THE MOTIVATION OF MARÍA CONCEPCIÓN TO MURDER IN …

THE MOTIVATION OF MARÍA CONCEPCIÓN TO MURDER IN

“MARÍA CONCEPCIÓN”

BY KATHERINE ANNE PORTER

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

Mutiara Adeline Ary Timothy

Student Number : 134214039

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2018

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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THE MOTIVATION OF MARÍA CONCEPCIÓN TO MURDER IN

“MARÍA CONCEPCIÓN”

BY KATHERINE ANNE PORTER

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

Mutiara Adeline Ary Timothy

Student Number : 134214039

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2018


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For everything has its own time. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy

God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with

the right hand of my righteousness.” – Isaiah 41:10


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Dedicated to…

My beloved parents, sisters, and my love who give

me their hope and faith.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would thank God for His blessing, grace and guidance for me to

finish my study. Besides, I also thank God for making me believe that everything has

its own time.

My gratitude goes to my advisor, Maria Ananta Tri Suryandari, S.S., M.Ed., for

her guidance, patience, inspiration and attention for me during the writing process of

this thesis. My gratitude also goes to my co-advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.

Hum. , for his correction of my carelessness in writing my thesis. My deep gratitude

also goes to all of my English Letters lecturers, library staff and secretary staff who

have guided me during my process of my study.

My greatest gratitude also goes to my beloved family, mami, papi, ebben,

kukok and fefe for their unlimited love, support, and prayers. I also give thanks to my

beloved Bimo for accompanying, giving support, advising, and giving all of his love

and efforts in my happiness and sadness, and I thank him for letting me using his laptop

charger during my writing process of this thesis up to the end.

I will also grant my thanks to my best friends Retty, Dani, Alfin and Obbie and

Arum, Ayu, and Joy and also Team 12 for their helpfulness and friendship for all the

times.

May God bless you all abundantly!

Mutiara Adeline


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................................ii APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. ACCEPTANCE PAGE ..................................................................................................iii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................................... iv LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ............. Error! Bookmark not defined. MOTTO PAGE ............................................................................................................ vii DEDICATION PAGE ................................................................................................. viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ x ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. xii ABSTRAK .................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1

A. Background of the Study........................................................................................ 1

B. Problem Formulation ............................................................................................. 3

C. Objectives of the Study .......................................................................................... 4

D. Definition of terms ................................................................................................ 4

CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF LITERATURE ................................................................ 6

A. Review of Related Studies ..................................................................................... 6

B. Review of Related Theories ................................................................................... 9

1. Theory of Conflict ............................................................................................. 9

2. Theory of Motivation ....................................................................................... 12

3. Mexican Life ................................................................................................... 15

C. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................ 16

CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 17

A. Object of the Study.............................................................................................. 17

B. Approach of the Study ......................................................................................... 18

C. Method of the Study ............................................................................................ 19

CHAPTER IV : ANALYSIS ......................................................................................... 21

A. The Conflict of Maria Concepción........................................................................ 21

1. Conflict between Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas. ..................................... 22

2. Conflict between Maria Concepción with Maria Rosa’s image............................ 27

B. Maria Concepción’s motivation to murder ............................................................ 31


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CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION ................................................................................... 40

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 42


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ABSTRACT

Timothy, Mutiara Adeline Ary, The Motivation of María Concepción to Murder in

“María Concepción” by Katherine Anne Porter. Yogyakarta: Faculty of Letters,

English Letters Department, Sanata Dharma University, 2018.

This thesis discusses “María Concepción”, a short story by Katherine Anne

Porter, which was written in 1930 during her illness. It was firstly published in The

Century Magazine. This short story is about a woman named María Concepción who

murdered her husband’s mistress. She tries hard to fulfill her needs because of the

appearance of Maria Rosa, the mistress, in her marriage life. This discussion deals with

the motivation of María Concepción to murder Maria Rosa in order to fulfill her needs.

The aim of this study is to find out María Concepción’s motivation to murder

Maria Rosa. This study discusses 1) the conflicts found between María Concepción

and the other character, 2) and how the conflict can affect María Concepción’s

motivation to murder Maria Rosa.

In collecting the data, the researcher used library research method. The

researcher collected the data or the materials from written documents. Psychological

approach is used as the appropriate approach to analyze these problems. Firstly, the

theory applied is the theory of conflict. This theory is applied in order to analyze the

conflict appears in the short story. Second, the theories applied are the motivation

theory, because this theory is appropriate to analyze the second problem in this study.

The results of the discussion are: 1) There are two external conflicts between

man and man, the conflict between María Concepción and Juan Villegas and the

conflict between María Concepción with Maria Rosa’s image. 2) María Concepción’s

motivation to murder is influenced by the lack of some needs in her life. Her current

situation at that time also influenced her to feel afraid. It motivates her to murder Maria

Rosa. The disappearance of the image of Maria Rosa gives María Concepción

satisfaction and it can fulfill her basic needs.


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ABSTRAK

Timothy, Mutiara Adeline Ary, The Motivation of María Concepción to Murder in

“María Concepción” by Katherine Anne Porter. Yogyakarta: Fakultas Sastra,

Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2018.

Skripsi ini membahas tentang sebuah cerita pendek berjudul “María

Concepción” oleh Katherine Anne Porter yang ditulis saat beliau sedang sakit pada

tahun 1930. Cerita pendek ini pertama kali diterbitkan di Majalah The Century. Cerita

pendek ini menceritakan tentang seorang wanita yang bernama María Concepción yang

pada akhirnya membunuh wanita simpanan suaminya. Dia berjuang keras untuk

memenuhi kekurangan kebutuhan dasarnya yang disebabkan karena munculnya orang

ketiga dalam kehidupan pernikahannya. Studi ini berhubungan langsung dengan

motivasi María Concepción untuk membunuh Maria Rosa demi memenuhi

kebutuhannya.

Tujuan studi ini adalah untuk menemukan motivasi María Concepción untuk

membunuh Maria Rosa. Studi ini mendiskusikan 1) konflik-konflik antara María

Concepción dan karakter lain di dalam cerita, 2) dan bagaimana konflik tersebut

mempengaruhi motivasi María Concepción untuk membunuh Maria Rosa.

Dalam mengumpulkan data-data penulisan, peneliti menerapkan metode

pustaka. Peneliti mengumpulkan data-data atau materi-materi dari perpustakaan.

Pendekatan Psikologis digunakan sebagai pendekatan yang tepat untuk menganalisa

masalah-masalah yang ada. Pertama-tama, teori yang diaplikasikan adalah teori

konflik. Teori ini diterapkan dengan tujuan untuk menganalisa konflik yang muncul

dalam cerita pendek. Kedua, teori yang digunakan adalah teori motivasi. Teori ini

digunakan karena dirasa tepat untuk menganalisa masalah kedua yang terjadi didalam

studi ini.

Hasil-hasil dari pembahasan ini adalah: 1) Terdapat dua konflik eksternal antara

dua orang, konflik antara María Concepción dengan Juan Villegas dan konflik antara

María Concepción dengan sosok Maria Rosa. 2) Motivasi María Concepción untuk

membunuh dipengaruhi oleh kekurangan kebutuhan dasarnya. Situasi María

Concepción pada saat itu juga mempengaruhinya sehingga dia merasa takut sehingga

hal tersebut memotivasinya untuk membunuh Maria Rosa. Menghilangnya sosok

Maria Rosa juga memberi kepuasan kepada María Concepción dan hal tersebut bisa

memenuhi kebutuhan dasarnya.


