BEING CUNNINGHAM’S WOMEN: The Portrayal Of Women In Michael Cunningham’s The Hours.

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Citra Dewi Saraswati, 2013

Being Cunningham’s Women: The Portrayal of Women in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu

Being Cunningham’s Women: The Portrayal of Women

in Michael Cunningham’s

The Hours

A Research Paper

(Submitted to the English Departement of FPBS UPI as a partial requirement to achieve Sarjana Sastra degree)

By

Citra Dewi Saraswati

0807519

English Education Department

Faculty of Language and Arts Education

Indonesia University of Education

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BEING CUNNINGHAM’S WOMEN: THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM’S THE HOURS

Oleh

Citra Dewi Saraswati

Sebuah skripsi yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Sarjana Sastra pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Desember 2013

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

Skripsi ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhya atau sebagian,

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu PAGE OF APPROVAL

BEING CUNNINGHAM’S WOMEN: THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM’S THE HOURS

By:

Citra Dewi Saraswati

0807519

Approved by:

Main Supervisor Co-Supervisor

Bachrudin Musthafa, M.A., Ph. D. Nia Nafisah, S.S., M. Pd.

NIP. 195703101987031001 NIP.

197104242006042001

The Head of English Department

Faculty of Language and Arts Education

Indonesia University of Education

Prof. Dr. H. Didi Suherdi, M. Ed.

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ABSTRACT

This present study entitled Being Cunningham’s Women: The Portrayal of

Women in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours is aimed to unearth the way in which Michael Cunningham, as a male author, portrays women in the novel The Hours. This study employs qualitative descriptive method coupled with textual analysis approach. The study proves that the way Cunningham portrays women in The Hours is different from those of most canonical male authors who make women insignificant in their fictions. It can be seen from the portrayal of women as the ones who unconfident and exhausted in domestic sphere yet powerful enough to make their own decision to liberate themselves from the exhaustion caused by their life. With the benefit of stream of consciousness method,

Cunningham has successfully portrayed women’s experience and their situation

accurately while, at the same time, diffusing liberal feminism value in his work.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter contains background of the study, reason for choosing the topic,

the scope of the study, research questions, aims of the study, the significant of the

study, research methodology, clarification of terms, and the organization of the

paper.

1.1. Background

Most portrayal of life from female point of view in literature is written by

women authors (Lange, 2008, p. 1). However, male authors too have written fictions

about women and some of them ‘have attempted to see life from a woman’s perspective’ (ibid.). Feminism has been suspicious towards fictions written by male authors as they provide feminine idealization that, ‘through the centuries, have served as propaganda to keep women in their place’ (Williamson, 2001, p. 2). In her extended essay, Virginia Woolf argues that female characters featured in early

literary works such as Sophocles’, Shakespeare’s, Tolstoy’s, Flaubert’s ‘have burnt like beacons…lacking in personality and character’ (Woolf, 1929), giving an

impression that male authors has never been portraying female accurately and

attempt to either make themselves feeling superior or make women are ‘completely insignificant’ (ibid.).

Some research regarding the way male authors portray women in their work

of fiction have been conducted by Roger (1996), Miner (1997), and Ruunaniemi

(2001). Roger (1996) conducted an analysis of how women are portrayed in Ian

McEwan’s fictions. From her study, it is concluded that, in some of McEwan’s

fictions, women are portrayed in a way that ‘encapsulates the idea of Simone de

Beauvoir that the construction of woman as incidental to man and only reference to

man can be accepted by woman’ (Roger, 1996, p. 11). It is due to the fact that during

his adolescence, he had a little knowledge of girls since he was sent to all-boys

boarding school. This research is similar to that of Ruunaniemi (2001) which is

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his literary career. The study shows that the portrayal of women in F. Scott

Fitzgerald fictions changes throughout time. In his early fictions, Fitzgerald portrays

women who aspire to a personal liberation and want to be free while in his later

works Fitzgerald portrays ‘women who actively work to reach that goal’

(Ruunaniemi, 2001, p. 116). However, his later works shows some sensitiveness in

the condition of women while portraying the yearning for independent in aspect such

financial, education, and work field.

Miner (1997) has also conducted an analysis of how Andre Dubus wrote

about women in his short stories. Miner discussed about women’s voice and women’s experience represented in the three works of Dubus – Anna, Leslie in California, and Rose – that focus intently on female characters. The study shows that

in Dubus’ stories the female characters are in an attempt to establish ‘herself as

herself’ (ibid., p. 20; emphasis in the original), meaning that these women are

portrayed as autonomous individual who seek her identity through the events she

experiences.

