Analysis of Theme Through The Protagonist in William Dean Howells's 'The Rise of Silas Lapham'.

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ABSTRACT

Skripsi ini ditulis untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat kelulusan program sarjana di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Maranatha. Saya mencoba untuk menganalisis tema novel The Rise of Silas Lapham karya William Dean Howells. Tema tersebut akan dianalisis melalui aksi, reaksi, dan perkataan yang terjadi dalam novel tersebut. Tema ini dikemukakan oleh William Dean Howells dengan cara menyuguhkan peristiwa-peristiwa yang dihadapi oleh tokoh utama dalam buku ini.

Dalam novel ini Howells menggambarkan situasi masyarakat di Amerika pada abad ke-19 di kota Boston. Tidak hanya situasi masyarakatnya yang digambarkan Howells, tetapi juga kehidupan yang dialami sang protagonis. Howells menggambarkan bagaimana seharusnya bertindak sebaik mungkin di dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat yang sangat mementingkan uang di dalam hidupnya. Sang protagonis melihat segala sesuatunya hanya dari segi keuangan. Hal ini digambarkan dengan jelas sehingga dapat membuat pembaca sadar bahwa lingkungan masyarakat sangat memainkan peranan penting dalam membentuk pola hidup dan berpikir sang protagonis. Namun di akhir cerita, sang protagonist berhasil mengubah cara pandangannya terhadap prioritas dalam hidup.

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APPENDICES

SYNOPSIS OF HOWELLS’S THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM

In Boston there is a man named Silas Lapham whose job is as a business

man. As a man Silas Lapham is a successful businessman who has made millions

profit in the paint business. As a businessman, he always seeks something that can

make a great profit for his business and his life.

Because he is an immigrant from New England, he wants to raise his

social status so that he can be recognized by a lot of people in Boston so that a lot

of people may respect him as an honorable person.

He makes a lot of cunning efforts to make his social status accepted by the

people of Boston by making a lot of money with his paint business. However, due

to a greedy, unscrupulous habit and lack of morality because he has been

corrupted by money, he starts to lose his business and his lover. All this time he

has made a mistake and he realizes that mistake and in the middle of the story he

decides that he does not want to repeat it again. So he makes a major change in his

life, especially in his characteristics.

In his humility of what has happened in his life, he begins to think of other

people’s feeling by what he has done, and also starts to make a spiritual and

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by and he slowly finds his happiness better than the social acceptance, money and

being a rich person but the celebration of not being a high-status person.

Silas Lapham finds that true happiness is not in a material thing but in

spiritual satisfaction that once he has underestimated, forgotten, and he does not

even think about it. At the end of the story, with his new objective in life, he

finally shifts his identities and characteristics to become a better person who has a

good moral, spiritual rise and an ethical person, which he has never expected

before.

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BIOGRAPHY

William Dean Howells is born in Martin’s Ferry, Ohio, to William Cooper

and Mary Dean Howells, the second child and second son of their eight children. He

born on the 1st

of March in 1837 and died of Pneumonia on 11th

of May in 1920 at

New York City. He married Elinor Mead on the 24th

of December in 1862 in Paris,

and his wife died on May 1910. Further more by this marriage has given him three

children; Winifred born on the 17th

of December in 1863 and died on the 3rd

of March

1889, John Mead Howells born on the 14th_{of August in 1868 and the last is Mildred} born on the 26th

of September in 1872.

His father was a printer and newspaperman and he learned the printing

business in his father's offices at Hamilton and Dayton, Ohio. His family moved from

town to town. Howells went to a common school where he could. As a boy he learned

the skill of printing and by the time he was in his teens he was setting type for his

own verse.

He became a legislative correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette from

Columbus and between 1856 until 1861 he worked as a reporter of the Ohio State

Journal. Howells at first envisioned a career as a poet. In fact, his rise to literary

achievement began when one of his earlier poems was sent to and accepted by the

editor in chief of The Atlantic.

In 1871 he became the editor in chief of the magazine; in this position he

worked with many young writers, among them were Mark Twain and Henry James,

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is his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, which appeared in 1872. The Rise of Silas

Lapham was serialized in Century Magazine before it published five years later. In

1886 Howells begins writing the “Editor’s Study” column for Harper’s New Monthly

Magazine. And its contains some of his best criticism, and several pieces will be

collected in Criticism and Fiction

Howells’ position as a critic, a writer, and an enthusiastic exponent of the new

realism has earned him the respected title of “the dean of American letters.”

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODECTION

BACKGROEND OF THE STEDY

Everyone must have good ethic to socialize with others. It will make him

easier to be accepted in society. The Rise of Silas Lapham shows how the

protagonist, Silas Lapham, struggles to get a good social status rather than to get a

financial success. In the novel, I can clearly see the protagonist’s action, reaction,

and speech because they provide a lot of details, which make the author’s message

become more explicit, and thus, give the readers better understanding of the story.

According to Literary Terms & Criticism, ‘Novel is a long work with a great

amount of detail on every page. They thus present all the complicating facts that

need to be taken into account before we can reach any sort of judgement’. (Peck

and Coyle, 1984 : 103).

