THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MAIN CHARACTER IN
GONE GIRL FILM
A THESIS
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
CINDY PUTRI
Registration Number : 2122220004
ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ABSTRACT
Putri, Cindy. 2122220004. The Characterization of The Main Character in
Gone Girl Film. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of
Medan. 2017.
This thesis deals with the characterization of Amy Elliot Dunne as the main character in Gone Girl film. The study was aimed to find out the characterizations of Amy and the most dominant characteristic of Amy in the film. The study was conducted by applying descriptive qualitative method. The source of the data was Gone Girl film. The data of the study were linguistic features that were formed as sentences by Amy’s utterances from her dialogues and monologues as the main character. The findings of the study showed that the characterizations of Amy were: (1) intelligent, (2) perfectionist, (3) insecure, (4) liar and (5) vengeful. And the most dominant characteristic of Amy was liar. The evidence of the most dominant characteristic was by analyzing the 39 selected data consisted of 7 quotes (17.94%) that revealed Amy as intelligent, 5 quotes (12.82%) as perfectionist, 11 quotes (28.20%) as insecure, 13 quotes (33.33%) as liar, and 3 quotes (7.69%) as vengeful.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, the writer would like to thanks to Allah SWT and the Prophet Muhammad SAW for the blessings during her academic year at English and Literature Department Faculty of Languages and Arts (FBS) State University of Medan in completing the thesis. The writer is also very grateful to the following people:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., Rector of The State University of
Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts (FBS) State University of Medan, who has sincerely given advice and guidance during her study.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department and as her Reviewers as well as Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English and Literature Department and as her consultant and Academic Advisor for guiding and supervising her during the study, who have always helped and guided her during the completion of the study.
Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English literature Study
Program and Nora Ronita, S.Pd., S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English
Education Program for their advices and encouragement to complete the Thesis. Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd., the Administration Staff of English Department, who has given advice and helped her during the fulfillment of her thesis.
Drs. Elia Masa Gintings, M.Hum., her Consultant, who has patiently
given advice, motivation, suggestion, and correction during the completion of her thesis.
Dr. Zainuddin, DIP.TEFL., M.Hum., her Reviewers, who have kindly
given correction and suggestion for the betterment of her thesis.
All the Lecturers of English and Literature Department who have
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Her beloved parents, Pujiono and Salmah and her beloved brother or partner in crime, Fuja Andresal who have sincerely given great memories in her life, encouragement, financial support and have become her main motivation to complete the study.
Her beloved group, Homograph that consists of Basyariah, Dian Sukma
Lestari, Yeni Novita Sari, Dina Wahyuni Tanjung, Dina Febriana, and Yumi Saniah Lubis, for a great friendship and all experiences that have
been gone through together.
Her beloved classmates in English Literature A 2012, Sixties, Tragipo,
Gohomefast for the extraordinary experiences in four years during the
academic year.
Medan, March 2017 The writer
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E. The Significance of the Study ... 5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERARTURE ... 6
A. Theoretical Framework ... 6
1. Characterization ... 6
a. Direct Characterization ... 7
b. Indirect Characterization ... 8
2. Character... 10
3. Personality of Character ... 12
a. Personality Disorder ... 13
b. Types of Personality Disorders ... 14
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B. Relevant Studies ... 23
C. Conceptual Framework ... 25
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 27
A. Research Design ... 27
B. Source of the Data ... 27
C. Technique of Collecting Data ... 27
D. Technique of Analyzing Data ... 28
CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 30
A. Data ... 30
B. Data Analysis ... 30
1. Analysis of the Characterizations of Amy... 31
a. Intelligent ... 31
b. Perfectionist ... 34
c. Insecure ... 36
d. Liar ... 37
e. Vengeful ... 39
2. Analysis of The Most Dominant Characteristic of Amy ... 40
C. Research Findings ... 41
D. Discussion ... 42
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 45
A. Conclusions ... 45
B. Suggestions ... 46
REFERENCES ... 47
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A ... 49
APPENDIX B ... 52
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LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 2.1 The Methods of Indirect Characterization ... 9
Table 4.1 The Examples of The Data Analysis ... 30
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LIST OF FIGURES
Pages
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Literature represents life which deals with internal and external factors of
human life. A literary work is a relate part of human experiences, civilizations and
evolution. It will by interest to criticize it, because we will get a lot of knowledge
by the criticism. Analyzing literature means analyzing human life as experience,
ideas, motivations, emotions which are expressed into the words. By analyzing
literary work people can get a better view of things that happen in people’s
character.
Nowadays many people love watching films. This phenomenon can be
seen from the number of people coming to the cinema. This is due to the fact that
watching film is enjoyable and entertaining. Many people enjoy fictional stories
whether in the form of films or novels. A film creates an illusion that what occurs
on the screen is an objective recording of events. A film has become part of that
extensive cultural system of constructions that represent social reality (Klarer,
2004:76).
