NARRATOR AND FEMINISM IN BANERJEE
DIVAKARUNI’S
THE PALACE OF ILLUSION
: A STUDY OF
FEMINIST NARRATOLOGY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA
Student Number: 094214102
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
NARRATOR AND FEMINISM IN BANERJEE
DIVAKARUNI’S
THE PALACE OF ILLUSION
: A STUDY OF
FEMINIST NARRATOLOGY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA
Student Number: 094214102
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
vii
“A flower does not think of competing to the
flower next to it. It just blooms.”
-Flower in the
Sun-“A problem becomes a problem only if you
believe it to be so. And often others see you as
you see yourself.”
-Krishna-viii
For
All Mother’s Love
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I address the first gratitude to my undergraduate thesis advisor Dra. A. B.
Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D for her time, advice and assistance in this work. I also
thank P. Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph.D for being a supportive Co-Advisor.
The next person to thank is Kenan Fabri Hartanto for his willingness to be
an unofficial advisor. He is the one who introduced narratology tomeat the first
time and lent some books related to the subject.
I give my deepest gratitude to Bapak Agus Widiatmoko and Ibu Erliana
Suci Rahayufor the never ending lessons to become a man. Thanks to Bhimart
Widhi Restu for the assistance at home.
I would like to thank friends in UKM LC where my learning to see the
world begin. It shall also go to Media Sastra for unbelievable experiences to give
a word called endure. Big thanks are addressed to the whole family of JAKSA
(Jalinan Akrab Sastra) for the learning to be a man with others. I am grateful to
Geng Bunga Matahari, Teater Kepik, Swager, and Hulo for the stories being
performed on and behind the stages.
Gratitude also goes to all of my friends in RPC: Samsol, Dhika, Hendra,
Theo, Dinda, and Neng Uci, for the happiness and sadness in a friendship. I also
need to say thanks to my fellows during my study in English Letters Department:
Bli Putu, Mov, Bea, Panjul, Putri, Agnes, Yanti, Intan, Yuni, Lidia, Vince, Refa,
x
Indra,Dedy, Pucil, Ubed, Titus, Dita, Samson, Audy, Dito, Aya, Adit Cinta, Mbak
Irene baby, Agung Gondez, Herman, Aryo, Anggit, Alwi, Mujiand many others.
And also thanks to Tombo Gelo Dang Dut orchestra.
Lovely, thanks are addressed to Bonaventura Andhiko Aji Tresadi for
being a brother. Thanks to Geng Kaliwaru Bersatu: Haryo, Victor, Fauzan, Kenan,
and Adoel, for the place given. Thanks to Sugeng Utomo for the blossom
inspiration. I give a deep gratitude to Maria Puspitasari Munthe for being a friend,
simply a friend to share every little thing with, no matter what.
At last, I thank Krishna, Jesus, Muhamad, and Sidharta for the meaning of
life. Thanks to God for everything and everyone I have mentioned.
xi
3. Theory of Point of View and Focalization... 10
xii
2. The Second Climatic Peak ... 30
3. The Third Climatic Peak ... 37
4. The Fourth Climatic Peak ... 42
B. Position of The Narrator... 46
1. Narrator Position in the First Passage ... 46
a. Narrative Level... 46
b. Narrator and Point of View ... 48
2. Narrator Position in the Second Passage... 52
a. Narrative Level... 52
b. Narrator and Point of View ... 54
3. Narrator Position in the Third Passage ... 58
a. Narrative Level... 58
b. Narrator and Point of View ... 60
4. Narrator Position in Fourth Passage... 65
a. Narrative Level... 66
b. Narrator and Point of View ... 67
C. Plot, Position of Narrator, and Feminist Criticism Issue ... 69
1. Plot and Feminist Criticism... 69
2. Narrator Position and Feminist Criticism ... 75
a. Narrator ... 75
b. Point of View ... 78
c. Narrative Level... 80
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION... 88
xiii
ABSTRACT
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA. Narrator and Feminism in Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusion: A Study of Feminist Narratology
.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2014.Mahabharata is Indian epic that lives in the Indian’s heart and mind since
500 BC. This literary heritage has huge effects to many aspects of Indian politics, religion, culture, social, and education. One of Indian novelists, Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni, rewrites the epic to her novel titled The Palace of Illusion. In her novel, she criticizes the significance of women characters within the epic of Mahabharata. In the story world, the author is represented by the narrator as the storyteller of the story. In this research, the way the narrator tells the story in order to redefine the women within the story world becomes the focus points of the discussion.
The discussion deals with three problem points that are formulated into three questions. The first one is the question of plot structure of the story. The second is the question about the position of the narrator within the storyworld. The last is the question of the relation between the plot structure and the position of the narrator contributes in redefining women in the storyworld.
As a library research, the main sources and primary data of the research are taken from books. The writer takes close reading method as the first step of the research in orderto understand the novel well. Then, the writer draws the plot structure based on Problem-Solution patterns. Afterward, the writer describes the position of the narrator based on narrative situation. The last step is relating the plot structure and the position of the narrator to feminism in order to find out the contribution of plot structure and position of the narrator in redefining the women in the story world.
The result of the analysis toward the plot structure reveals the four climatic peaks on four passages. Looking at the pattern in the four climatic peaks, it emphasizes that the women characters have more struggle than man characters in
“loss” experiences. The constant experiences show that women in the story are suffering. On the other side, the constant experiences show that women are powerful and tough in facing those experiences. The position of the narrator, primary, is overt first person internal narrator who uses all types of points of view. The narrative uses three various narrative levels, there are extradiagetic, diagetic, and metadiagetic. Looking at the narrator, point of view and the relation between the extra diagetic level and the embedded story,it could be said that this narrative is autodiegetic narrative in private narrative level. As a strategy in narration, the private level is used to compromise the label of women’s writing, while the
xiv
ABSTRAK
SAKHA WIDHI NIRWA. Narator and Feminisme dalam karya Banerjee Divakaruni The Palace of Illusion: Sebuah Kajian Feminist Narratology
.
Yogyakarta: Program studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2014.Mahabharata adalah sebuah epos yang tinggal dalam hati dan pikiran masyarakat India sejak 500 tahus sebelum masehi. Warisan karya sastra ini memiliki pengaruh yang besar terhadap banyak aspek politik, agama, budaya, sosial dan pendidikan. Seorang novelis India, Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni, menulis ulang epos tersebut kedalam novel berjudul The Palace of Illusion. Di dalam novelnya, dia mengkritisi signifikansi tokoh perempuan dalam epos Mahabharata. Dalam dunia cerita, penulis direpresentasikan oleh narator sebagai pencerita cerita tersebut. Dalam penilitian ini, cara narator menceritakan cerita dalam rangka mendefinisikan ulang perempuan dalam cerita menjadi titik fokus diskusi.
