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Determinism in The Phantom of the Opera

ERIK’S DETERMINISM IN GASTON LEROUX THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

AMANDA PUSPITASARI

English Literature

Faculty of Languages and Arts

State University of Surabaya

08020154222amanda@gmail.com

Mamik Tri Wedawati, SS., M.Pd.

NIP. 198205082006042001

English Literature

Faculty of Languages and Arts

State University of Surabaya

mamikunesa@gmail.com

Abstrak

Setiap manusia memiliki sifat karakter atau kepribadian yang berbeda-beda. Dengan kata lain, setiap orang mempunyai keunikannya sendiri. Setiap keunikan tersebut dapat terbentuk dengan cara-cara dan faktor-faktor yang berbeda, dan itu disebut determinisme. Penelitian ini difokuskan pada determinisme dari novel The Phantom of the Opera oleh Gaston Leroux. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah menganalisis bagaimana kepribadian seseorang dapat ditentukan baik oleh kekuatan internal atau eksternal dan faktor penyebab apa saja yang mempengaruhi determinisme seseorang. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode data deskriptif-qualitatif dengan pendekatan konsep determinisme menurut David Hume untuk menunjukan determinisme seseorang dan sebagai tambahan konsep kepribadian menurut Larsen & Buss. Hasil penelitian ini mengungkapkan, (1) refleksi dari determinisme yang dialami Erik, pemeran utama dalam novel yang ditinjau dari pendekatan determinisme adalah perlakuan dari orang tua, orang-orang sekitar, dan lingkungan dapat mempengaruhi karakter atau kepribadian seseorang. dan (2) penyebab determinisme Erik adalah penolakan dari orang tuanya akibat keburuk rupaan Erik, perlakuan orang-orang sekitar Erik yang membuatnya tidak mengenal kebaikan, serta kasih sayang Christine (wanita yang dicintai Erik) yang membuat Erik melepaskan segala sesuatu.



Kata kunci : determinisme, kepribadian, keunikan, kasih sayang, melepaskan.

Abstract

Every human being has the different character or personality. In other words, everyone has their own uniqueness. Each of the uniqueness can be formed in the different ways and factors, and it is called determinism. This study focused on the determinism of the novel The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. The purpose of this study is to analyze how the personality of a person can be determined either by internal or external force and the factorsof causes which can influence a person’s determinism. This study uses research methode of descriptive-qualitative with an approach of determinism concept by David Hume to show someone determinism and in addition the concept of personality by Larsen and Buss. The result of this study revealed that (1) the reflection of determinism whic is experienced by Erik, as the main character in the novel in terms of determinism approach are the treatment of his parent, people around him, and the environment can affect a person's character or personality, and (2) the causes of determinism Erik are rejection from his parents due to the ugliness of Erik, treatment of people around Erik who made him does not know the goodness, and Christine’s affection (the woman who is Erik loved) which makes Erik relinquish everything.



Keywords: determinism, personality, uniqueness, affection, relinquish

INTRODUCTION


Works of literature describe in the guise of fiction the dense specificity of personal experience, which is always unique, because each of us has a slightly or very different personal history, modifying every new experience we have; and the creation of literary texts recapitulates this uniqueness ...” (Lodge, 2002:10-11). Literature which intertwines within such fields as history, philosophy, sociology, psychology and so on is a discipline wherein language is used as a medium of expression so as to interpret man, existence and culture, personality and individual differences which have always been studied and discussed by writers, philosophers, artists, psychologists and psychiatrists.

According to Schultz and Schultz (2005), everybody has one personality and theirs will help determine the limits of success, happiness, and fulfillment in human life. Human personality is one of the most important assets. It has already helped shape human life and will continue to do so in the future.

Beside of that, features of personality make people different from one another, and these features usually take the form of adjectives. Someone use to speak about a particular person, such as John is lazy and unreliable, Mary is optimistic, and Fred is anxiety-ridden. Adjectives that can be used to describe characteristics of people are calledtrait descriptive adjectives”. There are more than 20,000 such trait-descriptive adjectives in the English language. This astonishing fact alone tells people that, in everyday life, there are compelling reasons for trying to understand and describe the nature of those people interact with, as well as compelling reasons for trying to understand and describe ourselves (Larsen and Buss, 2009).

Schultz and Schultz said that personality may also include the idea of human uniqueness. The approaches see similarities among people, yet we sense that each of human possesses special properties that distinguish them from all others. Thus, they may suggest that personality is an enduring and unique cluster of characteristics that may change in response to different situations. Based on those, there is a human uniqueness which is possessed by every human being. Because of it, the uniqueness or the difference of human personality is caused by many things. In another word, there are some of the influences which shape human personality. And for this case, it is called determinism.

