Portrayal of The Protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' and Sue Monk Kidd's 'The Mermaid Chair'.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan Tugas Akhir ini, penulis akan membahas tentang karakter seorang istri yang terdapat dalam novel karya Nathaniel Hawthorne yang berjudul The Scarlet Letter dan karya Sue Monk Kidd yang berjudul The Mermaid Chair. Kedua karakter dalam kedua novel tersebut, Hester Prynne dan Jessie Sullivan, adalah istri yang tergoda untuk melakukan perselingkuhan.

Setelah membaca dan menganalisis kedua novel tersebut, penulis menarik kesimpulan bahwa kedua karakter dalam novel ini sangat menarik untuk dibahas. Di dalam kedua novel ini diceritakan bahwa kedua karakter ini melakukan perselingkuhan di saat mereka tidak bersama suami mereka. Setiap karakter dari tokoh ini tentunya memiliki perbedaan dalam sifat dan masalah yang dihadapi, dan tentunya cara mereka menyelesaikan permasalahan akan berbeda pula.

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APPENDICES

SYNOPSIS OF THE SCARLET LETTER

Hester Prynne is a wife of Roger Prynne. Her marriage is happy before she

goes to New England without being accompanied by her husband. She is tempted

to have an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, a reverend in the puritan society and

she gives birth to a daughter. Society wants to know who the father is but Hester

insists on hiding the identity of the father. Society condemns her cruelly by

putting the scarlet letter symbol, A, which symbolizes the sin of adultery on her

chest.

Hester feels that this is a very severe on this punishment. Society does not

regard her as a good woman because society thinks that she is a bad woman who

is involved with Satan. Hester works as a seamstress to earn her daily bread. She

makes beautiful dresses for people in the town including the governor. The A

letter symbol has caused Hester to be patient. Hester helps poor people although

sometimes they refuse her help.

Meanwhile, people change their mind because they think Hester has

become a good person. Some people think that Hester is very helpful, patient,

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attempts to take Pearl away from her, she refuses their command and defend

her child.

Later, Arthur confesses that he loves Hester and he is the father of

Pearl. After that confession, Arthur dies and Roger dies one year later. Finally,

Hester feels free because she does not have to keep her lover’s identity anymore. She goes with Pearl to start a new life in another town. After several

years, she comes back to that town, still wearing the A letter symbol.

SYNOPSIS OF THE MERMAID CHAIR

Jessie Sullivan is Hugh Sullivan’s wife. She takes care of her family well.

She loves her husband because her husband is very kind. After Dee, Jessie’s only

daughter, goes to college and stays at boarding house in Vanderbilt, Jessie feels so

lonely. She feels uncomfortable in her house. After receiving a call from her

mother’s friend, Kat, telling her that Jessie’s mother, Nelle Dubois, cuts her finger

off, she goes to her homeland, Egret Island. First, she feels sad, wondering what

happens to her mother as she has bad relationship with her mother. It becomes a

good reason for her to separate for a while from Hugh Sullivan, her husband.

Jessie’s relationship with her mother is not good because Jessie thinks that her

mother still blames Jessie for her father’s death.

In Egret Island, Jessie has an affair with a junior monk, Whit, in the St.

Senara Church. She feels that Whit has a good side, because he earnestly trusts his

God. Jessie refuses Hugh’s coming to Egret Island because she is in love with

Whit. Jessie feels that this affair is her second love, which is the same as when she

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Nelle, Kat and Father Dominic kill her father because her father requires them to

do so. Jessie feels free because she always blames herself on her father’s death. Jessie regrets because she has hurt Hugh and Dee.

When having the affair, she does not realize that she has a happy family.

She comes back to Atlanta and apologizes to Hugh. She wants to fix her fault. At

first, Hugh only lets Jessie alone. At night, Jessie sleeps in the guest room and

keeps thinking about her fault. In the morning, Hugh makes breakfast for them,

which means that Hugh and Jessie want to fix their marriage and start a new life.

After several years, she goes to Egret Island by herself and Hugh allows her

because Hugh trusts her.

BIOGRAPHY OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts.

He was a 19th century American novelist and short-story writer. Nathaniel’s

father is William Hawthorne, who emigrated from England in 1630 and was the

first of Hawthorne's ancestors to arrive in the colonies. Hawthorne studied in the

Bowdoin College from 1821 to 1824, he made friend with Henry Wadsworth

Longfellow and the future president Franklin Pierce. In that college, he joined the

Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He wrote Twice-Told Tales in 1837.Hawthorne’s

career as a novelist was boosted by The Scarlet Letter in 1850, in which the

preface refers to his three-year tenure in the Custom House at Salem. The House

of the Seven Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852) followed in quick

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Many of Hawthorne's writings are about New England and many feature

moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His fiction works are considered of the

Romantic movement and, specifically, dark romanticism. His writings would also

reflect his negative view of the Transcendentalism movement. His themes are

often about the inherent evil and sin of humanity. His works often have moral

messages and deep psychological complexity.

Source: “Nathaniel Hawthorne”. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 27 March 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Hawthorne

BIOGRAPHY OF SUE MONK KIDD

Sue Monk Kidd was born on August 12, 1948 in Sylvester, Georgia. She is

a great novelist. Sue’s works are influenced by Henry David Thoreau, Kate Chopin, Thomas Merton, Martha Burke and Carl Jung. She read Thoreau’s

spiritual memoir, Walden, and Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, and they

had a deep impact on her and made her a great novelist. Her writing is inspired by

place. The Secret Life of Bees, her first novel, is inspired by her experiences of

growing up in Sylvester

Sue mostly writes spiritual memoir and novels. Sue’s second novel,The

Mermaid Chair, has been sold more than 1.7 million copies since its publication,

in 2005. It explores a woman’s self-awakening, the inner conflict of mid life

marriage, and about region in the female soul where the blame, sex and doubt mix

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bestseller list. It is the Winner of the 2005 Quill Award for General Fiction, and

was on translated into 23 languages and was produced as a television movie.

