ABSTRACT
CAECILIA MURYANI (2008). The Effect of Failures In Achieving Belongingness and Love Needs in Mizoguchi’s Life seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
As a living creature, human beings will try to fulfill their needs. There are two basic needs of human being. Firstly is the physical needed and the next is psychological need. Failure in fulfilling the need for living might cause someone experience psychological problem. In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima showed the darkness of human characteristics through the character of Mizoguchi. His failure in fulfilling his needs affect his behavior. In the end of the story, he killed all the people he loved.
In this thesis, the writer analyzed the effect or the consequence of failure in fulfilling the need experienced by Mizoguchi in Mishima’s novel from psychological point of view. This thesis has three objectives. First is to know the characteristics of Mizoguchi. Second is to know Mizoguchi’s reason in achieving his need. The last one is to know the effect of failure in fulfilling the need of love and belongingness in Mizoguchi’s characteristics.
The writer of this thesis did a library study in order to answer the problems presented. The writer used psychological approach to identify how the failure affects Mizoguchi’s life.
The writer concluded that Mizoguchi’s failure in fulfilling his need affect his behavior. Mizoguchi was once an introvert, quiet person but had good emotional control. After he had failed in his adventure in ordered to fulfill his need of love and belongingness, he transformed into a person whose behavior tends to be negative. Mizoguchi had never received enough attention from his parents, and that condition was worsening since he had no friends. That situation made him feel lonely, and for this reason he wanted to look for belonging and love in Kinkakuji temple. He hoped that he could find the real relationship among human being in the temple so that he could get belonging and love needs. His failures to find the meaning of real human relationship made him feel depressed and can not live in peace with his surrounding. Mizoguchi killed all people in the temple, in which those people are the people he loved.
10
ABSTRAK
CAECILIA MURYANI (2008). The Effect of Failures In Achieving Belongingness and Love Needs in Mizoguchi’s Life seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Sebagai mahkluk hidup, manusia akan berusaha untuk memenuhi kebutuhan mereka. Ada dua macam kebutuhan dasar manusia, yang pertama adalah kebutuhan fisiologis dan yang kedua adalah kebutuhan psikologis. Kegagalan dalam memenuhi kebutuhan hidup, dapat menyebabkan seseorang mengalami gangguan secara psikologis. Di novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima memunculkan sisi gelap dari karakter manusia lewat karkter Mizoguchi. Kegagalan dirinya dalam memenuhi kebutuhannya membawa dampak pada tingkah lakunya. Pada akhir cerita, dia membunuh semua orang yang dia sayangi.
Pada skripsi ini, penulis akan menganalisis efek atau dampak kegagalan pemenuhan kebutuhan dari Mizoguchi yang ditinjau dari segi psikologi pada novel Mishima. Ada tiga tujuan yang disajikan dalam skripsi ini. Tujuan pertama adalah untuk mengetahui karakteristik Mizoguchi. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk mengetahui alasan Mizoguchi untuk mendapatkan atau memenuhi kebutuhanya. Tujuan ketiga adalah untuk mengetahui dampak dari kegagalan memenuhi kebutuhan akan kasih sayang dan cinta terhadap kehidupan Mizoguchi.
Penulis melakukan tinjauan pustaka untuk menjawab permasalahan di skripsi ini. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan psikologi untuk mengetahui bagaimana kegagalan tersebut mempengaruhi kehidupan Mizoguchi.
Kemudian, penulis dapat mengambil kesimpulan bahwa kegagalan Mizoguchi dalam memenuhi kebuthuhannya membawa dampak pada tingkah lakunya. Mizoguchi berubah mejadi berkelakuan negatif. Mizoguchi, yang dulunya seorang yang tertutup, pendiam, mempunyai kontrol yang baik terhadap emosi. Setelah dia gagal dalam pencariannya untuk memenuhi kebutuhannya akan penghargaan dan kasih sayang, dia berubah menjadi seseorang yang cenderung berperilaku negatif. Mizoguchi tidak pernah mendapatkan perhatian dari orang tuanya. Keadaan itu diperparah karena dia tidak mempunyai teman. Keadaan itu membuat dia merasa kesepian. Alasan inilah yang membuat dia ingin mencari penghargaan dan kasih sayang di dalam kuil Kinkakuji. Dia berharap bahwa di kuil itulah dia akan menemukan hubungan yang sesungguhnya antar umat manusia, dimana dia bisa mendapatkan kasih sayang. Kegagalan dia untuk menemukan arti dari sebuah hubungan antar umat manusia membuat dia depresi dan membuat dia tidak bisa hidup dengan damai bersama orang- orang disekelilingnya. Mizoguchi mampu membunuh semua orang yang berada di kuil dan orang-orang itu merupakan orang yang dia sayangi.
1
THE EFFECT OF FAILURES IN ACHIEVING
BELONGINGNESS AND LOVE NEEDS IN MIZOGUCHI’S LIFE
SEEN IN MISHIMA’S THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN
PAVILION
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
CAECILIA MURYANI Student Number: 004214120
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2008
2
4
LET YOUR HOPE KEEP YOU JOYFUL
BE PATIENT IN YOUR TROUBLES,
AND PRAY AT ALL TIME
(ROMANS 12: 12)
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to:
My Beloved Parents: Pak Dar and Bu Dar
My Brothers and Sisters
My Lovely Friends
6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty Jesus Christ for His guidance.
He has given His blessing to me so that I could finally finish my thesis.
I would also like to express my deep gratitude to those who have given me a
great amount of help, support and guidance in writing this undergraduate thesis. I am
particularly grateful to Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum., as my advisor, who has
guided me patently in the writing process and has given me time to consult this thesis
until it is done. I am also grateful to Mrs. Dewi Widyastuti, S. Pd., M. Hum, my
co-advisor, for reading my undergraduate thesis and for corrections and suggestions to
improve my undergraduate thesis. I would also like to thank all lectures and staffs in
secretariat of the English Letters Study Programme of Sanata Dharma University.
I would like to express my gratitude to my beloved father, L. M. Daryono and
my mother M.M. Adi Mursih. They have prayed and given their care, patience, and
support. I also would like to give my regard to my brothers, Wawan and Hendrawan.
My special thank goes to my best friends in English Letters Study Programme of
2000, especially Rita, Titin Wiwin, Angel, Novi, Andrie and Siti for their support and
time in giving me a great moment of friendship. I give my special thanks to Wahyu
Captain, Bayou, Andi, Husein, and Widi Kuncoro Sakti. They all give me encouragement at the most frustrating and critical moments. I would also like to give
my regards to Emy, Devie, Adin, Siegfrieda, Wina, Vita, Rika, Ana and Donata. They all have given me great memories, motivation, spirit and I learn a lot from our
friendship.