Determinism is the belief that everything in the universe including all human actions and choices has a cause. Thus all events are causally determined and theoretically predictable; you just need to know the effect of the causes. Freud held a deterministic view: virtually everything people do, think, and dream is predetermined by the life and death instincts, the inaccessible and invisible forces within them. People adult personality is determined by interactions that occurred before they were five years old, at a time when people had limited control. These experiences forever hold them in their grip. Murray argued that personality is determined by our needs and by the environment. He accorded human some free will in their capacity to change and to grow. Each person is unique, but there are also similarities in the personalities of all of them. In addition, Murray believed they are shaped by their inherited attributes and by their environment; each is of roughly equal influence. People cannot understand the human personality unless we accept the impact of the physiological forces and the stimuli in our physical, social, and cultural environments (Schultz and Schultz, 2005).

In other hand, the determinants of someone’s personality remain a debate for centuries among theorists. Therefore, determinism is very important to be discussed. Because, everybody will know about how the someone’s personality is created. And for this case, it can make everybody understand about one’s condition.

There is one of the authors, Gaston Leroux who reflects the determinism through his novels. In some of his works are depict the determinism value. He wants to show through his works about the person’s condition which is caused by something. He wants to everybody know and understand and nonjudgemental about person’s personality or condition. And one of his works which is the most prominent is in the novel The Phantom of the Opera.

The Phantom of The Opera is a Novel by French writer, Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialization in Le Gaulois from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910. It is overshadowed by the success of its various film and stage adaption. The Phantom of the Opera” was inspired by a corpse that Leroux chanced upon in the catacombs of the Opera House in Paris while working on a story about the prisoners of the Paris Commune held there. The expansive underground structures beneath the Paris Opera House, kindled his imagination, and Leroux was able to unleash a passionate tale of misguided and unrequited love.

Therefore, this study concerns about the uniqueness personality of Erik as the phantom. It to gain some understanding of his character or personality which can influenced by many things. It also to gain the deeper knowledge about the causes of one’s personality. So that, the analysis on Erik’s personality is done from the point of view determinism theory.

Based on those things above, there are problems that will be discussed. The first, how is Erik’s determination reflected in Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera? The second, What are the causes of Erik’s determination in Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera?

From observing the problem above, there are two purposes as the result. Firstly, to describe how Erik’s determination reflected in Gaston Leurox’s The Phantom of the Opera. Secondly, to reveal the causes of Erik’s determination in Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera.

This study will help the readers to know that someone’s behaviour and personality can be influnced by many things outside that person. Hopefully, the reader will get the knowledge about determinism which are portrayed in the The Phantom of the Opera novel series, and will be inspired about how to understand and not to be negative thinking toward the personality of the other people since there could be reasons behind it.

To avoid wide analysis in this study, theory and concept are applied in the limitation of study. This study concerns the personality of Erik, how his personality was formed by his physical condition, childhood and past experiences, skills, and environment. Therefore, this study will analyze the determinism of Erik’s personality.

Thus, to keep it in focus, this study will limited only on the the analysis of the personality of erik behind his mask which is formed by determinism in Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of The Opera.

The study of “Erik’s Determinism In Gaston Leroux The Phantom Of The Opera” uses a novel entitled The Phantom Of The Opera written by Gaston Leroux which was first published in France in 1909 as serialized in newspaper La Gaulois. It is translated by Stefanny Irawan and republished in 1910 as the novel for the main source of this study. And the data collection is taken from the library research and the novel The Phantom of the Opera including quotations, phrases, dialogues, monologoues, epilogue, action mind, and atittude that reflect the determinism idea. Beside of that, to analyze the causes and Erik’s determinism, this study is using theory of determinism by David Hume. In addition, it is using the definition and the factors of personality by Larsen and Buss.


METHOD

Personality derives from the Latin word “persona”, which refers to a mask used by actors in a play. It is easy to see how persona came to refer to outward appearance, the public face eveerybody display to the people around them. Based on its derivation, then, they might conclude that personality refers to someone external and visible characteristics, those aspects that other people can see. The personality would then be defined in terms of the impression make on others—that is, what it appear to be. One definition of personality in a standard dictionary agrees with this reasoning. It states that personality is the visible aspect of one’s character, as it impresses others (Schultz and Schultz, 2005). Larsen and Buss (2009) define personality as a set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to, the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments.

In the definition of personality, an emphasis on the influential forces of personality means that personality traits and mechanisms can have an effect on human’s lives. Personality influences how the human act, how to view theirselves, how to think about the world, how to interact with others, how to feel, how to select the environments (particularly the social environment), what goals and desires the pursue in life, and how to react to the circumstances. Humans are not passive beings merely responding to external forces. Rather, personality plays a key role in affecting how they shape their lives. It is in this sense that personality traits are thought of as forces that influence how to think, act, and feel.

Human’s interactions with environment is a feature of personality that is perhaps the most difficult to describe, because the nature of person–environment interactions complex. However, it is sufficient to note that interactions with situations include: perceptions, selections, evocations, and manipulations.