Diskusi ini bersinggungan dengan tiga titik masalah yang dirumuskan kedalam tiga pertanyaan. Yang pertama adalah pertanyaan perihal struktur plot dalam cerita. Yang kedua adalah pertanyaan mengenai posisi narator dalam cerita. Yang terakhir adalah bagaimana hubungan antara struktur plot dan posisi narrator berkontribusi dalam pendefinisian ulang perempuan dalam cerita.
Sebagai sebuah kajian pustaka, sumber dan data primer dari penelitian ini diambil dari beberapa buku. Penulis mengambil metode pembacaan mendalam sebagai langkah pertama dalam memahami novel dengan baik. Kemudian, penulis menggambarkan struktur plot berdasarkan pola Problem-Solution. Selanjutnya, penulis mendeskripsikan posisi narator berdasarkan situasi naratif. Langkah terakhir merelasikan struktur plot dan posisi narator terhadap feminisme dalam menemukan kontribusi dari struktur plot dan posisi narator pada pendefinisian ulang perempuan dalam cerita.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Mahabharata is anIndian epic. As an epic, this narrative is a long verse narrative on a serious subject. It told in a formal and elevated style, and centered
on a heroic whose actions depends on a fate, tribe, nation or human race (Abrams,
2003: 76). The epic story tells about a big war among brothers of the Kuru
dynasty,the Pandavas and Kauravas. The Pandava represents the good side with
their good characteristics and the Kaurava represents the bad side with their bad
characteristics. In the end of the story, Pandavas wins the war and takes their
redemption way in the Himalaya Mountains, whileKauravas dies. Mahabharata lives inthe Indian’s heartand mind, since the Harappan world era at C500 BC.
This tale is one ofthe Sanskrit epicsin the scripture of Hindu called Veda. This
literary heritage has huge effects to many aspectsof Indian politics, religion,
culture, social, and education(Keay, 2000: 2-4).
One of Indian novelists, Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni writes her
characters, by usingthe different way to tell about the story. Divakaruninotes
explicitly her dissatisfaction of the old tale ofMahabharata:
But always, listening to the stories of the Mahabharata as a young girl in the lantern-lit evenings at my grandfather’s village home, or later,poring over the thousand-page leather-bound volume in my parents’ home in Kolkata, I was left unsatisfied by the portrayals of the women. It wasn’t as though the epic didn’t have powerful, complex women character that
affected the action in major ways (Divakaruni, 2008: xiv).
The old tale is man-centered. It is shown by the fact that most of the heroes or the
villains aremen. On the other hand, the women characters are considered as
additional players.
But in some way, they remained shadowy figures, their thought and motives mysterious, their emotions portrayed only when the affected the lives of the male heroes, their roles ultimately subservient to those of their fathers or husbands, brother or son (Divakaruni, 2008: xiv).
This criticism inspires her to write her Mahabharatain a woman’s point of view by taking a woman character as the one who hasan important role. In her novel,
the woman character becomes the storyteller.
Taking a glimpse to the comment above,the author‘s tendencyto write the new version of Mahabharata is to redefine constructed gender role in the story. The tendency leads The Palace of Illusions to become a feminist criticism. This criticism aims to review the patriarchalsystem in the old Mahabharata. The tendency becomes in a line with the tendency of Virginia Woolf, precursor of
feminist, found in A Room of One’s Own.Julia Hoydis analyzesmain character’s
point of view in order to find the feminine identity of the novel. She concludes
that the main character represents the struggle of women in Indian society. Julia
According to those points mentioned above, this work has some indications
referring to feminist ideology. This research questions howthe writer inserts the
ideology. The answers must deal with the technique of narrative. In order to find
the technique, this research focuses on the narrator as the storyteller and the way
the narrator tells the story.
Based on Fludernik’s statement, narrative means narrator and story (1999: 4). It means that when the authors create their narrative, they consider two
important elements of narrative:the story and the narrator. The story is the object;
the narrator is the subject; and the author is the creator of both. If the author is the
God and the story is the world, then the narrator will become the prophet. God
uses the prophet to show his/her existence in the world. With the same idea, the
author usesthe narrator to present his/her existence in the narrative. Therefore,the
narrator could represent the author’spoint of view and the ideology that is intended inside the narrative.
In this research, the writer analyzesThe Palace of Illusionsby using the
perspective of feminist narratology. The aim of using feminist narratology is to
find the narrative discourse of the story.By figuring out the narrative discourse,
the way of the author inserts the ideology into the novel can be comprehended.
B. Problem Formulation
1. Whatarethe plot structures of the story based on Problem-Solution patterns?
3. How does the narratorredefinewomen through the plot structures and
narrator position?
C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem formulation above, there are three objectives of the
study. The first objective is to identify the plot structure of the story. The second
objective is to revealthe position of the narrator among the plot structures. The
third objective is to find out howthe narratorredefines women in The Palace of Illusionby Banerjee Divakaruni.
D. Definition of Terms
In this research, the writer uses some terminologies. To avoid
misunderstanding, the writer provides some definition of the terminologies. The
terminologies are as follows:
1. Narrative
Narrative is the representation of at least two real or fictive events or
situations in a time sequence, neither of which presupposes or entails the other
(Price, 1982:4). Another definition comes from Suzanne Keen with her book
2. Narrator
The narrator is someone who is responsible for acts of telling. It can be
characters when they are positioned inside the story world, but when it is outside
the story world, it is not the character (Keen, 2003:30).
3. Narrative Situation
Narrative situation is the combination of narrator, perspective, and narrative
level involved in first-person and third-person fictional narration (Keen, 2003:30).
4. Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism is a “product” of women’s movement in 1960s. This
movement dealt with the significance of the images of women in literature,
and saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority and their
6
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
In this part of the research, the writer discusses briefly other studies. The
writer has two other studies to be discussed. The first is a study withthe same
object of the studyas this research’s and the second is the study with the same basic approach as this research’s.
In a gender study essay entitledA Palace of Her Own: Feminine Identity in The Great Indian Story, Julia Hoydis from University of Cologne, Germany, analyze the feminine identity in the novel The Palace of Illusionsin order to find the feminine identity of Indian society.In her research, Hoydis tries to find the
position of Mahabharata in Indian society. Then, she analyzes the point of view of one heroine in the novel, Panchaali, and finds some struggles of the character.
