CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Film has known generally as an entertainment which provides moving
pictures on a screen. This study focuses on the film script rather than the film
which is the result of the script itself. It is impossible to neglect film as
semi-textual genre both influenced by and exerting influence on literature and
literary criticism.
In Mario Klarler’s book An Introduction to Literary Studies, film is one
of four major genres in textual studies after fiction, poetry, drama which is
led to his statement says film is predetermined by literary techniques.
Conversely, literary practice developed particular features under the impact of
film (Klarer, 1999:54) while literature is defined as written works including
anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works such as
fiction, poetry, drama, and criticism but most commonly the term refers to
works of the creative imagination(Safeena, 2013:3).
Script writers write their film script based on their imagination and the
result is the film script that lead to the final product called film or movie.
Film script or movie script is also product of creative imagination. Therefore,
according to the statement of Safeena that literature includes anything from
written works and creative imagination, it means film script can also be
The object of this study is a script of a movie named Carnage which is
based on the play named God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza.Yasmina Reza is
also the writer of the script itself. The insteresting facts from this movie as the
object of study are the movie has won twenty nominations in Golden Globes
(2012), Boston Society of Film Critics Award (2011), Cinema Writers Circle
Awards (2012), César Awards, France (2012) and also it was chosen to be the
opening night feature at the New York Film Festival in September, 2011.
The movie script tells about Longstreet parents and Cowan parents who
meet to deal with the incident of their sons fighting each other in a civilized
manner. Along the discussion, they eat a cake and drink whiskey, and change
their civilized behavior, revealing their real feelings about the situation in a
clash of egos and war of the sexes. As their time together progresses,
increasingly abnormal behavior throws the discussion into chaos. The interest
from the film script are not only those but also the idea of the story that
showing one of the main characters named Penelope Longstreet who shows
her actions in order to deal with the odd situations and lead to her behavior at
the end.
It is very interesting how the scriptwriter managed the story and
developed such a huge problem from a little root problem which was the
incident of their sons. The plot of this film script is quite simple to follow
especially in understanding Penelope Longstreet’s behavior in how she faced
the circumstances. It is the concern of revealing Penelope Longstreet’s
Plot is also a literary term defined as the events that make up a story,
particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through
cause and effect, how the reader views the story, or simply by coincidence.
These events arise out of conflict that experienced by the main character. The
conflict may come from something external. As the character makes choices
and tries to resolve the problem, the story’s action is shaped and plot is being
made.
The plot of film script Carnage play a role as the the literary element for
analyzing the stages which contain events in the film script and also more
focuses on the character of Penelope Longstreet seen from the plot itself. In
Fred McKinney’s book Psychology in Action: Basic Readings, he wrote that
Freudian theory in literary criticism helps to understand the nature of creative
writing, choice of themes, elaboration and resolution of plots (McKinney,
1967:350). Thus, concluding from the statement, Freudian theory can only be
applied to literary works only if there is a bridge to relate the theory and
literary work such as literary device plot. In the film script, Penelope
Longstreet has certain behavior since there are some circumstances during the
story which is her behavior will be seen through plot. Penelope longstreet
shows her behaviors which always making herself having mental conflict that
produce anxiety and often affect the other characters. In analyzing the
behavior of the character, not only using one of the literary elements which is
plot to clasify the events which can lead to the clashes in Penelope Longstreet
As Kirszner and Mandell’s said in their book Literature: Reading,
Reacting, Writing about plot and revealing behavior or in this book they used
“attitude”, character’s attitudes, feelings, beliefs, and value are revealed
through character’s words and actions (Kirszner and Mandell, 2000:1028,
1034). The character’s words and actions are all contain in the plot. In order
to reveal a character’s behavior, psychological approach in this case freudian
psychoanalysis is needed. Freudian psychoanalysis believes that unconscious
forces have the power to influence behavior (Cloninger, 2004:33). Since the
character is not a real human but a character in a literary work, plot is the
place for finding the forces.
Psychology is defined as the science of mind and behavior. Human
psychological development involves personality, cognition, emotion, and
self-concept. However, at the same time some principles and processes apply
to the psychological development of all people. Likewise, virtually everyone
is subject to similar psychological feelings and reactions that affect their
behavior (Zastrow and Ashman, 2004:86). Using Freud’s structure of
personality theory which contains id, ego, and superego, theory of anxiety,
and defense mechanism, as the following the steps that lead to her behavior.
Therefore, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis is the proper theory for analyzing
and revealing Penelope Longstreet’s behavior.
The topic about revealing Penelope Longstreet’s behavior is worth and
interesting to be analyzed because originally, psychological approaches
especially Freud’s theory are designed and made for studying human itself
seen through the plot. Moreover, Penelope Longstreet in the script is always
gained the bad vibes that leading to the clashes in her mind that affect her
behavior. Therefore, using Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, the writer
intends to reveal Penelope Longstreet’s behavior.
B. Problem Formulation
In order to reveal Penelope Longstreet’s behavior, the writer has
formulated problems which occur in the script, those problems are:
1. What are Penelope Longstreet’s id, ego, superego represented in the plot
shown in the film script of Carnage?
2. What is Penelope Longstreet’s behavior explained through the operation
of structure of personality by Freud?
C. The Purpose of Study
For revealing Penelope Longstreet’s behavior, the writer used some
theories and methods. Those theories and methods used to:
1. To find Penelope Longstreet’s id, ego, superego represented in the plot
shown in the film script of Carnage.
2. To find Penelope Longstreet’s behavior explained through the operation
D. Scope of Study
The scope of this study is going to be in revealing Penelope Longstreet’s
behavior which is to be more precise, through plot and supported by the
operation of structure of personality to reveal the behavior of Penelope
Longstreet.
E. Significance of The Study
The writer hopes that this study could give the readers some clear
explanations about the use of Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis in
analyzing a literary work. Specifically, revealing a character’s behavior
through plot and further supported by the operation of structure of personalty.
In the future, this research hopefully will give the readers a clear and deep
understanding of the theory of psychoanalysis for revealing people’s behavior
and not only people in a real-life but also people which are characters in
literary works.
F. Definition of Terms
In order to have better understanding on the terms, there are some terms
that need to be defined. These are the terms:
Plot is the way in which story event is arranged. According to Gustav
Freytag in his dramatic structure pyramid, there are five stages of plot
(Freytag, 1894:115).
2. The Operation of Structure of Personality
a) Freud’s Structures of Personality:
The structure of personality consist of Id which reduces
tension and brings pleasure; Ego which finds the reality and can
understand the reality; and Superego which represents our morality
aspect.
b) Anxiety
Anxiety is a negative emotional state associated with threat to the self.
c) Defense Mechanisms