Firstly, perception refers to how to see, or interpret, an environment. Two people may be exposed to the same objective event, yet what they pay attention to and how they interpret the event may be very different. And this difference is a function of their personalities. For example, a stranger may smile at someone on the street; one person might perceive the smile as a smirk, whereas another person might perceive the smile as a friendly gesture. It is the same smile, yet how people interpret such objective situations can be determined by their personalities.

Secondly, selection describes the manner in which people choose situations to enter—how to choose the options in one’s life. And how to go about making these selections is, at least in part, a reflection of the personalities. How to use the free time is especially a reflection of the traits. One person may take up the hobby of parachute jumping, whereas another may prefer to spend time quietly gardening. Everybody select from what life offers them, and such choices are a function of personality.

Thirdly, evocations are the reactions the people produce in others, often quite unintentionally. To some extent, everybody create the social environment that they inhabit. A child with a high activity level, for example, may evoke in parents attempts to constrain the child, eventhough these attempts are not intended or desired by the child. A person who is physically large may evoke feelings of intimidation in others, even if intimidation is not the goal. The evocative interactions are also essential features of the personalities.

Lastly, manipulations are the ways in which one intentionally attempts to influence others. Someone who is anxious or frightened easily may try to influence the group he or she is a part of to avoid scary movies or risky activities. Someone who is highly conscientious may insist that everyone follow the rules. Or a man who is very neat and orderly may insist that his wife pick up her things and help with daily cleaning. The ways in which attempt to manipulate the behavior, thoughts, and feelings of others are essential features of the personalities. All of these forms of interaction— perceptions, selections, evocations, and manipulations—are central to understanding the connections between the personalities of people and the nature of the environments they inhabit.

An emphasis on adaptation conveys the notion that a central feature of personality concerns adaptive functioning—accomplishing goals, coping, adjusting, and dealing with the challenges and problems someone face as someone go through life. Few things are more obvious about human behavior than the fact that it is goal-directed, functional, and purposeful. By knowing the adaptive consequences of such disordered behavior patterns, the researcher begin to understand some of the functional properties of normal personality. Although psychologists’ knowledge of the adaptive functions of personality traits and mechanisms is currently limited, it remains a challenging and indispensable key to understanding the nature of human personality.

The social environment poses adaptive challenges. Everybody may desire greater emotional closeness with the significant others, but it may not be immediately clear how to achieve this closeness. The ways in which cope with the social environment—the challenges the encounter in our struggle for belongingness, love, and esteem from others—is central to an understanding of personality. The particular aspect of the environment that is important at any moment intime is frequently determined by personality. From among the potentially infinite dimensions of the environments we inhabit, our “effective environment” represents only the small subset of features that the psychological mechanisms direct someone to attend and respond to.

In addition to physical and social environments, everybody has an intrapsychic environment. Intrapsychic means “within the mind.” Everybody has memories, dreams, desires, fantasies, and a collection of private experiences that to live with each day. This intrapsychic environment, although not as objectively verifiable as the social or physical environment, is nevertheless real to each of person and makes up an important part of the psychological reality. For example, the self-esteem—how good or bad to feel about ourselves at any given moment—may depend on our assessment of the degree to which are succeeding in attaining our goals. Success at work and success at friendship may provide two different forms of success experience and, hence, form different intrapsychic memories. People are influenced by their memories of such experiences whenever they think about their own self-worth. The intrapsychic environment, no less than the physical and social environments, provides a critical context for understanding human personality.

Concept of Determinism

Determinism is when one’s behaviour is thought to be influenced by internal or external forces. Internal would be things like hormones and external forces would include the way you were brought up by your parents. Some researcher in psychology see the source of determinism as being outside the individual, a position known as environmental determinism. For example, Bandura (1961) showed that children with violent parents will in turn become violent parents through observation and imitation. Others see it from coming inside i.e., in the form of unconscious motivation or genetic determinism – biological determinism. E.g., high IQ has been related to the IGF2R gene.

Behaviorists are strong believers in determinism. They believe that our environment determines most of our behaviours. Someone repeat behaviour that is rewarded, and do not repeat behaviour that is not rewarded. Their most forthright and articulate spokesman has been B. F. Skinner. Concepts like “free will” and “motivation” are dismissed as illusions that disguise the real causes of human behavior. For Skinner (1971) these causes lay in the environment – more specifically in physical and psychological reinforces and punishments. It is only because we are not aware of the environmental causes of our own behavior or other people that we are tricked into believing in our ability to choose.

In Skinner’s scheme of things the person who commits a crime has no real choice. (S)he is propelled in this direction by environmental circumstances and a personal history, which makes breaking the law natural and inevitable. For the law-abiding an accumulation of reinforcers has the opposite effect. Having been rewarded for following rules in the past the individual does so in the future. There is no moral evaluation or even mental calculation involved. All behavior is under stimulus control.

Freud was also a believer in determinism. He argued that trivial phenomena such as missing an appointment calling somebody by the wrong name or humming a particular tune had definite causes within the individuals motivational system.