Caecilia Muryani
8
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 6
A. Review of Related Studies ... 6
B. Review of Related Theories ... 8
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ... 8
2. Theory of Personality... 11
3. Theory of Motivation ... 13
4. Theory of Loneliness... 17
5. The Relation between Literature and Psychology ... 19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY... 22
A. Object of the Study ... 22
B. Approach of the Study ... 23
C. Method of the Study... 24
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS... 26
A. The Characteristics of Mizoguchi ... 26
B. Mizoguchi’s reason in Searching Belongingness and Love Needs... 34
C. The Effect of the failures in achieving Belongingness and Love Needs... 44
CHAPTER V: Conclusion... 54
BIBLIOGRAPHY... 56
APPENDICES... 58
Appendix 1: The Summary of The Temple of the Golden Pavilion... 58
Appendix 2: The Biography of Yukio Mishima ... 59
ABSTRACT
CAECILIA MURYANI (2008). The Effect of Failures In Achieving Belongingness and Love Needs in Mizoguchi’s Life seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden
Pavilion Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata
Dharma University.
As a living creature, human beings will try to fulfill their needs. There are two basic needs of human being. Firstly is the physical needed and the next is psychological need. Failure in fulfilling the need for living might cause someone experience psychological problem. In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima showed the darkness of human characteristics through the character of Mizoguchi. His failure in fulfilling his needs affect his behavior. In the end of the story, he killed all the people he loved.
In this thesis, the writer analyzed the effect or the consequence of failure in fulfilling the need experienced by Mizoguchi in Mishima’s novel from psychological point of view. This thesis has three objectives. First is to know the characteristics of Mizoguchi. Second is to know Mizoguchi’s reason in achieving his need. The last one is to know the effect of failure in fulfilling the need of love and belongingness in Mizoguchi’s characteristics.
The writer of this thesis did a library study in order to answer the problems presented. The writer used psychological approach to identify how the failure affects Mizoguchi’s life.
The writer concluded that Mizoguchi’s failure in fulfilling his need affect his behavior. Mizoguchi was once an introvert, quiet person but had good emotional control. After he had failed in his adventure in ordered to fulfill his need of love and belongingness, he transformed into a person whose behavior tends to be negative. Mizoguchi had never received enough attention from his parents, and that condition was worsening since he had no friends. That situation made him feel lonely, and for this reason he wanted to look for belonging and love in Kinkakuji temple. He hoped that he could find the real relationship among human being in the temple so that he could get belonging and love needs. His failures to find the meaning of real human relationship made him feel depressed and can not live in peace with his surrounding. Mizoguchi killed all people in the temple, in which those people are the people he loved.
10
ABSTRAK
CAECILIA MURYANI (2008). The Effect of Failures In Achieving Belongingness and Love Needs in Mizoguchi’s Life seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden
Pavilion Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Sebagai mahkluk hidup, manusia akan berusaha untuk memenuhi kebutuhan mereka. Ada dua macam kebutuhan dasar manusia, yang pertama adalah kebutuhan fisiologis dan yang kedua adalah kebutuhan psikologis. Kegagalan dalam memenuhi kebutuhan hidup, dapat menyebabkan seseorang mengalami gangguan secara psikologis. Di novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima memunculkan sisi gelap dari karakter manusia lewat karkter Mizoguchi. Kegagalan dirinya dalam memenuhi kebutuhannya membawa dampak pada tingkah lakunya. Pada akhir cerita, dia membunuh semua orang yang dia sayangi.
Pada skripsi ini, penulis akan menganalisis efek atau dampak kegagalan pemenuhan kebutuhan dari Mizoguchi yang ditinjau dari segi psikologi pada novel Mishima. Ada tiga tujuan yang disajikan dalam skripsi ini. Tujuan pertama adalah untuk mengetahui karakteristik Mizoguchi. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk mengetahui alasan Mizoguchi untuk mendapatkan atau memenuhi kebutuhanya. Tujuan ketiga adalah untuk mengetahui dampak dari kegagalan memenuhi kebutuhan akan kasih sayang dan cinta terhadap kehidupan Mizoguchi.
Penulis melakukan tinjauan pustaka untuk menjawab permasalahan di skripsi ini. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan psikologi untuk mengetahui bagaimana kegagalan tersebut mempengaruhi kehidupan Mizoguchi.
Kemudian, penulis dapat mengambil kesimpulan bahwa kegagalan Mizoguchi dalam memenuhi kebuthuhannya membawa dampak pada tingkah lakunya. Mizoguchi berubah mejadi berkelakuan negatif. Mizoguchi, yang dulunya seorang yang tertutup, pendiam, mempunyai kontrol yang baik terhadap emosi. Setelah dia gagal dalam pencariannya untuk memenuhi kebutuhannya akan penghargaan dan kasih sayang, dia berubah menjadi seseorang yang cenderung berperilaku negatif. Mizoguchi tidak pernah mendapatkan perhatian dari orang tuanya. Keadaan itu diperparah karena dia tidak mempunyai teman. Keadaan itu membuat dia merasa kesepian. Alasan inilah yang membuat dia ingin mencari penghargaan dan kasih sayang di dalam kuil Kinkakuji. Dia berharap bahwa di kuil itulah dia akan menemukan hubungan yang sesungguhnya antar umat manusia, dimana dia bisa mendapatkan kasih sayang. Kegagalan dia untuk menemukan arti dari sebuah hubungan antar umat manusia membuat dia depresi dan membuat dia tidak bisa hidup dengan damai bersama orang- orang disekelilingnya. Mizoguchi mampu membunuh semua orang yang berada di kuil dan orang-orang itu merupakan orang yang dia sayangi.
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study
As living creatures, human beings are not perfect. That is why human beings
will always change. Morris states that personality is a person’s psychological
signature which related to motives, tendencies, outlooks, and emotions. Each person
will change their psychological signature as a respond to the world (1990: 450).
Another statement is coming from Hurlock; she states that human always experiences
personality changes. These changes are influenced by many factors, such as their
needs which also change all the time and the society or the important person around
him or her (1976: 19). Human personality continuously changes and progresses. The
changes depend on each individual, how they will deal with many situations in their
lives.
In every movement or action, people have motivation behind their attitude.