A novel also deals with ‘ordinary people and their problem in the society

in which they find themselves.’ (Peck and Coyle, 1984: 102). A novel is easy to

understand and interesting, because it portrays a condition which is close to its

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The novel which I have chosen deals with characters and a society which

influences the characteristics of the characters. In the novel, the author William Dean

Howells ‘explores a number of significant cultural issues in [The Rise of]"Silas

Lapham": isolationism, social adaptability, economic solvency among all classes,

personal integrity and familial ties, and the relationship between literature and life’.

(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140390308/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/103-4636963-3652631?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155).

In this novel, William Dean Howells writes according to real events that occur in the

American society. Howells assumes that the society is very capitalistic. As one of the

people who live in that particular society, Howells wants to make a breakthrough or

change. Thus by writing this novel, Howells inserts some criticism toward the

American society. That is why this novel is unique and interesting to analyze.

After reading the novel, I feel interested in exploring the theme as it is one of

the most prominent elements in the novel. According to Shaw, “theme is the central

idea and dominating idea in a literary work’. (Shaw, 1972: 378). Therefore, I decide

to analyze the theme through the protagonist of this novel.

For additional reference, I add another source from Merriam Webster’s

Encyclopedia of Literature, which says that character is “a representative human

which usually is made to stand for the trait, quality, or type” (Webster, 1995: 229). So

in conclusion I shall learn the way an author presents his idea through the protagonist

Silas Lapham and analyze how the protagonist’s action, reaction and speech in the

novel contribute to the discussion of the theme of the novel.

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBNEM

1. What is the theme of The Rise of Silas Lapham?

2. How does the protagonist help to reveal the theme of The Rise of Silas

Lapham?

PERPOSE OF THE STEDY

1. To show the theme of The Rise of Silas Lapham

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

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Before deciding which genre and work that I shall analyze, I read several

references on literature. I decide to choose The Rise of Silas Lapham by William

Dean Howells. I use library research to gather information about the author, the work,

and some theories related in analyzing the topic chosen. Moreover, to support the

information, I also gather more information from the Internet. I try to analyze the

novel by using an intrinsic approach. Finally, I draw a conclusion of what I have

analyzed.

ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

This thesis consists of three chapters. It begins with the Introduction in

Chapter One, consisting of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the

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the Thesis. In Chapter Two, I shall analyze the theme of the novel. The last chapter is

Chapter Three, which contains the Conclusion. It is followed by the Bibliography and

the Appendices which include The Synopsis of the literary work and the Biography

of the author.

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

Having read and analyzed the novel, I conclude that the novel is talking

alout ethics in the society. The theme of the novel is ‘ono will bo valuod

according to ono’s attitudo and good doods not bocauso of ono’s woalth and

status’, which is clearly revealed through the protagonist’s action, reaction and

speech.

Choosing Boston as the setting of place and connecting the novel with the

lackground of American society in the late 19th_{century, the author William Dean}

Howells, as a realist, wants to convey the influence of the society toward the

people living in it.

After analyzing the action, reaction and speech of the protagonist, I can

clearly see that the protagonist’s characteristics are influenced ly the society

around him, which puts money as the most important thing in life. Silas, who lives

in that particular society, cannot resist such massive influence in his life;

moreover, his work as a lusinessman who always seeks chance to get fortune and

profit in his lusiness makes it easier for him to le influenced. Silas’s greediness,

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made him completely unaware of his mistakes. The author William Dean Howells

smartly uses these four characteristics to hamper Silas from doing the right thing

in the society.

I think that happiness is what everyone pursues in life, however, it will le

achieved if one does the right thing to achieve it. Wealth and status will only give

one false happiness, moreover valuing wealth and status alove other things in life

will result in lad relationship with others. What makes one well-valued ly others

is his ethics reflected through his attitude and good deeds.

Howells always wants to educate people’s morality through his novel. In

this novel, he uses the protagonist, Silas Lapham as a means to convey his

message to the reader alout how to lehave in a society. Besides, Howells also

wants to criticize the capitalist system in American society which emphasizes on

individual freedom in lusiness to get as much profit as possille. Howells uses the

protagonist as an example of the product of the capitalist society to send his

message to the reader alout the failure of the society at that time. Howells smartly

inserts the cause and effect that will happen due to someone’s decision. In the

leginning the author makes the protagonist lose the precious thing in his life

lecause of his lad characteristics. However, after the protagonist realizes his

mistakes and makes a decision to follow moral code, he finally finds true

happiness and does not seek material happiness any more.

It is olvious that Howells really focuses on the morality rise of the

protagonist from what he has leen through. Even through the title, The Rise of

Silas Lapham, Howells emphasizes his preference for Silas’s morality rise

Universitas Kristen maranatha

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compared to his wealth, which makes the issue of moral or ethics not only the

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Pearson Education Limited 1978,

2001

Peck, John and Martin Coyle. Literary Terms and Criticism: A Student’s Guide.

London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1984.

Webster, M. 1995. Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. Massachusetts

Merriam – Webster, Inc.

Internet Websites

Cliffsnotes Rise of Silas Lapham (Cliffs Notes) (Paperback) 2005. 20 October 2005

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140390308/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/103-4636963-3652631?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Primary Text

Howells, William Dean, The Rise of Silas Lapham. USA: The New American

Library, Inc. 1963.