William James proposed the idea of soft determinism. He found that there was a need to distinguish between behaviours that are highly constrained by the situation and behaviours that are modestly constrained by the situation. For example a young boy may be made to apologise for swearing or risk punishment (highly constrained behaviour) or the boy may feel genuinely upset at causing an offence and therefore give an apology (modestly constrained behaviour).

The other main supporters of determinism are those who adopt a biological perspective. However for them it is internal, not external, forces that are the determining factor. According to sociobiology evolution governs the behavior of a species and genetic inheritance that of each individual within it. For example Bowlby (1969) states a child has an innate (i.e. inborn) need to attach to one main attachment figure (i.e. monotropy).
Beside of that, there are three theories of free will and determinism that you will need to be aware of:

Hard Determinism

According to Baron d’Holbach, hard determinist; what can call free will is simply a modification of the physical brain. Human necessarily seek to enhance/ensure their own existence. As natural beings, we are wholly subject to laws of nature. In this sense, forces independent of us create desires/drives in us that determine what we do. Holbach said that humans have no control whatsoever, no matter how much said humans believe they do. He explains that free will is a construct of the human mind and that all of our choices are determined by desire and necessity.

Based on those, hard determinism is the theory that human behaviour and actions are wholly determined by external factors, and therefore humans do not have genuine free will or ethical accountability. There are several different supporting views for this belief, which incorporates philosophical determinism, psychological determinism, theological determinism and scientific determinism. Therefore, hard determinism, environment, heredity, unconscious impulses, defense mechanisms, and other influences determine people to act the way they do; and because of that, they are not responsible for their actions. But if people are not free and thus responsible for their actions, then how can we be justified in holding people responsible? Perhaps, as the hard determinist suggests, we are justified in holding people responsible only in order to influence future behavior.

Soft Determinism

David Hume argues that determinism is true, and that the voluntary actions of human beings are every bit as necessary and determined as the motions of inanimate objects, and that this is not in any way a problem for their practices of holding people morally responsible for what they do. This position, which has been called "compatibilism" it will call "soft determinism."  It is the view that human actions are determined, but they can still be held responsible for their voluntary actions.  In making his case, Hume directs people to ordinary life.  This is very characteristic of Hume.  His idea is always to look to our ordinary practices, and to seek the practical implications of his views.

Based on those, soft determinism is the theory that human behaviour and actions are wholly determined by causal events, but human free will does exist when defined as the capacity to act according to one's nature (which is shaped by external factors such as heredity, society and upbringing). In another word, it is the view that human freedom and moral responsibility are far from being incompatible with determinism; rather determinism is incomprehensible without it.

Libertarianism

Libertarianism is the theory that humans do have genuine freedom to make a morally undetermined decision, although our behaviours may be partially determined by external factors. In another word, it is the view that when faced with the choice between right and wrong we do act as free agents. Generally libertarianists agree that the inanimate world is mechanistic and that the determining causal chain of reactions may even effect the animate, but they do not believe that human behaviour is wholly determined by external factors. For example, physiological and psychological conditions may dispose the kleptomaniac to steal, but when left alone in a shop no one can be certain that he will because he has the capacity to choose to do otherwise; and therefore has free will.
ANALYSIS

Erik’s Determinism

Determinism is internal or external influence in one’s behaviour or in another word one’s personality can be formed by many things. This section depicts Erik’s determinism as the main character in the novel Phantom of the Opera. Erik’s determinism has a complex experience in his life. There are some causal events which is influenced Erik’ behaviours and personality. He wants to live like everybody else behind his misfortune and his incredibility, but his environment and his experience in the past has made him become a terrible personality. Therefore, Eric’s behaviour and personality will be discussed in the first section.
Firstly, in The Phantom of The Opera, young Erik’s life details are described in the epilogue’s novel. They are revealed by the mysterious figure, known through most of the novel as The Persian or the Daroga who had been a local police chief in Persia. He mention that Erik’s childhood is rejected by his parent. Then, he do anything to fulfill his desire and curiosity.

He ran away at an early age from his father's house.

....as the "living corpse." He seems to have crossed the whole of Europe, from fair to fair, and to have completed his strange education as an artist and magician at the very fountain-head of art and magic, among the Gipsies. (Leroux:371)

According to Larsen and Buss, selection describes the manner in which we choose situations to enter. Based on this, Erik makes a choice to leave his house. He goes away and looks for something that he want to be. And then he meets and lives among the Gipsies who have education as an artist and magician. Because of that, he develops his skill as a magician and a great illusionist. For these skills Erik use them to outwit Christine, the one of singer in the opera house.

In a few weeks' time, I hardly knew myself when I sang. I was even frightened. I seemed to dread a sort of witchcraft behind it;

I did all that the voice asked.

