THE
INFLUENCE OF EMILY DICKINSON’S LIFE
BACKGROUND
ON THE CONCEPT OF DEATH
FOUND
IN HER POEM ENTITLED
BECAUSE
I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH
CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
General
Background of the Study
Everyone has a desire to improve his or her knowledge. One of the activities
to increase knowledge is by reading. We will get a lot of information through
reading. One of reading materials is literary work, such as poem, novel, short
story and drama.
Such literary works mentioned above are the products of creative compositions
of an author. Each of the writers creating a certain literary work owns a
different life background. He or she may be a person from high class, middle
class or even lower class.
There is a statement clarifying that the life background of an author
will influence the literary work he or she composed. According to Rene Wellek
and Austin Warren “the main reason of literary work given birth is the composer
himself or herself namely an author. That is why the explanation of personality
and the author’s life is the oldest and established method in the literary work
study”. Furthermore, it is also said that biography explains and clarifies the
truth composition process of literary work (Rene Wellek &Austin Warren,
1977:82). Based on the previous explanation, the writer wants to present to the
readers that there is an influence of author’s life background on the literary
work he or she created.
Emily Dickinson is one of the great female poets in America in nineteenth
century. She was the poet growing in a well-known and educated family. Calvinism,
Transcendentalism, and Puritanism influenced the environment where she lived.
Even, her family was adhering strictly to one of them called Calvinism. As long
as she lived her life, the environment around her absolutely influenced her. She
spent almost the whole life of hers by writing a lot of poems. She had written
many poems for the entire of her life. Most of her poems are about love, nature
and death. The poem entitled “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is one of
hers, which tells us about death. By analyzing this poem, the writer wants to know
whether or not there is any influence of Emily Dickinson’s life background on
the concept of death found in the poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”.
1.2
Reason
for Choosing the Topic
Emily Dickinson is a great poet with a unique life background. The environment
around her, the education she got, and the books she read influenced the poems
she wrote. Her poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” was inspired and
influenced by such aspects mentioned above. She was also inspired on the
concept of death from her past experience when she found the person close to
her died one by one. Emily Dickinson wrote this poem and drove the readers to realize
that death is not frightening just like what in their mind.
Although Emily Dickinson had not experienced death yet at that time, she tried
to write down her expression dealing with death through her poem. The aim of
analyzing Emily’s poem is: the readers generally will understand that any feeling
and happening at a certain time in someone’s life can influence and inspire the
process of one’s creative composition.
1.3
Statements
of the Problem
T he general problem of this study is: “Is there any influence of Emily Dickinson’s
life background on the concept of death found in her poem entitled “Because I
Could Not Stop for Death”. In order to make this study easier to solve, it is
divided into sub problems, as follows:
1.
How
does her religious background give influence on her perception of death?
2.
How
does her past experience give contribution to her perception of death?
1.4
Objectives
of the Study
The main objective of this study is to discover the influences of Emily Dickinson’s
life background on the concept of death found in her poem “Because I Could Not
Stop for Death”. The main objective is expanded into two sub objectives, as
follows:
1.
To
describe whether her religious background give influence to her perception of
death.
2.
To
describe whether her past experience give contribution to her perception of
death.
1.5
Significance
of the Study
This study is significant in the following way; first, it may open or
even change the readers view dealing with death, which is depicted as the most avoidable
scaring event. Second, this study is able to drive the readers to become more
aware and appreciate life before death come to us. Third, this study will give a
little contribution to the readers, especially the students in enjoying, understanding
and studying the literary work deeply, particularly poems. It is because
certain poems commonly give some important and worthy lessons to learn.
Finally, this study will motivate the students and the readers in general to do
further study on other aspects.
1.6
Outline
of the Report
This final project is presented in five chapters. Each chapter explains different
topics. Chapter I is Introduction, which explains general background of the
study, reasons for choosing the topic, statements of the problem, objectives of
the study, significance of the study, and outline of the study.
Chapter II presents Review of Related Literature, which comprises the general
information of Calvinism, Puritanism, and Transcendentalism, the concept of
death, background of Emily Dickinson and her poems, theory of biography and literary
interpretation. Next, Chapter III describes Method of Investigation. It
comprises the object of the study, type of the data and the steps of the
collecting data, and the procedure of analyzing data.
Chapter IV discusses The Influences of Emily Dickinson’s life background
on the Concept of Death found in her poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”.
This chapter contains the analysis of the poem, the concept of death found in
the poem, and the influences of Emily Dickinson’s life background on the
Concept of Death found in her poem. And the last chapter, Chapter V presents
Conclusions and Suggestions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aminuddin.1955.
Stilisistika Pengantar Memahami Bahasa Dalam Karya Sastra. Semarang:
IKIP Semarang Press.
Bal, M. et.
al. 1982. Pengantar Ilmu Sastra (Translated by Dick Hartoko). Jakarta:
PT Gramedia.
Barnet, S and
W. E. Cam. 2003. A Short Guide to Writing about Literature. New York: Longman
Bowden, H. W.
----. Puritanism. 1http://mb.soft.com/believe/txc/puritani.htm. Accesed
on March 9th 2006
Chatman, S.
1968. An Introduction to the Language of Poetry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company.
Crawford,
B.V. et. al. 1953. American Literature. New York: Barnes&Noble Inc. Crumbley,
P. ---. Emily Dickinson’s Life.
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/
Accesed on January 21st 2006
Frederic, J.
T. 1988. English Poetry An Introduction Indonesian Students. Jakarta:
Departmen P
& K Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi Proyek Pengembangan Lembaga
Pendidikan Tenaga Kependidikan.
Fried, D.
1993. Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson. New York: Tom Doherty Associates,
LLC.
Hoyt, R. R.
2003. The Injustice of Universalism.
http://www.uuofscv.org/injustice-of-universalism.htm
Accesed on January 21st 2006.
Humphreys, F.
2005. Calvinism and Theology Today.
http://www.mercer.edu/baptiststudies/conferences/humphreys2005/calvinis
m.htm Accesed on January 21st 2006.
Martini, M.
1994. Penelitian Terapan. Yogyakarta: Gadjahmada University Press.
Untuk mendapatkan file skripsi /
Thesis / PTK / PTS lengkap (Ms.Word),
hubungi : 081 567 745 700
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar