Symbolic Meaning of Drama “Perlawanan Diponegoro”

Study on Drama entitled “Perlawanan Diponegoro” or “Diponegoro Insurrection” by Lephen Purwanto is aiming at deeply digging the semiotic meanings attached to it. This study employed Keir Elam's theatrical semiotics as the approach, while Krippendorf's content analysis was implemented as the method of study. Citing from Krippendorf, content analysis is a method that is particularly develop to study symbolical phenomena with a major purpose that is to dig and reveal other examined phenomena, comprising content, meaning, and essential element of a literary work.


INTRODUCTION
Prince Diponegoro is a famous warrior who fought for independence, from Java Indonesia. Prince Diponegoro, or known as Pangeran Diponegoro (1785-1855) was well-known as a mystic, an obedient Muslim, and a warlord, opposing Dutch colonialism during the years of 1825-1830. The prince belongs to one of the famous national heroes in Indonesian national history. The guerilla war done by him during his glory in most of Javanese major cities had proven to be able to put the Dutch colonialism in a chaos.
Prince Diponegoro made his war against the Dutch as a holy war against the invader's cruelty. This made Indonesian people felt sympathetic and finally helped him during the war. People believed that the Prince's insurrection had two meanings, as a holy war to defend and pro-The history of Prince Diponegoro's insurrection against the Dutch colonialism had become inspirations for several artwork creations, i.e. Raden Patah Bustaman who painted an oil painting entitled "Penangkapan Pemimpin Pangeran Diponegoro" or "The arrest of Leader Prince Diponegoro" (1857), Remy Sylado wrote a novel entitled "Pangeran Diponegoro" or "Prince Diponegoro" in 2008, a dancer named Sardono W. Kusumo created "Opera Diponegoro" or "Diponegoro Opera" in 2012, as well as Lephen Purwanto, a drama player from Yogyakarta who created a radio drama script entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro" or "Diponegoro Insurrection" in the year of 2016. The mentioned examples are small parts of many art works inspired by the story of Prince Diponegoro's struggle war against the Dutch colonialism.
How artists captured the phenomena of Diponegoro's insurrection war during the past era had proven that the story of Diponegoro's struggle in defeating the Dutch had never been away from being the inspiration of art work creations. This can be understood and widely accepted since the figure of Prince Diponegoro itself always has the image of a nationalist, patriotic, populist, and religious. The selfless struggle done by the Prince in defending common people is actually valuable and is deserved to be known by current generation. Further, it is considerably needed to be spread out and learned from the young generation, so that the youth will value the Prince's struggle for more than just a name of the main street, university, and other public places.
Related to the phenomena described in the previous parts of this study, researcher attempts to analyze the script of an episode of radio drama about Prince Diponegoro entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro" or "The Diponegoro Insurrection" by Lephen Purwanto (2011) by using the theatrical semiotic approach from Keir Elam (1991). The radio drama itself actually had a considerable number of episodes that cannot be covered in the study, thus, rese-archers specified the analysis by studying only one episode entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro". The episode selection was based on the consideration of numbers of symbols appeared during the time it was on-aired. The symbol itself is an essential element connecting the material mode (signifier) and the meaning (signified).
Symbols in the radio drama's episode studied in this study are mainly found in its theme elements and characterizations. As it has been studied, the theme and characterization is an element forming a dramagenre-narrative story (Sahid, 2014, p. 1-4). The characters in the story, such as: Prince Diponegoro, Patih Danurejo (The Vice Regent), Adipati Mangarto (The Duke), Residen Smissaert, and Prince Mangkubumi are some of the symbols in the context of theatrical semiotics which the signified can be analyzed. The incidents and complications in the drama "Perlawanan Diponegoro" in this study actually results from the conflicts between characters. Therefore, the analysis of this dramatic theme cannot be separated from the characterization analysis. The meanings attached to the theme element are analyzed further by using the theatrical semiotic approach.
From the background information and context analysis, two research questions are derived, 1) how is the theme of the drama entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro"? 2) how are symbolic meanings implicated in the drama entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro"? Thus, this study is aimed at analyzing the theme and meanings of drama entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro".

