A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GENDER LANGUAGE IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND FRANKENSTEIN NOVELS.

(1)

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GENDER LANGUAGE IN

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND FRANKENSTEIN NOVELS

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan, in Partial of the Requirements for the

Degree of Sarjana Sastra

By:

SAFRIANA SILITONGA

Registration Number: 209220044

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

(2)

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GENDER LANGUAGE IN

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND FRANKENSTEIN NOVELS

A THESIS

Submitted to the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan, in Partial of the Requirements for the

Degree of Sarjana Sastra

By:

SAFRIANA SILITONGA

Registration Number: 209220044

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

DECLARATION

Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own word,

has been expressed in my own words and has not previously been submitted for

assessment. I understand that this paper maybe screened electronically or

otherwise for plagiarism.

Medan, August 2013

SAFRIANA SILITONGA

(7)

i ABSTRACT

Silitonga, Safriana. A Comparative Study of Gender Language in Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein Novels. A thesis. Medan. Faculty of Languages and Arts (FBS). State University of Medan. UNIMED. 2013

This study deals with the similarities and differences of gender language expressed in Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein Novels. The object of this study is to find out the similarities and differences of gender language which are expressed in Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein novels .This study used descriptive qualitative research. The data were collected by documentary technique and the instrument of collecting data was documentary sheet. The data were analyzed by descriptive comparative. The findings indicated that there were some similarities and differences found between those two novels. The similarities were found in three features:a) Politeness; all the characters in Pride

and Prejudice and Frankenstein novels used polite sentences b) Grammar; all the

characters in novels used hypercorrect grammar c) Precise color terms; there was no found the using of this feature in novels. The differences were found in the Adjective; 8,43% found in Pride and Prejudice and 4,34% found in Frankenstein f) Emphatic Stress; 15,25% found in Pride and Prejudice and 15,94% found in

Frankenstein g) Rising Intonation on Declarative; 9,32% found in Pride and Prejudice and 5,79% found in Frankenstein. It is hoped that the result of this

study will be useful to anyone who wants to study about literary, especially gender language.

(8)

(9)

vii

4.11 The Difference of the Using of Swear Words Used by The

Characters in Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein Novels ... 62

4.12 The Difference of the Using of Emphatic Stress Used by

(10)

viii

LIST OF APPENDIX

Appendix Page

A. The Utterances Description of Ten Features

(11)

1

about life and life, in most part, is part of the real society. Therefore, literary work

is the reflection of the real life. It can describe the events in our life, and also

contains the cultural and social background which indicates that literature and

society is closely related because literature expresses the situations and problems

existing in society.

One of literary works is novel. It is a mirror that is very suitable to decide

all aspects of life and nature (Taime, 1972:21 in Saputra 2008). Here Taime

clearly views that novel as one kind of literary work reflects the condition of one

period. By reading a novel, the readers can read the reality or condition include

social condition in when the literary works are created.

The brief explanation above clearly shows that there is a close and clear

relationship between novels, as a literary work and society. Through novel the

readersor researchers not only get the understanding about the condition and

(12)

2

problems in life. Novel is created by an author who interacts to the society. Since

every writer is a member of society, he can be studied as social being. It will be

possible to accumulate information about the social provenance, the family

background, the economic position of writers.

This study analyzes the gender language in two novels from different

authors. They were written in the 18th centuries in the same country, England.

They are Pride and Prejudice(1813) by Jane Austen and Frankenstein, or, The

Modern Prometheus (1818) by Mary Shelley. Both of the authors are the British

novelists.

Pride and Prejudice is one of the greatest novels of the eightteenth

century. The story's setting is uniquely turned of the late 18th century or the early

19th century . Pride and prejudice novel talks about the rank and status and the

equality that was truly faced in the Regency England Era (1811-1820) when the

novel was written. The Regency era in the United Kingdom is the period between

1811 — when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of

Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent — and 1820, when the Prince Regent

became George IV on the death of his father.

