The Portrayal of The Protagonists in Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' and Daphne Du Maurier's 'Rebecca'.

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ABSTRACT

Di dalam Tugas Akhir ini akan dibahas tentang kedua tokoh utama dalam

novel karangan Charlotte Bronte yang berjudul Jane Eyre dan novel karangan Daphne

du Maurier yang berjudul Rebecca. Kedua tokoh utama tersebut memiliki satu

kesamaan yaitu keduanya mengalami ketakutan, keraguan, dan keresahan di dalam

kehidupan mereka karena pikiran dan perasaan mereka tidak sejalan dengan pikiran

dan perasaan orang-orang yang berada di sekeliling mereka. Sementara tokoh dalam

karangan Bronte berusaha mengatasi keresahannya dengan berusaha mengatasi

berbagai rintangan yang ditemuinya, tokoh utama dalam novel karangan Du Maurier

terperangkap dalam keresahannya dan merasa tidak aman ketika ia harus berinteraksi

dengan orang lain. Di dalam perkembangannya, kedua tokoh utama tersebut sangat

berbeda satu dengan lainnya. Yang menjadi topik dalam Tugas Akhir ini adalah

bagaimana mereka dapat mengatasi keresahan-keresahan tersebut di dalam hidup

mereka dan apakah yang hendak disampaikan oleh masing-masing pengarang melalui

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APPENDICES

The Synopsis of Jane Eyre

An orphaned child named Jane Eyre is left to the care of Mrs. Reed, an aunt,

who lives with her three children in Gateshead Hall. Jane, nonetheless, is miserable,

having to stay with them; therefore, she is very glad when Mrs. Reed sends her to

school. At Lowood School, Jane meets some fellow-pupils whom she can befriend

with. Ms. Temple is one of Jane’s teacher who later becomes her superintendent.

Under her care, Jane improves as a pupil. After finishing her education, Jane works as

a teacher.

Afterwards, she accepts a new job as a governess and moves to Thornfield

Hall, where she takes charge of the education of a lively French girl named Adele, the

ward of Mr. Rochester, her employer. Jane and Mr. Rochester gradually become

close companions until, one day, he proposes to her. After, the marriage cannot take

place since Mr. Rochester is a pparently still bound by his previous marriage;

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Maranatha Christian University While still trying to find a new job, Jane stays with Diana, Mary, and Mr. St.

John Rivers in Moor House. It turns out that they are Jane’s cousins and that their

uncle has inherited her a large amount of money, which she divides equally among

them four. Jane is then offered an opportunity to go to India, as Mr. Rivers’s

companion. Since Jane has a hunch concerning Mr. Rochester, she wishes to look for

his news before going to India.

Jane soon returns to Thornfield which she finds now a ruin. She is told that

Mr. Rochester has moved away to a house called Ferndean. Jane goes after him to the

manor-house, where she finds him in his worst condition. The story ends with Jane’s

cancelling her trip to India and staying with Mr. Rochester.

The Synopsis of Rebecca

The protagonist recalls the moment when she works as a companion to Mrs.

Van Hopper, from whom she learns that a prominent figure named Maxim de Winter

has lost his wife, Rebecca, in a boat accident. During their stay in Monte Carlo, they

actually meet and have a conversation with him. When Mrs. Van Hopper is about to

leave, Maxim proposes to the protagonist and then takes her to live in his estate,

Manderley. The protagonist, however, becomes restless when she lives there. She

feels haunted by Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, is inexplicably cold

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One day, a guest suggests a costume-party to be held once again like it used to

be, which the house cannot refuse. The protagonist, taking Mrs. Danvers’s advise,

wears a costume which turns out to be similar to Rebecca’s dress. Maxim is shocked

when he sees her and immediately asks her to change the clothes. The party ends with

the protagonist’s feeling awful about herself. The next day, when talking with Mrs.

Danvers, the protagonist hears some explosive sounds of rockets signaling that there

is a ship grounded at the bay. A wreckage of Rebecca’s boat is apparently found near

the ship, with her dead body inside.