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

As human beings, we are living in this world with so many choices. There

are so many options and we should to choose for an option. For some people, it is

hard for them to make a decision in their life. They are afraid and frightened to

make an error because of their decision. It can cause a conflict. Conflict is a

common thing that we met for many times during our life time. According to

Kalish, it happens because there are two or more opposing forces in an individual

that must be satisfied of one and deny the other in order to fulfill the needs

(1973:137).

Conflict also has an important role as one of the intrinsic elements in literary

works. In a short story or a novel, it drives the plot. So, conflict have an important

role as one of the intrinsic elements. According to Holman and Harmon, conflict is

defined as an involvement of two opposing forces, protagonist an antagonist, in a

plot (1986:107). The role of those opposing forces can cause conflict as seen in the

plot of some literary works.

Conflict itself happens because there is a purpose to fulfill human needs. It

is important for them to fulfill their own need in order to continue their life. There

are so many kinds of needs such as breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping, resting,

working, and etc. Some of those needs need to be fulfilled immediately and some


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are not. Even there is a conflict in the process of fulfillment, human still want to

fulfill their needs no matter what happen. They will do harder to satisfy their needs.

In the process of fulfillment, there is motive inside organism which arouses

and directs them to do many things in order to achieve their goals. It becomes a

trigger for human to act something in order to fulfill their needs and achieve their

goals. Motives are also referred as desires, wishes, plans, goals, intense, impulses

and purposes. It makes human has motivation and can decide what they should do

in the process of fulfillment. It drives human behavior. There is a basic question in

motives “why we do what we do”. The question means that sometimes human does

not understand why they can do certain things. Based on Aiken, through motives,

it can explain how it was inferred through human behavior (1969:110). So, through

motives, human behavior can be explained how it was inferred.

Because we are living in this world as a social creature, we cannot live

without other people. It makes us have to deal with living together with other people

and having relationship with them. It does not require any ages for having

relationship to one another. A relationship can be built by anyone, for many ages.

Kalish stated that in adult year, people are common for having a relationship

with other people in order to share their love and also receive love from others.

They need to fulfill their love needs. They need to be accepted by their society. It

begins with mutual respect, a strong feeling of affection, and have desire to be

together (1973:282).


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In this stage, conflict could happen between two adult whom in a love

relationship. It can happen between two mature adults that have opposite sex in

their love life. As mentioned by Kalish in his book, there are some problems such

as conflicts, loss of interest, a new man or woman, the strong feelings of love and

affection that do not last (1973:288). Those problems are common to happen in

love relationship.

In this undergraduate thesis, the work chosen to be analyzed is “María

Concepción” by Katherine Anne Porter. She is an American writer who wrote this

short story during her illness in 1930. The setting and background of the story is in

Mexico. Porter as the writer wants to tell the reader about the power of a woman

named María Concepción who is betrayed by her own husband, Juan Villegas, with

another young woman named, Maria Rosa. Everything has changed after she found

out that Juan is an unfaithful man. Juan left her while she was pregnant and decided

to go to the army with his mistress. Until one day María Concepción decided to

murder her enemy, Maria Rosa.

In this study, the researcher is going to find any conflict between Maria

Concepción and or other characters as seen in the short story. The researcher also

will analyze Maria Concepción motivation to murder her enemy.

B. Problem Formulation


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To analyze this short story, the researcher has two questions as the base of

the discussion in this undergraduate thesis, such as:

1. What are the conflicts found between Maria Concepción and other character

as seen in the short story?

2. How does the conflicts affect Maria Concepción’s motivation to murder

Maria Rosa?

C. Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to answer two questions as stated in the problem

formulation. There are some steps that the researcher will do to answer those

questions. First, the researcher will read the object of the study to understand

the story. Second, the researcher will analyze any event that causes conflict

between the main character, Maria Concepción, and other character as seen in

the short to reveal any conflict. The researcher will analyze the short story by

using theory of conflict. Third, through the conflict, the researcher will analyze

Maria Concepción’s motivation to murder Maria Rosa. The researcher’s aim is

to find Maria Concepción motivation to murder her enemy through any conflict

as seen in the short story.

D. Definition of terms

In this part, the researcher will give the definition of some terms in order

to clarify and reduce misunderstanding of the meaning of some words in this

undergraduate thesis. These terms are important due to the discussions in this

study.


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Conflict is the most important element of plot in literary works. Based

on Holman and Harmon, conflict is an involvement of two opposing forces

(protagonist and antagonist) in a plot (1986:107). Kalish also stated that conflict

can be happened when there are two or more needs in an individual that must

be satisfied of one and deny the other (1973:137). Conflict occurs and provokes

by how each person has different belief, concept, impression that lies in each

of them.

Motive is refer as desires, wishes, plans, goals, intense, impulses and

purposes as stated by Jung (1978:4). It is something that underlying human

behavior. Pettijohn stated that it drives human action in a deeper level to do

many things in order to satisfy them (1987:201).

According Holman and Harmon, motivation is defined as the

presentation of the reason, justification, and explanation of human (1986:314).

Based on Pettijohn, motivation is the psychology area which is trying to give

explanation why human do something because they need to achieve their goals

and fulfill their needs (1987:201). So, motivation is the central of psychology

study that underlie person to do something that they do. It is also as the base of

human behavior and it makes human become engage with purposeful or goal

oriented behavior (1987:201).


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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

This part consists of two undergraduate theses which has some

similarities with the researcher’s study and also a journal which discusses about

the background of the short story.

A journal article entitled “Katherine Anne Porter” by Hartley is used by

the researcher. His journal article is about a discussion about the writer of the

short story, Katherine Anne Porter. He discussed about how the short story is

documented with Mexican life as the background (1940:214).

As seen in the story, Mexican life is described through the character’s

life. It can be seen from Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas’s marriage life.

Catholic as the predominant faith in Mexico describes the character of Maria

Concepción as a very religious woman. Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas

are married inside the church. They paid for a license from the Priest so they

can be married inside the church. In Mexican tradition, only few people who

are rich enough can marry inside the church so they will have a high social

status in their society (oureverydaylife.com). As someone who has a high social

status in the society, Juan does not want to divorce because he does not want to

do something embarrassing. The main characters in the story did not want to

commit to a sin by divorcing their spouse.


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Iswahyudi (2007), in his undergraduate thesis entitled “A Study of Hank

Hooten’s Motivation in Killing the Jurors in Grisharm’s The Last Juror”, is

focusing in the main character’s psyche described in the story and also his

motivation in killing the jurors. The main character is suffering from

Schizophrenia, it makes him sleeps until something awakens him. It does not

only give him some advantages but also trauma. His focus is to show Hooten’s

motivation to kill the Jurors because of rivalry between the main character and

the jurors.

