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an unpublished novel but turned to plays in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.
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. 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