As the result, Hoydis states that as a character in the novel, Panchaali can
represent the struggle and the rebellion of feminine identity in Indian society.
One of undergraduate theses that discusses about the narrator is Kenan Fabri
Hartanto’s thesis. He is one of the students in Sanata Dharma University. In his research, he usesa narrative study to find out the position of narrator in Jaroslav
Hazek’s The Good Soldier Schweik. In his research, he usesthe theory of the narrative situation to find out the narrator position. He finds that such narrative
the narrator is the central of narrative situation. He also finds that narrative
situation that is used by the author in the novel gives such satirical effect to the
story.
This research discusses similar literary work with Julia Hoydis’s essay and similar topic with Kenan’s thesis. Although this research has some similar points with the other studies, especially inKenan’stopic, this research tries to go further by analyzing the narrative discoursein order to reveal the contribution of structural
analysis to the cultural context of the novel. The writerdiscusses how the
narrativediscourse of the novel supports the gender issues stated by the author in
the author’s notes that isaffirmed by Julia Hoydis in her essay.
B. Review of Related Theories
In order to answer the problem formulation stated above, the writer
usessome narratology theories in this research. The theories used by the writer
will be reviewed below:
1. Narratology
Gerald Prince definesNarratology as the study of the form and functioning
of narrative. It analyzes the constructing elements of the narrative and their
elaboration. Narratologist attempts to describe the narrative and understand the
function by recognizing the elaboration (Prince, 1982: 4-5).
The term ‘narrative’ becomes an important thing to be understood firstly since narratology is the study of narrative. At this point, Gerard Genette
distinction between narration, discourse orrecit andhistoire. Narration is defined as the narrative act of the narrator. Discourse is narrative as text or utterance.
While histoire is the story which the narrator tells in his/her narrative). Then, the
narration and discourse can be classed as Narrative Discourse and the story is
what is reported, represented or signified by narrative discourse. This distinction,
then, enables to account that the same story can be represented in various guises
(Fludernik, 2009: 2).
Peter Barry, inBeginning Theory,formulates what narratologists do in their research. He finds 5 points of what narratologists do. The first one is they look at
individual narratives to seek out the recurrent structure which is found within all
narratives. Second, they switch much of their critical attention away from the
mere ‘content’ of the tale, often focusing instead on the teller and the telling.
Third, they take categories derived mainly from the analysis of short narratives,
expand and refine them so that they are able to account for the complexities of the
novel-length narratives. Fourth, they counteract the tendency of conventional
criticism to foreground character and motive by foregrounding instead action and
structure. The last is they derive much of their reading pleasure and interest from
the uniqueness and originality of a small number of highly regarded examples
(Barry, 2009: 233).
Gerard Genette is one of the most prominent narratologist since Roland
Barthes. He does not focuson the tale itself, but focuses on how the tale is told. He
are meant by Gerard Genette into six questions. The six questions are: is the basic
narrative mode ‘mimetic’ (scenic way: specified) or ‘diegetic’ (summarizing
way)?; how is the narrative focalized?; who is telling the story?; how is time
handled in the story?; how is the story ‘packaged’?; and how are speech and thought represented? (Barry, 2009:222-229).
2. Narrative Situation
Narrative situation is a description about the location of the narrator. It
describes how overtly or covertly the narrator makes his or her presence felt by
the readers, his or her relationship with the characters, and whom perspective may
be invested (Keen, 2003: 30). Narrative situation can be said as the mediator
between the author and the reader.
Three important points to draw the narrative situation are who tells the tale
is; who sees the actions is; where the functions of narration resides in relation to
the story world. These questions refer to the elements that construct a narrative
situation. Three elements that constructing a narrative situationare the narrator,
point of view, and narrative level (Keen, 2003: 31).
One of the elements that constructs a narrative situation is called narrative
level, which deals with the process of fictional world making. The fictional world
is a world created automatically in the mind of the readers whenever they
encounter a narrative (Keen, 2003: 108).
The levels in a narrative are divided furthermore into extradiagetic, diagetic,
diagetic is the narrating act of the second narrative (a narrative inside the first
narrative). The events narrated in the second narrative are called metadiagetic
(Genette, 1983: 228).
There are three types of relationships between the metadiagetic and the
diagetic level. The first relationship is a relationship in which the second
(metadiagetic) narrative serves explanatory functions. The second relationship is
the thematic relationship, in which the second narrative can serve as a contrast or
an analogy. The last is where the second narrative becomes a distraction from the
main narrative (Genette, 1983: 232-234).
A narrator has narrative functions. The first function is the one who presents
the fictional world. The second is he/she comments. It means that he/she explains
why events occurs, leads them to political or social circumstances and condition,
indicates the motives of character and so on. In this function requires an overt
narrator using the first person pronoun. The main purpose is to arouse the reader’s
sympathy or antipathy to certain characters and develop a framework for the story
world and the reader’s reception of it. The third is narrator functions as the
philosopher or moralist who builds the norms and speaks universal valid
propositions. The fourth is the narrator communicates the situation of narration
(Fludernik, 2009: 27).
3. Point of View and Focalization
According to Abrams, point of view signifies the way a story is told. It is the
mode or modes established by the author by means of which the reader is
narrative in a work of fictions (Abrams, 1999: 231). From the definition, it means
that point of view can represent the way of the author arranges the story told. By
arranging the point of view, the author tries to lead the reader’s mind when the reader reads the works. To lead the reader’s mind, the author needs to arrange someone who will give the “directions” to the reader, so the author needs the narrator as the storyteller who can represent him/her in the story to present the
story to the reader. Whenever a narrator narrates, he or she adopts a certain kind
of point of view. He or she may narrate from the outside of a character, inside a
character, or both inside and outside the character (Prince, 1982: 50).
In simplified classification, there are three kinds of modes in narrating a
story. It is classified based on the narrator’s position. There are first person narrative, second person narrative and third person narrative. In first person
narrative, the narrator speaks with first person pronoun such as “I”, and in some
ways, the narrator is a characterin the story. In third person narrative, the narrator
is someone outside the story who refers to all the characters in the story by name,
or pronoun such as “he”, “she”, or “they”. Third person narrative, then,is divided into subclasses according to the degree and limitation, which the author assumes
in getting the story across to the reader. In some cases,the author rarely uses
second person narrative whosenarrator speaks as “you”. In this mode, the reader seems to be the one experiencing the events in the story.