Following this occasion, Maxim has to undergo an inquest. Before going to a

court, he tells the protagonist that it was not a boat-accident. He has unexpectedly

shot Rebecca to death and let her sink in the sea. On hearing this, the protagonist tries

to be calm to stand by Maxim. The police, nonetheless, finds that Rebecca was dying

of cancer; therefore, it gives a motive for her suicide. Maxim is then acquitted. On

their way back home, he and the protagonist find that Manderley is burning down

into ruins, which they leave at last, buried together with their past memory of

Rebecca.

The Biography of Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)

Charlotte Bronte was born in Yorkshire, in the north of England, to Maria

Branwell of Penzance, Cornwall, and Patrick Bronte, a clergyman of Irish descent.

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Maranatha Christian University therefore, the mother’s sister, Elizabeth, came to help her father with their

upbringing. While playing with Branwell’s toy soldiers, the children created

imaginary worlds of Angria and Gondal. They wrote stories about these places,

besides many other poems and plays.

In 1824, Charlotte went to school; however, she soon had to return home due

to an outbreak of tuberculosis. In 1839, she lived with the Sidgewick family to

become their children’s private teacher. In 1842, Charlotte and her sister, Emily,

enrolled in a girls’ school in Brussels, where they learned French, German, and

Management. In 1844, with Emily and Anne, the other sister, Charlotte tried to open

a school; however, it was a vain attempt. Afterwards, the sisters started on writing.

In the year of 1846, a collection of poems written by Charlotte, Emily and

Anne was printed under the title Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. By this time,

Charlotte has finished a novel, The Professor, which was, however, refused by the

publishing firm because it was too short. She began to write another novel, entitled

Jane Eyre. Soon after its publication in 1847, the novel became an immediate success.

In 1848, Charlotte wrote Shirley. In 1853, she wrote Villete, which was based on her

recollections when she was still in Brussels.

In 1854, Charlotte was married to her father’s curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls.

She died of pneumonia during her pregnancy in the following year.

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The Biography of Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989)

Daphne du Maurier was born in London, England, to an Anglo-French family.

Her mother, Muriel Beaumont, was an actress. Her father, Sir Gerald du Maurier, was

an actor-manager, who later became a writer. In 1932, Du Maurier was married to

Liutenant-Colonel Frederick Arthur Montague Browning II, who was given a

knighthood for his service during World War II.

Du Maurier wrote her first book The Loving Spirit when she was twenty-four.

Many of her works were inspired by her family. For example, she portrayed her

father in Gerald, a novel which was published in 1934. She also wrote many

short-stories, among them were “The Pool” and “The Blue Lenses”, which explored fears

and paranoia. Some of her novels were set in her ancestral home, a mansion called

Menabilly, which was located in Cornwall, for example, The King’s General, which

was printed in 1946. Rebecca, written in 1938 and said to be a copy of Charlotte

Bronte’s Jane Eyre, was also set in Cornwall.

Beside fictions, Du Maurier also wrote biographies, among which were the

biography of Branwell Bronte, Charlotte Bronte’s brother, and the biography of an

English statement, Francis Bacon, which was written in 1976. A year later, she wrote

her own autobiography Growing Pains.

For her literary achievement, Du Maurier was made a Dame of the British

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Maranatha Christian University 1977. She died in 1989. Three years later, a pictorial memoir of Daphne du Maurier,

Enchanted Cornwall, was printed.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Literature offers experiences of life. It records people, places and events

which we can identify in our own lives. However, it is also a term to describe

writings appreciated as works of art. Authors weave words together and present us

interesting stories. How the readers respond to a certain literary work is influenced by

their foreknowledge about it and their attitudes toward the values the work promotes.

These three aspects of literature altogether play a significant role in reading and

understanding literature.

The reason why Charlotte Bronte is worthy of acknowledgement in the world

of English literature is because she introduces us to her characters mainly by inviting

us to come into the realm of their personal thoughts and describing their emotional

reactions with much intensity. As Professor Peden, of the University of Missouri,

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Maranatha Christian University the English novel, in the recording of exterior action. Her concern was with … inner

causes rather than with external results” (Peden xii-xiii). The introduction to the

Penguin Classics edition of Jane Eyre also notes that Bronte “is greatly admired for

… her emotional honesty” (Jane Eyre), which is shown in her comprehensive

treatment of characters’ interiority.

