CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Literature has been a part of human being life. In every occasion,
literature has been heard during the study. There are some definitions
concerned about literature. Those are a broad and a narrow ones. The broad
definition incorporates everything that has been written down in some form or
another. While the narrow definition is to demarcate literary texts from nonliterary

texts

(adapted

from

http://www.anglistik.uni-

freiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/Basic01.htm#Spec accessed on 14 June

2006). According to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia literature gives order to
human experience, explores cultural values and demands an emotional
response from the reader (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/literarytheory accesed
on 12 July 2006). Other statement is literature is words artfully arranged to
stimulate feelings and impart understanding (http://web.cocc.edu/lisal/literary
terms/elements of literature.htm accessed on 12 July 2006).

Therefore,

it

can be stated that literature is the exploitation of words.

One of literature branches is dramatic poetry or play. Dramatic poetry
does not rely quite so much on words because there is included action, a plot
and human characters. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia drama is
a

literary

form

involving

parts

written

for

actors

to

perform

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama accessed on 5 June 2006). Recently,

dramatic poetry has become the film or the play but most people prefer to
enjoy drama in the form of the film.
During the Elizabethan period, the outstanding writers have been born
with the greatest works ever had. Some of them are William Shakespeare,
Marlowe, Hollinshed, John Lily and many others. Shakespeare is the famous
greatest poet and dramatist has ever lived. His plays have been read and acted
in many languages and studied in schools and colleges, recorded by
outstanding actors and actresses and made into highly succesful motion
pictures. Some of his well-known plays are Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet,
Antony and Cleopatra.
Antony and Cleopatra gives the way to a fine excess of language, of
dramatic action and of individual behaviour. The style is hyperbolical, the
action is amazingly fluid, and the characterzation is correspondingly
extravagant, delighting in the quirks of individual behaviour. Above all in the
paradoxes and inconsistencies of the Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra, who contains
within herself the capacity for every extreme of feminine behaviour from
vanity, meaness and frivolity yet she loves Antony for her eternal love.
Therefore, Antony and Cleopatra is choosen especially on Cleopatras
character in order to show to the readers that despite her behaviour she is still
a woman who needs someone to lean on and gives anything that she has
including her love and she defends it by commiting suicide.

B. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The scientific writing requires the problem formulation to analyze the
drama Antony and Cleopatra. So the problems are formulated as follows:
1. What is the character of Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra?
2. How is Cleopatras character related to feminism spirit reflection?

C. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

According to the problems of the study above, it is important to
determine the objectives of the study in order to be able to analyze the
problems easily. Therefore, the objectives of the study are formulated as
follows:
1. To describe Cleopatras character in Antony and Cleopatra.
2. To analyze Cleopatras character related to feminism spirit reflection.

D. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The result of the study will be useful for:
1. The students who want to make any literature analysis as the reference of
their study.
2. The readers particularly the students to improve their literary appreciation.
3. The readers to add their knowledge about woman feminism.

E. METHOD OF THE STUDY

The research basically from the extrinsic point of view approaching by
analysing the character of Cleopatra related to feminism spirit reflection.
While the method used in this research is Content Analysis based on
Library research as the valuable sources and can be combined with qualitative,
descriptive method and critiscm theories or literature appreciation.

F. DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

To make clearer about the terms that have been used in this research ,
therefore some explanation will be provided as follows:
1. Feminism
According

to Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, feminism is a diverse

collection of social theories, political movements and moral philosophies

largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women, especially
in

terms

of

their

social,

political

and

economic

situations.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism accessed on 12 March 2006)

2. Spirit
According to Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, the English word spirit
comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. In religion and spirituality,
the respiration of the human being has for obvious reasons been strongly
linked with the very occurrence of life. A similar significance has been
attributed to human blood. Spirit has thus evolved to denote that which
separates a living body from a corpse. The term is also used

metaphorically with several related meanings: school spirit, for example,

meaning the social history of the institution and its collective essence or
esprit de corps, as synonym for vivacity as in She performed the piece
with spirit or She put up a spirited defence and as a term for alcoholic
beverages stemming from medieval superstitions that explained the effects
of alcohol as demonic activity. In other languages, the word for spirit is
often closely related, if not synonymous with mind. Examples include the
German, Geist (related to the English word ghost) or the French.
Iespirit. Hence, as well as denoting the presence of life, spirit implies
intelligence and sentience. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit accessed on
11 March 2006)
3. Reflection
According to Tony Ghaye and Sue Lilyman in Learning Journals and
Critical Incidents it is often initiated when the individual practitioner
encounters some problematic aspects of practise and attempts to make
sense of it. While Louden (1991) in the same source, describes in ordinary
language reflection as serious and sober thought at some distance from
action and has connotations similar to meditation and introspection. It
is a mental process which takes place out of the stream of action, looking
forward

or

usually

back

to

actions

that

have

taken

place.

(www.trainer.org.uk/members/theory/process/reflection.htm acccessed on
27 March 2006)

4. Character
The people in a narrative are called characters rather than persons to
emphasize the fact that they are only representations of people, constructed
by an author to fulfil a certain function in a certain context.
(http://www.anglistik.unifreiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/Character01.htm#Character accessed on
14 June 2006)