Name : Hidayati Sholihah
NIM : A320090163
Class : D

LITERARY THEORY MID TEST
ANALYZING ‘THE EAGLE’ USING STRUCTURALISM THEORY

1. Theory of Structuralism
a. Structuralism is an approach for analyzing the narrative material by examining the underlying invariant structure, which is based on the linguistic sign system.
b. The father of Structuralism is Ferdinand de Saussure, professor at University of Geneva, Switzerland, who developed structural linguistics between 1906 and 1911.
c. Structuralism usually uses words “units” and “rules”. Unit is word or phrase such a key word that will be a sign or symbol of thing. While rule is the forms of grammar which order words (units).
E.g. : Units → cat, miraculous pocket, blue-white, and kind.
Rules → It s a cat, it has a miraculous pocket, its color is blue and white, and it is very kind with all of in its environment.
So that it is DORAEMON.
d. In structuralism also rises the term sign, signifier, and signified. SIGN is as the union or combination of a SIGNIFIER and a SIGNIFIED. Saussure says that the sound image is the SIGNIFIER and the concept is the SIGNIFIED.
E.g. : Sign → Sea
Signifier → hearing the sound sea
Signified → the concept of sea, such as it is water, it is blue, it has wave, etc.
2. Steps or methods :
a. Reading the whole poem repeatedly.
b. Translating word by word.
c. Finding the real interpretation of each word.
d. Analyzing symbols on the poem based on Structuralism theory.
e. Relating symbols into one unity of the poem.
f. Interpreting the whole poem
3. Analyzing “The Eagle” by Alfred Lord Tennyson using Structural theory.

THE EAGLE
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

This poem is written not to show the scientific or biological side of an eagle, but to show the powerful or force of the Eagle. The eagle here is male and may represent some kind of ideal man or masculine. There are some important symbols on this poem, they are:
a. The Eagle
- In this poem, The Eagle represents the power of man. In the first line of the poem, it exemplifies personification that the eagle has hands for clasping where stands for claws of the Eagle. For that reason, Tennyson tries to make eagle like man by substituting claws with hands where only human has.
- Beside that, this poem uses pronoun ‘He’ to show the reader about the power of eagle and the characteristic of man.
- The sounds of some syllables of the first line also represent a powerful, such as clasps, crag, and crooked. If we pronounce these syllables, we will feel there are some powers behind the sounds. These syllables are also called as alliteration with the use of hard "c" sounds in the words "clasps," "crag," and, "crooked."
b. The Sun
In the second line of the poem, Tennyson uses hyperbola to give the strong and high impression of the eagle. He uses the sentence Close to the sun in lonely lands. We recognize that distance between sun and earth is approximately more than 150.000.000 kilometers. It is so far. But to give effect of eagle’s power, the eagle is put near with the sun.
c. The Azure (Sky)
The color "azure" may or may not refer to the sea, but it certainly refers to the sky. The bright blue sky circles the eagle like a ring in all directions.
d. The Sea
“Wrinkled" is an unusual word to describe the sea. It makes us think of a shirt that we have crumpled up and thrown in the corner of our room, or of wrinkled skin. If "wrinkled" is meant to make us think of skin, then it's another example of personification that means as a wave of the sea.
e. The Mountain
As we know that "The Eagle" was inspired by Tennyson's travels through the Pyrenees Mountain near the border of France and Spain. But the mountain he describes is not land-locked. The eagle is perched on a rock overlooking the blue ocean. The poem uses words that put the mountains out of human reach, words like "crag" and "walls." The entire mountain seems to belong to the solitary eagle which can be meant that there is no one can be equal to or comparable with him.
f. Thunderbolt
The phrase "like a thunderbolt" is a simile that describes the speed and energy of the eagle's flight. The word "falls" is a deliberate understatement. What Tennyson really means is something like "dives." So that it means that the eagle can dives into the deep sea and fast such a thunder.

The setting of this poem is in a sunny day on a tall seaside cliff near the Pyrenees Mountains in Southern France. The poem also gives us the scenery of brown and gray rock. The "crag" of the cliff is a tall piece of rock sticking out over the ocean. The eagle stands at the very edge of this cliff and clings to the rock. There are no humans in sight and not even any other birds or animals. The eagle watches over the entire area like the owner of the land. Then this poem describes that the eagle watches the crawl waves towards the shore, like a thirsty man crawling towards an oasis. He stands on a rock or cliff on the high mountain ringed by the blue of sky, so close to the sky, and the sea beneath him crawls slowly. And from that high mountain, he is ready to fall down into the sea.
From this poem, Tennyson intends to describe the ideal power of man such a power of the eagle. Man is strong and powerful like the eagle which has power to clasp strongly and authority in a certain area like the eagle which dominate the high mountain, the high sky , and the large sea.