METHOD
From research questions and the aims, thus, this study implemented the content analysis method. Krippendorf (cited in Nuryanto, 1992) stated that the content analysis method is particularly developed to study symbolical phenomena by digging and discovering other phenomena of an art work's content, meaning, and essential elements as its main purpose. This method implies the notion that the most important intellectual activity is making inferences or conclusion about the study goals. The content analysis method in this study was done in particular steps. The first stage was inventory which was done in this study by inventorying the theme of "Perlawanan Diponegoro" radio drama. Second was the stage of identification that was done by identifying conflicts between characters of the drama. The third was the stage of classification that was done by classifying symbols emerged in the drama. The fourth was the stage of interpretation. It was done by interpreting meanings behind the symbols emerged in the drama.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This study employs the theory of theatrical semiotics of Keir Elam (1992). It has been widely explained that semiotics has clear implications for drama and theatre study. In the discourse of drama, however, semiotics allows the investigation of drama text structurally. On the other hand, in theater's discourse, the semiotics provides a metalanguage which can be used to analyze the language of pictures, physics, and aural of the theatre. The term "theatre" tends to link more to the phenomena of the performer -audience transaction. It relates to the production and communication of meaning in the performance with the basic systems underlying it (Elam, 1991, p. 2). In relation to this, it can be inferred that the study of semiotics towards theatrical performance is possible to be done both for certain element attached to the performance −for instance, the element of drama of a theatre performance− and the whole theater performance. In this study, the analysis focuses only on the element of drama (the written text) of the radio drama "Perlawanan Diponegoro", and not on the radio drama as an oral performance. Elam (1991, p. 2) mentioned "drama" as a fiction work which is designed as stage representation and constructed based on specific drama conventions. In other words, "theater" is limited to what happened between the performers and audiences, meanwhile "drama" indicates network factors which are related to the represented fiction. Thus, the work scope for a semiotician lies on two text materials, i.e. the drama text (written) and the theater text (the theatre performance).
Mukarovsky (cited in Elam, 1991, p. 7) stated that symbols are able to identify an art work, including theater, as a semiotic unit in which the signifier is the art work itself as the "material", while the signified is the "aesthetic object" that lies on the society's collective awareness. In this context, symbol in artwork acts as two faces entity which relates the material mode or signifier with the mental concept or signified.
The drama text is considered as a macro symbol, that the meanings are determined based on the total effects. This macro symbol should be divided into smaller units before the analysis stage is started. As a result, drama as an artwork is not a single symbol, but more to a semiotic unit network that employs work-related symbols. A drama is formed from smaller units that comprise theme, characterization, and plot. The four elements are interrelated to each other to form an integral unity.

The Analysis of Structure
The existence of theme in a story is inescapable. Without this "theme", a writer cannot develop a story; since the theme in a novel or drama is a stand or ground to build the story further (Saad, 1967, p. 62). A writer will always combine the theme together with several other story facts and tools of storytelling till the story is fully structured. H. J. Waluyo (2007, p. 24) mentioned theme as main idea included in the drama. Further argued by Waluyo that in a drama, theme will be developed through dramatic plot inside the main plot through protagonist and antagonist characters with a characterization that allows conflicts that are formulated in a form of dialogue.
A writer inserts theme together with facts and events occurred in the story. A theme is an element that is used as a unifier of other story elements, such as: character, plot, and dialogue. Kernodle (1978, p. 270) stated that sometimes a writer reveals the story theme implicitly through characters and setting. Argued further by Kernodle that usually a theme can be in a form of the moral value of attitudes that are developed in life.
The drama entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro" showed social conflicts of the main character of the story, Prince Diponegoro on one side and Patih Danurejo in another side. The illustration of events happened during the insurrection war lead by Prince Diponegoro against the misconduct behavior done by Patih Danurejo who was supported by the Dutch, had sharpen the conflict between the two parties. The social condition was illustrated by the writer to emphasize the society's anxiety throughout the country.
The society anxiety was caused by Patih Danurejo's misconduct behavior in taking the land owned by people of Tegalrejo village deliberately to build the Dutch's railroads. Tegalrejo people who were led by Prince Diponegoro could not accept the misappropriate behavior done by both the Dutch and Patih Danurejo. As a result, the Prince's cohort pulled out the border signs that were planted as the land border. The anxiety was then also resulted in an uncertain socio-politic condition. Prince Diponegoro struggled in his attempt to stand up for the fairness of people in Tegalrejo, however, some people like Patih Tegalrejo who preferred to take the Dutch's side for his own advantage.
As a local person, Patih Danurejo was never touched seeing the misery had by people in Tegalrejo whom land was taken by the Dutch. Patih Danurejo even asked for Residen Missaert's help to confront Prince Diponegoro eventhough Prince Mangkubumi who acted as Sultan (King) Menol' advisory did not approve the battle planned by Danurejo and Missaert. The fact showed how Danurejo disrespected Sultan Menol as the King of Kasultanan Yogyakarta.