Maslow defines motivation which relates to the human needs. The theory is known as
Maslow’s hierarchical theory of motivation. The needs are included physiological and
psychological needs. According to Maslow (1981: 368- 373) the needs are
physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and
self actualization. It is important in achieving the needs because it becomes the basic
purpose of human beings. However, it is not easy to fulfill the needs, since life is hard
2
Based on Maslow’s theory, seen from the psychological aspect, the writer
considers that the belongingness and love needs are the most important aspect. As
stated by Hauck (1983: 16), many people would put love as their most important
human need. In order to survive or satisfy the needs, a person needs to build an
interaction with others. It is because humans are known as a social being. They
cannot survive without other’s help. Since it is not easy in making the relationship,
sometimes problems may arise in human’s relationship. Furthermore, if an individual
perceives that he or she is powerless and live in disharmony with his or her
surrounding, it will result alienation. In addition, according to Maslow the failure to
satisfy the human basic needs can bring an impact toward an individual’s
psychological life. The failure to satisfy the needs can be one of the motivations
which can cause some reaction which sometimes can not be easily known. His
attitude may be a result of an influence from his surrounding or from him or herself,
or it can be both.
Human beings can not avoid the process of changes in their life; they will
always change because later experiences can modify the effects of the early
experiences. The early experiences are starting in home environment. It is because the
earliest year of life is beginning at home. In other words, family has important role to
form one’s personality. Sometimes, people are unaware that the early environment in
a person’s life plays a great role in shaping his or her personality. A warmth family is
needed to form a child’s personality; the children will grow-up with the feeling of
The feeling of belongingness and love can also teach them how to share, appreciate
and respect others.
In fact, it is not only children who need to be loved but also everyone else. If
everyone has the feeling belongingness and love, people could live in harmony.
Belongingness in here means acceptance. Everyone wants to be accepted by his
surrounding, even though they have to do something which they do not like.
Acceptance is one of the important aspects that people should pay attention.
Nowadays, a person who does not have good ability in every aspect and does not
have attractive look is hard to be accepted by the society. That is why he or she
experience alienation. Life is harder for a person who was born with unattractive
physics, comes from simple or poor family and does not have enough ability.
Besides losing freedom, human beings also experience other greatest suffering
that is losing the meaning of truly human relationship. Such as the feeling of
unwanted, unloved, isolated from his surrounding, etc. Losing the meaning of truly
human relationship can bring an impact toward a person’s personality development.
These problems may not arise if each person has the feeling of belongingness and
love. Nowadays, it seems hard in achieving the belongingness and love needs, since
each person only think about their own matter. That is why problems, chaos,
vandalism could be happened. Love can be definite as appreciation, forgiveness,
cares, affection, and respect. The losing of truly human relationship could be seen
from the cases that happen in the society. For an example: A boy ended his own life
4
his friend’s mother because he can not accept her reprimand when he stays in his
friend’s house.
The issues above are also seen in Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima shows how the lack of love and belongingness could bring such great impact toward a person’s personality. In this novel, Mishima shows a portrait of
a young acolyte who failed to satisfy his needs. His name is Mizoguchi. His
unpleasant memory when he was a child taunted him. His life seems complicated; he
has many problems in his life. At the end of the story, it tells how Mizoguchi decided
to get his freedom in order to end his misery life. He takes an extreme action with
killing people he cares about. The novel is interesting because it does not merely
about romance or other usual aspects that people found. On the contrary, this novel
contains psychological problems, such as the feeling of pressure, alienation,
obsession, hatred, loneliness, and depression.
Mishima’s exploration on human weakness in this story is interesting. In the
story, Mishima shows how the failure in achieving one of human needs can make a
person doing such an extreme action which can not imagine before. Yukio Mishima’s
known as one of the best Asian writer. He won on international acclaim and
numerous literary prizes. In this study, the writer chooses The Temple of the Golden Pavilion translated by Ivan Morris. In this novel, Mishima explore human’s common problem which is not far from the failure to satisfy is human’s needs. The failure to
satisfy his needs becomes Motivation in taking his action. The relation between him
study is on the life of the main character. Why Mizoguchi tries to achieve the
belongingness and love needs? How is Mizoguchi’s failure affecting his life?
B. Problem Formulation
In this study, the writer formulates three problems that will be analyzed. The
problem formulations are presented as follow:
1. How are Mizoguchi’s characteristics presented in the novel?
2. Why does Mizoguchi try to achieve the belongingness and love needs?
3. How is Mizoguchi’s failure in achieving his needs affect him?
C. Objectives of the Study
The purpose of this study is to get deeper understanding about the novel by
answering the problem formulations as the focus of this study. Therefore based on the
problem formulations stated previously, the study has three aims.
First, this study is intended to find out the characteristics of Mizoguchi. It is
necessary because Mizoguchi becomes the central of this study. His characteristics
are considered as real as common human beings who can be seen nowadays. By
knowing his characteristics, it will help the writer to find out his reason in trying to
achieve his needs. The last objective of this study is to describe the impact of
6 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
There are some criticisms toward Mishima’s work on The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Yasunari Kawabata, the first Japanese writer who won a Nobel Prize, gave a statement “a writer of (Mishima’s) caliber only appears once over 200-
300 years. No Japanese writer before or after his death has received the extent of
international attention and administration bestowed upon Mishima”
(http://www.geocities.com/westHollywod /375/Mishima.html).
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is based on an actual event in 1950. It depicted the burning of the celebrated temple of Kyoto by a young Buddhist monk,
who is angered at his own physical ugliness, and prevents the famous temple from
falling into foreign hands during the American occupation
(http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mishima.htm). Ross in the introduction of Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion commented, “Yukio Mishima appears chiefly in the imaginative re-creation of a psychotic acolyte’s life and a detail portrayal of tee steps
that lead to his last desperate, destructive act”. Further she says that the novel is rich
in scenes, incidents, episodes which, though developed in great detail, often leave the
reader uncertain as to their meaning and portent in relation to the story’s main line
Andress Roman from Santiago wrote “ from all Mishima’s works The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is one of his most extraordinary works, his linguistic use to describe psychological extreme situations and the sense of beauty surrounding them
and innate to their being, acquires here an epic touch” (http://www.mnsu.edu.//
comdis/kuster/Bookstore/shortview.html). A criticism taken from
http://www.washburn.edu/reference/bridge24/Mishima.html, states that theTemple of the Golden Pavilion is more substantial book; it is based on a real life story. It is a novel of psychological analysis. A kind of turning of Zen Buddhism is used to
explore the tensions between illusion and reality, love and hate, beauty and ugliness.