A film describes a character who considered as one of the psychological
aspects in the story, because character considered as one of the fundamental
component of fiction. A character gives the important role to makes the story in a
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the audience to care what happens in the film. Especially for the main character,
they have an important role in films. They have big influence to represent the
important thing that a film wants to deliver to the audience. Character and
personality have a close relationship. In any drama personality plays a vital role in
character’s behaviors and actions to protect personal entity and psyche (Charters,
2011:34).
While many people can understand the whole story of a film just by
watching it once, but understanding even one character needs considerable skill.
So, characterization is the method to analyze the main character’s development
and personality. Characterization deals with the process of creating an image of
person in fiction complete with the person’s traits, features and motivations
(Aquino, 1976:112). Characterization broadly refers to the description and
development of character. There are two different approaches to characterization,
including direct characterization and indirect characterization. Direct
characterization uses when the author tells the audience what the personality of
the character is. Direct characterization usually uses in novel. And indirect
characterization uses when the author shows things that reveal the personality of
the character. Indirect characterization usually uses in film. There are four
different methods of indirect characterization: 1) speech, 2) thoughts, 3) action,
and 4) looks (Burroway, 2000:52).
There have been some studies that related to the characterization of the
main character in literary works. Gnanasekaran (2014) discussed about the
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and revealed the behavior of the main character Meursault who is psychologically
sick with phobias, anxiety personality disorders and lacks emotional intelligence
quotient.
While almost similar with Gnanasekaran, Fierro (2014) studied
characterization in the characters of Edgar Allan’s poems and the novel by Fyodor
Dostoyevsky. She examined this through the protagonist characters. She revealed
they as antisocial are self-centered individuals who pursue their plans with
calculation and lack of empathy only to undergo a sort of death after their wicked
plans have been accomplished.
Almost similar to two previous studies above, Faisal (2011) analyzed
characterization trough personality traits of main character on Bruce Almighty
movie. He found that conscientiousness of Bruce Nolan as main character
characteristic are ambitious and neuroticism of Bruce is irritable or anger,
complaining person, blaming person, selfish, and jealous. It’s all happened when
on one particularly bad day, in which he loses his job, is beaten up by gang of
hoods and crashes his car.
From those previous studies, this research was different. This research
focused on characterization of the main character in film and describing the moral
values that reflected by the main character. The writer chooses Gone Girl film
because it portrays the actual and the symbolic occupied the same slice of reality.
This film is about the couple of “Fight Club” who hurt each other, but the
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of this film. As a woman, Amy has been forced to embody a succession of tedious
female stereotypes, but she twists this oppressive force in order to get her own
way. She does some manipulation, forgery, and identity change to trap her cheated
husband, Nick Dunne. She made her own murder to push her husband go to the
jail. It is so interesting to discuss about the characterization of Amy and how she
interacts with other characters in the film.
B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the background above, the focus issues to discuss in this study
were formulated as follows:
1. What are the characterizations of Amy’s characteristics as the main
character in Gone Girl film based on indirect characterization method?
2. What is the most dominant characteristic of Amy as the main character in
Gone Girl film?
C. The Objective of the Study
In relation to previous problem of study, the objectives of the study were
formulated as follows:
1. To describe the characterizations of Amy’s characteristics in Gone Girl
film based on indirect characterization method.
2. To find out the most dominant characteristic of Amy as the main character
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D. The Scope of the Study
In this study, the writer limited the analysis to the Amy Elliot Dunne as the
main character in Gone Girl film, because she was the characters who get the
dominant roles over the whole story of the film.
E. The Significance of the Study
In accordance with the objectives of the research, this research was
expected to give contributions, both theoretically and practically:
1. Theoretically, it was expected that the results of this study can enrich the
knowledge in the findings are expected to the students or literature
learners, to use the findings as their references to learn about literature
especially about characterization of character in literary works.
2. Practically, the findings of the study were expected to be useful and
relevant for the researchers who are interested in doing research about
characterization of character in film or any other literary work as a basis
for further study. And this research can be used to develop or give
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the data regarding characterizations of Amy Elliot Dunne
as the main character in Gone Girl film, finally the writer concluded the
conclusions that presented as follows:
1. There were five kinds of Amy characteristics in the film. Taking from
her utterances or sentences based on speech and thought, the five kinds
of Amy characteristics are: (1) intelligent, (2) perfectionist, (3) insecure,
(4) liar and (5) vengeful.
2. The most dominant characteristic of Amy has in the film was liar. The
percentage of Amy’s characteristics consists of 7 quotes (17.94%) that
revealed Amy as intelligent, 5 quotes (12.82%) as perfectionist, 11
quotes (28.20%) as insecure, 13 quotes (33.33%) as liar, and 3 quotes
(7.69%) as vengeful.
B. Suggestions
Referring to the results of the study, there were some suggestions as
follows:
1. The students who were interested in learning the characterization
methods, should know about the principles of the method itself in order
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characterization of the characters, it is suggests for the students to learn
about it deeper and understanding the different methods in it.
2. The readers could be used the result of this study especially to the
teaching and learning of characterization of character in literary work
and can be used to develop and give inspiration for further study. This
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