"I had heard him for three months without seeing him. (Leroux:169)

Erik uses his illusion as an illusionist and a magician. Erik makes Christine trust him when Christine felt her voice turned into like one else. Erik also makes Christine do anything what he asks without know who the real of the voice (Erik) is. In other word, it is like hipnotic which can make christine obey all of Erik’s will.

He was seen at the fair of Nijni-Novgorod, where he displayed himself in all his hideous glory. He already sang as nobody on this earth had ever sung before; he practised ventriloquism and gave displays of legerdemain so extraordinary that the caravans returning to Asia talked about it during the whole length of their journey. (Leroux:372)

Secondly, when Erik was in Nijni-Novgorod, he also develops his singing ability and became a great ventriloquist. He also shows his unbeatable voice in the world and makes many people are amazed. Because of that, Erik use his beautiful voice to establish a closer relationship with Christine.

The first time I heard it, not only sang, but it spoke to me and answered my questions, that it was as beautiful as the voice of an angel.

and the man's voice replied that, yes, it was the Angel's voice, the voice which I was expecting and which my father had promised me.

..., the voice and I became great friends. It asked leave to give me lessons every day. I agreed and never failed to keep the appointment which it gave me in my dressing-room.

It said, `Wait and see: we shall astonish Paris!' And I waited and lived on in a sort of ecstatic dream (Leroux: 168, 169)

Manipulations are the ways in which one intentionally attempt to influence others. (Larsen and Buss, 2009). Based on this, Erik reassures christine that he is the angel of music, which had ever been told by Christine’s father when she was a child. After that, Christine only listen the Voice without the real body; she heard it from behind the wall in her dressing room. The Voice teaches Christine periodically in her dressing-room to be a great singer and become the only one margarita in the opera. Christine believe that Erik is the Angel of Music, because of his beautiful voice. But, in one time when they met for the first time in the cellar, she realized that actually Erik was a man. A man with the horrible face is behind the mask.

And the voice, the voice which I had recognized under the mask, was on its knees before me, WAS A MAN! And I began to cry. ... The man, still kneeling, must have understood the cause of my tears, for he said, `It is true, Christine!...I am not an Angel, nor a genius, nor a ghost...I am Erik!'"(Leroux:178)

When Christine knew who the real Erik is, she feel cheated because of it. For this case, it is shown that Erik’s manipulation is formed when he lived among the gipsies and then learn about illusion which has manipulation trick in everything.

"It is difficult not to cause him pain and yet to escape from him for good."

"You are right in that, Raoul, for certainly he will die of my flight." And she added in a dull voice, "But then it counts both ways... for we risk his killing us."

(Leroux:179)

Then, Christine feels horrible and scared with Erik, but she can not leave him. In another side, she also feels compassion about him. Erik does not let her go for leaving him, because Erik fall in love with Christine.

she herself used to ask him to amuse her by giving her a thrill. It was then that he introduced the sport of the Punjab lasso. No one knows better than he how to throw the Punjab lasso, for he is the king of stranglers even as he is the prince of conjurors. (Leorux:303)

being the most honest building conceivable, he soon turned it into a house of the very devil, where you could not utter a word but it was overheard or repeated by an echo. With his trap-doors…... He hit upon astonishing inventions. Of these, the most curious, horrible and dangerous was the so-called torture-chamber. (305)

Thirdly, all of them show that in Mazandran, Erik also finds many unusual discovery. Some of them are the architect ideas about create trap doors and the torture chamber, and the other is Punjab Lasso which is used to kill someone. There are, researchers who favor the overriding influence of genetic factors suggest that any personality change is independent of environmental factors. Based on that, Erik transformed into a law that must be obeyed in Mazandran, but also he is involved in a number of politically motivated of killings because of his discovery unusual which can get the sultan’s entertainment.

Fourthly, In other hand, for Erik’s architecture ability, he has the original idea on the subject of architecture and thought out a palace much as a conjuror contrives a trick-casket. And then he become a great architect who build the building for His Majesty which is able to move in it unseen and to disappear without a possibility of the trick's being discovered. After that, Erik continues his life in Asia where he entered the Sultan's employment. He creates many things in his architect skill too in there.

Erik who constructed all the famous trap-doors and secret chambers and mysterious strong-boxes, which were found at Yildiz-Kiosk after the last Turkish revolution. He also invented those automata, dressed like the Sultan and resembling the Sultan in all respects. Then, tired of his adventurous, formidable and monstrous life, he longed to be someone "like everybody else." And he became a contractor, like any ordinary contractor, building ordinary houses with ordinary bricks. He tendered for part of the foundations in the Opera. His estimate was accepted. (Leroux:374)


Erik feels tired to build the palace and wants to be like everybody else. Then, he become the ordinary contractor and live in the cellars of the Opera house which does he built. He uses his ability in architecture when he was in Mazandran to built the opera house.