There are three subclasses of the third person narratives. The first is an
unrestricted point of view, often referred as omniscient, in which there is no
characters can know or tell at any given time and situation of the narration. The
second one is called the internal point of view. In internal point of view, the
narration is restricted to the feelings, knowledge, and perception of one or more
than one character. The last one is called the external point of view in which the
narration is limited only to the outside of the character, namely his/her actions and
physical appearance (Prince, 1982: 51-52).
Gerard Genette, in Narrative Discourse, argues that most theories have failed to distinguish properly between point of view and focalization, that is to
say, between the questions which character whose point of views orients the
narrative perspective is and the very different question who the narrator is.
Genette redefines the definition of point of view. When the story is told from the
point of view of a particular character (focalized), whether the character is the
narrator or not, it is about voice and not about point of view (Genette, 1980:10). In
his arguments, the narrator could be the one whose point of view becomes the
origins of the perspective and vice versa.
4. Plot
Ruth E. Page in her book titled Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology provides two models of plot. She adopts the concept of postclassical practice of synthesizing aspects of analysis thatare derived from a
different paradigm. In the first concept, she uses Longacre’s Narrative Versus Other Discourse Genre, that works on the anatomy of plot, which provides a structuralist starting point. Then, the second concept complements the first by a
Interaction: An Introduction to Written Discourse Analysis, thatworks on culturally recognized patterns of text organization.
Her aim to use these two models is twofold. The first is to use these models
in narratological criticism and indicate how particular formulations of gender
ideology are significant in both the interpretation of form and the content. The
second is to conductfurther attainment and suggest how the analysis of the plot
might be used to modify the theoretical frameworks of plot and re-evaluate the
criteria used in narratology.
According to Ruth E.Page, Hoey’s approach describesabout the “culturally
popular patterns of organization” base on the understanding that text is a site of interaction between writer and reader. As such, the analysis of the patterning in
the text is contextualized, understood inrelation to extra-textual world knowledge.
The pattern that Hoey goes on to describe related to Problem-Solution,
Goal-Achievement, Desire-Arousal and so on, is derived from the action structure that
readers draw on when processing narrative and parallel aspects of Structuralist
plot models. Problem-Solution pattern would be as follows(Page, 2006: 53):
Projected Question Element of Pattern
What is the situation? Situation
What aspect of that situation is problematic? Problem
What response was made? Response
What was the result? Result
Throughout the discussion, the Problem-Solution pattern is not a universal
structure (different from Structuralist structure), but appears within particular
cultural context, and has potential to the infinite range of patterns that might be
occurring.Hoey’s model is a useful starting point for both narratological criticism
and reflecting on narratology itself. The model makes the analyst considering
what situations are constructed and understood as ‘problematic’, which
participants are able to articulate desire, achieve goals, and solve problems and so
on. Ruth E. Page argues that generally a feminist perspective might take Hoey’s
observation that certain patterns occur with great frequency while others do not
Situation
Aspect of situation requiring a response (For example)
Problem Goal Opportunity Desire Arousal Gap in Knowledge
Response
and then ask why this might be so and what this might reflect about the
ideological values in a given culture.
5. Feminist Criticism
Feminist criticism is the product ofthe women’s movement in 1906s. This movement dealt with the significance of the images of women in literature, and
saw it as vital to combat them and question their authority and their coherence.
In 1970s, the major effort of feminist criticism criticizes the mechanism of
patriarchy. Patriarchy refers to the cultural mindset in men and women, which
continuously inherit sexual inequality. In this phase, critical attention was given to
books by male writers, in which influential or typical images of women were
constructed.
In 1980s, feminist criticism changes its concentration. Firstly, feminist
criticism begins to draw upon the finding and approaches of other kinds of
criticism, such as Marxism, Structuralism, Linguistics, and so on. Secondly,
feminist criticism changes its focus from attacking male version of the world to
exploring the nature of the female world and reconstructing the lost record of
female experience. Thirdly, the attention of feminist criticism is changed to the
need to construct a new canon of women’s writing by rewriting the history of the
novel and poetry that neglected women writers.
Elaine Showalter detects that distinct phases of interest and activity
imitateddominant male artistic norms and aesthetic standard. The second phase is
called feminist phase when radical and often separatist positions were maintained
in women’s writing in 1880-1920. The last phase is female phase, in 1920 onwards, which looks particularly at female writing and female experience (Barry,
2009: 116-118).
An anthropologist, Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, in apapersWoman,Culture,
and Society: A Theoretical Overview, proposes a structural model that relates to
an opposition between the “domestic” orientation of women and extra-domestic or
“public” that primarily available to men. This model provides a general
characteristic of human sex role and identification of certain strategies and
motivation, as well as a source of value and power, that are available to women in
different human groups (Rosaldo and Lamphere, 1974: 17-18).
The opposition between “domestic” and “public” offers the basis of a structural framework to identify and explore the place of male and female in
psychological, cultural, social, and economic aspect of human life. “Domestic”
refers to minimal institution and modes of activity that are organized immediately
around one or more mothers and their children. While, “public” refers to
activities, institutions, and forms of association that link, rank, organize, or
subsume particular mother-child groups (1974: 23). From this point, the male is
considered as in the public domain, while the female is in the private domain.
Peggy R. Sanday, in Female Status in Public Domain, specifies the opposition of domestic and public domain. The domestic domain includes
domain includes political and economic activities that take place or have impact
beyond the localized family unit and that relate to control of person or things.
Related to the “power” and “authority”, Sanday cited the definitions of power and
authority from M. G. Smith. Power is the ability to act effectively on persons or
things, to take or secure favourable decisions. Whereas, authority is the right to
make a particular decision and to command the obedience. Authority is
recognized and legitimized power. Furthermore, it it important to recognize in
dealing with female status in both domains that although female authority may
imply power, female power does not necessarily imply authority (1974: 190-191).
Rosaldo argues that woman's position is raised when they can challengethis
man’s authority, either by taking on men’s roles or by establishing social ties, by
creating a sense of rank, order, and value in a world in which women prevail. The
possibilities for women, then, are entering the men’s world or creating a public
world of their own (1974: 36).
6. Feminist Narratology
Ruth E. Page in Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist NarratologycitedWarhol’s definition of feminist narratology from Mezei’s books
Ambiguous Discourse: Feminist Narratology and British Women Writers. Warhol defines feminist narratology as the study of narrative structure and strategies in
the context of the cultural construction of gender. She mentions that one of the
contextualization as a means of understanding the interplay between gender and
narrative form (Page, 2006: 1-2).