Philip Shabecoff conveys “Yukio Mishima’s novel, The Temple of theGolden Pavilion was his masterpiece. Mishima is really going at it with his whole heart. He has a tremendous gift of words, and it has never been richer than this new book. In
Japan the novel is a masterpiece.” In the novel’s soaring climax, Mizoguchi tries
desperately to free himself from his fixation
(www.booksmilion.com/ncom/books?pid=9780679752707). Mr. Keene on Japanese Literature: An Introduction for Western Readers wrote that The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is Mishima’s third book to be published in the USA, making him the best- represented Japanese novelist here. His earlier works were all of great interest, but the Temple of the Golden Pavilion establishes Mishima’s claim as one of the outstanding young writers in the world (http://partners.nytimes.com/books/98/10/25/specials
8
Another reviewer named Kalem, wrote that the late Japanese writer Yukio
Mishima in the Temple of the Golden Pavilion told about the life of a young man with such woefully abraded nerves that he feels asphyxiated by a sense of the past
(http://www.time.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,910169,00.html).
Based on those views, the writer believes that this novel is worth further
analysis. Those views can be the writer’s guide line to discuss more deeply about the
main character. As stated by some reviewers that this novel is connected with
psychological aspect, so the writer will discuss the main character more deeply from
the psychological side which cause changes in Mizoguchi’s characteristics. It is
different from other reviewers because this study not only sees the character itself but
also the psychological factors which influence the character toward his behavior. The
writer will take Mizoguchi’s failures in achieving his needs seen from one of the
psychological factors. This topic will be used as the research of this study.
B. Review of Related Theories
In this study, the writer needs some theories as the basic guidance in
answering the problems that become the focus in this study. In this study, the writer
uses five theories as the guidelines.
1. Theories of Character and Characterization
A character is the most important element in the literary works, especially
novel. It takes an important role in a novel. Therefore, it is important to find out the
Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms defines characters as “ the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the readers as
being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they
say (the dialogue) and what they do (the action).” Meanwhile, the main character is
the most important person in the story. It can be the center of the story. Usually the
acts of the story are focused to this character from the beginning to the ending parts
(1981: 20).
Barnett in his book Literary for Composition says that the character is the cause of events that happen in a story since he has his character traits and he
responses to the other character he meets. Barnett adds that character is defined into
two meanings the first is a figure in a literary work and the second is a figure of
someone’s personality that divided into mental and moral qualities. The writer will
use the second term for this study because it deals with the psychological factors of
the person. There are some important factors that must be considered when the
readers want to know more about the character. First is what the character says and
does. Through the character’s own attitude and way of speaking, they will know
deeply what kind of character that he observes. The second is what the other
character’s comment and action toward the character (1988: 71).
According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods Jr. in Reading and Writing about Literature, the process by which an author creates a character is called characterization. There are two principal ways an author can characterize. The first,
10
and the degree of sensitivity of the character. Second, he can use dramatic means and
place the character in situations to show what the character is by the way he speaks or
behaves (1971: 20). The readers can know the characterization from the appearance,
behavior and the dialogue of the characters.
Holman and Harmon (1986: 83) point out that character may be static or
dynamic based on their development and changes. Static characters are characters
which do not undergo any changes in their behavior, appearance, disposition and their
way of thinking. Till the end of the story, they remain as they are in the beginning of
the story. The second is dynamic character. Dynamic characters undergo changes in
their personalities, outlook, and the way of thinking. The experience and actions they
do from their characters. The outside forces such as the other characters, conflicts and
actions, and the internal forces such as belief and desire may change their character.
A dynamic character may change to better character, but the changes can also become
worse rather than in the beginning of the story.
In the flow of the story, a character may remain either stable or undergo
changes. Based on the assumption above, Perrine classifies characters into two types,
namely static and developing or dynamic characters. The former term concerns with
characters that remain stable and do not undergo changes in their appearance or
personalities during the course of the story. The later one relates to the character that
undergoes changes in personality or outlook from the beginning to the end of the
story. The changes that emerge can be positive and these are characterized by the
negative changes because their condition becomes worse (1974: 71). A static
character is a person who does not come to the development of the character although
he faces many problems in his life. On the other hand, dynamic character is based on
the change of the character, whether the change of the personality or the outlooks.
Changed characters can be change in better or worse characters.
William Hudson wrote an author’s success in characterization depends on his
method in giving detailed description toward his characters. In a play performance,
characterization can be shown from gestures, make up, customs, and the look of the
characters. Different with novel, all those principles descriptions are based merely on
orders imagination only. Thus, it is very important for an author to give vivid
description about his characters. There are two methods of characterizing characters
in a story: direct or analytical and indirect or dramatic methods. In the former
method, a novelist pictures his characters from outside, gives the reader detailed
information. The novelist informs their passion, motives, thought, and feeling,
explains and comments. The author also gives judgment upon his characters. In the
later method, a novelist leaves the characters to reveal themselves through their
dialogues and action, and portrait of a character through comment or judgment from
other characters (1958: 147).
2. Theory of Personality
Byrne and Kelley consider one’s personality as a dynamic process for it can
12
can occur when there is a condition that leads to new emotion, information, or
responses (1981: 533). The earliest years of life are important to form the basis for an
adult personality. However, there is no final personality. Therefore, he or she then
may behave in a totally new way, it means that new emotions may be formed and
new attitudes will develop. Moreover, Byrne and Kelley, point out also that when an
individual is faced to new facts, there may be dramatic changes in the info-belief
system, new expectancies, and perhaps new emotional responses and attitudes as
well.
Elizabeth Hurlock in her book Personality Development stated that an individual’s personality pattern is the product of learning during the course of social
relationships with people both within and outside his home. There are three major
factors which determine the development of one personality pattern. First of all is the
individual’s heredity endowment, the second is the early experiences within one’s
family, and the last is important events outside one’s home environment. Therefore
one’s personality pattern comes from the interaction of the second and third factors
(1974: 19). This statement above means that personality development depends on the
important events that happen in a person’s early life and the persons who take part in
them.
According to Kalish, although later in life other people become important,
however, parents are the most influential figures in his first years. In other words,
children get their early experiences from their home and their parents play an
The personality development can be influenced by some factors. Horton and
Hunt say that the factors that can influence the personality are heredity, physical
environment, and culture (1980: 114). Heredity is an inherent factor from our parents,
which is presented from born. Physical environment is the environment around us,
such as parents, siblings, friends, and other people. Culture in society would also lead
a development in a personality through experiences which were experienced by the
people in the society.
3. Theory of Motivation
Lewin pointed out that several forces may at the same time give influence on
behavior; thus behavior was the result of the total forces acting upon the individual.
In Lewin’s theory, “the behavior of individual is seen in relation to both internal and
external forces acting upon individual. Behavior is regarded as the result of the
conditions presents within the person and the psychological environment in which
that person is immersed” (1981: 225).
According to Lewin, there are two factors that lead someone to do something.
