Hornby,AS in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (1987:575) defines novel as story inprose, long enough to fill one or more volumes, about either imaginery or historical people. As one of literary work forms, a novel can serve the description of the life which contains various problems, or the experience of the writers. This makes novel interesting to read because it can portrait the writer’s life or experience.
Characterization is one of the elements which develop from the inside of the novel. It is the way of the author to show the figure and to show the character of the story. This element is needed in composing a literary work. Through characterization, the readers can understand the the life of individual character told by the author. Characterization can be seen from the dialogue among the characters, what they are doing, what others say about them, the reaction to the events and so on.
The word “character” is usually used in two ways, namely refering to the individuals who appear in the story, and the mixture of interest, desires, emotion, and moral principles that make up each of these individuals (Stanton, 1967:17 )in Nurgiyantoro, 2002:165). According to Abrams (1981:20), characters are people in dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say, the dialogue, and by what they do, the action. Character basiccally can be differentiated into main character and minor character
Literary works contain elemens which become the building blocks of literary works. The building blocks of literary works can be intrinsic and extrinsic. The intricnsic elements constitue the formal structures which build the literary work internally. The internal structures of literary works are theme, plot, setting, character and characterization, and conflict. The extrinsic elements, on the other hand, are those which are outside world related to literary works which build literary wotks. The extrinsic elements can be psychological, politic, historical, and educational elements or backgrounds of literary works.
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