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The imagery will at least show that the speaker has exactly the same interest in dying like the author, because the author, Sylvia Plath, also died of suicide.
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Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By FAJAR ADITYA YUNARTO Student Number: 014214115
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(Matthew 7: 1-2)
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TITLE PAGE ....................................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................................. ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ........................................................................................ iii MOTTO PAGE .................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION PAGE ......................................................................................... ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................. vvi TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... viii ABSTRAK ........................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................... 1 A. Background of the Study ................................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulation ......................................................................... 4 C. Objectives of the Study ...................................................................... 4 D. Definition of Term ............................................................................. 5 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ................................................... 6 A. Review of Related Studies ................................................................. 6 B. Review of Related Theories ............................................................... 7
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Fajar Aditya Yunarto (2006). The Reflection of Sylvia Plath’s Suicidal Manner and Suicide Attempts in “Lady Lazarus” as Seen through the Imagery, Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University. Author’s personal backgrounds, experiences, historical moment, and the life of the people around him/her usually influence the literary works he/she writes. Consciously or unconsciously the author expresses his/her feelings, thoughts, and memories in the work of art. Sylvia Plath is an author who often writes a literary work influenced by her personal life. “Lady Lazarus” is one of her works influencedby her personal life that is related to her suicidal manner and suicidal attempts. The objectives of this study are, first, to find out how the imagery in the poem is inferred, the second is to reveal how the inference of the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. This study also applies three theories related to the topic. They are theories on^ This study applies library research method and uses a biographical approach. imagery, theories on suicide, the relationship between literature and biography. The result of the analysis shows that there are various kinds of images that are used in the poem. Most of those images are to help to know the speaker’s opinions about some people, events, and suicide, and to give clues about hermiserable condition and her intention. The imagery of the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s first, second and third suicide (suicide attempts). The imagery shows some similarities between suicides of the speaker in the poem and Plath’s actual suicides. The people and events in the poem have similarities to the people and events in Plath’s actual life. The clues about the miserable condition and intention of thespeaker show that she suffers from severe stresses (grief work, self-devaluation, interpersonal conflict, etc). The biography of Sylvia Plath proves that Sylvia Plath also suffered from similar severe stresses. Through the imagery the poem reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts.
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A. Background of Study People who commit suicide are types of people who lack of solution in dealing with problems in life. The lack of solution might be caused by the lack of faith in religion. Moslems and Christians regard suicide as a sin (Coleman, 1976: 613). People who have a strong faith in religion must have known that there are heaven and hell as the reward for everything they do in this world. People who did something that is forbidden by the religion as suicide would be rewarded the everlasting hell “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched (Mark 8: 44).” According to Jim Smith in his book Abnormal Behavior , suicide is “the act of intentionally destroying oneself (Smith, 1984: 129).” According to Supratiknya, a person will not commit suicide if the person does not suffer from an abnormal behavior that is caused by psychosocial factors. People who committed suicide suffer these psychosocial factors: childhood traumatic experience , parental deprivation , pathogenic relationship between children and their parents, and heavy stress (Supratiknya, 1995: 27-31). People who committed suicide have their own reasons. Whatever the reasons are, many people still choose suicide as a way to deal with problems in life. Not only ordinary people, but also famous people like artists, politicians, and authors. For examples, Kurt Cobain, a popular musician in the 90s, not only as a
vocalist of Nirvana, but also as the leader of the same band who made Nirvana one of the greatest bands in the world. Too bad his career ended with suicide on 7 April 1991, it was also the end of Nirvana. Being a famous artist who had many fans was not his dream, and he could not deal with it. A famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), committed suicide because he thought he could not become a great painter with the epilepsy that he had. In fact, he could only sell one painting for 400 Francs in his life. A famous politician, Adolf Hitler (1889- 1945), committed suicide after he failed winning the Second World War. A Nobel winning author Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), and Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) were famous authors who committed suicide (Iwantra, January 2005: 76-81).. Suicide is a unique expression, and that is why suicide can be made into an interesting theme in literature. According to Wellek and Warren, through literary works, authors perpetuate and publish their fantasies (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 81-93). While according to Abrams, literary works have a close relation with their creators, because consciously or unconsciously through the literary works the authors express their feelings, thoughts, and experiences (Abrams, 1981: 20 – 22). Frankly speaking, when an author writes a literary work with suicide theme, he consciously or unconsciously delivers a bit something inside him in terms of psychology. Those experts’ ideas explain clearly that studying the author’s mind, thoughts, dreams, obsessions, fantasies, and feelings based on his life and experiences is needed to understand his works. Understanding the author’s state of
and sealed herself there to commit suicide with gas from the oven. Plath died at the age of 30 (Alexander, 1991: 328-330). The researcher is going analyze “Lady Lazarus.” The poem does not only talk about suicide, but also mention the author’s actual suicides. Through imagery, or images that are taken collectively, the readers can see that the poem reflects the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts. The imagery will at least show that the speaker has exactly the same interest in dying like the author, because the author, Sylvia Plath, also died of suicide. The researcher believes that the poem “Lady Lazarus” is the most suitable literary work to study Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner that led to some suicide attempts.
