THE AGGRESSIVE JACK TORRANCE IN THE SHINING BY STEPHEN KING: A PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This thesis with a title The Aggressive Jack Torrance in The Shining by Stephen King: A Psychological Analysis. This thesis is a literature study of with the help of psychological theory as a tool to examine the story. Wellek and Warren (1949) opinion about the connection of psychology and literature is the foundation of this thesis. According to their opinion, there is a connection between two of the study. Literature and Psychology analyze human being as their subject of study. The theories that writer borrows from psychology discipline are: Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of needs that divide human needs into class. This needs have to be fulfilled in order to function properly as a human being. Second theory in this thesis is Stress and Coping which explains the definition of stress according to Lazarus and Folkman. The last theory is Frustration-Aggression by John Dollard that describes the aggressive reaction of a frustrated person that cannot attain their goal. There are three research questions that this thesis explain, which are: what happens to Jack Torrance according to psychological theory?, what is Jack Torrance's main source of frustration in the story?, and what is the example of Jack Torrance's aggressiveness? This thesis uses qualitative method. Data of this research is from the novel and the film. Several books have a purpose as references to analyze the data and support this research. In collecting data, the writer uses the technique of reading the book and watching the film repeatedly to find out the contents of the story. The result of this study is, the writer learn what happen to Jack Torrance character in The Shining with the aid of psychological theory. The conclusion from this thesis is Jack Torrance can not fulfills his needs to function properly as a human being. Jack Torrance can not acomplish his goals in life, which make him stress because it pressures and frustrates him. This frustration, turns into aggression that Jack Torrance take out to the closest people to him, which is his family, Wendy and Danny. Jack Torrance main source of frustration is his dilemma. He has to choose whether he should be a good husband and father or be a loyal hotel caretaker. Should he take his son to come down into Sidewinder or should he take care of Overlook Hotel, and keep his family at Overlook without medical assistance for his son. Jack Torrance aggressiveness towards his wife and son is the same as the theory according to Dollard and Miller opinion, a man will be frustrated if he cannot fulfill his needs or acomplish his goal. A frustrated man will behave aggressively towards another object or another human to release his anger. This target shall be someone who very close to him. Jack Torrance's frustration toward Ullman because he brings up about his past, that is why Jack is mad at Ulman and become more aggressive toward him. Jack Torrance's frustration toward George Hatfield is because of Jack is jealous of him. It is because George has everything Jack ever dreamt of. And when George cut Jack's tire...