PANDANGAN DAN HARAPAN PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY TERHADAP KELAS PEKERJA INGGRIS SEPERTI TERCERMIN DALAM PUISI BERJUDUL SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND

Abstract

The span between the late 18th century and the early 19th century in England was a turbulent period in political and economic history. England was experiencing the ordeal of the change from its former status as primarily agricultural society—where wealth and power had been largely concentrated in the landholding aristocracy—to a recognizably modern industrial nation, in which the balance of economic power was shifted to large-scale employers. The consequence was that the population was becoming increasingly polarized into what later called “Two Nation”—the two classes of capital and labor, the large owner or trader and the possession less wageworker, the rich and the poor. One of media portraying this situation was a Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem entitled Song to the Men of England. By this poem, the writer particularly wanted to analyze the Shelley’s view and hope for the English working-men. In order to compile this thesis, the writer used the method of library research. By applying this method, the writer efforted to collect some theories, information and other important documents supporting process of analysis. Moreover, the writer used two theory approaches, those were structural and sociological theory approaches. Basically, literary works as creative works have full of autonomy on their own, released from everything outside them. That was the motive of the usage of structural theory approach. Whereas the sociological theory approach used for the reason that literature has relation to society. These theories were intended to make relation between the meanings of Song to the Men of England’s poems to the background of social realities of that time, the span between the late 18th century and the early 19th century in England. The result shows that by his poem, Shelley describes about the unfairly treatment of high classes (industrialists and the lords) to the low classes (English workers). The writer assumes that these unfairly treatment by the high classes mentioned in some lines of Shelley’s poem. Besides, the result also shows that Shelley hopes for English working-men to stop doing activities which is really lose them out. Rather, the writer assumes that there are some lines of this poem express Shelley’s hope for a proletarian revolution. English working-men have to stand alone and to self-reliant. If they worked, of course they would reap the crops.