There are physiological needs and psychological needs. Physiological needs related to
the physic need, such as hunger, thirst, need to rest, to experience specific type of
contact and need to rest; while psychological needs connected to the emotion of
someone’s need. It can be anything that can satisfy or unsatisfied our deep desire
14
Abraham Maslow in Larry A. Hjelle and Daniel J. Zeigler’s book entitled
Personality Theories: Basic Assumptions, Research, and Applications defines motivation, which relates to the human needs. He believed that much of human
behavior can be explained by the individual’s tendency to seek personal goal states
that make life rewarding and meaningful. Maslow proposed that human desires (i.e.,
motives) are innate and that they are arranged in an ascending hierarchy of priority or
potency. It is known as Maslow’s hierarchical theory of motivation (1981: 368- 374).
In order of potency, there are five kinds of needs. The needs are: basic physiological
need, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, self- esteem needs, and self-
actualization needs.
a. Physiological Needs
The most basic, powerful and obvious of all human needs are his needs for
physical survival. Included in this group are the needs for food, drink, oxygen,
activity and sleep, sex, protection from extreme temperatures, and sensory
stimulation. A person who fails to satisfy this basic level of needs will not be around
long enough to attempt to satisfy higher- level needs. Physiological needs dominate
human desires, forcing them on one’s attention before higher-order goals can be
pursued (1981: 369- 370).
b. Safety Needs
If the psychological needs have been satisfied, an individual becomes
concerned with a new set, often called the safety security needs. Maslow suggested
of their relative helplessness and dependence on adults. Maslow further noted that
parents who apply only unrestricted, permissive child- rearing practices do not satisfy
a child’s safety needs. Maslow cited parental quarreling, physical assault, separation,
divorce and death within the family as particularly harmful to a child’s sense of well-
being. In effect these factors render the child’s environment unstable, unpredictable,
and hence unsafe (1981: 370- 371).
c. Belongingness and Love Needs
The belongingness and love needs constitute the third hierarchical level.
These needs emerge primarily when the physiological and safety needs have been
met. According to Maslow, love and belongingness needs constitute part of human
basic needs, particularly psychological needs. The need of belongingness and love is
important. People with unsatisfied need for love or the feeling of belongingness will
experience alienation (1971: 44). According to Maslow, love is not synonymous with
sex and love needs are not restricted only to romantic love and parent-child love.
They include the feeling of closeness between two good friends, the feeling of
neighborliness that exist in some communities, or the feeling of good fellow ship that
occurs to satisfy their love needs.
Further, Maslow states that without love and belongingness the growth and
the development of someone’s ability will be troubled. Love is a healthy-loving
relationship between two people, which include mutual trust. The love needs involve
16
The failure to satisfy the needs for security relationship with others caused
someone get psychological problem and will behave negatively. The psychological
problems are related to spiritual disorders, to loss of meaning, to doubt about the
goals of life, the grief and anger over a lost love, to seeing life in a different way, to
loss of courage or hope, to despair over the future, to dislike for oneself, to
recognition that one’s life is being wasted or that there is no possibility of joy and
love (1981: 371- 372).
d. Self- Esteem Needs
Maslow divided self-esteem needs into two subsidiary sets: self-respect and
esteem for other people. The former includes such things as desire for competence,
confidence, personal strength, adequacy, achievement, independence, and freedom.
An individual needs to know that he or she is worthwhile. Esteem from others
includes prestige, recognition, acceptance, attention, status, fame, reputation, and
appreciation. A person seeks self-esteem only after he or she achieves the
belongingness and love needs.
Satisfaction of the self- esteem needs generates feelings and attitudes of self-
confidence, self- worth, strength, capability, and the sense of being useful and
necessary in the world. In contrast the thwarting of these needs leads to feelings and
attitudes of inferiority, ineptness, weakness, and helplessness. These negative self-
perceptions, in turn, may give rise to basic discouragement, a sense of futility and
A person who has self-esteem is more confident and capable and more
productive. When self-esteem is absent the individual has feelings of inferiority and
helplessness, which result in discouragement and possible neurotic behavior (1981:
372- 373).
e. Self-Actualization Needs
If all the foregoing needs are sufficiently satisfied, the need for self-
actualization comes to the fore. Self- actualization is the desire to become more and
more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. Self-
actualization is a person’s desire for self- improvement, his or her drive to make
actual what he or she are potentially (1981: 373-374).
Bandura in his book entitled Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory, he claims that humans’ motivation comes from their interpretations about stimulus events which bring them to organize the information
they brought before finally derived them into beliefs that leads them doing a positive
or negative action (1986: 183). The greater effort can mobilize people into a real
action if they are confident they can do it (1986: 301).
4. Theory of Loneliness
The next theories are about the types of loneliness. Robert Weiss divided
loneliness into two categories with different courses of treatment. There are
18
Emotional loneliness brought about by the loss of a significant relationship in one’s life through death or divorce. The only means by which this loneliness can be remedied is by finding another equally important relationship to fill the void, not just by becoming socially active in a superficial, non intimate manner (Weiss, 1973: 215).
Social loneliness could happen to the person who loses his social integration in communication that he can receive from friends or his partner. It is involves the deficiency of a social network or the absence of a place in an accepting community (Weiss, 1973: 215).
The quotation above shows that loneliness comes from internal side, which is
from the person himself. It also comes from the external side that is community.
People who suffer from emotional life are the people who have no families and
relatives. They do not get enough affection since their families leave them or already
died. Social loneliness comes from the attitude of the society toward the individual. It
seems that there is a gap between the society and the individual. Both the society and
individual can create the gap.
There are nine different feelings associated to loneliness. First is pain. Cleary
the pain is one in which the lonely individual feels damaged as though someone’s
spirit was crushed. Second is feel of lost, having no sense of direction. It happen
when someone feels lonely and no one around to give support to him. Third is feeling
of nothingness. Basically, this is a feeling of something missing. The people’s need is
a very real need and therefore when this feeling cannot be fulfilled, the feeling of
nothingness, of hunger, of avoid is bound to occur as well. The forth is a persistent
felling. In such cases, the individual develop certain mechanisms to help to cope with
overwhelming feeling. There is a feeling of despair like a feeling as if one is going to
break apart any minute. The sixth is feeling of having no control over loneliness. It
may be that individual is trapped in a situation they would rather not be. Such in the
case of the lover who lost his or her lover; the object of affection is gone. Seventh is
feeling of no emotion. At some point in time, people may face of not to have feeling
anymore, people become so overburdened with all the pain. Eight is feeling of being
scared and afraid. Ninth is feeling of anger. They feel that the world has hurt them
and it makes them angry (http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/loneliness/understanding_
loneliness.htm).