The Nationalism Spirit
Prince Diponegoro seemed to have a spirit of nationalism. For him, the Dutch should not own the Java land. The prince had a famous vow saying that he better died than giving the Java land to the Dutch. This was clearly seen from the dialogue:

Diponegoro:
Ini Pangeran Diponegoro tidak akan tunduk kepada kompeni Belanda. Sedumuk batuk senyari bumi. The dialogue presented the discussion between Prince Diponegoro and his uncle, Prince Mangkubumi which acted as the advisor of The King of Mataram. The prince finally decided to war because of the support he had from his uncle.
The strong character of Prince Diponegoro and his attitude had resulted in supports he gathered from the people of Mataram. The prince's followers were motivated by the religious talk, lecture, and speech given by him. The prince always asked the people to stand for their homeland. Even, Panglima Arkiya, the prince's right-hand man offered to pull all the border signs put by the Dutch soon after it was planted (Purwanta, 2016, p. 30. The attitude of Arkiya reflects the high spirit of nationalism. He was never afraid of Danureja's troops.
In other sides, the character of Mangarto who was first introduced as the follower of Patih Danureja then later started to realize his mistake also reflected the spirit of nationalism. It was told that after Patih Danureja's failed attempt to destroy Tegalreja village, half of Patih Danureja's troops withdrew themselves and moved to the Prince Diponegoro was a decent warrior and took what Danurejo's had said as a defamation.

Traitor of Society
If the protagonist characters were people dedicating themselves for the society, on the contrary was the character of Patih Danurejo. As a patih or vice regent, he always took every decision in his own way. He tended to close to Residen Smissaert rather than to the Royal family. This can be seen from the events of the story. Even, in order to convince the Sultan, he slandered Prince Diponegoro. It was said by Patih Danurejo that Prince Diponegoro was a traitor who had killed hundreds of the Vice Regent's troops, and that the prince had bad behavior in disturbing the railroad workers. His purpose was no other than to get the Sultan's permission to do war against Prince Diponegoro.
Betrayal towards his own nation was seen clearer when Patih Danurejo and Smissaert decided to finally attack Tegalre-jo village. It was clear that Patih Danurejo did not have the spirit of nationalism to his own nation. Though he claimed himself to be the royal official of Kasultanan Mataram, however, his orientation tended to help the Dutch. The border sign planting in the land of Tegalrejo people was the Dutch's project to quicken the distribution of farming product had by the Dutch. People of Mataram never felt or even got advantages from the project. Because of this reason, Prince Diponegoro and the people of Tegalrejo fought against the border line installation used for the railroad construction.
In this case, the character of Residen Smissaert also had an essential role in influencing the decisions taken by Patih Danurejo. Patih Danurejo tended to follow the order and programs delivered by Residen Smissaert. This was done by Patih Danurejo since he had an idea that the King was too young to rule a kingdom. The King was only a child who had not been ready to rule a Kingdom. Yet, it was not entirely true. In ruling the Kingdom, the Sultan was advised by Prince Mangkubumi and the Queen, the Prince's biological mother. Therefore, the leadership of Sultan Menol was actually reliable.

