CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents introduction of the study which includes background of the
study, problem of the study, purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope and
limitation, assumption, theoretical frame work, definition of key terms, and organization
of the study.

1.1 Background of Study

Literature is, first of all, a creative work of art, and object that an artist makes. It
is not merely an idea, a theory, a system of thought, although ideas, theories, and system
of art enter into it. As an object made by an artist, it has two main purposes. First, a
creative of work expresses the truth of experience in terms of “beauty to be
contemplated.” Beauty is meant to be contemplated and, in this sense, a creative work
helps to meet human need for contemplation. Secondly, a creative work meets the
human necessity for a means of communicating ideas of intellectual and social
significance. In this sense, a creative work indicates what the artist thought, and also
through its generative power, it is the source of new ideas in the future, forming a living
tradition, (Grace, 1965:5)

Wellek and Waren (1956:94) state that literature represents life; and life is, in
large meaning, social reality even though natural world and subjective world of
individual have also been the objects of the literary ‘imitation’. Its function is not only
to entertain but also to enrich human knowledge of life. Such literary works are called
interpretative literature, it is written to broaden, deepen, and sharpen our awareness of
life.

Analyzing literature means analyzing human life such as experience, ideas,

motivation, emotion or expectation which is expressed in words. Therefore, if we read
literature deeply we will get not only entertainment but also knowledge about something
that the author wants to say in his work, and the idea can enlarge our point of view. In
other words, reading a literary work is important for human life. Reading good literature
will give the reader such description of life as happiness, sadness, right or wrong action,
and values.

Novel is a kind of literary work in the form of prose describing human life,
attitude, action, even representing history act, and has aim to entertain and inform.
Novel informs values and gives some fun to everyone who reads (Jones 1968:80).
Through novel the reader can get advantages for both educational and social life.
Moreover, it offers many values to the reader such as religious values, philosophical
values, and aesthetical values. Another value which exists in the novel is moral values..

In the novel, generally, moral values are stated into two ways; direct message
and indirect message, (Burhan, 1998: 335). Direct message means that moral values
which the author wants to teach through his work is stated or described directly; so that
reader can understand it easily without deeply thinking. It is as same as expository
writing. In this sense, the author seems teach, and motivate the reader directly. Indirect
message means that moral values which the author wants to teach to the reader is
described indirectly so that the reader has to read the book deeply, and have more
reflection through each event, conflict, dialogue in the novel. Through those all, the
author teaches moral values to readers.

The content of the novel consist of two elements, namely intrinsic and extrinsic
elements. The first deals with the structure of novel covering plot, setting, character, and
characterization (Razali, 2003:2). It means that novel is always constructed with those
components. The later, however, is concerned with the world outer of the literary
system. It might be the subjectivity of the author in his attitudes, religion, and way of
life (Razali: 2003: 2). In addition, it concerns with the world outside the authors, like
environment, custom, culture, and value, all of which exist beyond the author’s
subjectivity and the world outside the subjectivity will influence the content of the
authors’ novel.

In real life, moral values are needed to modify our behaviors in social situations.
It's about the doing of good instead of harm, and it sets some standard of virtuous
conduct. Morality is a system of "shared" values which "justify" actions among many
others, such as loyalty, justice, and promise- keeping (Chris MacDonald, Ph. D). With
those shared values human life in the society will be good. Interaction and relation each
other in the society will be good and effective.

That is why it is interesting to analyze moral values which some characters

depict in a novel. To reach the suitable material to this study, the writer chooses one of
Alexei Tolstoy’s works, especially The Lame Prince. The reason of choosing this work
is that there are some moral values might be appearing in it.

Alexei Tolstoy was a novelist, playwright, historian, and short story writer, a
former nobleman who immigrated to Western Europe after the Bolshevik Revolution.
He was born in Nikolaevsk (now Pugachyov), in Samara Province, into an aristocratic
family distantly related to Lev Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev. Until the age of 13, Tolstoi
was educated at home, then at a secondary school in Samara (1894-1901), and at St.
Petersburg Technological Institute (1901-08). His first literary experiments were born
under the influence of the Symbolist movement, but from poetry he soon turned to
prose. In 1907 Tolstoi published a collection of symbolist poems, Lirika. Among his
early works were some realistic short stories depicting his childhood. As a writer
Tolstoi made his breakthrough with a series of novels exploring the historical process of
the impoverishment of the nobility's country estates and the spiritual decline of their
owners.

The Lame Prince (1912) is one of novels that Alexei Tolstoy wrote. It was a
historical novel about the life of Russian small-country gentry at the beginning of the
twentieth century. The author's attention was focused at the time on problems of morals,
the questions of friendship and love. "Without love," the young Tolstoy wrote, "life is a
meaningless existence, and pitiable is the man, no matter what gifts of nature he is
surrounded with, whose heart has never felt the spark of love."It is worth while living to
love." By the lectern stands a beautiful girl, and beside her is a pale man weary of life,
the lame Prince Krasnopolsky.