One of works written by contemporary male author that focuses on the life of

women and women’s experience is The Hours. Published in 1998, The Hours is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel that tells about three different women from different

historical periods whose stories are intertwined in the end of the novel. Written by a

male American novelist, Michael Cunningham, each of the stories tells ‘the

experience of a particular woman during the course of one day’ (Nogueira, 2009, p.

32). The Hours is opened with a prologue which later is followed by three narrative

threads. They are Mrs. Woolf’s section where (‘fictional but entirely plausible’

(Wood, 1998)) Virginia Woolf writes her Mrs. Dalloway while longing for London

life in the end of World War I Richmond; Mrs. Brown section where a housewife

Laura Brown prepares a party for her husband birthday in 1950s America; and Mrs.

Dalloway section where Clarissa Vaughan, nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway, an editor

living in the end of 19th century New York is preparing a party for her AIDS-striken

friend. These women have a similarity: they are experiencing an existential anguish

that makes them rethink and reconsider the choices they had made in their life. In the

end of the novel, the readers are made known that those women are connected in a

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Cunningham uses stream of consciousness narrative method in The Hours.

Stream of consciousness method refers to the presentation of characters thoughts as

they continue to act in the fiction. This method gives the reader insight of what is

going on in characters’ mind and what emotional process they feel (Humphrey, 1954;

Barnes, n.d.; Lethbridge & Mildorf, 2004). The method is commonly used by

modernist novelist such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and

Dorothy Richardson. To the great extent, The Hours is actually based on Virginia

Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and said as Cunningham’s act of homage to the later novel (Schiff, 2004, p. 365).

Unlike the previous studies that have been mentioned above, this present

study takes one work written by a male author as the object of the study while using

the framework theory of Liberal Feminism as a guide to achieve the goal of this

study. Thus, based on that theory, this study tries to reveal the depiction of women in

Cunningham’s The Hours.

1.2. Reason for Choosing the Topic

The Hours is one of literary work that is rich in terms of themes and

interesting because it is a single-day novel which, according to Schiff (2004, p. 363),

‘provides a clear, manageable, and pre-determined time frame and structure’. Since it is a novel about women that is written by male author, a lot of issues regarding

gender roles and experience can be investigated in the novel including how Michael

Cunningham portrays women. Liberal Feminism is used as guidance to achieve the

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1.3. Scope of the Study

The study specifically analyzes how Michael Cunningham, as a male author,

portrays women in the novel The Hours. This present study is based on the

framework theory of Liberal Feminism.

1.4. Research Question

This study tries to seek the answer to this following question:

1. How does Michael Cunningham, as a male author, portray women in the

novel The Hours?

1.5. Aims of the Study

This study attempts to investigate how Michael Cunningham, as a male

author, portrays women in the novel The Hours based on Liberal Feminism.

1.6. Significance of the Study

This study provides an illustration of how male author portrays women in the

specific contexts she is subjected to, based on Liberal Feminist point of view. It is

but a small contribution with other academic research regarding fictions in which

women’s story is written by male authors.

1.7. Research Methodology

1.7.1. Research Design

This study is qualitative in nature since the data used for the study is

in form of texts. Hancock (2002, p.2) suggests that the research using

qualitative method ‘focuses on description and interpretation that may lead to development of new concepts or theory’ that help people understand the

subject of the study. Furthermore, by using qualitative method coupled with

textual analysis, the data collected are analyzed to meet the aim of the study

and to develop the concept of how male author portrays women in his work of

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu 1.7.2. Data Collection

The data is in the form of text so that in order to gather textual

evidences to answer the research question, close-reading the novel multiple

times is necessary. Secondary sources are gathered from other written materials

such as previous research regarding women’s portrayal in fictions, journals, and books related to the subject being investigated.

1.7.3. Data Analysis

The data acquired from the novel and other secondary sources are

analysed as follows:

1. Choosing the primary source. In this study, the primary resource selected

is a novel by Michael Cunningham entitled The Hours (New York:

Picador USA, 1999).

2. Carefully close-reading the novel multiple times in order to get the best

understanding of the text before delving into the analysis.

3. Highlighting the main characters’ acts, thoughts, and speeches as the

textual evidences;

4. Framing those textual evidences with Liberal Feminist theoretical

framework to answer the research question;

5. Analysing the result of data collection;

6. Presenting the result by using descriptive method to describe how

Michael Cunningham portrays women in the novel;

7. Drawing the conclusion of the study from the discussion of findings and

making the suggestion for further researcher of related subject.