All of the people have memories, dreams, desires, fantasies, and a collection of private experiences that they live with each day. This intrapsychic environment, although not as objectively verifiable as our social or physical environment, is nevertheless real to each of us and makes up an important part of our psychological reality (Larsen and Buss,2009). Based on these, Erik has memory about his parent rejection and he ran away from it. But he also has dreams and desire to get attention from many people and he want them to accept his existence with developing of his ability. Wherever he live when he was young, onething that can not be avoided is the formation of his personality. It is determined by his environment.

According to Baron d’Holbach, hard determinist; what can call free will is simply a modification of the physical brain. Human necessarily seek to enhance/ensure their own existence. As natural beings, we are wholly subject to laws of nature. In this sense, forces independent of us create desires/drives in us that determine what we do. Holbach said that humans have no control whatsoever, no matter how much said humans believe they do. He explains that free will is a construct of the human mind and that all of our choices are determined by desire and necessity. Based on those, in first some part are mentioned above showed that where and how Erik’s life when he was young can influence all of aspect in himself. What he want todo, what he want to choose, what he want to decide, and how he response about anythings are infuenced by many things in his experience or his environment.

Fifthly, in the opera house, Eric is called as the ghost in the opera house, because he is the mysterious person. Suddenly, he shows up and then rapidly he disappeared like a ghost. He made no noise in walking no one knowing how or where he is. It is because of his architect skill when he built the Opera house before. The ideas and the design of the opera house are taken and developed from his experience when he was in mazenderan and in Konstatinopel. So, they are make him be everywhere and know much of things like a ghost. Beside of that, Erik has a horrible appearance and many people are scared because of it. Daroga himself said that his full body was smelt of death and his horrible face is covered by mask.

"He is extraordinarily thin and his dress-coat hangs on a skeleton frame. His eyes are so deep that you can hardly see the fixed pupils. You just see two big black holes, as in a dead man's skull. His skin which is stretched across his bones like a drumhead, is not white, but a nasty yellow. His nose is so little worth talking about that you can't see it side-face; and THE ABSENCE of that nose is a horrible thing TO LOOK AT. All the hair he has is three or four long dark locks on his forehead and behind his ears."” (Leroux:20)
In the middle of the room was a canopy, from which hung curtains of red brocaded stuff, and, under the canopy, an open coffin. `That is where I sleep,' said Erik. `One has to get used to everything in life, even to eternity.' The sight upset me so much that I turned away my head.(Leroux:184)

Based on Larsen and Buss (2009), they said that personality traits and mechanisms can have an effect on people’s lives. It was shown in Erik behaviour. Erik gives some terrors to the managers of the opera house in a letter which are contains of some demands and threat. One of them is the managers must pay him twenty thousand francs a month, say two hundred and forty thousand francs a year. Beside of that, Box Five on the grand tier shall be placed at the disposal of the Opera ghost for every performance. Otherwise, a bad things will be happened when one of the conditions were not met.


The Causes of Eric’s Determinism

All actions are wholly governed by causes but there are two types of causes. Firstly, External Causes is lead to involuntary actions of compulsion, contrary to one's wishes or desires. Secondly, Internal Causes is lead to voluntary actions of free will, the results of one's own wishes or desires.

External Causes

Some approaches in psychology see the source of determinism as being outside the individual, a position known as environmental determinism. For example, Bandura (1961) showed that children with violent parents will in turn become violent parents through observation and imitation. Based on this, Erik was born with parents who could not accept erik’s physical condition. He never received his parent’s love in his child. He has not affection from his parents because of his horrible face and then he run away from them.

His ugliness was a subject of horror and terror to his parents.

Oh, mad Christine, who wanted to see me!...When my own father never saw me and when my mother, so as not to see me, made me a present of my first mask! (Leroux:188)

But I! I!...My mother, daroga, my poor, unhappy mother would never ...let me kiss her....She used to run away...and throw me my mask! ...Nor any other woman...ever, ever!... (Leroux:359)
For Skinner (1971) these causes lay in the environment – more specifically in physical and psychological reinforcers and punishments. It is only because we are not aware of the environmental causes of our own behavior or other people that we are tricked into believing in our ability to choose. Based on this statement, the environment can influence the one’s behaviour, too. Erik run away from his father’s house, and he met with the people who are accept him because of his skills in Mazenderan and Konstatinopel. His confidence is formed when he could show off all the miraculous ingenuity of his mind. And one of it is his architect skill. But in another side, when he was there he becomes a person who do not know which ones are good and which ones are not.

He was guilty of not a few horrors, for he seemed not to know the difference between good and evil. He took part calmly in a number of political assassinations; and he turned his diabolical inventive powers against the Emir of Afghanistan, who was at war with the Persian’s empire. The Shah took a liking to him.(Leroux:372)


An emphasis on adaptation conveys the notion that a central feature of personality concerns adaptive functioning—accomplishing goals, coping, adjusting, and dealing with the challenges and problems we face as we go through life. Few things are more obvious about human behavior than the fact that it is goal-directed, functional, and purposeful (Larsen and Buss, 2009). The emphasis on the adaptions of Erik in Persia makes him a person who does not know goodness.