Besides the types of loneliness, there are some causes of loneliness. People
feel lonely because they do not have the required friendship that they need. First is
being abused or rejected by others. Therefore, an individual develops defensive walls
to protect from the negative environment. The second cause is being unable to fit in.
Sometimes lonely individual feels that they cannot fit with the rest of the crowd.
There are feelings of wanting to be like everyone else to be normal instead of
standing out and being rejected because of it. The other cause is someone who felt
broken hearted or missing someone else. Sometimes when romantic friendship has
ended, there is a feeling of intense loneliness and also become the case for lonely
individual who experienced a break up with a person that they were still in love with.
People have a desire to have a special person and when this special person went
away, these intense feeling of loneliness can occur (http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/
20
5. The Relation between Literature and Psychology
The relation between literature and psychology comes from Wellek and
Warren (1956: 91). They stated that characters in plays and novels are judged to be
psychologically true. This implies that sometimes an author uses psychological
theory consciously to set a figure or a situation.
Psychological critics view works through the lens of psychology. They look at
the psychological motivations of the characters and the authors themselves. Basically,
literature reflects the life and represents realistic of human motivation and behavior,
while psychological criticism may focus on the creativity of the artist or analyze the
fictional characters’ motivation and behavior. It is clear that literature and psychology
are two different fields, but they influence each other. Literature may contain the
application of the psychology rule in the work (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 93).
According to Kalish in his book The Psychology of Human Behavior, literature “holds the mirror up the man”. It means that an author make the character
seem more life-like than the real people whose behavior the psychologist attempt to
describe. The authors can use the understanding of human behavior by drawing from
the deep sensitivity of good authors (1973: 8).
Another statement comes from Lindauer in the book Psychology and Its Allied Disciplines. Lindauer mentions that literature is the best at describing the human condition in a dramatic form while psychology has the strength to investigate
C. Theoretical Framework
The writer takes some theories to answer the problems proposed in the
problem formulation. There are some theories on character and characterization,
relation between literature and psychology, theory of personality, theory of
motivation and theory of loneliness.
Since the writer takes a novel as the subject of thesis and the discussion is
related to the main character’s psychology, relation between literature and
psychology is needed. The first analysis is Mizoguchi’s characteristics. He is the
main character of this novel and plays an important contribution to the story, so this
study will remain on the main character. Therefore, the writer applied the theories of
character and characterization. The theories are used to understand the characteristics
of Mizoguchi. This study learns the characterization and characteristics of the main
character by examining his dialogues, actions, and other character’s opinion about the
main character.
This study discusses the effect of failures to get the belongingness and love
needs. Therefore, the writer applies some theories on human psychology. The writer
will use theory of motivation and loneliness as the guidance to examine Mizoguchi’s
needs. The last is looking for the effect of the failures toward Mizoguchi’s life. Here,
the writer uses the theory of personality and also the same theories with the theories
22 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is written by Yukio Mishima. Yukio Mishima, at thirty two, already has some fifty volumes of works such as:
novels, stories, essays, and poetry. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is the fourth book to be published in America. The novel was published in 1956 by the Charles E.
Tuttle Company, Inc. of Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan. The novel was sold
over 300,000 copies, and was made into the film The Conflagration (Enjo) in 1958,
directed by Kon Ichikawa (
http://www.bookrags.com/shortguide-thirst_for_love/adaptations.html). In this study, the writer used the thirty second
printing in 1997 and was printed in Singapore. The original title of the novel is
Kinkakuji Temple. The novel has been translated into English by Ivan Moris. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion contained of 262 pages and divided into ten chapters.
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is based on a true event that occurred in Japan in 1950. Mishima used this incident as the basis for his novel the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is a novel that portrays the life of a young priest named Mizoguchi. He is studying to become a Zen Buddhist monk
at Kinkakuji temple in Kyoto Japan. When he was thirteen, he experienced a boyhood
trauma. He saw his mother had a sexual intercourse with another man. Mizoguchi is
feels utterly lonely until he becomes an acolyte in Golden temple. In the temple,
Mizoguchi hopes for nice companionship of his fellow and the affection of the
superior. Mizoguchi admire the beauty of the Golden temple, but he can not live
peacefully in the temple. His thought about getting nice companionship from the
acolytes never becomes true. He felt disappointed with that condition. As the climax
for all his problems, he decided to burn the temple.
B. Approach of the Study
Since the study is related to human psychology, the psychological approach is
applied. According to Rohrberger and Woods, both literature and psychology discuss
people and human lives. Literature discusses human and their lives and those are
expressed through languages as works of literature. Meanwhile, psychology is a study
of a man’s life together with his mind and behavior (1971: 6-15). Psychological
approach draws on different body of knowledge based on human mind and behavior
and on how they influence each other. It deals with human thoughts, actions,
personality and experience (1971: 14).
In analyzing an individual’s needs, it is necessary to deal with psychological
aspects. It is necessary because human’s needs have a close relationship with the
psychological side. Because of that reason, the psychological approach is suitable for
this study. The psychological approach is used to analyze Mizoguchi’s characteristic
24
C. Method of the Study
In analyzing the data, the library research method was used where there are
some sources to support this study. All of the data that the writer needs to support this
study were collected from the library research activities. The data or the sources were
divided into primary and secondary sources. In this study, the writer take one of
Mishima’s novel entitled The Temple of the Golden Pavilion as the main reference. The secondary sources were collected from books about theories on character and
characterization, theories which connected with human’s psychology. The other
information was taken from the internet.
There were some steps to answer questions in the problem formulation. The
first step was reading the novel for several times and tried to understand the content
of the novel deeply. The writer was interested on the main character to be analyzed.
In this study, there were three problem formulations, which focusing the attention on
the psychological factors which influenced main character’s characteristics. In order
to get its full comprehension of the novel, the writer wrote down the important
information.
Secondly, the writer obtained theories on character and characterization,
theories on human’s psychology. The writer applied those theories in order to analyze
deeper on main character’s behavior in order to satisfy his needs. In this study, the
writer applied theory about motivation. The writer, focused on Maslow’s theory
The last step, the writer answered the three problem formulations by
examining the novel and used the theories also the approach stated before as the
26 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is intended to answer the questions stated in the problem
formulation. The problem formulation consists of three questions. The first is about
the description of the main character, Mizoguchi. The second is Mizoguchi’s reason
in searching the belonging and love needs. The third presents the effect of
Mizoguchi’s failure in achieving his needs towards his life.
A. The Characteristics of Mizoguchi
Before going to the analysis of Mizoguchi’s characteristics, it is better to find
out which type of character Mizoguchi belongs to. According to Abrams’ theory
about character (1981: 20), it can be concluded that Mizoguchi is the main character.