In the development of the study, feminist narratology is typical of the
revisionist work of postclassical narratology, which did not necessarily reject the
models of Structuralist narratology, but integrated them with other theoretical
perspectives. It does not mean that feminist narratology is the opposites of
narratology. Feminist narratology is the product of narratology, even though both
of them have different point(Page, 2006: 5).
In Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology, Ruth E. Page also raises three main criticisms of feminist narratology. First, categorizing
the various plot types in metaphorical terms, lacks the support of empirical data
and detailed linguistic analysis. Second, labeling the alternatives as ‘male’ and ‘female’ illustrates a universalizing and assuming that all male and female experience are the same and is biologically determined. Third, the slippage
between narrative content and plot structure result in a simplistic correlation of
narrative structure and gender (Page, 2006: 43-44).
According to Susan S. Lanser in Toward Feminist Narratology, in the relationship between the narrator and the narratee, there is dichotomy among
public and private narration level. Public means narration that is addressed to a
narratee who is external to the textual world and who can be equated with a public
readership. Public narration requires a direct relationship between the reader and
contrast, means narration that is addressed to an explicitly designated narratee
who exists only within the textual world. In private narration, the reader’s access
is indirect, as it were through the figure of a textual persona (Warhol and Price,
1991: 684).
Stereotypically, the dichotomy of public and the private narrative level
typifies gender domain. Public narration is identical with male. Private narration is
identical with female. The different narration uses different gender language.
Some linguists argue that women’s language or a discourse of the powerless is
polite, emotional, gossipy, talkative, uncertain, dull, and chatty. In contrast, man’s
language is capable, direct, rational, illustrating a sense of humor, unfeeling,
strong and blunt (Warhol and Price, 1991: 680-681). Thus, in private level, the
narrative is considered as subjective, unreliable, and untrustworthy, while the
public narrative is considered as objective, reliable, and trustful.
In terms of literary genre, epic is considered by Bakhtin as a product of the
patriarchal society. Epic represents the world of the father. It canonizes the world
of father. On the other hand, novel represents the word of the mother. In
Donovan’s words, novel valorizes events from everyday world of the mother (Donovan, 2000: 3-4).
C. Theoretical Framework
Toanswer the problem formulation stated above, the writer will use some
theories. In this research, the writer uses the theories from Gerard Genette as the
Narrative Form and the theory from Ruth E.Page’s Literary and Linguistic Approaches to Feminist Narratology.
In answering the first question, the writer will use Ruth E. Page’s theory of
plot.The writer analyzes the plot of the story based on Problem- Solution pattern.
Problem – Situation plot pattern divides the story based on the climatic peak. Then, it allows dividing the story into some passages based on the multiple
climatic peaks.
After the first question is answered, to answer the second question, the
writer usesSuzanne Keen’s theory in order to reveal the position of the narrator. The writer analyzes the narrative situation based on the classification of the
climatic peaks that are derived from Problem–Solution plot structures.
The third question is answered by analyzing the effects that are produced by
21
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
This research analyzes a novel written by Chitra Lekha Banerjee Divakaruni
entitled The Palace of Illusions. This fiction novel contains 360 pages and 43 chapters. In 2008, Doubleday published this novel in the United State for the first
time. The book used in this research is the PDF version, which is released on 10th
of October 2010.
Mainly, the story of the novel retells the story of IndianMahabharatatales. In the author’s note, the authorwrites her disagreement about the patriarchal system in the tale. She notes her motivation to redefinewomen in the tale of
Mahabharata. In a line with the author’s ambition, the storybegins with the birth of a woman character, Panchaali. Thesame as the original version of
Mahabharata, Panchaali is the wife of the five Pandava and becomes the trigger of the biggest war between Kurava and Pandava. In this novel, Panchaali is the
main character who tells her struggle as a woman character facing her destiny and
the war. As a woman character, Panchaali becomes the princess, so her activities
always take place mostly in the palace. As a princess, of course she needs to keep
the rules of the palace. Her obedience makes her becoming a special princess and
different from other princess. Instead of fully obeying the rules, Panchaali often
B. Approach of the Study
Narratology is the study of the form and functioning of narrative. It analyzes
the constructing elements of a narrative and their elaboration. Narratologist
attempts to describe the narrative explicitly and grasp a better understanding of its
functioning by first recognizing the elaboration (Prince, 1982: 4-5). Narratology
itself is a branch of structuralism, whichessence is the belief that things cannot be
understood in isolation–they have to be seen in the larger structures they are part
of, but it has independence from the structuralism because narratology takes some
terminology from linguistic theory, stylistic. (Barry, 2009:214).
In narratology, there is a crucial distinction between “Story” and “Plot”.
This distinction is fundamental in narratology because this distinction will be an
alert to questions of how the narrative is designed and what designs it might have
(Barry, 2009: 231). ‘Story’ is the sequence of events as it actually happens, while
‘Plot’ is how the events in the ‘story’ are presented to the reader or listener. In
other word, ‘Story’ is an actual sequence of events as they happen and ‘Plot’ is a
story that is edited, ordered, packaged, and presented in what we recognize as a
narrative. Many narratologists use varied term to substitute the term of ‘story’ and
‘plot’. For example, The Russian Formalist uses the term ‘Fabula’ for ‘story’ and
‘sjuzet’ for plot’ (Barry, 2009:215).
Russian Formalist named Vladimir Propp analyzes a ‘corpus’ of hundred
Russian folktales in order to find the plot patterns of the folktales. He finds 31
items in his list, but all are constructed by selecting items from it. Furthermore, he
groups the 31 functions into 7 spheres of action, which are the villain, the donor
(provider), the helper, the princess (a sought for a person) and her father, the
dispatcher, and the hero (seeker or victim). From his finding, it can be concluded
that stories have certain patterns that can be generated (Barry, 2009: 218-222).
Gerard Genette is one of the most prominent narratologist since Roland
Barthes. He does not focus on the tale itself, but focuses on how the tale is told.
He discusses six particular areas in his book Narrative Discourse (Barry, 2009:222). Peter Barry inBeginning Theoryextracts the six particular areas which are meant by Gerard Genette into six questions. The six questions are the basic
narrative mode ‘mimetic’ (scenic way: specified) or ‘diegetic’ (summarizing
way), how the narrative focalized?, who is telling the story?, how is time handled
in the story?, how is the story ‘packaged’?, and how are speech and thought
represented? (Barry, 2009:222-229).
