Personality

           According to Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary, “personality is the characteristic and the qualities seen as a whole”. From this definition, we can see if we talk about personality it means that we will talk about some one’s characteristic and qualities completely. Personality is one of the aspects in psychological term; surely, in analyzing Mrs.Pontellier’s personality, the researcher will use the theory of personality, taken from psychological theory.

Gordon Alport (1937) describe that psychology personality is a branch of psychology that studies personality and individual differences. Its focus areas include constructing a coherent picture of a person and his or her major psychological processes, Investigating individual differences, that is, how people can differ from one another, Investigating human nature, that is, how all people's behavior is similar.

 One emphasis in this area is to construct a coherent picture of a person and his or her major psychological processes. Another emphasis views personality as the study of individual differences, in other words, how people differ from each other. A third area of emphasis examines human nature and how all people are similar to one another. These three viewpoints merge together in the study of personality.

Personality can be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations. The word "personality" originates from the Latin persona, which means mask. Significantly, in the theatre of the ancient Latin-speaking world, the mask did not used as a plot device to disguise the identity of a character, but rather was a convention employed to represent or typify that character.

In psychology, there are many kinds of definition from personality, G.W Allport says that: “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of psychophysical system that determines his unique adjustment to his environment” (G.W Alport in Sujanto, 1991:11).

 It “personality is consistent behavior and interpersonal processes originating within the changes as it grows, we may say, it is not stagnant it will flow. As Jerry says in his book, individual” (Burger, 2000:17). John B. Watson, a theorist of the behavioral/social learning approach says that personality is “the end product of our habit system”. Another definition stated by Richard in his book, Theory of Personality: “personality is the dynamic and organized set of characters possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, motivations, and behaviors in various situations” (Rickman, 2000: 5). Many Kinds of definition from personality, some times make some people get confused, indeed personality is largely known as the person’s characteristic.