A
STUDY OF NEUROTIC FEAR IN
EUGENE O'NEILL'S THE EMPEROR JONES:
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH
EUGENE O'NEILL'S THE EMPEROR JONES:
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH
CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
A.
Background
of the Research
Reading literature means to gain new insight and
experience of life. By doing so, sometimes it is difficult to be understood
because it portrays human life and activity through imagination. However, reading
literature needs individual's experience to take part and involve him or her in
what is happening in literature. As the result, individual gets pleasure and
gains both new insight and experience of life easily, presented by literature.
Literature covers all written materials, such as
novel, poems, plays, history books, philosophical works, scientific articles,
magazine, and newspaper. It is too broad because it includes many things. Jones
(1968: 1) states that these written materials are divided into two, informative
literature and imaginative literature. The former presents information which
deals with facts, explanations, and history of real people. The latter deals
with entertainment, such as thoughts and feelings.
Play or drama is one of the imaginative literatures.
It expresses the writer's thoughts and feelings in relation to life and human
activity. Being a member of society, the writer always finds many problems that
occur in his surrounding. On the other hand, sometimes, he also finds himself
in his own problems of life. Viewing both society problems and his personal
problems inspires him to take account them into a valuable work through
literature, such as drama or play. In short, drama or play as one of literary
works is a kind of creative media to show off his social sensitivity, dealing
with his thoughts and feelings toward the problem exposed in relation to human
life and activity.
One of the famous American playwrights and writers was
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953). He was the twentieth century playwright, bringing
about revolution in American Drama from 1916 to 1924, that basically dealt with
tragedy of the major character. During his career, he produced many literary
works, both good plays and bad. His notable works includes The Emperor Jones
(1920), The Hairy Ape (1921), Desire Under Elactra (1924), The Great God Brown
(1925), Mourning Becomes Electra (1929-1931), The Touch of The Poet
(1935-1942), and A Moon for The Misbegotten (1941-1943). Whereas, his
failures are Gold (1920), The First Man (1921), The Fountain (1920-1921), welded
(1922-1923), Lazarus Laughed (1925-1926), Dynamo (1928), and Days Without End
(1932-1933). The most interesting in O'Neill's works both good plays and
bad is about personal problems - contradiction in himself and conflicts in his
life (The Encyclopedia of Americana, 1978:736}. Fundamentally, his works mainly
were psychological.
He enriched his
art by an understanding of the new psychology - not simply Freudianism, but the
enlarged awareness of all conscious and subconscious realities.
(Bradley etal., 1962: 1115)
His notable work, The Emperor Jones is
expressionistic drama written by Eugene O'Neill in 1920. The Emperor Jones reflects
his experience in seeking expedition on gold in Honduras, but he did not Let
it. Nevertheless, he found the impression of black and frightening forest. The
Emperor Jones is simple and meaningful story dealing with a black man who
has rich experiences of fear under impact of ritual ceremony. Besides, it
presents the history of black race, such as the appearance of slave auction in
the nineteenth century. It is clarified in the play as follows:
All are dressed
in Southern costumes of the period of the fifties of the last century. They are
middle-aged men who are evidently well-to-do planters. There is one spruce,
authoritative individual - the AUCTIONEER. There is a crowd spectators, chiefly
young belles and dandies who have come to the slave for diversion.
(The Emperor Jones, Scene Five, p.
39)
The Emperor Jones describes mainly fear
undergone by the main character, Brutus Jones. He experiences neurotic fear
because of conducting something wrong morally in order to fulfil his desires of
life. It happens in the jungles of West Indies island where a former Pullman porter
and a murderer, Brutus Jones dominates the primitive black natives of the
island by proclaiming himself to be the emperor. Assisted by the Cockney
trader, Smithers, Jones rules the island in arrogant way. Being arrogant
emperor makes the natives revolt on him by holding ritual ceremony or tom-tom -
the beating drums to invite the ghost against him. He escapes from the island
after Smithers has told him that the natives set rebellion on him. Then, his
neurotic fear appears in the forest where he meets up with the ghosts as the
victims of his crimes and his past life. Finally, it causes his death.