This criticism is chosen to analyze the work because it deals with how the
authors tell their story through the narrator of the story. For those reasons,
naratology is the most suitable approach to work this research with.
C. Method of the Study
This research is library research. The main sources of the research are books
and the writer uses that as the primary data. Other sources are websites, which
The writer takes some steps in this research. The writer takes close reading
method as the first step of the research to understand the novel well. Afterwards,
understanding the story, the writer draws the plot based on Problem-Solution
patterns. Then, the writer describes the position of the narrator based on narrative
situation. The last step is an attempt to conclude the effect of the narrator used in
25
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter contains the answers of problem formulation stated above. The
writer provides three-sub chapters. The first is the plot. In this sub chapter, the
writer analyzes the plot of the story as the part that would be considered in
analyzing the position of the narrator in the next sub chapter. In the second sub
chapter, the writer analyzes the position of the narrator based on the plot analysis
in the first sub chapter. In the last sub chapter, the writer relates the answers tothe
first and second question of problem formulation to reveal how the narrator
redefines women in the story ofMahabharata.
A. Plot Structure
As mentioned before, this sub chapter contains the description of the plot.
The writer provides the plot analysis of the story. Based on an Aristotelian plot
that implies a single action with a beginning, middle and ending, this story seems
do not have plot structure. This story is not a single action. It contains some
actions so the plot structure of the story cannot be seen by Aristotelian plot.
Because of that, analyses of the plot structure of this story based on Michael
Hoey’s work on culturally recognized patterns of text organization that uses
Problem-Solution patterns.
In this story,four passages might be classified as Peaks.Those passages
the attention of participants and change the vantage point.Those passages are
summarized below.
1. The King of Drupad sets a marriage for Panchaali by holding a contest
(chapter 1 to 15).
2. Pandava loses to Kurava in a dice game (chapter 16 to 26).
3. The Great War betweenthe Pandava and Kuravas occurs in Kuruksetra
(chapter 27 in 37).
4. The crisis occurs in Hastinapur and Pandava after the Great War (chapter
38 to 43).
Those four passages characterize the multiple climaxes of the story.
Thosepassages have a form of problem and response relationship that bound one
to another.
1. The First Climatic Peak:The King Drupad sets a marriage for Panchaali by holding a contest
The first passage tells about the story of the birth of a character of the
arranged marriage of thecharacter so that she has to leave her father’s palace and
live with her five husbands.Mainly, this passage says to the reader about the
background and introduction of main characters in the story.The writer analyzes
this passage using Hoey’s pattern of climatic peak. According tothe Hoey’s plot
pattern, climatic peak consists of Situation, Problem, Response, Result and
Evaluation. The pattern is categorized and summarizedbased on those points as in
Situation • Flashback story about the birth of Panchaali and
Drestadyumna by Dhai Ma.
• King Drupad wants Drestadyumna to take
revenge to Drona.
• Arjun, the best archer from Hastinapur who
helpedDrona to defeat King Drupad in a war
ago, is too strong to be defeated.
• King Drupad sets a marriage for Arjun and her
daughter so that Arjun could be the ally of King
Drupad.
• Instead of loving Arjun, Panchaali loves Karna.
• Panchaali’s desire is contradictory with her
father’s desire.
• King Drupad arranges the contest to make Arjun
become the winner, but another king, Karna,
who has equal archery skill to Arjun also joins
to the contest.
Problem • Arjun does not come to the contest, so Karna
has a big possibility to win the contest.
• To stop Karna becoming the winner,
Dhristadyumna forbids Karna to join the contest
of Karna. According to the rule, Karna’s
castestatus cannot be accepted to join the
contest.
• Karna becomes angry caused by the statement
of Dhristadyumna, so he wants to attack
Dhristadyumna.
Response • Rather than following her desire to love Karna,
Panchalli stops Karna attackingDhristadyumna
by giving satirical question to Karna, with the
consequence, it would make Karna hate her.
Result (Negative) • Karna’swithdrawal triggers his ally from
Hastinapur to attack Panchalla. They think the
contest is intended to embarrass the skill of
other kings since it could not be won by the
kings.
• A Brahmin steps forwardand triesto target the
fish eyes in order to stop the chaos.
Unpredictably, his arrow targets the fish eye
precisely.
• Having the winner, Panchaali marries the
Brahmin and leaves her palace and prosperity to
live with her husband as a Brahmin.
(Negative) Karna. On the contrary, she tries to love the
Brahmin as her husband.
The marriage of Panchaali becomes the first climatic peak because it takes
the attentionof most participants of the story since the contest is attended by Kings
around the story world. Almost all participants from different caste concentrate to
the contest. Personally, for Panchaali, her marriage becomes the moment of crisis
for her. The future of her palace lies in her hand. If she does not abjectly stop
Karna attacking her brother, her palace would be destroyed by the other
kingdoms. Although, her objection would hurt Karna, to whom she is falling in
love with. It also changes the vantage point of Panchaali. She hopes that she could
find the husband that she loves, but in fact, she does not get it since she must
marry the Brahmin.
In Situation part, the early situations are described to give the early images
of the story world to the reader. From the point of situations in the table above, it
is recognized that they become the background of the story world. They introduce
the participants in the story world, introduce their goal, and give imagery of the
participant’s position in the story. The reader knows, then, that Panchaali is the
protagonist and her goals are to be loved and recognized by the others that she
loves. Not only introducing the participants, they also depict the events happened
In Problem part, problematic events occur. From the perspective of
Panchaali, something that is problematic occurs when she has to decide whether
she follows her desire to marry Karna orstop Karna who is ready to kill her
brother. The event when she needs to take a decision of dead or alive makes it
goes to be problematic. The decision then, flows to the next part as a response.
In Response part, the problematic eventiscooled down by the decision as the
response to it. Panchaali takes a decision to save her brother rather than following
her desire to take Karna as her husband. This response cools down the
problematic event. Karna withdraws from the contest and cancels to kill
Dristadyumna.
In Result and Evaluation part, the next events are the consequence of the
decision that has been made. The result and the evaluation are considered as
negative due to the fact thatthe protagonist has not achieved her goal. As the result
of the decision, Panchaali savesher brother. The side effects of the decision are the
anger of otherkings and leading the Brahmin to win the contest. As the negative
evaluation, in this passage, Panchaali cannot pursue her goal to be loved by the
personthat she loves.