1.8. Clarification of Terms

1) Portrayal

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, portrayal is ‘the act or process

or an instance of portraying’ (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). In this study, the term is used to see the depiction of women in the novel The Hours written

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2) Liberal Feminism

Liberal Feminism is a form of feminism theory that focuses on women’s

ability to take actions and make their own choices in order to maintain

equality and create a society where women and men can thrive equally

(Tong, 2009, p. 13).

3) Stream of Consciousness

Stream of Consciousness is one of narrative methods that attempt to

represent the thought of characters as they continue to act in the fiction.

This method gives the reader insight of what is going on in characters’

mind and what emotional process they feel (Humphrey, 1954; Barnes, n.d.;

Lethbridge & Mildorf, 2004).

1.9. Organization of the Paper

The structure of this research consists of five chapters as follows:

CHAPTER I

This chapter contains background of the study, reason for choosing the topic, the

scope of the study, research questions, aims of the study, the significant of the study,

research methodology, clarification of terms, and the organization of the paper.

CHAPTER II

It consists of details on the theoretical frameworks employed in the study.

CHAPTER III

This section contains the research methodology, describing the data used in the

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CHAPTER IV

This chapter presents the result found in relation to both the research questions and

existing knowledge.

CHAPTER V

This last chapter provides final reflection of the study and possible issue for further

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains the methodology of the study including the object of

the study, research question, research methodology, technique of data analysis,

source of the data, and data presentation.

3.1. Object of the Study

This study attempts to analyze how male author portrays women in fiction.

The subject used in this study is a novel entitled The Hours, written by Michael

Cunningham and published in 1998. This study focuses on three main female

characters in the novel, namely Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa Vaughan.

The novel is chosen because it is written by a male author and tells a story about

women. It is, therefore, in line with the discussion of this present study that focused

on uncovering the way a male author portrays women in his work of fiction.

Following is the brief synopsis of the novel as the object of this present study. In

addition, Michael Cunningham’s brief biography is also presented in this section.

3.1.1. The Hours Synopsis

The Hours (New York: Picador USA, 1999) takes place in three different

historical periods and focuses on three different women whose story is divided into

sections. Mrs. Dalloway section takes place in New York City in the end of twentieth

century; Mrs. Woolf section takes place in a suburb of London in 1923; Mrs. Brown

section takes place in Los Angeles in 1949. The novel begins with a Prologue which

recounts, mainly from Virginia Woolf’s point of view, the event of her suicide in

1941 when she drowns herself in Ouse River in Sussex, England. This is the day

when Virginia hurriedly leaves her house, heading to a river while suffering from her

headache. During her walk to the river, she contemplates how she has failed as a

writer and that she cannot go back to the care of her husband and sister. This section

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu 3.1.2. Michael Cunningham

Michael Cunningham was born in 1952 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States of

America. He began his writing career by publishing his first novel, Golden States, in

1984. The Hours is his fourth novel published in 1998, the same novel that won

Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and was made into a movie adaptation of the same name

directed by Stephen Daldry in 2002, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and

Julianne Moore.

Cunningham read Mrs. Dalloway for the first time when he was in high

school and became dazzled and amazed by the author and the work (Cunningham,

2011). Later, Virginia Woolf and Mrs. Dalloway became his main inspiration for his

writing and so The Hours is as a contemporary retelling of Mrs. Dalloway’ (ibid.).

Related to the study, in his writing in The Guardian, Cunningham acknowledges the

fact that he is a man who is trying to re-write a work written by ‘a great writer’ as

well as ‘a feminist icon’ who has the sense that ‘she belongs to women’ (ibid.).

Cunningham is openly gay and currently living in New York with his partner of 24

years, Ken Corbett (Brockes, 2011). His latest work is entitled By Nightfall (2010),

dealing with homosexuality and tells about ‘a middle-aged straight man named Peter Harris who is ambushed by a confounding lust for his wife's much-younger brother’

(Zak, 2010).

3.2. Research Questions

This study tries to seek the answer to this following question:

1. How does Michael Cunningham, as a male author, portray women in the

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3.3. Research Methodology

This present study is a qualitative study that uses descriptive textual

analysis since the data is in the form of text. Hancock (2002, p.2) suggests that the

research using qualitative method ‘focuses on description and interpretation that

may lead to development of new concepts or theory’ that help people understand

the subject of the study. Furthermore, by using qualitative method coupled with

textual analysis, the data collected are analyzed to meet the aim of the study and

to develop the concept of how male author portrays women in fiction. This is in

line with Maxwell (1996) who argues that qualitative study focuses on certain

events or people emphasizing not on numbers, but more on words.