B. Problem Formulation Based on the background of the study, the researcher would like to discuss these two questions in the following chapter. The questions are as follows.
C. Objectives of the Study The aim of the study is to give reliable answers to the questions that have been formulated in the problem formulation. The aims are, firstly, to find out how the imagery in “Lady Lazarus” is inferred in the poem to answer the first problem. Secondly, to reveal how the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and
suicide attempts. For the first problem, the researcher will analyze the images of the poem to reveal the inference. The next step is to find out the similarities between the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts and the inference of the imagery. By finding out the similarities between the inference of the imagery and the author’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts, the explanation on how far the imagery reflects Sylvia Plath’s suicidal manner and suicide attempts will be accomplished.
D. Definition of Terms In this part, the researcher would like to define some terms to help the readers to understand the content of this thesis. The terms are suicide, and suicidal manner.
Kathleen Margaret Lant in her thesis “The big striptease: female bodies and male power in the poetry of Sylvia Plath” says that “Lady Lazarus” shows how female subject offers pieces of herself that she displays herself not in assertive way, but in a sexually provocative and seductive way. The speaker of the poem “Lady Lazarus” wants her unveiling will to be noticed as a seductive gesture of submission and invitation (www.english.uiuc.edu). The researcher has a different opinion about Plath’s writings. Perhaps those writings are intelligent and skillful writings for some people, but for the researcher, the most obvious in Plath writings are the backgrounds, the psychological moods, and the intentions of the author when writing. Not only are those, Plath’s writings are as the vehicle to shout her deepest fear, her inmost thoughts, and indirectly her suicidal manner that led to some suicide attempts. The researcher does not think of “Lady Lazarus” as a poem that reveals sexual provocation or seduction, but the researcher thinks of it as a reflection of the author’s psyche and life in term of suicide.
B. Review of Related Theories This part contains theories to help answering the problems that have been formulated in problem formulation. The theories are theories on imagery (allusion, metaphor and simile will be included to support the theory of imagery) as the part of theories of literature, theories on suicide as the part of theories of psychology, and the relation between literature and biography.
In addition, the researcher needs to include the theory on how to discuss a poem. According to Rohrberger and Woods, essentially, what poetry expresses is not different from what either fiction or drama expresses. Plot, characterization, and theme are the absolute essentials of fiction and drama. However, poetry can use all those essentials. In narrative poems, many of the criteria used to judge fiction can be applied, and dramatic poems can be judge as little plays. Most poems are plotless or characterless, but never themeless (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 33). “Lady Lazarus” is a narrative poem, which is why the researcher analyses the poem using the technique to analyze a fiction.
1. Theory of Imagery Imagery is “images” that are taken collectively to make poetry concrete, as opposed to abstract. In modern criticism, imagery is one of the most ambiguous and common term. The applications of imagery range all the way from the “mental pictures” that are experience by the reader of a poem to the totality of elements which make up a poem. In this case, an image can be a picture made out of word, and the poem may itself be an image composed from a multiplicity of images (Abrams, 1981: 78) There are three different kinds of imagery, they are as follows. Firstly imagery is used to signify all objects and qualities of sense perception in literary works. It can be made out of literal description, allusion, or in the analogues used in its similes and metaphors. The imagery includes the literal objects the poem refers to. Some readers of the passage experience visual images and some do not,
metaphor gives the effect of powerful description and comparison (Brooks, 1960: 269 – 273). The researcher will need to include the definition of allusion, metaphor and simile in order to recognize the imagery in the poem.
rose,” signifies the identity of “my love” instead of giving comparison of visual description although a red rose is a visual object.
