciously Dona Maria builds a belief that she can find many ways to approach her daughter in order to get Dona Clara’s love and affection which finally she sees inside Pepita. This high waypower will not occur if Dona Maria does not have a high mental willpower. A high willpower to approach her daughter and get her daughter’s love and affection stimulates Dona Maria’s waypower to create ways to get those all.
In sum, her enormous mental willpower helps her to create pathways to get to her destination. It is proved from her efforts to give her daughter attentions as much as she can. At the moment she faces blockades, her waypower helps her to find another alternative way. It is proved from her effort to keep contact with her daughter through correspondence when both of them live in difference and far away land.
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of her daughter. It proves that Dona Maria has no willing to stop until she gets what she wants. At this point, waypower is clearly seen from Dona Maria. In the other words, the second step is fulfilled.
3. Hope in Dona Maria
According to Snyder, as it is already explained in the chapter II about theory of hope, that hope “…reflects a mental set in which we have the
perceived willpower and the waypower to get to our destination.” (Snyder,
1994: 10).
It is a kind of formula made by three components: goal, willpower and waypower and it is formulated as:
Hope = Mental Willpower + Waypower for Goals (Et al, p.10) From the formula above, it can be interpreted that a person with hope must have mental willpower and waypower of Goals. Dona Maria’s goal is to have a love and affection from her daughter.
“She wanted her daughter for herself; she wanted to hear her say: “You are the best of all possible mothers”; she longed to hear her whisper: “Forgive me.”” (Wilder, 1969: 22 line 12-14)
Starting from the moment Dona Clara is born, Dona Maria already fond of her and pours all her love and affection to Dona Clara.
“…when an exquisite daughter was born to her she fastened upon her as idolatrous love…” (Wilder, 1969: 14 line 18-20).
“…her love for her daughter was vast enough to include all the colours of love,…she loved her daughter not for her daughter’s sake but for her own.” (Wilder, 1969: 21 line 23-26).
Although Dona Maria’s intention to approach her daughter is being ignored by Dona Clara and results in an unhealthy relationship, Dona Maria keeps in her focus to her goal to have her daughter’s love by using any possible ways that she can create.
After being in a deeper sorrow when she is left by her daughter who decides to live in Spain with her husband, Dona Maria is proved to be consistent to her goal. It is shown by her departure to Spain in order to visit Dona Clara after four years of being separated. She has a high scale of willpower to get close to her daughter which leads her to her waypower that makes her decides to catch up her daughter in Spain.
This is her second attempt to approach her daughter. Her visiting to Spain is not merely without any hope. She carries a hope that the visiting would blow fresh air into their relationship. She hopes that there is a possible reconciliation. Unfortunately, Dona Maria has to face the worse that her second effort also fails.
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Maria rose before dawn, daring no more than to kiss the door behind which her daughter was sleeping, took ship and returned to America.” (Wilder, 1969: 17-18)
However, her efforts do not stop at that point. Then she tries to show her affection through another media that is correspondence. She keeps in touch with Dona Clara by sending letters. This is another waypower effort to get close to her daughter. It is very clear that there is a hope inside her.
After that, she comes to the conclusion that it is almost impossible for her wish of her daughter’s love. She, then, likely to be said, finds Pepita. At first she does not realize that the existence of Pepita has a lot more meaning rather than just being her companion. The love of Pepita towards the owner of the convent strikes Dona Maria.
She realizes at last that the love of a daughter that she deadly wants already standing in front of her. She sees, still, there is a way for her to have what she has been looking for a long time. Pepita has indirectly offered the answer to Dona Maria’s seeking adventure of love. It is likely to be said that Pepita is ‘an alternative media’ for Dona Maria to gain her goal. It means that probably Pepita can give love of a daughter for Dona Maria
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION
After doing the analysis based on problem formulations stated in chapter I, the writer comes to the conclusion or the findings of the analysis that will be explained in this chapter.
The first finding is about the characteristic of Dona Maria’s character. Dona Maria is actually a caring and passionate mother for her only daughter, Dona Clara and without it Dona Maria will not give any care whether Dona Clara loves her or not. Because of her vast love and the fact that she has been unloved by her mother when she was a child, Dona Maria becomes very obsessed by her daughter’s love which the writer finds that it causes her neurotic behavior. Dona Maria wants to be loved by her daughter. Those facts become the factor which stimulates her optimist characteristic. A characteristic that makes Dona Maria believes that she can have her daughter’s love if she keeps approaching her daughter and never give it up.
The character of being optimist stimulates the appearance of her second characteristics that is perceived problem-solving ability. She absolutely wants to be loved by her daughter thus she keeps finding ways to approach her daughter. According to Snyder, a person with these two psychological characteristics is considered as a hopeful person. In fact, it can be said that person without those two characteristics is impossible to have hope.