When the Shah-in-Shah found himself the possessor of this gem, he ordered Erik's yellow eyes to be put out. But he reflected that, even when blind, Erik would still be able to build so remarkable a house for another sovereign; and also that, as long as Erik was alive, someone would know the secret of the wonderful palace. Erik's death was decided upon, together with that of all the laborers who had worked under his orders. (Leroux:373)


Erik’s devotion to the Shah and the Sultan are full of risk, hard, and terrible. Erik forced to run away after can build the extraordinary palace for Shah-in-Shah and Sultan. It is because Erik knows many things of the building and he is threatened to be killed. It is shown that the people around him (environment) are the people around him do not want to make friendship, but only wanted his ability. It make him feel more rejected by his environment, just Daroga who wants to be his friend and help him ran away from the murder. Therefore, he feel tired because of his formidable and monstrous life; after that he become the ordinary contractor like everybody else.

When he found himself in the cellars of the enormous playhouse, his artistic, fantastic, wizard nature resumed the upper hand. Besides, was he not as ugly as ever? He dreamed of creating for his own use a dwelling unknown to the rest of the earth, where he could hide from men's eyes for all time. (Leroux:374)

Psychic determinism refers to the psychoanalytic approach, which suggests that adult behaviour, or personality is predetermined by events in early childhood. Freud believed that the actual causes of our behaviour are unconscious and therefore hidden. Based on this, the environmental influence Erik’behaviour. Erik build the Opera house and find large cellar and bring out his artistic wizard nature. And then, he build his own house in the cellar for hiding himself from men’s eyes about his ugly face. His own parent could not accept his ugly face. It makes him think that everyone else also can not accept him just the way he is. And because of it, he build his own world in the cellar of the opera house. Around it he made trap-doors and torture-chamber which somebody can not enter the house easily, to the extent of killing someone.

Although Erik announced to me very solemnly that he had changed and that he had become the most virtuous of men SINCE HE WAS LOVED FOR HIMSELF--a sentence that, at first, perplexed me most terribly-- I could not help shuddering when I thought of the monster. His horrible, unparalleled and repulsive ugliness put him without the pale of humanity; and it often seemed to me that, for this reason, he no longer believed that he had any duty toward the human race. (Leroux:294)


Environmental determinism refers to the behaviourist approach whereby much of our behaviour is thought to be influenced by external (environmental) factors. In Skinner’s scheme of things the person who commits a crime has no real choice. Someone is propelled in this direction by environmental circumstances and a personal history, which makes breaking the law natural and inevitable. For the law-abiding an accumulation of reinforcers has the opposite effect. Having been rewarded for following rules in the past the individual does so in the future. There is no moral evaluation or even mental calculation involved. All behavior is under stimulus control. Based on this, it shown when the ugly of Erik is rejected by his parent and the people who only want his ability and involved the political assassination, it makes him a person who does not know love and kindness in his life.

Internal Causes

The first, Erik develops his skills to show in every one about his ability. He wants to everyone know about his existence by showing all of his skill. His parent’s rejection makes him wants to everybody else accept him with all of his genius and it can make him became over confident. Therefore, he also attracts attention of Shah-in-Shah in Mazenderan and then he is taken by Daroga to go there.

I have seen him at work in Persia, alas--is also, in certain respects, a regular child, vain and self-conceited, and there is nothing he loves so much, after astonishing people, as to prove all the really miraculous ingenuity of his mind.

(Leroux:290)
People who believe they have control over their lives are high in self-efficacy, have an internal locus of control, and are not characterized by learned helplessness (which involves lack of control). In Seligman’s terms, people who believe they are in control are optimistic rather than pessimistic. Based on these, eventhough Erik got rejection of his parent, he try to keep learning and develop himself. As the result, he is optimistic about the acceptance of many people because of his skills.

The second, Evocations are the reactions we produce in others, often quite unintentionally. To some extent, we create the social environment that we inhabit. It shown when Christine is fooled because Erik named himself as the angel of music. Erik evoke Christine’s confidence in him, eventhough he know that Christine feel scared in him but still give kindness of her.

Don Juan Triumphant is finished; and now I want to live like everybody else. I want to have a wife like everybody else and to take her out on Sundays. I have invented a mask that makes me look like anybody. People will not even turn round in the streets. You will be the happiest of women. And we will sing, all by ourselves, till we swoon away with delight. (Leroux:308)

Love me and you shall see! All I wanted was to be loved for myself. If you loved me I should be as gentle as a lamb; and you could do anything with me that you pleased." (Leroux:309)


Erik fall in love with Christine and wants Christine love him, too. He can do anything to make Christine happy if she will become his wife. He only wants to be like everybody else who has a loved wife; has normal life. Erik just wants to love and be loved. But he can not get all of it. And finally, he relinquish her because of her sincerity and her little affection for him which is not he get from his mother.