The Main Conflicts of the Story
Both nationalism spirit and traitor of the society are problems implied in the drama radio "Perlawanan Diponegoro". The main conflict underlying the conflicts, however, was the occurrence of political hegemony attempt by the Dutch as the colonialist towards the people in Mataram. The Dutch's plan to build railroads to quicken their farming product delivery to Batavia became the main purpose. The railroad building was started by giving borderline sign to the local people's land, including the land owned by Prince Diponegoro in Tegalrejo village.
Both Pangeran Diponegoro and The Tegalrejo people believed that what was done by the Dutch was a form of expropriation of ancestral land which must be resisted. As a result, the Diponegoro's insurrection to fight against the Dutch was supported by the society. Prince Diponegoro himself believed that his fight against the Dutch was a realization of jihad fi sabilillah or a holy war to defend Islam from the non-believer (Purwanta, 2011, p. 38). Therefore, the Diponegoro's insurrection contained both worldly and afterlife motivation. This made the insurrection to be unstoppable. Even, the blessing given by Mangkubumi increased the motivation had by the prince.
From the conflicts contained in the story, then it can be inferred that the theme of radio drama entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro" can be formulated into a sentence, "colonialism to other nations will be always opposed by the local people whenever the colonial does not respect the rights of the colonialized people". The theme seems to inspirit the whole story plot and characterization. The different characterization and life attitude of the involved characters of the story, like, Prince Diponegoro, Patih Danurejo, Residen Smissaert, Prince Mangkubumi, Adipati Mangarto, Panglima Arkiya, etc seem to be accumulated into a story theme. The conflicts emerged throughout the story is rooted in different characterization and way of life had by the characters. The conflicts are then resulted in variety of problems as told in the previous sub sections of this study. In relation to this, all the conflicts emerged in the story are formulated into a theme which is described.
In other sides, the differences in characterization are resulted in various conflicts that caused the plot to move forward.
The story is developed dynamically from the conflict between the right-hand man of Prince Diponegoro, Panglima Arkiya, who fought against the troops of Patih Danurejo about the borderline, into the conflicts had by Residen Smissaert and Patih Danurejo against Sultan Menol and Prince Mangkubumi which resulted from the King and prince's unwillingness to permit the war against Prince Diponegoro. As a result, the biggest conflict emerged involving Prince

Diponegoro, Patih Danurejo and Residen
Smissaert in a war taken place in Tegalrejo village. The plot developed in this drama seems to be influenced by the story theme.
Therefore, there is a solid relationship between the theme and characterization, the characterization and story plot, and the story plot and theme.

The Meaning of Symbols
It has to be known that every aspect of performance is managed by denotation dialectics, such as, setting, the actor's body, the actor's movement, and the actor's utterance that all determine and are determined by primer and secondary meaning symbols that are constantly changed (Elam, K., 1991, p. 11). Certain symbol does not only contain one particular meaning, but also semiotic symbol of a performance, for instance, a cloth can show the socialeconomy level, psychology, and even moral of the wearer.
It is sure, however, that in theatrical semiotics, connotations are not naturally unique. In contrast, the ability of audience in receiving semiotic meanings depends closely on extra-theatrical and cultural values contained in certain objects, mode of discourse, or behavioral forms. It is possible that, in the end, the audience does not socially realize the meanings they give to several theatrical phenomena, however, theatrical communication allows these symbols to influence the practical functions of a theater in which everything works only to the extent that it has meaning.
In its relation to the values which are coded socially, the theatrical semiotics constantly connotate 'itself' (Sahid, 2012, p. 50-57). It means, the connotative aspect works in a whole performance which allows audience to categorize everything presented to them from normal social praxis, and therefore perceiving performance as "a symbolical network" or as "a text". In its relation to transformability or mobility of Bogatyrev signs, it is stated that symbols may have semantical meanings, not only in the level of connotation but also the denotation (Elam, 1991, p. 12).
In line with Elam (1991), in analyzing symbolical meanings contained in radio drama "Perlawanan Diponegoro", the meanings analyzed are not only in the level of denotative meaning but also the connotative one.

The Meaning of Prince Diponegoro Character
In the context of theatrical semiotics, the existence of Prince Diponegoro character who struggle to defend Mataram people whole heartedly (signifier) can be interpreted as a man having high spirit of nationalism (signified). As the heredity of Yogyakarta Royal Family, Diponegoro actually can live in prosper without the need to struggle to fight the Dutch. However, his high pride and humanismhave led him to be a national hero rather than common Royal family who live comfortably without struggling.
At the level of connotative meaning, the struggle of the prince seems to equal to the struggle of the current nations' youth to fight against foreign influence in the field of economy, culture, etc. But, it needs to be admitted that the influence of foreign nation can be also through the education institution (Jaya, 2012, p. 133-140). As it has been known, even when Indonesia has gained its independence, however, certain fields like economy, culture, and education still receive high intervention from foreign parties. In fact, the foreign intervention in those fields are strong enough. Therefore, it is natural and understandable that some youths are still fighting for the economic, politic, cultural, and educational sovereignty.

