CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the study
This analysis deals with the problems of the process of love and type of
love which exposed in Cecelia Ahern‘s novel Love, Rosie. Cecelia Ahern was born
on September 30, 1981 in Dublin, Ireland. She is the daughter of the former Irish
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. On 14th December 2009 it was announced that Cecelia
had given birth to her first child with partner David Keoghan, a girl named Robin.
She was secretly married on 11 June 2010 in County Kildare, Ireland. Her older
sister, Georgina Ahern is married to Nicky Byrne of Irish pop group Westlife.
Cecelia was a member of the Irish pop group Shimma who finished third in the
Irish national for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000. She attended Griffith
College Dublin and obtained a degree in Journalism and Media Communications.
Cecelia Ahern wrote her first novel, PS. I Love You when she was twenty-one. It
was published in 2004, the number 1 bestseller in Ireland for 19 weeks and sold in
over forty countries. The book was adapted as a motion picture directed by Richard
La Gravenese and starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler and released in 2007 in
the United States. Her second book, Where Rainbows End (US title: Love, Rosie or
Rosie Dunne) won the German CORINE Award in 2005.
Love is composed of a single soul in habiting two bodies (Aristotels).
Love represents a range of human emotions and experiences related to the senses
feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure to intense
interpersonal attraction. Harry Harlow (1958:32) defines that love is as an
affectional feeling for others. Love is a commitment to find the meaning of life
from two different human genders. In other words, love is not only a series of
beautiful words but an expression of soul and emotion based on responsibility
regardless of background, status and condition. Arthur (1986: 64) groups pure love
into one kinds or types of love besides ludus, storge, manic, pragmatic, eros, and
agapic. These types of love are made different from the intention of love itself. In
other words, the classification seems to identify the certain goal of love
implication; of how the love is implemented in order to reach the achievement.
Mifflin (1987: 80) defines that love is a strong affection or deep concern
for another person. Love can be communicated in many different ways. It is
expressed through words, for example, or through touch or other actions that show
admiration and concern. Love often grows with time. The ability to love is one of
the most pleasurable parts of living. All people have the ability to give love and
need to receive it. Friendship is a simple example that human beings need in their
lives. It is one form of love which link loyalty toward each other and shares interest
and support. Such feelings and behavior are a form of love. The caring among
parents, children, brothers and sisters is an implementation of love human beings
may reciprocally. Yet, what love may give is the same as what love may take. It is
equally implied for the benefit to mankind to link the feelings of equality and
belongingness. However, if the implication of love is wrongly interpreted will tend
to destroy the good side of friendship and togetherness that human beings eternally
Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more
people. Characteristics are present in many types of friendship. Such characteristics
include affection, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, mutual understanding and
compassion, enjoyment of each other's company, trust, and the ability to be
oneself, express one's feelings, and make mistakes without fear of judgment from
the friend. Friend tends to share common backgrounds, occupations, or interests.
Friendship is a feeling of comfort and emotional safety with a person. It is when
you do not have to weigh your thoughts and measure words, before keeping it forth
before your friend. It is when someone knows you better than yourself and assures
to be your side in every emotional crisis. It is when you can sleep fighting and get
another morning with a better understanding. Friendship is much beyond roaming
together and sharing good moments, it is when someone comes to rescue you from
the worst phase of life.
Cecelia Ahern postulates love as the theme in her novel, "Love, Rosie".
The central idea of a novel usually is called as the theme. Yelland (1983:189)
says, ―Theme is the central thought in a literary work.‖ The theme may be directly
stated or be most obliquely concealed within the literary work. To find the theme
in a story, we have to read and understand the whole dialogs and the plot inside
the story. After it was done we can conclude what the theme that delivered by the
novelist in a story of the novel.According to Kennedy (1991:203) that novel is a
book-length story in prose, whose author try to create senses while we read, we
experience actual life. The author of novel of course has a certain purpose why he
through his novel. That is why an interpretation must be done to find out the
meaning of novel.
Novel contains many aspects that reflected based on the human real life.
This aspects commonly concern with emotion, feeling, problems, etc. This novel
focus with love in social life. Because of this novel talks about social, the writer
relates it to sociology of literature. Sociology of literature means reviewing the
literature by plugging the social aspects that exist in people's lives. The term was
essentially no different from understanding the socio-literary, sociological
approach, or socio-cultural approach to literature (Damono 1978:2). As we know
in modern era nowadays, the process of love is now often in society, moreover a
boy and a girl is close friends from childhood until they are grown up. Love
influenced by friendship when they spend time together. Love is a strong feeling
for someone, it is so important in our life and it is impossible for us to live without
communicate with that person. And in this analysis, the writer uses
Postmodernism theory, especially about the problems of love which then appear
into a postmodern position in its views about love. This is which appear the
characteristics about the postmodern love story itself, later. Those characteristics
about friendship who love each other, miss communicated, fear of relationships
experienced by modern people.
Today, novel has attracted interest and attention for many people,
especially in teenagers, and other young generation. Novel entertains to read very
much. Novel presents characters and actions as representation of real life
condition and situation of the human. The characters or the people in the real have
with fact of human life. In other words, the novel is the combination of the real
life experiences and the imagination of the author. We can approach the novel
through the characters. And this novel is about process of love in friendship
between Rosie and Alex. This story begins by two young children who are the
best of friends. As they grow older it is obvious they are meant for each other and
everyone seems to see this except for the most important ones, the ones who are
meant for each other, Alex and Rosie. Love, Rosie is a story told through letters,
emails and instant messaging about the ever changing relationship between the
two main characters Rosie Dunne and Alex Stewart. Rosie and Alex are close
friends from childhood but one day they are suddenly separated when Alex and
his family move from Dublin to Boston. Their friendship is tested by time and
circumstance, and situations become even more difficult when love starts to tangle
things up. It seems that denial and impossibility are overwhelming, but Rosie and
Alex are faced with the decision of giving up everything for love, or living in
silence for the rest of their separate lives. Misunderstandings, bad luck and
troublesome circumstances keep them apart until finally Rosie and Alex presented
with the ultimate opportunity to be together again. Love is more than a feeling. It
is also a motivational force that compels us to do an action. The experience of
love is unique for every person, and one might use that feeling to measure the
success of a relationship.
Explanation above becomes the reason why the writer chooses this novel
as the object of analysis. Actually, many topics can be discussed from this novel
but the process of love portrayed in Cecelia Ahern‘s novel Love, Rosie is very
1.2. Problem of the study
Based on the title and the background of this analysis, here are the
problems that will be analyzed:
a. How is the process of love found in Cecelia Ahern‘s novel Love, Rosie?
b. What kind of love is found in Cecelia Ahern‘s novel Love, Rosie?
1.3. Objectives of the study
Based on the problems of the analysis as mentioned above, the objectives
of this analysis are:
a. To describe the process of love found in Cecelia Ahern‘s novel Love, Rosie.
b. To describe kind of love found in Cecelia Ahern‘s novel Love, Rosie.
1.4. Scope of the study
In order to avoid excessively large discussions, this analysis is limited to
make more specific. The analysis will focus of how is the process of love found
in Cecelia Ahern‘s novel Love, Rosie, and the writer focus analyze this study in
storge love in analysing this process love in the novel.
1.5. Significances of the study
The analysis hopefully will give significance to the readers both
theoretically and practically. Theoretically, it may enrich the knowledge and give
information about process of love for the readers. Practically, the readers can get
better understanding about process of love, especially understanding of its main