"Yes, daroga...I felt her tears flow on my forehead...on mine, mine!...They were soft...they were sweet!...They trickled under my mask...they mingled with my tears in my eyes...yes ...they flowed between my lips....Listen, daroga, listen to what I did....I tore off my mask so as not to lose one of her tears...and she did not run away!...And she did not die!... She remained alive, weeping over me, with me. We cried together! I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer!"(Leroux:360)


Erik only need love to make him be a good person with his extraordinary ability behind his ugly face. Erik restore the forty-thousand francs of his own accord. He no longer want it anymore. He has relinquished his marriage with Christine Daae. He has relinquised everything above the surface of the earth.

As the result, Erik’s personality have two type of the causes, external and internal causes. The external include that; rejection of his parents because of his horrible face that can not accept by his parent, the people arround him only want his ability, and the environment when he was young make him bad person. And for the internal cause are his parent rejection make him to develop his all ability to get his existence from many people outside. And also the christine’s affection which can make Erik relinquish everything.


As the result, young Erik grow in Mazenderan and Constantinople where his skills are developed in there and he become a self conceited child and there is nothing he loves so much after astonishing people as to prove all the really miraculous ingenuity of his mind. In another side, there is a free will which is influenced Erik’s behaviours, too. He built his own house in the cellar of the opera house and live there; and also he really love Christine but then he relinquish her, too.

Larsen and Buss said that personality influences how the human act, how to view theirselves, how to think about the world, how to interact with others, how to feel, how to select the environments (particularly the social environment), what goals and desires the pursue in life, and how to react to the circumstances. Humans are not passive beings merely responding to external forces. Rather, personality plays a key role in affecting how they shape their lives. It is in this sense that personality traits are thought of as forces that influence how to think, act, and feel. Based on those, Eric’s personality largerly is determined by many things such as rejection of his parents, live among the Gipsies, his experience in Mazandran or in Constantinople or in India. Beside of that, there are some decisions of Eric which is decided by his own will. In other word, there is also Erik’s free will in his several decision.

David Hume argues that determinism is true, and that the voluntary actions of human beings are every bit as necessary and determined as the motions of inanimate objects, and that this is not in any way a problem for their practices of holding people morally responsible for what they do. This position, which has been called "compatibilism" it will call "soft determinism."  It is the view that human actions are determined, but they can still be held responsible for their voluntary actions.  In making his case, Hume directs people to ordinary life.  This is very characteristic of Hume.  His idea is always to look to our ordinary practices, and to seek the practical implications of his views. Based on Hume’s argues, some parts of the second are mentioned above are showed that there are some Eric’s decision have the voluntary action with a responsibility. Erik’s personality is determined by everything as already mentioned. But in other side, he can be responsible of his voluntary action with relinquish what he wants to reach.
CONCLUSION

Based on the recent analysis of this study, the result can be conclude that Erik needed a love. Erik’s determinism was formed when he was child and young. There was some case could reflect Erik’s determinism. Firstly, the rejection of his parent made him ran away from his house. The outside, he looked for something that he could not get from his parent and he lived among the Gipsies. In there, he developed his skills in illusion and magic. Because of it, he became a great illusionist and magician. He used them to outwit Christine, a singer of the opera house. It was like a hipnotic which could make Christine trusted in him and obeyed all of all of Erik’s will.

Secondly, he also developed his beautiful voice and became the best of ventriloquist. He used it as a media to manipulated Christine. He confessed himself as the angel of music. He taught her periodically to be a great singer through behind the wall of her dressing room. Christine only listened his beautiful voice without knew who was the real Erik is. Erik did it because he wanted to more closer with her. And when Christine knew who Erik was, she felt affraid and horrible.

Thirdly, his unsual inventions when he was still in Mazandran, contained of cruelty elements, such as trap doors and torture chamber and Punjab lasso. Those things made him preferably by the Sultan. And it involved him in a political assasin. Fourthly, he also a gifted architect for Shah in Mazenderan. He built the palace where has its own merits and no one else knew except Erik and the Sultan. Therefore, he used his talent in the achitecture to built his own residence in the cellar of the opera house. It happened when he decided to became the ordinary contactor and then accepted an offer of the opera house development.

Fifthly, in the opera house, he decided to became the ghost. He used mask in his face to covered his horrible face. Sometime he appeared and sometime disappeared in everywhere. He did it so that the other people do not sass about him.

For the causes of Eric’s determinism, they were eksternal and internal causes. The external include that; rejection of his parents because of his horrible face that can not accept by his parent, the people arround him only want his ability, and the environment when he was young make him bad person. And for the internal cause are his parent rejection make him to develop his all ability to get his existence from many people outside. And also the christine’s affection which can make Erik relinquish everything.
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http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/Notes/96class4.html


http://www.studymode.com/essays/Determinism-316801.html

http://www.simplypsychology.org/freewill-determinism.html



http://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_determinism.html





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