Today Sue lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband Sandy,

her two children, and their black lab, Lily. She writes in a book-lined, upstairs

study where she can see the beautiful view at the tidal creeks and marsh birds. She

is still at work on a new book

. Source: “Author”. Sue Monk Kidd.com. Sue Monk Kidd Official. 27 March

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The issue of adultery has become one of the major themes that have been very much discussed until today. This issue happens to be the subject matter in the novels because this issue represents the situation that really happens in society. However, it is continually covered by society.

I have chosen two novels dealing with the issue of adultery. They are The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. In The Scarlet Letter, written in the 19th century, Hawthorne presents a complex protagonist because “his works focus on individual effort to understand moral

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I would like to analyse characterization, specifically the protagonist. I personally think that analysing the protagonist of a novel is interesting because the protagonist is the central character who will face some problems around her. Definitely, the author has particular motivation in creating the protagonist. In both The Scarlet Letter and The Mermaid Chair , the protagonist of each story is a wife who is tempted into having an affair with another man. In The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist is Hester Prynne. She is portrayed as a wife who is tempted into having an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale and I believe this is related to “Hawthorne’s purpose to explore the ideas of individual responsibility by using the protagonist”. (

Merriman). Meanwhile, in The Mermaid Chair, Jessie is tempted into having an affair with Brother Thomas. Since Jessie is tempted into having an affair, she finally knows what is best for herself. The Mermaid Chair is about “a vision quest. Jessie is trying to find herself” by this affair ( Duval). Moreover, in The Mermaid Chair“Kidd tried to figure out for Jessie the confluence of authentic love and freedom at the same time” (Duval). Furthermore, I believe Jessie must be responsible for having this affair.

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ambiguity and absurdity of the human situation. The individual's response to this situation must be to live a totally committed life, and this commitment can only be understood by the individual who has made it. The individual therefore must always be prepared to defy the norms of society for the sake of the higher authority of a personally valid way of life.” (existentialism). Thus, I think his theories are suitable for analysing the two novels.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

The problems are stated as follows:

1. How do the authors portray the protagonists?

2. What is the purpose of each author in creating such a character? PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Based on the statement of the problems above this study is done: 1. To show how the authors portray the protagonists in the novels 2. To show the purpose of each author in creating such a character METHOD OF RESEARCH

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ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analysing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Mermaid Chair, I would like to draw some conclusions. Both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letterand Sue Monk Kidd’s The Mermaid Chair deal with a wife who is tempted into having an affair. Yet, they have different characteristics, so they will face and solve the problem in their own way.

First, I would like to point out the similarities and differences of these novels. The similarities between The Scarlet Letter and The Mermaid Chair are about the freedom to choose and truth for them. Both novels tell about the infidelity in relationship. Each female character is tempted to be involved in the sin of adultery since she is not with her husband. The female protagonist goes to some place without her husband for some reasons. Moreover, the female character has the freedom to choose whether to be involved in the affair or not.

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The Mermaid Chair, Jessie sees her affair with Whit only as her second love.

The third similarity is that each female character has an affair with a man who has authority in a church. In The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, has an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. He is reverend in the puritan society. In The Mermaid Chair, Brother Thomas is a junior monk in St. Senara church.

Moreover, I find differences between the two novels which are about the reasons why the two characters are tempted into having the affair and about their commitment. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits this adultery because of love. She loves Arthur so much. She is committed to her decision. She does not want to tell her lover’s identity to anybody because she does not want Arthur to get into trouble. She is even willing to bear the burden herself.

However, in The Mermaid Chair, Jessie Sullivan commits adultery because of her boredom. Nevertheless, she does not commit herself to her previous decision. She also tells her husband about her lover’s identity because she knows that it is the right choice. At the end of the story, Jessie Sullivan decides to go back to her husband when she realizes her wrongdoing. They live together and start to fix their relationship, but again it is her choice.

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married life. Their own characteristics show their existence. Their attitude and actions are closely connected to and thus can be explained through Soren Kierkegaard theories about choice, decision, commitment and responsibility.

I get the impression that the most discernible lifelike character is portrayed in The Mermaid Chair’s protagonist, Jessie Sullivan. Sue Monk Kidd as the author creates Jessie as a character who can represent wives in general who feel great boredom after a certain time in their married life. The characterization of this protagonist can be seen from the first page until the last. We can understand her portrayal through her conversation with other characters such as Hugh Sullivan, Brother Thomas and from her reaction to others actions. I know her characteristics from her own perspective.

From this novel, I also get an understanding about the relationship between a man and a woman. This affair could happen to anyone including to someone who has authority in the religious institution such as a clergyman in the church. It is a must for them to be a role model for the society but they fail. I feel sorry for someone who has authority in the religious institution being trapped in such an affair. These novels show that every man, including a clergyman, is possible to commit a sin including the sin of adultery.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts:

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Signet Classic Printing, 1999. Kidd, Sue Monk. The Mermaid Chair. London: Headline review, 2006.

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Person, Leland S. “The Cambridge Introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne”.

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<http://www.entplaza.com/cgi-bin/create/author.pl?cat=Soren_Kierkegaard> “Quotations from SOREN KIERKEGAARD”. Poem Hunter.com. 28 August 2007.

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