Fear a close resemblance to anxiety is a kind of
threatened and overwhelmed feeling. The appearance of fear relates to
individual's bad behavior as the result of the conflicts that arise amona
his structures of personality. In psychoanalysis theory, behavior is the result
of the struggles and the compromises among motives, drives, needs and conflicts
or process of personality. The structures of personality such as id, ego and
superego are the main three-basis of Freud's psychoanalysis theory of
personality which influence and lead to individual's behavior. Further the
discussion about how personality influences behavior in accordance with the
appearance of neurotic fear is appropriate to be viewed from psychoanalytic
perspective.
The illustration above deals with the problem exposed in
The Emperor Jones, namely neurotic fear. It mainly presents the major
character's fear from the beginning of the story until the end of the story.
Therefore, the writer is interested in conducting research on Eugene O'Neill's The
Emperor Jones, dealing with the major character's neurotic fear by using
psychoanalytic approach.
B.
Literature
Review
The student of Jember University, Isnureni Muji
Pangesti has analyzed the play, The Emperor Jones. Her research entitled
Fear Leading Failure as the Theme in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones emphasizes
on the theme of the play by discussing the cause and the effect of fear in the
connection to the theme of the play.
Further, there is no student of Muhammadiyah
University of Surakarta who has analyzed The Emperor Jones. Finally, the
writer will analyze it especially focussing on the appearance of neurotic fear
as the consequence of the major character's behavior by using psychoanalytic
perspective.
C.
Problem
Statement
The problem exposed in this study is as follows:
How does the personality influence behavior in accordance with the
ppearance of neurotic fear?
D.
Objective
of the Research
The objective of the research is as follows:
1.
To
analyze the structures of Jones' personality from psychoanalytic perspective
2.
To
analyze ego defense mechanisms in accordance with the appearance of neurotic
fear.
E.
Benefit
of the Research
The benefit of the research deals with:
1.
Theoretical
benefit is to improve the knowledge in studying literature and give
contribution to another researchers who are interested in conducting research
on The Emperor Jones.
2.
Practical
benefit to fulfil requirement for getting Bachelor of Education in English
Department.
F.
Research
Method
In this study, the writer uses qualitative research
1.
Research object
The object of the research is the major character of The Emperor
Jones.
2.
Data
sources
There are two kinds of data sources namely primary data
sources and secondary data sources
a. Primary data sources
The primary data sources are the data
taken from the text of The Emperor Jones. It covers such things as
words, phrases, sentences, dialogues in the play.
b. Secondary data sources
The secondary data sources are the
data taken from some materials selected in relation with the problem exposed
such as criticisms on Eugene O'Neill's works and theories of
psychoanalytic approach.
3.
Method
of data collection
The method used for collecting the data is library research
by collecting and selecting both the primary data source and the secondary data
sources.
4.
Technique
of data analysis
The technique of analyzing the data is descriptive. It
describes the conflicts that arise among the structures of major character's
personality and that account for his bad behavior in accordance with the
appearance of neurotic fear in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones by
using psychoanalytic approach.
G.
Paper
Organization
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter I is
introduction dealing with background of the research, literature review,
problem statement, objective of the research, benefit of the research, research
method and paper organization. Chapter II presents the underlying theory
explaining the assumption of psychoanalytic approach used to analyze the play.
Chapter III deals with the structural elements of play consisting of character,
characterization, plot, setting, and theme. Chapter IV concerns the analysis of
psychoanalytic approach toward the appearance or neurotic fear. Chapter V is
the conclusion and the suggestion of the research.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Encyclopedia Britannica.
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Http://www/cyber essay.com/English/127.htm,
Tuesday, May 21, 2002.
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