2. The Second Climatic Peak:Pandava losesto Kurava in a dice game
The second climatic peak is led by the negative result and evaluation from
the first climatic peak. The negative result and evaluation of first climatic peak
raises new situations in the second climatic peak. Those situations, then, lead to
Situation • Panchaali notices that the Brahmin is Arjun.
• Arjun brings Panchaali to his mother and
brothers.
• Kunti, the mother, asks the five members of
Pandava to marry Panchaali.
• Pandava, Kunti, and Panchaali go to King
Drupad in Kampilya, in order to inform that all
five Pandava will marry Panchaali.
• Finally, King Drupadagrees and accepts the
marriage and Vyasa gives the rule to the
marriage. Vyasa gives Panchaali a boon so that
when Panchaali turns to other Pandava, she will
be a virgin again.
• After the marriage, Bheesma arrives in Kampilya
to take back Pandava to Hastinapur.
• Pandava, Panchaali, and Kunti go to Hastinapur
and stay there.
• In an agreement, Hastinapur is divided into two
parts, and one of them belongs to Pandava.
• The Pandava and Panchaali take a journey to
to Pandava.
• In Khandav, they build a new palace, named
Indra Prastha, with help from Krishna and Maya.
• The palace grows into a big and prosperous city.
• In the palace, Panchaali gives all of her husband
a son of each.
• Maya and Krishna suggest not to invite other
people to Indra Prastha to avoid jealousy of other
kingdoms.
• Pandava takes other wives and Panchaali shares
her possession with them.
• Sage Narad suggest a Rajasuya sacrifice to
Yudhisthir. Yudhisthir accepts the suggestion to
make the sacrifice.
• Victories by the other victory are achieved. Indra
Prastha becomes famous among others.
• Festivities are held to celebrate the victories and
Pandava invites others king, includes the king of
Hastinapur.
• In Yagna celebration, Yudhisthir asks Bhessma
to choose the honored guest.
refuses it. Instead of accepting the honor, Sisupal
embarrasses Bheesma..
• Khrisna kills Sisupal after Sisupal tries to attack
him.The death of Sisupal violates the celebration
and Pandava’s good reputation.
• In contrast to other kings, Duryodhan still stays
at Indra Prastha. He observes the palace,
carefully in full of admiration.
• One day, Duryodhan invites the Pandava to go to
Hastinapur. Pandava accepts the invitation as an
honor.
• In Hastinapur, Duryodhan challenges Yudhisthir
to play dice.
• In the beginning, Duryodhan pretends to be a
loser, but then he traps Yudhisthir with bigger
wager.
Problem • In the dice game, Duryodhan is replaced by
Sakuni, and Yudhisthir loses his gold, palace,
kingdom, brother, and wife as the wager.
• Dussasan strips down all of the clothes of
Pandava and Panchaali.
• Panchaali is embarrassed in public, she asks help
but no one comes to help her.
• When Dussasanpulls Panchaali’s sari, she closes
her eyes and imagines her brother Dhri and
Krishna.
• In her imagination, she meets Krishna.
Magically, her sari cannot be fully stripped down
and remains covering her body.
• Panchaali’simagination changes into Karna,the
personwho lets Dussasan to stripe down
Panchaali’sclothes instead of stopping the
immoral act. The calmness of Panchaali
disappears and changes into anger.
• She opens her eyes and curses all peoples in that
place.
Response • Dhritarashtra, the father of Kaurava, begs
Panchaali to take back her curse, but she does not
take it back.
• Dhristarashtra, asks her son to have a last game.
The loser, must go to the forest for twelve years
in exile.
Result (Negative) • Pandava losesagain and they must go to the
Evaluation
(Negative)
• Panchaali always reminds her husbands about
their fault and persuades to take revenge.
The second climatic peak is the next climatic peak as the negative result of
the first climatic peak. The second climatic peak can be found in the passage when
the Pandava loses to Kurava in a dice game and Yudhisthir loses everything that
they have, kingdom, palace, brother and wives. Panchaali asthe Pandava’s wifeis
embarrassed in front of the audience. In the immoral terrible act to the woman,
she curses all of them.
This passage is considered as the climatic peak.In this passage the crisis of a
character is, especially for Panchaali, emerged. It is the time that she is positioned
in critical condition as what Dussasan doesis the rudest act toward a woman. This
event turns her vantage point. She loved to live in peace before, but later, her life
turns into a life that isvengeful life, her desire arises. The tension also riseshigher
from event to event. Before the dice game, Pandava lives in prosperity and peace,
but it is changed into high tension when they lost in a dice game.
In Situation part, as the result of the marriage, Panchaali as the protagonist
lives with her five husbands. This condition positions her in new circumstances.
From chapter 16 to 20, the protagonist recognizes her new circumstances by the
emergence of new characters and new settings of places. The narrator informs
new phase of the story world to the reader. In the next chapter, the situation seems
Yudhisthir to perform the Rajasuya sacrifice. Instead of gaining their power, the
victory celebration conducts jealousy and anger from other kingdom. Duryodhan
takes this moment to his advantage. Thus, the situation leadsthe problematic
situation in the next part.
In Problematic part, the Pandava’s failure in the dice game drownsthe
situation into problematic one. In this part, Panchaali as the protagonist has been
embarrassed her in the public by Kaurava. She wants people to help her, but no
one of them comes to help. The protagonist does not get help from other people,
so she tries to help herself by imagining people that she loves. The situation when
she needs help but no one comes to help is problematic for the protagonist. Her
curse, then becomes the sign of her arousal of desire. Her dream to live in peace
and love is added bythe desire, which is full of revenge. Afterward, her curse
becomes another problem among the participants around her.
In Response part, the problematic situation is sought to be solved. The
solution suggested by the blind king does not solve all of the problems. The curse
has not been taken yet, and the drum of revenge is still rumbling. The result of this
response in this part is negative, because the problem is not already solved yet.
In the Result and Evaluation part, they are merely negative. The result of the
response could not solve all of problematic situations. The curse given by
Panchaali is not taken back from her mouth. The exile only solves the problem of
Panchaali. The evaluation is also negative, because the goal of the Panchali has
not been achieved. So, she always reminds her husbands in exile to take revenge.
3. The Third Climatic Peak:The Great War between the Pandava and Kauravas occurs in Kuruksetra
The third climatic peak occurs in the passage when the Great War between
the Pandava and Kaurava begins in Kurukshetra. This climatic peak isthe result of
the unsolved problem in the second passage. This passage is analyzed in order to
find the structure of a plot based on Problem –Solution patterns. This following
table summarizes the analyzed passage to find out the structure of the plot.