In his undergraduate thesis, Iswahyudi discussed how rivalry can cause

a murder because it is followed by desire to take over what belongs to another

person (2007:2). Iswahyudi stated that the main character, Hank Hooten, will

do anything in order to defend his beloved lady including killing others

(2007:43). This point is similar with that the researcher found in” Maria

Concepción” short story. Because of rivalry, the main character, Maria

Concepción, will do anything including killing Maria Rosa to get her husband

back.

In her undergraduate thesis entitled “Motivation of Leila Barnes’

Behavior to Murder in James Patterson’s Bloody Valentine” (2016), Dita

Rahmasari Ekaningtyas, wrote about the motivation of the main character to

kill another character because of rivalry. Her undergraduate thesis has a similar

topic with the researcher’s undergraduate thesis.


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Ekaningtyas said that emotion and motivation has a close relationship.

It happens because our emotion will stimulate our action to do something

(2016:13). Emotion also reflects and supports someone’s motivation to act.

There are some factors that can cause murder, such as negative thinking,

frustration, and situation. She also stated that emotion is motivating the main

character to out from something which frustrating for her (2016:36). Finally,

the main character can achieve her goal to get out from the conflict by killing

her rival.

From Ekaningtyas undergraduate thesis, the researcher finds that

emotion and motivation has an important role to her behavior to murder.

Emotion can influence human motivation to do many things. It can make

someone blind so they can do something which should not be done because of

so many reasons, for example murdering someone.

From those undergraduate theses and also a journal article, the

researcher finds there are some similar things between these studies and the

researcher’s thesis. The undergraduate theses are discussing similar things

about emotion and rivalry which have an important role to stimulate the main

character’s to murder. The journal article is also enriching the researcher’s

information about the writer of the story, Porter, and where the story took place.

The authentic thing which differentiates this study with those related studies is

how the conflict which happened to the main character can lead her to murder


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her enemy. The main point is how the main character decided to murder

someone in order to fulfill her lack of needs.

B. Review of Related Theories

In this undergraduate thesis, psychological approach is used as the base of

the discussion. The researcher also uses some theories such as theory of conflict

and also theory of motivation.

1. Theory of Conflict

According to Aiken, in Psychology, which is the science that attempts to

understand, describe, predict and influence human behavior, a person can be said

that he is in the conflict when there are two or more motives present in the same

time but both cannot be satisfied (1969:146). Holman and Harmon also stated that

in literature, conflict is defined as an essential element in the literary element that

gives important role especially in a plot of a story (1986:107). Conflict involves

protagonist and antagonist as two opposed forces. They also stated that the

opposing forces are not usually a person, it can be an animal but also an inanimate

object that treated like a person (1986:107).

They mentioned, in a story there are four kinds of conflicts that can be

classified into external and internal or inner conflict, such as:

a. External Conflict

1) Conflict between Man and Man.

This conflict happens between one character and another character. It

happens between two human who has opposing forces, protagonist versus


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antagonist. One character in the story is having struggle with another

character(s) (1986:107).

The characters in the story are mostly human. All of the characters in

the story are not the same. They can be protagonist or antagonist and it can

cause a conflict due to the struggling of different forces.

2) Conflict between Man and Nature.

It is not a conflict between one character and the other character but

with nature. The forces can be a natural disaster, desolation, and also an

animal. Those forces are uncontrollable for human, as a human we do not have

any power to control the nature. The conflict appears in the story while the

character has to struggle to survive (1986:107).

Characters in the literary works are not just human but also nature.

There are so many natural things happen in this world and all of those things

are sometimes uncontrollable for human. Sometimes the character cannot keep

up with those things so it can make a conflict inside the literary works.

3) Conflict between Man and Society.

It is a conflict between one character and his/her surrounding or

environment. The character will be against his/her society such as social

tradition or rules to get freedom, right, or just for a cause (1986:107).

The writer sometimes describes the character as someone who has a

society or living inside the society. Many things in the society such as social


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tradition or rules sometimes cannot be accepted by someone or the character,

so it can cause a conflict between man and their society.

b. Internal Conflict

1) Conflict between Man and Self

It is a conflict which happens between a character with his/her own

conscience. It usually has something to do with a choice. For example, a

character in the story has a conflict to choose between right or wrong. It may

have to do with emotions or feelings (1986:107).

Conflict usually happens when the character cannot make a decision,

it gives them a dilemma inside themselves. It influences their emotions and

also feelings.

In this undergraduate thesis, the researcher is focusing on the external

conflict rather than the internal conflict. Because in the object of this study, a

short story entitled “Maria Concepción” by Katherine Anne Porter, there is no

evidence for the internal conflict. The researcher will apply the theory of

external conflict only.

Since love relationship becomes the main issue in this short story, the

researcher put a theory about conflict in a marriage. According to Kalish, there

are some factors such as personality problems and conflict that can happen in a

marriage such as loss of interest, a new man or woman appearing on the scene,


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and the possibility that the strong feelings of love and affection just do not last

which are causing conflict (1973:288). Those factors are common things in

marriage life.

In their book, Holman and Harmon also stated that motivation to reach

some goal also involving in the conflict not only the implication the role of

protagonist.

Conflict not only implies the struggle of a protagonist against someone

or something, it also implies the existence of some motivation for the conflict of some goal to be achieved thereby (1986:108).

So, based on Holman and Harmon, there is a role of motivation on the

protagonist against someone or something in conflict. It shows how there is a

motivation in the process of fulfillment or to achieve some goals. Without

motivation, the goals are not necessarily achieved (1986:108).

There are some people who feel very hard for themselves to make a

decision. It involves them into a conflict inside themselves. They might have

weak self-concepts to decide something because they are afraid to make an

error. Besides that, they might feel they are unable to make a decision because

they are not ready with the consequences.

2. Theory of Motivation

According to Jung, motive is define as desires, wishes, plans goals,

intents, impulses and purposes (1978:4). It is something that underlying human

behavior. In any actions, an organism is guided by motives or drives. It guides

an organism to achieve their goals in their life. According to Pettijohn, motive


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is defined as something that makes human do or act something in order to

achieve their goals and also to fulfill their needs (1987:210). Motive drives

human action to the deeper level to do many things in order to satisfy them. To

do an action, it is determined by inner forces and impulses that often operate at

an unconscious level. Thus, motive energizes or arouses behavior and directs

behavior toward goals.

What is motivation? Pettijohn stated that motivation is an area in

psychology which explains why we do the things we do. It makes human

engaged with purposeful or goal oriented behavior and also becomes the base

of human behavior (1987:201). Kalish also stated that through needs that

motivated someone’s behavior, it can help to explain he/she did (1973:30).

Motivation steers our behavior in certain directions.

Motivation has an important role in the fulfilling process of human

needs. Motivation will influence human behavior. Jung stated that if human’s

motivation is strong, their goal-seeking behavior will be activated and they will

try to satisfy their needs (1928:30). It starts with agitated feelings that influence

their behavior that satisfied human needs. So, human needs and their behavior

are related to each other.

As a human being, sometimes we cannot satisfy our needs because of

some reasons. For example, a worker who does not have time for holiday

because he is too busy with his work. The main thing is he has a lot of money


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and having a good position in his work but in other side, he does not have his

happiness for having a free time for holiday.

