Janie’s Quest For True Love In Her Marriages As Reflected In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (Psychological Approach)

Oleh :
Dinar Eka Sari - C1311007 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

The purpose of this research is to explain Janie’s process in finding her true love in her marriages. Janie experiences three times of marriages before she finds her true love. When she was sixteen years old, Janie has idea of love like the relationship between a peer tree and bees in blossom. However, Janie does not find the ideal marriage that she hopes in her first and second marriages. In her first and second marriages, she gets all dreams within a marriage in general, such as a social status, position, and wealth. Nevertheless, Janie does not feel happy at all. She is not given the opportunity to express her own desires. She merely wants to be loved, respected, and given attention as a wife. This research employs psychological approach to answer the problem statement. This research uses seven types of love by Robert Sternberg to explain each characteristic of love that Janie has faced before she finds her true love. Then, this research discusses in detail the process in finding a true love by using the theory of love by Scott Peck. Next, this research also combines theory of personality by Carl Rogers. By using this theory, entitled Fully Functioning Person, Janie does not only follow her desire for a moment, but also is able to find a true love. She finds true love in linear with the development of spiritual growth as a mature woman. This thesis is descriptive qualitative library research. The data is divided into two kinds. They are main data and secondary data. The first one is taken from the novel of Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. The second one is taken from the other sources outside the novel such as criticism, articles, and essays of the novel. The analysis of the data shows that Janie’s process in finding her true love is divided into five steps; the ideal love of Janie, Nanny’s minds beyond true love, empty love with Logan Killicks, companionate love with Joe Starks, and perfect love or true love with Tea Cake. The conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis is that Janie finally finds her true love in her last marriage to Tea Cake. Although Tea Cake gone from her life, Janie still feels complete with Tea Cake’s memory in her heart. The point is, she is not only gets her true love but also experience spiritual growth in her life, she become more a mature woman.