Situation • The Pandava and Panchaali live in the forest for
twelve years in exile.
• During the exile, Dhri asks Panchaali to go to
her father’s palace, but she hesitates to go back
there.
• Bheem getsnew power when he meets his elder
brother, Hanuman.
• Arjun strenghten his battle skills when he goes
to his father’s Kingdom, Surya.
• After exile for 12 years, the Pandava and
Panchaali disguise for a year. As the agreement
whenever Kaurava finds them, the Pandava and
• In their disguise, the Pandava and Panchaali are
separated each other to prevent Kaurava to find
them easily.
• Panchaali becomes a servant of Sudeshna in
Virat Palace.
• A month before the disguise period is over,
Panchaali was raped by Kheechak, King Virat’s
brother.
• Later, Bheem kills Kheecak when the disguise is
about to end.
• The news of Kheechak’s death spreads away.
Kauravas finds Pandava through the news.
Soon, Kaurava moves to the Virat Palace to find
Pandava.
• Kaurava is too late. The day when Kaurava
finds Pandava is the last day of the disguise
time, so Pandava should not to take more exile.
Problem • Based on the agreement of the dice game, after
Pandava has been in exile for 12 years and a
year of hiding from the Kaurava without being
discovered, Pandava could take back their
wager.
wager to Pandava.
• Yudhisthir only requests five villages to live,
but Duryodhan also refuses that request.
Response • The Pandava and Kaurava decide to have a war.
• Both side, the Pandava and Kaurava gain their
power from their allies.
• Krishna decides to take Pandava sides, but
Sakuni makes him vow that he is notallowed to
fight directly in the battlefield.
• As the vow, Krishna becomes Arjun’s
charioteer.
• A day before the war begins, the both sides
Pandava and Kaurava have nightmare as a
signof the conditionafter the war.
• Karna in his dreams meets his father, Surya.
Surya tellsKarna that Indra will ask his armor
and will give boon as an exchange. Surya
suggests Karna to demand Sakhi for exchange.
• Vyasa gives a boon to Panchaali, so that she has
a special vision to see what happens during the
war, though she could not present in the
• In the early morning, the Great War begins.
Result (Negative) • Pandava wins the war to Kaurava.
• Panchaali’s desireto take revenge is fulfilled.
• Shikandhi’s destiny to kill Bheesma is fulfilled.
• Dristadyumna’s destiny to kill Drona is fulfilled
• All brothersof Kaurava die on the battlefield.
• Both sides Pandava and Kaurava lose their
family members.
• King Drupad, Shikandhi, Dristadyumna, Drona,
Abhimanyu, Karna, Ghatotkacha and other
members from both two sides are dead.
• Pandava, then, recognizes that Karna is their
eldest brother.
• In Hastinapur, there are a lot of widowers and
fatherless children caused by the war.
Evaluation
(Negative)
• Instead of being happy for the victory, the
Pandava and Panchaali drown in sadness and
guilt.
This passage is considered as the next passage that consists of climatic peak.
The event that is highlighted as the peak is the Great War. At a glance, the word
“war” has properties such as confrontation,fighting, encounter, conflict and so on.
between protagonist and antagonist, between goal and obstacle, between a vow
and opportunity, and between love and duty, among brothers of Pandava and
Kaurava. The war has the possibility to raise the climatic peak of the passage.
In situation part, the narrated events are the outcome of the negative result
and evaluation of the climatic peak before. In the beginning of this passage,
Panchaali always reminds her husbands to take revenge for the abuse to her and
take back her kingdom. In this part, the new goal of Panchaali is narrated to the
reader. For Pandava, their goal is to take back their kingdom as their home to live
in peace, after the exile in twelve years. Some new characters are introduced in
this part, such as Hanuman, King Virat, Sudeshna, Kheechak, etc. Those two
points, the introduction of goal and new character, give such a background of this
passage that leads to problematic event. Considering those two points, the writer
takes those events in situation part.
The problematic situation occurs when Duryodhan refuse to give back the
Pandava’s wagers after they have been exiled as the agreement on it. This
eventhas becomea problematic situation because in this event, Duryodhan betrays
the agreement to Pandava. The betrayal of Duryodhan is a problem for Pandava,
henceit means that Pandava could not take back their Kingdom after their
suffering in exile. It becomes Pandava’s obstacle to take back their kingdom.
Looking at the arousal of the obstacle that hampers Pandava to achieve the goal,
The response of the betrayals is the Great War. The Great War is the final
response to the betrayal of Duryodhan. Before the Great War is declared,
Yudhisthir takes peacefully way to respond to the betrayal by only asking five
villages for Pandava to live. Duryodhan does not agree with the peaceful way to
respond to the problem. Finally, the Pandava and Panchaali, as the response of
their obstacle to the goal, declare the Great War. These events are the response
part of the plot. The response is merely the solution to the problem whenever the
protagonists have obstacle to reach their goal.
The result of war is merely death. In this passage, the death of both
members of the Pandava and Kaurava can be found. DuringThe Great War,
Pandava becomes the winner. However, the victory is not only the result of war.
The death of people that they love is also the result of the war, remembering that
the war is among brothers. Evaluating the result of the Great War, the Pandava
and Panchaali, instead of being happy for the victory, drown in sadness and guilt.
From this point, it means that the result and evaluation part are negative, because
the protagonist does not achieve the goal yet. Moreover, the result and evaluation
lead to another problem.
4. The Fourth Climatic Peak:The crisis of Hastinapur and Pandava after the Great War
The fourth climatic peak appears as the result of the unsolvedproblem in the
negative result and evaluation from the third climatic peak. The negative result
passage. Those situations and problem, then, lead to the next Problem – Solution
patterns that are summarized in the table below.
Situation • After the war, Hastinapur becomes full of
widowers and fatherless children.
• They blame Pandava as the cause of their
widower.
Problem • Some widowers are depressed and plan to
commit suicide.
• Dhritarashtra and Gandhari blame Pandava as
the cause of theirchild’sdeath.
• Yudhisthir blame himself for the death of
Karna.
Response • Panchaali and other wives build a hall as a place
for widowers to share their problems and they
sell their properties to help the widowers.
• Krishna helps Pandava to make Dhritarashtra
and Gandhari calm down so that they pardon
Pandava.
• The Pandava and Panchaali take a journey to the
Himalayas as their penitence.
Result (Positive) • Hastinapur is in better condition.