In addition to qualitative study, Alwasilah (2002) argues that there are four

basic concepts that must be fulfilled: they are theory, hypothesis, methodology,

and technique. As for the first concept, which is theory, this study employs the

framework theory of Liberal Feminism as the guidance for answering the research

question.

Different from quantitative study, qualitative study uses hypothesis to

make the researcher sensitive to the topic being investigated (Alwasilah, 2002).

This is based on the proportions or theories applied in the study. This present

study sets out a hypothesis that in the novel, the portrayal of women can be either

fair and accurate or misleading and stereotypical. This hypothesis is based on

previous research mentioned in the Chapter II, that not all male authors portray

women as what they have been in most canonical works written by male authors.

Therefore, to reveal the truth, Liberal Feminism is chosen as the guidance to

prove the hypothesis right or wrong.

The last basic concept, which is methodology and technique, applied by

this present study is qualitative that uses textual analysis as the research technique

to analyze the portrayal of women in Cunningham’s The Hours. McKee (2001) defines textual analysis as a technique of data gathering (McKee, 2001, p. 1). This

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sense of the ways in which, in particular cultures at particular times, people make

sense of the world around them’ (ibid.).

3.4. Research Procedure

In conducting the present study, the steps taken are as follows:

 Firstly, carefully close-reading the novel multiple times in order to get the best understanding of the text before delving into the analysis. Textual

evidences were gathered after four times reading. The first two reading

was conducted to get the whole picture of the story in the novel.

 Secondly, highlighting the main characters’ acts, thoughts, and speeches as the textual evidences. This was done during the third and the fourth

reading.

 Thirdly, categorizing some findings found in the novel in a form of tables to be presented as the textual evidences in analyzing the data and choosing

some textual evidences that would be analyzed deeper based on the

framework theory of Liberal Feminism.

 Fourthly, analyzing and interpreting the data findings using the framework theory of Liberal Feminism that was already presented in the previous

chapter.

 Finally, drawing a conclusion of the study and giving suggestions related to the further study of the same topics.

3.5. Data Source

The source of the data in this study is gathered from the novel entitled The

Hours written by Michael Cunningham and published in 1998. Since the novel is

divided into three narrative stances (Mrs. Dalloway, Mrs. Woolf, and Mrs. Brown)

these following synopses of each narrative serve as the source of the data since they

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu 3.5.1. Mrs. Dalloway

The first narrative thread that comes after the prologue is the story of

Clarissa Vaughan who is on her way to buying flowers for the party she is throwing

at the night in honor to Richard’s accomplishment in literature. It is noticeable that Clarissa Vaughan is the modern version of Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Hence, the

section is named after Mrs. Dalloway. During her trip to buy flowers, she thinks of

and questions the choices she has made. She also thinks about the affair she had with

Richard and the possibility she might miss and compares her domesticated life with

Sally with the life she might have had with Richard. Her encounters with some old

friends (including Richard’s mother, Laura Brown who comes to visit Clarissa after Richard’s death) and the witnessing of Richard’s suicide brings her to realization that

life is as simple as living it, doing whatever she does, and then going to sleep (p.

225).

3.5.2. Mrs. Woolf

The Mrs. Woolf character is closely based on the biography of Virginia

Woolf, a notable writer and feminist icon in twentieth century. Fictionalizing

Virginia Woolf, the novel tells a story about the modernist author in the beginning of

writing her new novel Mrs. Dalloway while struggling with her insanity issues.

Throughout the day, she feels suffocated by the quietness of suburb and yearns for

the life of London city, for she thinks only in London ‘she will remain sane’ (p. 209).

At the end of the story, she makes a decision about the fate of her character, Clarissa

Dalloway.

3.5.3. Mrs. Brown

Laura Brown is a suburban wife living in post-war Los Angeles in 1949. She

wakes up on her husband birthday and decides to read Mrs. Dalloway. As she plans

to make a little party for her husband by making a cake with her son, she feels

suffocated by her, seemingly, perfect life. She then runs away to a hotel where she

thinks that ‘it is possible to die’ (p. 151). She contemplates committing suicide but

then realizes that she cannot do it because she loves life, ‘loves it hopelessly’ (p.

