DRAMMA STUDY II Psychological Analysis Of Peter’s And Jerry’s Character In “The Zoo Story” by Edward Albee Analyzed by: Dicka Akbari, Noviyanti Agil Pamungkas, Arifah Miftachul Jannah, Antin Setiyani, H. M. Taufik Amrillah, Ardiana Yuli.

Introduction The Zoo Story tells of a conversation between two people, who do not know each other at first, they are Peter and Jerry. The story begins with a conversation between Peter and Jerry and it ends with a death of Jerry.

In this case we will discuss about objective approach especially psychological analysis in Peter and Jerry’s character, especially because we are interested to know the reason why Jerry does that. The theme of the story is about absurdity versus reality, loneliness, and wealth and poverty

Backgruond Of Author Edward Albee was born March 12, 1928, Washington, D.C., U.S. American dramatist and theatrical producer best known for his play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Albee was the adopted child of a father who had for a time been the assistant general manager of a chain of vaudeville theatres then partially owned by the Albee family. He had a difficult relationship with his parents, particularly with his mother, whom he saw as distant and unloving. Albee grew up in New York City and nearby Westchester county.

He was educated at Choate School (graduated 1946) and at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut (1946–47). He wrote poetry and an unpublished novel but turned to plays in the late 1950s. Among Albee's early one-act plays, The Zoo Story (1959), The Sandbox (1959), and The American Dream (1961) were the most successful and established him as an astute critic of American values.

TOPIC The reason why we choose the topic is because we interest to analyze the two characters in this story which is contradictive, Peter and Jerry. It’s interesting because The Zoo Story is an absurd story of Albee, so the group will concern on the Psychological of the characters.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The goal of making this analysis toward Peter and Jerry’s character is to improve our knowledge about those two contradictive characteristics. This analysis is also to compare the character of Peter and Jerry. So we can find out the different character between Peter and Jerry.

THEORY To analyze the characters we use Psychological theory especially Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist  Sigmund Freud.

Character & Characterization Physical appearance : Peter: an executive for a publishing house. An average-sized and nearsighted man in his early forties, Peter has Catholic tastes and dresses conservatively; he is an upper-class representative of the Eisenhower years. His family life is predictably normal: a good wife, two daughters, two cats, two parakeets, and a nice apartment in the East Seventies of Manhattan. He is well-educated and insightful.

Jerry : A man in his late thirties, not poorly dressed, but carelessly Jerry : A man in his late thirties, not poorly dressed, but carelessly.  What was once a trim and lightly muscled body has begun to go to fat;  and while he is no longer handsome

Character & Characterization Psychological character : Peter : His attitude reflects his status: He is naïve, complacent, passive, proper, and a bit bored. His intention on this afternoon was to read quietly in Central Park. He also calm and patient

Jerry : A lonely and absurd man Jerry : A lonely and absurd man. He seems like a fussy and always made unimportant conversation toward Peter. He also seems jealous of Peter who has a 'full' life.

CONCLUSION The main conflict of THE ZOO STORY is the impact of modernization of a society that makes people suffer from the "disease" of alienation: alienation in life they have. Jerry feels strange to the life of Peter who appears only in the books of fairy tales, while Peter feels strange feeling to someone 'crazy' like Jerry, who suddenly appeared in his life, and living in a rundown apartment which, according to Peter.

Those that we can explain about contradictive characters between Peter and Jerry. THANK YOU