It is because Mizoguchi becomes the center of the story; he appears from the
beginning until the end of the story. He plays an important role, because everything
he does becomes the content of the story. Furthermore, according to Holman and
Harmon (1986: 83), character can be divided into two kinds. They are static and
dynamic. A dynamic character undergoes changes in their personalities, outlook, and
the way of thinking. Mizoguchi is included as the dynamic character because he
changes throughout the story. As a whole, Mizoguchi can be described as a
Mizoguchi, the narrator of the story, is a young acolyte in the Golden temple.
He was born as the only son in his family. His father is a priest in Nairu temple and
his mother is an ordinary person. Mizoguchi and his parents live in a lonely cape in
the north east of Maizuru. Since his childhood, his father has often told him about the
Golden temple (p. 3).
To go deeper to Mizoguchi’s traits, this part is the discussion of the
description of Mizoguchi. The analysis uses the theory proposed by Barnet (1982:
12). Based on the theory, there are four ways that can be used by the readers to
understand the character. The first way is what the character says; the second is what
the character does. The action that the character did may indicate his characteristic.
The third is what other characters said about the character. The description of
Mizoguchi can be seen through the point of view and comments of other characters.
The last is through the other characters’ action. The readers may indicate what the
character could do. Therefore, Mizoguchi’s traits are analyzed by applying those
methods.
Mizoguchi can be considered as an educated person. Though he does not
come from a wealthy family, it seems that education is important for him and his
parents. It is proved when his parents sent Mizoguchi to school to get an appropriate
education. There is no middle school in his hometown, so his parents have sent him
to his uncle’s house. There, he attended the East Maizuru middle school (p. 4). In
some period of time, his father’s health has declined. After a year in his uncle’s
28
temple, his father has another plan for Mizoguchi. His father needs Father Superior’s
help in financing Mizoguchi’s school fees.
“Now this child, you see…..” Hearing Father’s words, I turned towards him. In the almost dark room, father was about to entrust my future to father Dosen.
“I don’t think I shall live much longer,” Father said. “I want to ask you to look after this child when the times comes”
Father Dosen……but simply answered: “very well, I’ll look after him” (p.28).
Not long after his visit to the temple with his father, his father died because of
hemorrhage (p.30). After his father death, Mizoguchi join in the Golden temple. He
officially becomes an acolyte in the temple. He does not need to worry about his
education fee, the Superior now take the responsible of his late father. The Superior is
the one who will pay all Mizoguchi’s cost of life.
His course at the east middle school had been interrupted before he graduated.
The Superior, Father Tayama Dosen, arranged that Mizoguchi should continue at the
middle school of the Rinzai Academy (p.35). His father wishes that his son will be an
educated person is fulfilled. Besides going to school, Mizoguchi also works in some
factories. In the temple, if an acolyte has the Superior’s recommendation to enter
university, he will be taken into consideration as the next leader. In this case,
Mizoguchi is the person who gets the Superior’s recommendation.
“Look here!” he said. “I’m planning to send you to Otani University as soon as you graduate from school. Now you must study hard, my boy, so that you’ll have a good record when it comes to matriculating. That’s what your late father would have wanted (p.79).
Besides getting a formal education, Mizoguchi also study and learn something
else in the temple. The subject that he studies is not the same as in the formal school.
In the temple he studies reciting the sutras, following the Superior lecture about the
sacred scriptures. There, Mizoguchi also learn about disciplines and responsibility.
Mizoguchi has a plus point as an acolyte; he can speak English quite good. In fact, he
can speak English fluently (p. 74).
Mizoguchi is described as an unattractive person. It is true that human beings
are the highest creatures that God has made, but nobody is perfect. Each person has
their own ability and characteristic. Each person has their own personalities, outlook,
the way of thinking and behavior. Mizoguchi, the main character of the novel,
describes his physical appearance through the dialogues of what he said in the novel.
Until then I had never seen a face so full of rejection. My face, I thought, was one that had been rejected by the world….. (p. 14).
If beauty really did exist there, it meant that my own existence was a thing estranged from beauty.
At such times, however beautiful the face may be, it will be transformed into an ugliness exactly like my own (p.43).
After I had taken off my clothes, many more layers were taken off me….my ugliness and my poverty (p.228).
From the quotations above, the writer can conclude that Mizoguchi is not
good looking. His appearance is getting less attractive because he is suffering from
stammer. Since he is a stuttered, he has difficulties in communicating with others. It
makes him look more unattractive in other people’s view.
30
she realized that it was I, she only looked at my mouth…she was only looking at my mouth. “Good Heavens!” she said “what an extra ordinary to do. And you only a stutterer!” (p. 12). The only points of the difference were that I was a stutterer and that I was a trifle uglier than the others (p. 35).
Being an unattractive and stammer brings misfortunate for Mizoguchi in
building his relationship with others. Mizoguchi does not have any close friends, he is
a lonely person.
Mizoguchi is an introvert. He does not like to tell his problem to the others.
An introvert is a quiet person who is more interested in their own thoughts and
feelings than spending time with other people. An introvert person has some
characteristics, such as silent or not talkative, keeps many secrets, shy or not easy to
adapt in new situations, and difficulties in making new friendship. Mizoguchi keeps
the feeling for himself; he never talks to anyone else about his life and his problem.
When he still in the East Maizuru Middle School, he always been taunted by his
school mates. As the result Mizoguchi becomes a solitary person, he does not have
any friend to be his talk- friend to share what he feels.
…… I was sitting by my self on the ground a few yards away. Such was my manner. Such was my manner toward the May flowers and toward the pride-filled uniform and toward those bright peals of laughter (p. 7).
“Why don’t you answer me something? Are you dumb?”
“I’m a st- st -stutterer,” replied one of his admires in my stead, and they all doubled up with laughter (p. 7).
My solitude grew more and more obese, just like a pig (p.9).
Since Mizoguchi is an introvert person, so it is not easy to guess what is in
Mizoguchi’s mind. In other words, Mizoguchi’s mind seems full of mystery. He
Mizoguchi comes from a poor family; his parents are only an ordinary people.
His father is a simple country priest and he has a shabby mother. That is why, he does
not have enough confident. His unconfident makes Mizoguchi difficult in making
new friendship. When Mizoguchi attended the Golden temple, there is only one
person who approaches him. His name is Tsurukawa. He is the only person who
wants to build a friendship with Mizoguchi. When both of them are making a
friendship, Tsurukawa becomes the only person who becomes Mizoguchi’s talk-
friend. Further, Mizoguchi consider Tsurukawa as his positive pictures (p. 83).