In this era the social status was determined by family connections and on

a smaller scale, how one earned money. This situation clearly shows in this novel

by the ambitions of parent (Mrs. Bennet) that want her five daughters (Lydia,

Mary, Kitty, Jane and Elizabeth or Lizzy) to marry the rich men. Bennett’s wife

believes that her five daughters will have high social position when they get

(13)

3

get marriage just because of social status. She just want to get the better education

than her other sisters. Her other sisters just have domestic education but Elizabeth

want to get more than that. She believes that her future will be better with

education. She does not want to depend on social status of her husband. The

intelligent headstrong Elizabeth Bennet and the authorsfavorite heroine and

supercilious but romantic Mr. Darcy provides the conflict between ―Pride‖

(Darcy) and ―Prejudice‖ (Elizabeth), (Saputra, 2008: 10).

Bringing the same theme with different genre, Mary Shalley in

Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus, also explore the status of women and

their role in society as well as in the family.It seems that the daughter of such

distinct parents should follow in their footsteps or at least try to voice her

mother’s beliefs in women’s rights to be treated as equals to men in society and

their right to education. However in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley chose to write

from three different perspectives, using three narrators – all male. The women are

represented, solely, through the male gaze and perception.

Women’s role and status in the contemporary society, or lack thereof, did

not only affect women on a personal level, it restrained them from having a career

other than that of a housewife as well. The female sex was believed to be weaker,

less intelligent and inferior to the male sex, which had the natural consequence

that women were thought less capable than men when it came to activities

categorized as masculine, (Knutsen, 2012:18).

From the brief explanation above it can concluded that in eighteenth era,

(14)

4

the life background of the writer have a big role in their literary work. Mostly,

their life background influenced them in writing their literary work. It makes the

literary works is interesting to be analyzed.

There are so many things in literary work, especially novel that can be

analyzed. It could be the theme of the novel, the psychological approach, the

biographical approach, and many things. This study analyzed gender language in

two different novels in the same era as mentioned before. They are Pride and

Prejudice novel by Jane Austen and Frankenstein Novel by Mary Shelley.

There are two reasons of choosing these two novels as the subject of this

study. First, Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein novels were written in the

same period, namely in the eighteenth century. Second, they were written by two

different authors but from the same country, England. Both of them were born and

died in England. This study inspired by the previous studies of gender language.

There are some studies of gender language that has analyzed gender language

itself. They analyzed the differences of gender language in social network, daily

interaction and television show. But, they only focused on one subject. So, this

study tries to make a new study of gender language by comparing two literary

works, novels.

B.The Problem of the Study

The problem of this study formulated as follow:

How are the differences and similarities of gender language expressed in

(15)

5

C.The Objective of the Study

In relation to the problem stated above the objective of this study is:

To describe how the similarities and differences of gender language are

expressed in Pride and Prejudice and Frankensteinnovels.

D. The Scope of The Study

This study deals with genderlanguage inPride and Prejudice and

Frankensteinnovel. This study is focused on the analysis of ten features of gender

language as reflected in those novels.

E. The Significances of The Study

It is expected that the result or the finding of this study will be beneficial

for theoretically, practically and academically in some aspects.

1. Theoretically, findings of this study will be expected to enrich the theories of

sociolinguistics such as; gender language and also literature such as;

biographical and historical, especially for students and lecturers who want to

observe men’s and women’s language in novel.

2. Practically, findings will be expected to be useful for the researchers who are

interested in analyzing the comparison of gender language in literary work,

especially novel. In order to, other researchers are able to compare the gender

(16)

61 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. CONCLUSIONS

After analyzing the dialogues that expressed gander language used by all

characters in Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein Novels, it can be concluded

that:

Similarities are found between the two novels. They are; all the

characters, men and women, in each novel expressed polite sentences and also

used hypercorrect grammar in their dialogues and also there is no found the using

of precise color terms in the two novels. Differences; In Pride and Prejudice,

women usually use lexical hedges, tag questions, rising intonation on declarative,

empty adjective, intensifier, swear words, and emphatic stress. While in

Frankenstein novel, most of them were used by men.