According to Jung, human tends to reset their target higher when their

goal is achieved (1987:5). It makes them never satisfied toward their absolute

fulfillment. They want more and more after their needs are achieved. It is not

easy for human to satisfy themselves.

Based on Atkinson, current situation can bring back all the fears and

feeling (1953:465). It is the part of human depression which can motivate them

to do something in order to fulfill their needs immediately. So, their current

situation can influence them to do something in order to fulfill their needs. In

this short story, we can see it from how Maria Concepción influenced by her

current situation and decided to murder Maria Rosa.

Kalish also stated about unconscious motivation. As seen in the short

story there is a part when Maria Concepción decides to go to the market but

ended up in Maria Rosa’s house and murdered her. The researcher consider

there is an unconscious motivation. The definition of unconscious motivation

is a motivation when someone behaves in a certain way without knowing the

reason why (1973:31). It is the reason why human sometimes does not know

the reason underlying their behavior. Human is not in full control of their own

behavior. There is a force beyond their willpower that motivate them to do

something without their even knowing it (1973:31).


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3. Mexican Life

The setting of place of the short story takes place at Mexico. As the

writer of the story, Porter puts some Mexican culture in the story. The

researcher got some information of Mexican culture from

peopeof.oureverydaylife.com by Theresa Pickett (2017). The website contains

some information such as Mexican brides who are being housewives and full-

time mothers. None of them are working in a company at that time. They who

do have jobs usually are not the breadwinners of the family. Thus, even though

they have a job their income is not as much as men.

Besides, Mexican embraces a patriarchal system. Man as the head of the

family has power to influence major issues and also make decisions for the

families (Pickett, 2017). For a married couple, there is a social pressure to stay

together. The reason is about acceptances between two adults. It is hard for

them to accept each other’s personality and the other things.

The Mexican also has a predominant Catholic faith. It keeps them for

committing sin by doing something which is forbidden such as divorce. Even it

is legal and easy to get but they won’t to do that especially for them who put

their religion seriously. In Catholic faith, divorce means a major offense against

God (Pickett, 2017).

In Mexico, the Mexican are divided into some social classes. They

categorized in higher class, some in middle while some in lower. Money and

power have an important role in Mexican social status (Picket). Thus, if they


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are have more money, automatically they considered as someone in the higher

class.

C. Theoretical Framework

In this thesis, the researcher focuses on how the conflict as seen in the

story can affect the main character’s motivation to murder her enemy. The

researcher using theory of conflict and theory of motivation to explain it.

For the first question, the researcher uses theory of conflict to find out

the conflict which happens in the short story as the intrinsic element of literature

between the main character and other character. The researcher uses theory of

conflict to indicate which kind of conflict that involves in the short story. The

researcher also uses some information about Mexican culture because the

setting of place of the story is in Mexico.

For the second question, the researcher uses theory of conflict and also

theory of motivation to find how the conflict between Maria Concepción and

other character can affect her motivation to murder her enemy, Maria Rosa.


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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The main object is a short story entitled “María Concepción” written by

Katherine Anne Porter in 1930. Begun when she was sick, she started to write

stories. “María Concepción” is her first story which is published in The Century

Magazine. This story included in her book entitled The Collected Stories of

Katherine Anne Porter which is published in 1979.

In this book there are two short stories collection, Flowering Judas and

Other Stories, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, The Leaning Tower and Other Stories

and The Downward Path to Wisdom. “María Concepción” short story included

in the first collection (Flowering Judas and Other Stories) and become the first

story written by Porter. In 1966, Porter won two significant awards for The

Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (source: www.thefamouspeople

.com).

This book already floated in many editions, countries, and languages.

This book is published by First Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ) book

in 1979. The cities of publisher are in New York and London. It is a 497 books

with 26 short stories in it.


18

This short story is tells about a woman named Maria Concepción. In

this story, Maria Concepción described as a good Christian and a hard worker

lady. In her social life she has a position because she is married in the church,

not on the church’s yard because she pays for a license by the Priest. But

unfortunately she has an unfaithful husband named Juan Villegas. He has a

young mistress named Maria Rosa. They went to the war together and leave

Maria Concepción while she is pregnant. When the baby was born and died

within few days, Maria Concepción live in anger and vengeance towards Maria

Rosa. Then she decided to murder Maria Rosa and took her child.

B. Approach of the Study

In order to earn conclusion of this thesis and to answer the questions in

this thesis, the writer choose an appropriate approach to be applied. The

researcher uses psychological approach in analyzing the work. According to

Abrams and Harpham, psychological approach is an approach which deals with

expression as a work of literature, in an indirect and fictional form, of the state

of mind and the structure of personality of the individual author (2012:319).

Psychological approach is a tool for critical analysis about human mind which

is structured and also human personality.

Based on Freud, it is defined as a dynamic theory of motivation and

personality. The researcher using theory of motivation in order to explain the

motivation of the main character, Maria Concepción, to murder her enemy. The


19

theories of this approach also worked to discover how the unconscious mind

influences human behavior (1987:244).

In this study, the motivation of the main character to murder becomes

the focus of the researcher. Conflicts which are happened in the short story also

influence the main character’s motivation to murder. The patterns in this study

are how the conflicts influence the main character’s motivation to murder her

enemy.

The researcher applies psychological approach to support the study and

analysis. This approach is the suitable approach for this study because it

explains human motivation through their behavior which is discovered as seen

in the short story.

C. Method of the Study

In order to analyze this short story as the object of the study, the

researcher used a library research method. The researcher collected the data or

materials from the library. Thus, library research became the primary source of

this study. The researcher used some books to support this study. The short

story, as the main data was taken from a book entitled The Collected Stories of

Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter. Theory of motivation was

taken from The Psychology of Human Behavior by Richard A. Kalish and

Psychology a Concise Introduction by Terry F. Pettijohn. Besides that, the

researcher also obtained some material from the internet as the secondary

sources. An online article Marriage in Mexican Culture by Theresa Pickett in


20

<https://oureverydaylife.com/marriage-in-mexican-culture-12080946.html>.

The online article used as one of many sources because it is important to enrich

this undergraduate thesis.

There were some steps taken to do this research. First, the researcher

read the short story from a book entitled The Collected Stories of Katherine

Anne Porter. This step repeated for several times in order to understand well

what she will going to analyze in this study. While read the short story, the

researcher also determined some questions to be analyzed.

Second, the researcher started to analyze what conflict can be found as

seen in the short story. By analyzing the conflict that happened in the story, the

researcher found out the main character’s motive, Maria Concepción, to murder

her enemy, Maria Rosa. Then, the researcher tried to analyze her motive using

theory of motivation which already collected before. At last, the researcher

concluded the result of the research in the conclusion as the summary of the

study.


21

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

” Maria Concepción” is a short story written by Katherine Anne Porter.

This story tells about a woman named Maria Concepción who is betrayed by

her husband, Juan Villegas. In the end of the story, Maria Concepción decided

to murder her husband’s mistress, Maria Rosa. This story presents conflict and

motivation of Maria Concepción and other characters.

In this part, the researcher is going to analyze the conflict between Maria

Concepción and other character and also how her conflict can lead her

motivation to murder her enemy, Maria Rosa.