The Lame Prince tells about Alexei Peptrovic’s life and love. He is the Prince of
Krasnopolsky, a small country in Russia. As the prince, his life is surrounded by a lot of
beautiful girls. There are some beautiful girls that he loves, but only one that makes him
falls in love deeply namely; Katya Volkova, the most beautiful woman in the Uyezd.
She is the daughter of Alexander Vademich. His dream to marry Katya comes true after
pass long time. He is happy because of their marriages. All the people also be happy
with them, they sing and dance. The wedding is over. They live together as husband and
wife. But life is just not like what they do. Katya and the prince lost their happiness.
The prospect of their life differ so greatly each other. Katya wants the prince’s pure love
as she does to him, but the prince does something out of their agreement: he goes to the
bar at night in the city and spends the night with other woman. Katya knows what her
husband does; her heart is broken but still stay in passion. One day Katya decides back
to her father’s house, leaves the prince alone in the city. She tells everything to her
father, and her father also angry of that. She passes the day in crying and prayer to the
lord in her father’s house. After long time waiting, her husband back to her. Katya
receives her husband with love and live together as husband and wife in happiness.

In the literary works there are some characters. It seems what the characters do
and say contain moral values. To prove whether there are some moral values in the
work or not research need to be done.

1.2 Problem of the Study

To know a comprehensive understanding of the moral values in The Lame
Prince by Alexei Tolstoy the writer proposes one problem is that what moral values
appear in “The Lame prince”?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purposes of this study based on the problems above is that to describe
the moral values appear in “The Lame prince”

1.4 Significance of the study

The result of the study are expected to give better understanding to people who
are interested in reading Alexei Tolstoy’s work and motivate people in reading a novel
and help to understand that literature acts are not only as a way of entertainment, but
also as a learning media to the future.
 Then, this study is also aimed to help other students who want to study more
deeply about moral values which are found in “The Lame Prince”, and this research can
be used as scientific document or as reference for the researchers.

1.5 Scope and Limitation

The scope of the study is the analysis of moral values found in The Lame Prince
by Alexei Tolstoy taken from the dialogues or description of the events. And the
limitation of the study is that the analysis use the writer’s own interpretation based on
the theories reviewed, hence the conclusion stated later is limited with this study.

1.6 Assumption
Literature contains moral through the acts and manner of the characters in the
story, (Burhan, 1998:321). From the statement above the writer assumes that there are
might be some moral values in “The Lame Prince” that the author want to teach
readers.

1.7 Theoretical Framework

Some theories are taken to support this study. At first, the theories propose
William J. Grace theories, which tell about moral value and the work of art, “art in
general perform a moral service”, (1965: 25). This statement describes that novel as the
work of art presents moral values to the reader and it bring the story into a good one.
The importance of literature in relation to life of the reader may be simply stated by
saying that literature concentrates our impression of certain areas of human experience,
(1965: 7).
Good literature always gives moral message to the reader to do right action. The
message is related to the general of universal human values that accepted all over the
world, (Burhan, 1998:321). It means that a good literary works tells to the reader the
right act based on norm. Therefore literary works can be facilitated of moral education.
In addition, Grace also explains that immorality sometimes rise in the work of
art. It rises from a misunderstanding about the art of conflict, but we should be careful
not to condemn a work of art as immoral because of its subject matter. The present of
evil does not in itself constitute immorality. An artist that mimesis of sin and evil in a
work of art implies that an artist approves of them or that he intends the reader to
approve of them. Immorality in a work of art becomes evident only when an artist
“glorifies” evil and suggests it as a suitable pattern for human conduct, (1965:25-26).

1.8 Definition of Key Terms

In other to avoid misunderstanding, the writer defined some key words that
related to the research.
Moral: Standard of behavior which is used to decide human’s right or wrong
attitude and act looked from their good or bad side, or standard behavior
which is used to measure one’s reliabilities in society.
Value: Goodness is occurred by action .
Moral Value: refers to the character action and condition that teach the reader
about goodness.
Ethics: A system of moral standard or values or human ethics of particular moral
standard of or values
Moral Message: A lesson learned from an event

1.9. Organization of the Study

This study is divided into five chapters, the first present’s introduction which
includes f background of the study, problem of the study, purpose of the study,
significance of the study, scope and limitation, assumption, theoretical framework,
definition of key terms, and organization of the study. The second chapter presents
review of related literature that discusses the theories that have relation with the study
that will be applied in the analysis. The third chapter discusses the way of the study that
contains the method of analysis to be applied in this study. The fourth chapter presents
the analysis and the result of the study. The last chapter presents the conclusion of the
study and offers some suggestion.