WOMAN’S CHOICE IN TRACY CHEVALIER’S GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

Abstract

This research analyzes the woman’s choice in Girl with a Pearl Earring. This novel tells about how woman is taking choice for her own life without any influence from the other to get her existence. This novel uses main female character named Griet as the narrator of the story. Griet is sixteen young girl who is later forced to be a maid by her mother and start her unfair life. Her problem solving and making decision refers her as the figure of postfeminism in this research. This research uses qualitative research method. The data are about the events in Girl with a Pearl Earring related to the construction of postfeminism, and the condition of woman in reality in the same era and setting related to the novel. In analyzing the woman’s choice in Girl with a Pearl Earring, I use Irigaray’s theory of postfeminism. Her theory gives understanding the form of femininity and language indirection. In order to fully understand I conduct this thesis starts with the general idea about characteristic of female characters in the novel, how woman is treated, and goes to specific idea about woman’s choice of main female character. This research aims to gain understanding about woman choice related to her condition, needs, and position in the society. The result of the research shows that the woman’s choice is an action of woman to show her independence and existence. Women in the novel are described to have a choice whether they decide to be in domestic place or show themselves in the public square, interacting with the society. In author’s narrative, woman also described her role as an active subject of her passivity, because whatever woman has decided for her life, she makes a choice in a full consciousness and it relates as a one way to be a postfeminist.