A. The Conflict of Maria Concepción

Conflict becomes the important element in a literary works especially

in a short story. It makes mountain to the plot of the library works thus it

becomes interesting to be read. It also drives the plot thus it will satisfy the

reader while reading the story. In literature, conflict involves protagonist and

antagonist.

Based on Holman and Harmon in their book entitled A Handbook to

Literature, conflict is defined as an involvement of two opposing forces,

protagonist and antagonist, in a plot (1986:107). It means that conflict happen

because there is contrast in forces and motivates people to do particular action

in order to fulfill what they want.


22

Conflict in a literary work such as this short story has a function. The

function is to achieve a story goal through the resolutions of the conflict in order

to entertain the reader. According to Holman and Harmon, based on the factors,

conflict is classified into external and internal or inner conflict (1986:107). In

this short story the researcher does not find the internal conflict but only the

external conflict. The conflict is between man and man and also man and the

society.

In this short story, Porter described there are some conflicts between

one character to one another. There are:

1. Conflict between Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas.

As mentioned in the previous part, conflict is defined as an involvement

of two opposing forces, protagonist and antagonist. In the short story there are

also two opposing forces in the character described by Porter. The researcher

saw it from the character of Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas.

In the short story, there are two main characters as the main characters.

Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas. Both of the main characters are having

different perception about marriage. They are seeing marriage in a different

way. Maria Concepción is really proud with her marriage but Juan does not feel

the same way. Porter mentioned that Maria Concepción is always proud as if

she owned a hacienda.

…who were actually getting married in the church, instead of behind it,

which was the usual custom, less expensive, and as binding as any other


23

ceremony. But Maria Concepción was always as proud as if she owned a

hacienda (1979:4).

As husband and wife they are supposed to have the same perception about

marriage. In the story, Maria Concepción is too proud of what she has.

… She had a good reputation with the neighbors as an energetic religious

woman who could drive a bargain to the end. It was commonly known that if she wished to buy a new rebozo for herself or a shirt for Juan, she could bring out a sackk of hard silver coins for the purpose (1979:4).

Porter describes the character of Maria Concepción as a woman who

has a good reputation among her neighbors. She is respected by her society. She

is a woman who can earn for her own living. From the quotation, we know that

she can earn for herself and also for her husband and she can be determined to

get what she wants when she wants it. She is a tough woman.

She had paid for the license, nearly a year ago, the potent bit of stamped

paper which permits people to be married in the church. She had given money to the priest before she and Juan walked together up to the altar at Monday after Holy Week (1979:4).

Paying the license thus they can be married inside the church is also a

proof that she is someone who able to afford the license which not everyone

could afford it. She gives the money to the priest for the license. Not everyone

in the village could do that. They who cannot afford the license can only be

married on the church’s yard.

But Juan does not feel the same way. He does not seem to enjoy his

marriage. From the short story, Juan is a person who wants freedom. To be

married with Maria Concepción inside the church, he feels that there is pressure


24

to stay together with her. His desire to be free also can be seen from how he

come back from the war without asking permission from anyone. He also seem

does not happy because being married with Maria Concepción, because he

wants to be another woman. Having status as husband of someone makes him

does not feel free. So, it can be concluded that Juan is someone who wants

freedom in his life.

In the Mexican culture, men are usually having social pressure to stay

together with their spouse. But they cannot do anything such as divorcing their

spouse because they do not want to commit sin by doing that (Pickett Theresa,

2017, Marriage in Mexican Culture, 23 May 2018).

In the short story Juan said “I would not harm Maria Concepción

because I am married to her in the church; but also, my chief … (1979:12)”.

Juan does not want to harm or even leave her because he married her with the

license from the priest and also in the church. He also does not want to commit

to another sin. They have a good reputation and a high social status among the

neighbor. But he decides to still be with her and also be with his mistress. Even

if he is living in his mistake, he is still trying to respect his vow in front of the

priest while he is marrying his wife. But he still does not hide his pressure for

marrying Maria Concepción. He tells it to Given.

Yet sometimes I looked at her and thought, Now I am married to that woman in the church, and I felt a sinking inside, as if something were lying heavy on my stomach (1979:11).


25

From the citation, the researcher found that there are different point of

view about marriage between Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas. Maria

Concepción sees her marriage as something that she could be proud of but Juan

seems to regret it. This opposing point of view about marriage between husband

and wife is causing a conflict. It affects their behavior to live their marriage.

In the story, Juan said to Given how his wife is. It is revealed why Juan

decides to have another woman. Maria Concepción is an obedient woman. She

is very polite and obedient to her husband. She did exactly like what he said.

We were always at peace. I say to her, Come here, and she comes straight. I say, Go there, and she goes quickly … With Maria Rosa it is

all different. She is not silent; she talks. When she talks too much, I slap her and say, Silence, thou simpleton! And she weeps. (1979:11-12).

Juan said that they were always in peace. There is no problem in their

marriage so far but the reason why Juan prefers to another woman is because

he does not like his wife to do many things exactly like what he said. The

personality of Maria Concepción does not please Juan. To Given, Juan said how

Maria Rosa pleases him more than any other woman.

With Maria Rosa it is all different. She is not silent; she talks. When she talks too much, I slap her and say, Silence, thou simpleton! And she

weeps. She is just a girl whom I do as I please. You know how she used to keep those clean little bees in their hives? She is like their honey to me (1974:11-12).

He sees Maria Rosa as someone who is better than Maria Concepción.

Maria Rosa can please him more than Maria Concepción could do. Maria Rosa

is boaster than Maria Concepción who is an obedient woman.


26

You know how she used to keep those clean little bees in their hives?

She is like honey to me. I swear it. I would not harm Maria Concepción because I am married to her in the church; but also, my chief, I will not

leave Maria Rosa, because she pleases me more than any other woman (1974:12).

Even he chooses another woman, he still does not want to leave Maria

Concepción in this case is divorcing her. Catholic as a predominant faith in

Mexico makes this country have a low rate of divorce. They believe that divorce

is major offense against God even it is legal and easy to get. It is also the reason

why Juan does not want to leave her, because he is married to her in the church

and also he does not want to commit to a sin.

Maria Concepción also decides not to divorce her spouse after she found

what he did with another woman. It is because she takes her religion seriously.

She follows what is written in the Holy Bible which does not allow us to divorce

our spouse. Many people who take their religion seriously do not want to

commit sin by divorcing their spouse (oureverydaylife.com).

As mentioned by the researcher before, Maria Concepción and Juan

Villegas are having a different perspective about marriage. It makes them

giving a different appreciation to their marriage. Maria Concepción seems so

proud with it but Juan does not. Even when Juan decides to have another

woman, he still does not want to leave Maria Concepción because they are

married inside the church by the license from the Priest. Juan also does not want

to commit to another sin after he is having an affair with another woman which

is not legal and prohibited.


27

After Maria Rosa dies, Juan realizes that he should go back to the

reality. Living his reality with Maria Concepción is such a burden for him.

There seems to be no happiness because there is a bitterness inside himself to

live with his legal spouse.

Their days of marching, of eating, of quarreling and making love between battles, were all over. Tomorrow he would go back to dull and endless labor, he must descend into the trenches of the buried city as

Maria Rosa must go into her grave. He felt his veins fill up with bitterness, with black unendurable melancholy. Oh, Jesus! What bad

luck overtakes a man! (1974:20).