Meaning of Patih Danurejo Character
In semiotic meaning, the action of Danurejo who takes Residen Smissaert's side and is cruel to his own people (signifier) can be interpreted as the symbol of nation's traitor (signified). In the history of Indonesia during its struggling time, people like Patih Danurejo always exists. They tend to seek personal advantage over people's misery. Danurejo always asks for help from Smissaert in fighting against Prince Diponegoro.
In connotative meaning, the betrayal done by Danurejo in the context of current Indonesian society can be interpreted as symbolization of public figure, scientist, conglomerate, government official, or nation leader who takes advantage from selling country's asset, policy, and influence to other nations so that the other nations get chances to dominate and control the socioeconomic of Indonesia. This type of person does not have the spirit of nationalism. They are willing to be a traitor for the sake of personal advantage.

Meaning of Residen Smissaert Character
In semiotic meaning, the action of the Resident Smissaert character is cruel towards Prince Diponegoro and the Tegalrejo's society. Placing border signs in the villagers' land (signifier) can be interpreted as a form of arrogance of power (signified). The cruelty of Smissaert to the local people has purposed to build railroads to accelerate the delivery of farming products from Java to Batavia.
In connotative meaning, the cruelty of Smissaert to the local people in the context of the present time can be interpreted as an action of many foreign companies who run the company in their own way without obeying the rule and neglecting local people's right. These companies only want to get the most of the resources of Indonesia. As it has been known, there are plenty global companies which run their businesses in Indonesia only for their personal advantages. They never think of the negative impact caused by their company for the local people. The case of waste disposal misconduct from multinational mining companies in various places throughout Indonesia prove how companies neglect the life of local people living around their companies. Even, there are also plenty companies which avoid paying tax to the government.

Meaning of Placing Borderline in Tegalrejo Village
Placing borderline throughout The Tegalrejo village to build railroads by the troops of Patih Danurejo (signifier) contains semiotic meanings related to common people's right deprivation (dignified).
The existence of local people as the citizen of Mataram has been violated by Danurejo. This fact triggers Prince Diponegoro's anger and lead him to declare war against the Dutch. In connotative meaning, the incident of placing the border line throughout the native people's land is identical with eviction in many private places, like housing or rice fields owned by local people that is done by the government on behalf of the national infrastructure development. Building infrastructure by evicting local people's private property has been happening since the era of President Soeharto's Orde Baru (The New Order). Usually, people can do nothing to defend their rights.

Meaning of The Action of Pulling Out the Borderline
It can be understood that pulling the borderline out of the land of Tegalrejo's people by the troops of Prince Diponegoro (signifier) can be interpreted as the rise of consciousness to uphold truth and justice among Tegalrejo citizen (signified). Pangeran Diponegoro's troops and the local people bravely attack the policy had by Patih Danurejo and Residen Smissaert who are considered robbing the local people's land inherited from the ancestors.
The incidents described in the previous paragraph can be interpreted as local people revival in struggling for their personal rights, both the personal, proprietary material, social, cultural, etc. Since the reformation era, the awareness in fighting for common people rights are raised both in its relation to the leader or financier.
Even when the struggle has no guarantee to be succeed, however, people tend to be braver in fighting for their rights when it is taken forcefully by a government or company. Several cases show that for the sake of opening investment, businessmen are often taken the land of local people force-fully.

Meaning of Prince Diponegoro's Insurrection Against Residen Smissaert
The Prince Diponegoro's insurrection to the colonial under the command of Residen Smissaert (signifier) can be interpreted as the fight of santri (student learning Islam) against non-believer. Diponegoro refers the colonial who has colonialized Tegalrejo people as non-believer or secular. However, the term non-believer or secular does not mean that the Prince literally fights against one who does not believe in Islam, but more with the enemy who has taken away Tegalrejo people's ancestral land forcefully.
In connotative meaning, the war between Diponegoro and the Dutch is identical with the insurrection done by several Indonesia's socio-religious organization that has been in a war against the bad influence of western culture, such as: drinking, drugs, free sex, etc. This insurrection is not yet over since the western influence has not lost yet.

CONCLUSION
There are two major conclusions of the study. First, the drama entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro" has a heroic theme that is formulated into a sentence "colonialism to other nations will be always opposed by the local people whenever the colonial does not respect the rights of the colonialized people". This theme inspirits the whole story.
In semiotics, the meanings contained in the drama entitled "Perlawanan Diponegoro" has both denotative and connotative meanings. These connotative meanings are contextual and related to the problems had by Indonesian people nowadays.