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Dalloway section, the reader is made known that Laura is actually Richard’s mother

who left him and the family.

3.6. Data Presentation

To achieve the goal of this present study, the data are divided into three

sections which are related to the way Michael Cunningham portrays women in

The Hours. Those sections consist of data presentation of female main characters’

attitude in domestic sphere; female characters’ traits; female characters’ decision /

action to achieve self-liberation. The collected data is presented in the form of the

tables as follow.

Table 3.1.

Example of Female Characters’ Attitude in Domestic Sphere

No Character(s) Attitudes Textual Evidence Comment/Analysis

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu Table 3.2.

Example of Female Characters’ Traits

Table 3.3.

Example of Female Characters’ decision / action to achieve self-liberation

is her little boy.

(Mrs. Brown

section, p. 43).

No Character(s) Traits Textual Evidence Comment/Analysis

1 Clarissa Nurturing

Action Textual Evidence Comment/Analysis

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The complete data presentation is available in the appendices section. renamed. She could

do what she like

(Mrs. Dalloway section, p. 11)

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Being Cunningham’s Women: The Portrayal of Women in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter presents the conclusion of the present study based on the

findings and discussion expounded in the previous chapters. Suggestion for further

study related to this present research is also concluded in this chapter.

5.1. Conclusions

This present study aims to answer the question of how Michael Cunningham,

as a male writer, portrays women in his novel The Hours. After conducting the study

and analyzing the findings it is discovered that Cunningham shows the issues

discussed in liberal feminism by portraying women in the level of attitudes within

domestic sphere, traits, and the act/decision towards self-liberation.

Cunningham illustrates how women can be unconfident in doing domestic

tasks and how they are being not their true self within the domestic sphere they

inhibit. By this portrayal, he illustrates how domestic sphere can be very exhausting and agitating for women. This illustration conforms Betty Friedan’s view on women who are having ‘the problem with no name’.

Cunningham supports liberal feminist belief that human being should work

towards androgynous future by portraying women in The Hours as androgynous

persons who possess good feminine and masculine traits. The good feminine traits

that women in The Hours possess are nurturing, gentle, and tactful. At the same

times, the women in the novel also possess good masculine traits such as ambitious,

firm, and independent.

Besides being androgynous, women in the novel are portrayed as the ones

who are capable of acting or making decision towards their own self-liberation. This

includes acting out of their will and finding an escape to gain freedom from the

exhaustion they feel in the domestic domain they inhibit. This is in line with liberal

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Being Cunningham’s Women: The Portrayal of Women in Michael Cunningham’s The Hours Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | Repository.upi.edu | Perpustakaan.upi.edu

In conclusion, it can be said that these portrayals of women in the novel are

different from that of most feminist critics claim. The author shows women’s

dissatisfaction and exhaustion with complexity and in great details. Liberal feminism

values are found within the novel. As the result, with the benefit of stream of

consciousness method, the author has successfully written women’s experience and

their situation without being hostile and misogynistic.

5.2. Suggestions

The present study has revealed how Michael Cunningham, as a male author,

portrays women in the novel The Hours. Afterwards, in this section suggestions are

offered in a hope for being useful for future studies in the same field. Since The

Hours is Cunningham’s homage to and the remake of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs.

Dalloway, the writer suggests researchers conduct a comparative study regarding

women condition in The Hours and Mrs. Dalloway.

Related to the issue of feminism, it is recommended for researchers to conduct

further research on the novel within other feminist perspectives. For example,

existential feminism is likely suitable to adopt as the guiding theory since it

specifically discusses existential angst experienced by women.

Finally, the writer suggests the Department of English Language and Literature

to provide more contemporary literatures as materials so that the students not only

know the canons, but also the contemporaries. It is also recommended for the

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BEING CUNNINGHAM’S WOMEN: The Portrayal Of Women In Michael Cunningham’s The Hours.

Being Cunningham’s Women: The Portrayal of Women

in Michael Cunningham’s

The Hours

English Education Department

Faculty of Language and Arts Education

Indonesia University of Education

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1.

Background

1.2.

Reason for Choosing the Topic

1.3.

Scope of the Study

1.4.

Research Question

1.5. Aims of the Study

1.6. Significance of the Study

1.7. Research Methodology

1.8.

Clarification of Terms

1.9.

Organization of the Paper

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Object of the Study

3.2. Research Questions

3.3. Research Methodology

3.4. Research Procedure

3.5. Data Source

3.6. Data Presentation

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

REFERENCES