When Tsurukawa and Mizoguchi are in college, Mizoguchi has one extra
friend, his name is Kashiwagi. Different with Tsurukawa who never says anything
about Mizoguchi, Kashiwagi consider Mizoguchi as an odd fellow (p.212). It is
because Mizoguchi’s mind is not easily understood by others. Mizoguchi confess that
he is not easily understood, because he likes provoking doubts in the mind of others
(p.40).
Mizoguchi is a type of a person who could manage his emotion quite well. He
does not show his emotion with direct action, he only keep it in his heart. As a
human, Mizoguchi does not like being humiliated. However, every time his feeling
gets hurt, he can accept the derision and insult from others calmly. The only action
that he takes is only cursing that person inside his heart. For the first time Mizoguchi
curses a girl named Uiko. Actually, Uiko is a girl that Mizoguchi likes. He adores her
beauty and her lovely body. One day when Mizoguchi tries to approach her, Uiko
32
looks. Further, Uiko reports the incident to her mother, as the result Mizoguchi’s
uncle scolded him harshly.
Day and night, I wished for Uiko’s death. I wished that the witness of my disgrace would disappear. If only no witnesses remained, my disgrace would be eradicated from the face of earth (p. 12).
Strangely enough, I had not thought about it until that moment, but now it was clear to me that I had been hoping for the death of the girl in the lodging house, who had been the witness of my shame (p. 149).
The quotation above shows that Mizoguchi could manage his emotion. From
the outside he looks fine in facing the person who already hurts him, but from the
inside he curses those people harshly. Out of the matter Mizoguchi has the power in
cursing people or not, but his curse comes true.
Mizoguchi is a person who does not easily to forgive and forget someone’s
mistake. It can be seen from the relation between him and his mother. Mizoguchi’s
relationship with his mother is not in good mood. The problem is caused by an
unpleasant memory in his past. His mother had an affair with another man, at that
time he was about thirteen years old. The situation became worst because his mother
made love with a man in the presence of his dying father.
….We did not have much mosquito netting in our temple. It was really a wonder that mother and I did not catch Father’s tuberculosis, since we all slept together under the same net; and now this man, Kurai, was added to our number… Fearfully I turned my eyes to its source. Then, as I gazed through the darkness with wide open eyes I felt as though a gimlet was drilling into the very center of my eye balls….there was a large white expanse of crumpled sheet separating me from the thing that I saw now;…All of sudden my open eyes were covered by something large and warm, and I could see nothing. Father had stretched his hands out from behind to cut my vision (p. 55).
It is difficult for Mizoguchi to forget that incident. He does not complain or
anger toward his mother directly. He only keeps silent but in his heart he can not
forgive his mother’s mistake.
There is a special reason that I have until now avoided writing about my mother. I do not particularly feel like touching on what relates to my mother. But ever since that incident occurred, I could not bring my self to forgive her (p. 54).
The fact was probably that I disliked being confronted with the straight forward expression of love that one receives from one’s blood relatives, and I was simply trying to rationalize this dislike in various ways (p. 57).
I sat there tensely, filled with hatred for my mother (p. 60).
His silence is not without reason and meaning. Mizoguchi is bearing a grudge
toward his mother in his own way. He never let his mother visits him before he
becomes a fully priest in the temple. It means that his mother can not see him until he
becomes the superior of the temple. Besides that, during the holiday he never visits
his mother.
Mizoguchi can also be classified as a dishonest boy. It happens when he
makes a quite fatal mistake. He caused a woman had a miscarriage; he stepped on the
girl’s stomach. He never admitted his crime to the Superior. In fact, after he did the
crime he gave the Superior two boxes of cigarettes. After he did the action, he never
feels sorry toward what he had done.
There was no need for me to confess anything that had happened. I had only acted as I had because I was ordered and constrained (p. 78).
34
course was simply a bait to extract my confession: if I did not confess, he would withdraw his recommendation as a punishment for my dishonesty…… (p. 84-85).
Although Tsurukawa is Mizoguchi’s best friend, but he does not tell that he is
the person who caused the girl’s miscarriage. Even when Tsurukawa ask him for the
truth, Mizoguchi still does not admitted his crime (p. 83).
Mizoguchi is a cold hearted person, though his meanness only in his thought.
His meanness can be seen from the way he likes in dealing with evil thought.
“If the people of this world, “I thought, “are going to taste evil through their lives and their deeds, then I shall plunge as deep as I can into an inner world of evil.” (p. 69).
Please let the evil that is in my heart increase and multiply indefinitely, so that it may correspond in every particular with that vast light before my eyes! Let the darkness of my heart, in which that evil is enclosed, equal the darkness of the night, which encloses those countless lights” (p. 71).
The deed of mine, which at the time had aroused no guilt feelings in me, that deed of trampling on the girl’s stomach, had gradually begun to glitter in my memory. The glitter of evil. Yes, that was it. It may have been a very minor evil, but I was now endowed with the vivid consciousness that I had in fact committed evil. This consciousness hung like some decoration on the inside of my breast (p.86).
The quotation above shows how Mizoguchi really enjoy his thought about
evil. With those thought, it makes Mizoguchi have sense of cold- hearted.
B. Mizoguchi’s Reason in Satisfying His Belongingness and Love Needs
Most people must experience the feeling of love. That is why love becomes a
common theme in human’s daily life. Love is not merely about romance between
general feeling that most people have in the inside of their life. Hauck (1983:16) said
that many people would put love as their most important human need. Considering
this reason, no wonder that people will say that life without love is empty. Love
cannot be touched but people can feel it. For example: love between parents and their
children. Children cannot touch their parents’ love but they feel it. The children felt
their parents’ love through their parents’ action. The children felt the affection and
attention from their parents’. Love is considered as the key of life, because it brings
happiness, though sometimes love also brings sadness or even madness. For example:
a young boy does a suicide because he felt that his parents do not care about him. He
felt that his parents are much care of his younger brother. The matter may be looks
simple but the effect can be horrible. Another example, young men decided to end up
his life because his girlfriend wants to break-off.
Those cases show that everyone needs love, everyone wants to be loved.
Attention, affection, appreciation, closeness, caring, and warmth can be considered as
part of love. For example: love between mother and her children, love between
friends, love between brother and sister, etc. A person who lives without love is
almost the same thing that he lives without life. Maslow says that the failure to satisfy
these needs can cause someone get psychological problem and behave negatively
(1981: 372). That is why people want to satisfy their belonging and love needs. In
this study, the writer sees that the main character wants to achieve the belonging and
love needs. He wants to be accepted by others. There are some reasons that make