Based on Pickett, Mexican believes that marriage is such a misfortune

for a man (Pickett, 2017). Because they cannot do anything as free as he wants

because of his status. Juan feels it after he is married to Maria Concepción. He

is not happy with his marriage life with Maria Concepción. Inwish Mexican

culture, the married men have a social pressure in the society because they

cannot do as free as they want because they are already married. Having a

special relationship with Maria Rosa seems like a sweet escape for him.

2. Conflict between Maria Concepción with Maria Rosa’s Image.

Actually there is no dialogue between Maria Concepción and Maria

Rosa in the short story, but the character of Maria Concepción is having conflict

with the image of Maria Rosa. The image that is merged from a woman named

Maria Rosa makes Maria Concepción does not have any respect toward her.

Maria Concepción knows her as young bee-keeper. But one day she finds out


28

that her husband is having affair with this girl. She is really shocked and cannot

believe it. This is not easy for Maria Concepción to acknowledge.

It makes Maria Concepción wants to kill Maria Rosa and Juan because

she is burnt in anger. She wishes to cut her husband and Maria Rosa’s throat

and waiting for their death. She cannot hold her anger anymore.

She wished to sit down and wait for her death, but not until she had cut

the throats of her man and that girl who were laughing and kissing under the cornstalks (1974:6).

She finds out that her husband is an unfaithful husband. Even when they

are already married and love each other but in fact, love cannot guarantee that

she is the only woman in Juan’s heart. His beloved husband is having another

young woman. Maria Concepción is burnt in anger because the appearance of

Maria Rosa. She considers Maria Rosa as her enemy.

Now here was a worse thing, but she knew her enemy. Maria Rosa, that sinful girl, shameless! She heard herself saying a harsh, true word about

Maria Rosa, saying it aloud as if she expected someone to agree with her: “Yes, she is a whore! She has no right to live.” (1974:6).

According to Kalish, the appearance of a new man or woman will be a

conflict in a married life (1973:288). The appearance of Maria Rosa as a third-

wheel in their marriage causes a conflict. In fact, Maria Concepción is not the

only woman whom Juan loves in his life. He decides to bring Maria Rosa to the

war with him rather than bringing his own wife. He leaves Maria Concepción

in the village, alone, while she is pregnant.


29

It is not fair for Maria Concepción because as the legal spouse, Juan is

supposed to bring her, not Maria Rosa. The stronger image of Maria Rosa in

Juan’s eye makes him blind and does not respect his own wife. The image of

Maria Rosa is better rather than Maria Concepción in his eyes.

The image of Maria Rosa is also built from how Juan compares her to

her wife. He said that Maria Rosa is more pleasant to him rather than Maria

Concepción. As mentioned in the discussion before, Juan said that Maria Rosa

is not as obedient as Maria Concepción and it pleases him more. Juan prefers

to go with Maria Rosa to the war rather than bringing his pregnant wife to be

with him.

Different from Juan, the society does not have any respect to Maria

Rosa. None of the neighbors are defending Maria Rosa, even Lupe, the old

godmother, who is always be with her.

A glance at the listening circle assured Lupe of their thrilled attention. She enjoyed the dangerous importance of her situation. She could have

ruined that Maria Concepción with a word, but it was even sweeter to make fools of these gendarmes who went about spying on honest people (1974:18-19).

While the gendarmes are looking for witnesses from Lupe, she decides

to make some diplomatic statements. She is still trying not to tell the truth. As

someone who is very close and is living together with Maria Rosa, she has

decided not to defend her. None of her statement is defending Maria Rosa.

The conflict between Maria Concepción and Maria Rosa shows the

different position of both of them. In Juan’s eyes, Maria Rosa is superior to


30

Maria Concepción. As we know that Juan decided to choose Maria Rosa than

her. The image of Maria Rosa is more pleasant than Maria Concepción. It is

happier for him to be with Maria Rosa rather than to be with his own wife.

The researcher thinks that in Maria Concepción’s eyes, the image of

Maria Rosa is not superior to her. Maria Concepción is more in everything

compared to Maria Rosa. Maria Rosa is just a young bee keeper who is loved

by her husband. She is his husband’s illegal spouse. Very different from her

who is married to Juan Villegas in the church with a stamped paper by the

Priest. Maria Concepción is known as someone who can earn her own living.

She has her own money to buy anything she and her husband needs. Different

from Maria Rosa who is just a bee keeper.

Different from Maria Concepción who is proven as a legal spouse of

Juan Villegas, the position of Maria Rosa is not as secured. She is just a mistress

of Juan Villegas. Actually, what Juan did for having a mistress is such an illegal

thing and forbidden. As a Catholic, a marriage is supposed to be monogamous.

One man belongs to one woman and blessed by the Priest in the church thus

they are legal to become husband and wife. Divorce is also forbidden. Thus

Juan does not want to divorce Maria Concepción. Besides that, it is not proper

for him who respected by his society to divorce his spouse because of another

woman. It is such an insult for Maria Concepción knowing that her husband

decided to choose another woman and also knowing that Maria Rosa is superior

to her in Juan’s eyes.


31

As a legal spouse, it is possible for Maria Concepción for not afraid

about losing her husband to be with another woman. Her current truth is,

someone else between her and Juan, and it makes her afraid. She is afraid if her

position is replaced by another woman, Maria Rosa.

B. Maria Concepción’s Motivation to Murder

As seen in the previous discussions, there are two conflicts occurred in

the short story. First, the conflict between Maria Concepción and Juan Villegas.

Second, the conflict between Maria Concepción and Maria Rosa’s image. The

researcher thinks that those conflict affect the main character, Maria

Concepción, murder Maria Rosa.

In this part, the researcher is going to analyze the motivation of Maria

Concepción through the conflict happened to her in the short story. As seen in

the short story, Maria Concepción murders Maria Rosa in order to get her

satisfaction in fulfilling her needs.

According to Kalish, there are many things such as personality problem

and conflict, loss of interest, a new man or woman whom appears on the scene,

and the possibility of the strong feeling of love and affection (1973:288). Those

things are the common factors that cause conflict in a marriage. As seen in the

short story, those points are happened in the characters. There are conflicts

between the main characters, Juan losses interest to her own wife, there is an

appearance of a new woman, and also the strong feeling between Juan and

Maria Rosa.


32

At the previous discussion, the researcher already mentioned there are

some reasons why the conflict could happen. Such as different perception about

marriage, the appearance of a new man or woman and also the inferior feeling

of someone’s image.

Juan and Maria Concepción are still eighteen years old and they are

already married by the license which stamped by the priest. As the legal wife

of Juan Villegas, Maria Concepción does not get enough love from Juan. Juan

tends to be with Maria Rosa rather than to be with Maria Concepción. It makes

Maria Concepción burns in anger, she cannot accept the reality that her husband

is having someone else.

As a housewife, Maria Concepción not merely live for her own but she

decided to work for the needs of Juan too. “I was commonly known that if she

wished to buy a new rebozo for herself or a shirt for Juan, she could bring out

a sack of hard silver coins for the purpose (1974:3). She tries to fulfill her needs

by working hard for herself and also her husband. It shows that she is a hard

worker and also an independent woman. She goes to the market every day and

can make money for herself. She can fulfill her basic needs in order to continue

her life by working hard at least for her own self.