Jane Eyre is one of several novels that are written by Bronte. Much of its

values are derived from its outspoken voicing of women’s conditions and experiences

in its time. It is called, by Brian Phillips, “a critique of Victorian assumptions about

gender and social class” (Phillips). In addition to it, the novel’s strength can also be

found as much, as Joyce Carol Oates writes, in the way it reflects the protagonist’s

self-introspection (Oates vi).

Daphne du Maurier is an “English novelist, biographer, and playwright”. She

is mostly noted in the world of English literature as a thriller writer who writes many

suspenseful short stories and novels. Beside fictions, Du Maurier also writes some

“biographies, among others Branwell Bronte’s, the brother of sisters Anne, Charlotte,

and Emily”. One of her work, Rebecca, is written based on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane

Eyre (Liukonnen). Jonathan Yardley writes, in his article entitled “Du Maurier’s

‘Rebecca’, A Worthy ‘Eyre’ Apparent,” that her career as a writer is very successful.

Du Maurier has, like Bronte, strong and vivid imagination to tell stories and create

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Rebecca is categorized as a psychological suspense novel (Douthat). The fact

that we can easily trace its character and events back to Jane Eyre could lead us to

believe that the book is merely a copy of Bronte’s work. Yet, it is, on its own,

acknowledged as a good piece of literature, with its suspenseful plot and definite

theme. The novel also shows some sensitivity in its description of the past so as to be

gently perceived in its protagonist’s present reality (Yardley).

Being compared with each other, the protagonists in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane

Eyre and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca offer an interesting subject study, Rebecca

being the intertext of Jane Eyre. While there are some similarities to be found in

them, their characters are completely of different kinds. They are both complex but

the nature of their roundness differs from each other. Fictitious as they are, one may

sense them as real-life people. They both show fear, doubt, and anxiety when drawn

into conflicting situations; however, each of them reacts differently when confronted

with the existing contradictory forces in life. Furthermore, one may probably learn

something from their strengths and weaknesses, as well as from their aspiration and

frustration. In general, it is their inwardness that makes them both interesting

characters to analyse.

Statement of the Problem

1. How are the protagonists portrayed in both novels?

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Maranatha Christian University Purpose of the Study

1. To show how the protagonists are portrayed in both novels.

2. To show what the authors want to say in creating such characters.

Method of Research

The method that I use in writing my thesis is the library research. The thesis

will be based on my reading the primary texts and some relevant references. The two

primary texts are approached intrinsically, focusing on the protagonists as the subject

study. Meanwhile, I also look for some criticism, commentaries, and articles that

have been done about the two novels.

Organization of the Thesis

The thesis begins with Acknowledgement, which is followed by Abstract (in

Imdonesian). Its main part is divided into four chapters: Chapter One is Introduction,

which consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the

Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis; Chapter Two is Analysis

of the Protagonist in Jane Eyre, the first novel; Chapter Three is Analysis of the

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compares the two analyses in the previous chapters. It ends with Bibliography and

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Maranatha Christian University

Bibliography

Primary Texts

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London: Penguin Popular Classics, 1994. Maurier, Daphne Du. Rebecca. London: Longmans, 1969.

References

Douthat, Ross. Sparknote on Rebecca. 2006. 10 Mar. 2008 <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/rebecca/>.

Liukonnen, Petri. A Biography of Charlotte Bronte. 2003. 12 Jan. 2008 <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cbronte.htm>.

Liukonnen, Petri. A Biography of Daphne du Maurier. 2002. 12 Jan. 2008 <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/dumaurie.htm>.

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Introduction.” Jane Eyre. New York: A Bantam Classic, 1988. Peden, William. “Introduction.” Jane Eyre. New York: The Modern Library, 1950. Phillips, Brian. Sparknote on Jane Eyre. 2006. 18 Feb. 2008

<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/janeeyre/>.

Yardley, Jonathan. “Du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca,’ A Worthy ‘Eyre’ Apparent.”