Linguistics utterances of gender language found in Pride and Prejudice

proved the Robin Lakoff’s theory, while the linguistics utterances found in

Frankenstein novel expressed the opposite of this theory. In Pride and Prejudice

novel, all the features of gender language dominantly used by women, while in

(17)

62

B. SUGGESTIONS

After doing this study it is hoped that this study can be useful for all the

readers. And it hoped that this study can be:

1. Further continued by other researcher by using different approach.

2. Useful as the references in doing the research to conduct in depth

researchers and to make the detailed analysis of gender language in

other object.

3. Useful to other researcher who wants to compare gender language in

literary work and it is suggested to develop the analysis by using

(18)

63

REFERENCES

Aminuddin. 2000. Pengantar Apresiasi Karya Sastra. Bandung: Pt Sinar Baru Algensindo Offset

Austen, Jane. 1993. Pride and Prejudice. Hertfordshire: Wordshoth Classics.

Bodunde A, C. 1988. A New Introduction to Literature. Dubai: Y- Books (A Division of Associated Book- Members Nigeria Limited)

Dickerson, V D. 2002. The Ghost of a Self: Female Identity in Mary Shelley's

Frankenstein.Journal of Popular Culture; Winter93, Vol. 27 Issue 3,

p79-91, 13p. Retrieved April 6, 2013 from http:// search. Ebscohost.com

Fanning, S. 2006.Gendered Space and Feminist Ideology: Pride and Prejudice

and Its TwoBBC adaptations. Dubai: The University of New Brunswick.

Holmes, J. 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. New York: Cambridge

Knutsen, Othello. & Louse. 2012. An analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or,

the Modern Prometheus, using Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto as an example of male discourse about women.Retrieved March 3, 2013

from http://search.Ebscohost. Com

Mckay, L S. 1996. Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Newman, L M. 2008. Differences in Language Use: An Analysis of 14.000 Text

Sample.New York: Department of Social and Behavioral Science

Arizona State University.

Note, S. 2007. Frankenstein Mary Shelly. New York :SparkNotesA Division of Barnes & Noble

Payne, T. 1997. The A- Z of Great Writers. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited.

Raumolin,Brunberg, Helena. 2005. Language change in adulthood.European

Journal of English Studies; Apr2005, Vol. 9 Issue 1, p37-51, 15p, 3

(19)

64

Reeve, Clara. 2008. A History of Novel. Retrieved March 21, 2013, from

http://www.english.ufl.edu/mrg/readings/the%20novel.pdf.

Rodman, Robert and Fromkin, Victoria.1988. An Introduction to Language. USA: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, inc

Romo, Sandra. 2013. Factors That Influence Language Development. Retrieved April 5, 2013 from

http://www.ehow.com/list_6018235_factors-influence-language-development.html#ixzz2PmhfWTJF.

Saputra, Ika ,Krisna. 2008. A Study of Social Cultural Background in Jane

Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Unpublished Thesis.Tuban: Universitas

PGRI RonggolaweTuban.

Shelley, W. M. 2010. Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. Retrieved march 6, 2013, from http;// ebscohost.com.

Siburian, Octaria. 2008. Ideology of Feminism in Magazine for Women in

Indonesia. Unpublished Thesis. Medan: State University of Medan.

Situmorang, Lenny. 2013. The Reflection of Jane Austen’s Life Background on

The Movie Pride and Prejudice. Unpublished Thesis. Medan: State

University of Medan.

Suharto and Sugihastuti. 2002. Kritik Sastra Feminis. Yokyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar (Anggota IKAPI)

Sundeland, Jane. 2006. Language and Gender. An Advanced Resource Book. USA: Routledge.

Warda, Yulia. 2013. Gender Differences in Conversational Style “ ApaKabar

Indonesia” Talk Show News Program on Tv One. Unpublished Thesis.

Medan: State University of Medan.

Wellek, Rene and Warren, Austin. 1987. Theory of Literature. Newyork: Harvest Book, Harcourt, Brace and World,inc.

Www user survey. (Anonymous, n.d ) http:// answer.com/topic/ sociology. Retrieved April 6,2013.

Www user survey. (Anonymous, n.d ) http:// excellup.com/novel society and history. Retrieved April 5, 2013.