Human is motivated to fulfill and reach their needs and goals.

Motivation is underlying human behavior. Everything that they do seems to be

right. They do not think whether it is right or wrong, good or bad, and harmful

or not. In the short story, the behavior of Maria Concepción shows how she


33

really wants to get her husband back by doing something which is allowed or

forbidden. According to Kalish, motivation is measured by how hard a person

will work to satisfy their need (1973:30).

In the end of the short story, Porter shows that the main character, Maria

Concepción decided to murder Maria Rosa. The researcher thinks that Maria

Concepción’s behavior to murder is the way how hard she wants to get her

husband back.

As a legal wife of Juan Villegas, it is such a common thing for Maria

Concepción to feel jealous because her husband having another woman. As an

ordinary woman, Maria Concepción does not want her husband’s love for her

divided to someone else. It is not fair for her because Juan is supposed to be

with her not Maria Rosa. Maria Concepción thinks that her position is being

replaced by Maria Rosa. She feels threatened because her position is taken by

someone else.

As a legal wife, Maria Concepción is supposed to be respected by her

own husband. Compared to Maria Rosa, Maria Concepción is gaining more

respect in the society’s eyes.

…”She is a woman of good reputation among us, and Maria Rosa was not”… Another: “Maria Rosa had strange life, apart from us. How do

we know who might have come from another place to do her evil?”… (1974:19).

The society see Maria Concepción as someone who has a good

reputation among them. Different with Maria Rosa who had strange life from


34

the society. Thus, it makes Maria Concepción thinks that she is better than

Maria Rosa. Even Maria Concepción thinks that she is better compared to Maria

Rosa, her husband does not think the same. In Juan’s eyes, she is still inferior

and helpless than Maria Rosa. She still cannot gain any respect from Juan. It

bruises her pride of being the legal spouse of Juan Villegas.

Juan did not come home that night, but went away to war and Maria

Rosa went with him (1978:8). Juan decided to go to the war with her mistress

rather than to be with his wife. Maria Concepción cannot do anything. She

decided to keep silence for anything that happened to her even when Juan

decided to go to the war with Maria Rosa and Maria Concepción loose her child

who died.

Maria Concepción did not weep when Juan left her; and when the baby

was born, and died within four days, she did not weep. “She is mere stone,” said old Lupe, who went over and offered charms to preserve the baby (1974:8-9).

Juan supposed to be with her and give his support after Maria

Concepción lose her first child but the reality shows the opposite thing. He

leaves Maria Concepción alone in the village and decides to go to the war with

Maria Rosa. As someone who had such a heavy grief she decided to keep her

problems alone. She starts to hide herself from the society.

Afterward everyone noticed that Maria Concepción went oftener to

church, and even seldomer to the village to talk with the other women as they sat along the curb, nursing their babies and eating fruit, at the end of market-day (1974:9-10).


35

In her silence, she keeps so many things that burden her. She is not share

it to anyone else. Deep inside herself, the only thing that she wanted is only to

be with her husband. At that time, the figure of Maria Concepción also inferior

than Maria Rosa. It shows from how Juan prefers to Maria Rosa rather than his

own wife. He is seeing Maria Rosa as someone who can please him and not

with Maria Concepción. As a wife of Juan Villegas, Maria Concepción is failed

to be a good wife because her husband decided to be with another woman.

As known by the researcher before, Maria Concepción is a silent

woman. As mentioned in the previous discussion, the moment when she is

losing her husband and also her child does not make her weep at all, she keeps

silent. Until one day she cannot hold her burden anymore and trying to do an

action. While Juan decided to go back to Maria Concepción’s house, drunk, he

tries to beat his wife.

It was in itself the act of a hero. The new hero ate a great deal and drank somewhat, the occasion being better than a feast-day. … Having thus

taken leave of his balance, he started back to Maria Rosa, and found himself unaccountably in his own house, attempting to beat Maria Concepción by way of reestablishing himself in his legal household

(1974:13).

It becomes another a trigger to murder Maria Rosa. Maria Concepción

decides to strike Juan while he is back to her house. The moment when Maria

Concepción decided to refuse is her expression about what happened to her

until that time. She cannot hold her anger toward Juan anymore and she also


36

decide to murder Maria Rosa at that time. She wants to go to the market but

then she realized that she is not. She is going to Maria Rosa’s house.

Maria Concepción, seeing that he was quiet, began to bind the legs of her fowls. It was market-day and she was late. She fumbled and tangled

the bits of cord in her haste, and set off across the plowed fields instead of taking the accustomed road. She ran with crazy panic in her head, her

stumbling legs. Now and then she would stop and look about her, trying to place herself, and go on a few steps, until she realized that she was not going towards the market (1978:13).

Human sometimes are not in full control of their behavior. Sometimes

they do not understand and realize why they do something. The researcher

identifies there is unconscious motivation in the character of Maria Concepción.

According to Kalish, unconscious motivation motivates people to behave in a

certain way without knowing why (1973:31). It means that unconscious

motivation possibly influences their behavior while they do not realize it.

Murdering Maria Rosa is not her list before. But then, her unconscious

motivation motivates her to do that. Accidently, it also helps her to fulfill her

need and satisfy her because the figure of Maria Rosa is finally gone.

As seen in the short story, after Maria Concepción decides to strike her

husband, she goes to the market and that is the very first time Porter described

her crying over what she did.

At once she came to her sense completely, recognized the thing that troubled her so terribly, was certain of what she wanted. She sat down

quietly under a sheltering thorny bush and gave herself over to her long devouring sorrow (1974:13).


37

The researcher identifies that the point when Maria Concepción decides

to strike her husband and crying for the first time is the trigger why she murders

Maria Rosa. Besides being influenced by her unconscious motivation because

of her current situation, the moment when she shows her pressure through her

cry is showing the reason why she murder Maria Rosa.

After murdering Maria Rosa, the gendarmes are looking for the

murderer. In this moment, Juan decides to save her from the accusation of being

the murderer. It makes her feels save out of danger.

“Oh, thou poor creature! Oh, madwoman! Oh, my Maria Concepción, unfortunate! Listen… don’t be afraid. Listen to me! I will hide thee

away, I thy own man will protect thee! Quiet! Not a sound!” (1974:14). As someone who does not have Juan’s attention before, finally she can

get his attention. Saving her from the gendarmes’ accusations makes Maria

Concepción feeling calm and safe.

By murdering Maria Rosa, Maria Concepción gets her satisfaction. The

researcher thinks, Maria Concepción gets her satisfaction from the

disappearance of Maria Rosa.

Even the restless light could not give a look of life to that fixed

countenance. She was dead. Maria Concepción felt her muscles give way softly; her heart began beating stedily without effort. She knew no more rancor against the pitiable thing, lying indifferently in its blue

coffin under the fine silk rebozo (1974:17).

Maria Concepción does not have any regret for what she did. She does

not feel tense yet calm while seeing Maria Rosa lying in her coffin. For Maria


38

Concepción, murdering Maria Rosa is such revenge. What she wants from

Maria Rosa is finally revenge.

The mouth drooped sharply at the corners in a grimace of weeping arrested half-way. The brows were distressed; the dead had eaten too

much honey and had had too much love. Now she must sit in hell, crying over her sins and her hard death forever and ever (1974:17).

From the short story, it shows how Maria Concepción is relieved for

murdering Maria Rosa. Maria Concepción feels that Maria Rosa already took

too much love from her husband. It is not fair for her because Juan’s love is

supposed to be hers, not Maria Rosa’s. Maria Concepción wants Maria Rosa to

regret what she did while she was still alive. Hell is the beast place for Maria

Rosa to cry and regret over her sins forever.

The researcher identifies that Maria Concepción’s behavior to murder

makes her unconscious motivation to murder stronger. Looking for evidences

that her husband decides to be with Maria Rosa rather than to be with her, she

is afraid that her husband does not want to go back to her. As seen in the end of

the short story, Maria Concepción is satisfied for everything that has already

happened. She can get her husband back and also she can get Maria Rosa’s

child to be hers. It is not enough for Maria Concepción for just murdering her

enemy. Her target increases to the higher level thus she decides to take the child.

She wants to distribute her love that supposed to give to her own child, but now

she addresses it to Maria Rosa’s child.


39

Her behavior of murdering makes her get her control of her life back.

Actually, she does not want to be controlled by her situation. She is trying to

control her life back. She wants to get anything that she need such as getting

her husband back and receiving love fully from him. By the disappearance the

figure of Maria Rosa, she gets everything back.

In the end of the story, finally she can get her husband back and she also

can distribute her love to the child. She can find her happiness afterward.

Maria Concepción could hear Juan’s breathing. The sound vapored from the low doorway, calmly; the house seemed to be resting after a

burdensome day. … Even as she was falling asleep, head bowed over the child, she was still aware of a strange, wakeful happiness (1974:21).

So, the researcher concludes that in order to fulfill her needs and achieve

her goal, to get her husband back, Maria Concepción decides to do something

extreme. It happens because the willingness to get her husband back and also

her willingness to eliminate Maria Rosa is also strong. Maria Concepción could

do another action which is allowed in order to get husband back, but she decided

to do something forbidden, murdering her enemy. It shows that she is really

serious and insist to get him back.


40

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

“Maria Concepción” is a novel written by Katherine Anne Porter which talks

about the life of Maria Concepción who is betrayed by her own husband. There are

many major characters in this short story such as Maria Concepción, Juan Villegas, and

also Maria Rosa. In this study, the researcher focuses on the main issue about the love

relationship between Maria Concepción, Juan Villegas and Maria Rosa. Maria

Concepción has conflicts with her husband and also with the image of Maria Rosa, her

husband’s mistress.

In this undergraduate thesis, the researcher found there are two conflicts

happened between the major characters. First, the conflict between Maria Concepción

and Juan Villegas. According to the researcher, as husband and wife they supposed to

have the same perception about marriage, but the fact is they are not have the same

perception about it. Maria Concepción seen marriage as something which is to be proud

of. Different with Juan who thinks that married in the church is such a misfortune for

a man. He did not enjoy it because he cannot be as free as he wants because of his

status. That is why he is looking for a sweet escape with his mistress, Maria Rosa.

Second, the conflict between Maria Concepción with Maria Rosa’s image.

Even though there is no dialogue between them but the character of is strong and it

disturbs her marriage life with Juan. One day she finds out that her husband is having


41

mistress with Maria Rosa, a young bee keeper. It makes her burnt in anger because she

feels that she is helpless and inferior to the image of Maria Rosa in Juan’s eyes. She

feels humiliated because her husband decides to choose his mistress rather than his

legal wife. The appearance of Maria Rosa makes her husband’s attention is fully give

to his mistress.

The appearance of Maria Rosa is also the reason why Maria Concepción and

Juan Villegas having conflict in their marriage. As stated by Kalish in the discussion,

the appearance of a new man or woman will be a conflict in a married life (1973:288).

As a third-wheel in Juan and Maria Concepción’s marriage, Maria Rosa has stronger

image in Juan’s eyes thus that is why Juan becomes blind and does not respect his own

wife. It becomes the trigger why she decides to murder Maria Rosa in the end of the

short story.

From those conflicts, the researcher found Maria Concepción’s motivation to

murder Maria Rosa. The researcher found that there are some triggers which motivate

Maria Concepción to murder Maria Rosa. Through the conflicts, the researcher

identifies that there are some need that Maria Concepción needs to fulfill. The process

of fulfillment motivates her to behave something in order to fulfill those needs and

achieve her goal, to get her husband back. Her current situation at that time also

influenced her to murder because as mentioned in the discussion she merely keep

silence about anything which happened to her. Thus, the moment when she can rebel

toward her problems is her turning point for her to control her own life back. She

murdered Maria Rosa after she is intimidated by the image of her husband’s mistress.


42

Maria Concepción has to deal with come conflicts in her life. It makes her to

keep all of her problems to her own self. She does not share it to anyone. It makes her

silent and decides to work harder in order to cover the things up. After being

intimidated by her condition she is trying to control her life back and also trying to

satisfy her needs. By murdering Maria Rosa, Maria Concepción gets her life back. Her

goal-seeking behavior is highly activated, it motivates her do an extreme thing

unconsciously to get her husband back such as murdering Maria Rosa. Besides that,

there is no disturbance in her life anymore. She is trying to make herself safe from any

factors which can disturb her to get her satisfaction.


43

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M.H. and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston:

Michael Rosenberg, 2012.

Beck, Robert C. Motivation Theories and Principles. Boston: Wake Forest University,

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Editors, TheFamousPeople.com."Katherine Anne Porter" the famous people. January

2018. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/katherine-anne-porter-

4337.php. 2 August 2017.

Guerin, Wilfred L., et al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2011.

Hartley, Lodwick. "Katherine Anne Porter" Katherine Anne Porter. Vol. 48. No. 2.

(1940) pp 206-216. JStor. (www.jstor.org/stable/27535645). May 17, 2017.

Jung, John. Understanding Human Motivation: a cognitive approach. New York:

Macmilan Publishing Co., Inc., 1978.

Kalish, Richard A. The Psychology of Human Behavior. Belmont, California:

Wadwoth Publishing Company, Inc., 1973.

Aiken, Lewis R. Jr. General Psychology a survey. San Fransisco: Chandler Publishing

Company, 1969.

McClelland, David C. Human Motivation. New York: Scott, Foresman and Company,

1985.

Pettijohn, Terry F. Psychology a Concise Introduction. Guilford: The Dushkin

Publishing Group, Inc., 1987.

Pickett, Theresa. “Marriage in Mexican Culture” our everyday life. September 2017.

https://oureverydaylife.com/marriage-in-mexican-culture-12080946.html. 7

February 2018.

Porter, Katherine Anne. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. New York -

London: HBJ VIII, 1979.

Rita L, Atkinson, Richard C Atkinson and Ernest R. Hilgard. Introduction to

Psychology. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1953.

Sigmund Freud, M.D., LL.D. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis. New York:

Permabooks, 1958.


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