Belenggoe (Perfected Spelling: Belenggu; translated to English as Shackles) is a novel by Indonesian author Armijn Pane. The novel follows the love triangle between a doctor, his wife, and his childhood friend, which eventually causes each of the three characters to lose the ones they love. Originally published by the literary magazine Poedjangga Baroe in three instalments from April to June 1940, it was the magazine's only published novel. It was also the first Indonesian psychological novel.
Belenggu was based on themes present in two of Pane's early short stories: "Barang Tiada Berharga" ("Worthless Thing"; 1935) and "Lupa" ("Forget"; 1936). The resulting novel, written to represent a stream of consciousness and using ellipses and monologues to show internal struggle, was very different from earlier Indonesian novels. Unlike said works, which kept to traditional themes such as good versus evil, Belenggu mainly focused on its characters' psychological conflict. It also showed modernity and traditionalism as a binary system, unable to reach a compromise.
After completion, Belenggu was offered to the Dutch colonial government's state publisher, Balai Pustaka, in 1938, but rejected as "immoral". It was then picked up by Poedjangga Baroe. Initial critical reception to the novel was mixed. Proponents argued that it served as an honest representation of the internal conflicts faced by Indonesian intellectuals, while opponents dismissed the novel as "pornographic" because of its inclusion of prostitution and adultery as normal facets of life. Later reviews have been more positive: in 1976, the writer Muhammad Balfas called Belenggu "in every respect the best novel of pre-war Indonesian literature". The novel has been translated into several languages, including into English in 1989.
Background
The first modern Indonesian novels published by the state-owned publisher of the Dutch East Indies Balai Pustaka were often written to show intergenerational conflict and conflict between traditional (adat) and modern culture. These novels, published beginning in the 1920s, spearheaded the use of Indonesian as a national language. This national awakening, which was also realised through political actions, was followed in July 1933 with the establishment of the literary magazine Poedjangga Baroe (New Writer). The literary magazine, which Belenggus author Armijn Pane helped establish, was the first written mainly in Indonesian and with exclusively Indonesian editors.
Of the staff and contributors to Poedjangga Baroe, Pane was one of the biggest proponents for Westernisation. While others, such as his elder brother Sanusi, stressed the need for "Asian" values, the younger Pane disregarded conventional Indonesian morality. The literary historian Heather Sutherland writes that this may have been a result of Pane's education at a school for Dutch children; the others received Dutch-language education for Indonesians.
Plot The novel begins as Sukartono (Tono), a Dutch-trained doctor, and his wife Sumartini (Tini), residents of Batavia (modern day Jakarta), are suffering a marital breakdown. Tono is busy treating his patients, leaving no time for him to be with Tini. In response, Tini has become active in numerous social organisations and women's groups, leaving her little time to deal with household work. This further distances Tono from her, as he expects her to behave like a traditional wife and be waiting for him at home, with dinner ready, when he returns from work.
One day, Tono receives a call from a Miss Eni, who asks him to treat her at a hotel. After Tono arrives at the hotel where Eni is staying, he discovers that she is actually his childhood friend Rohayah (Yah). Yah, who has had romantic feelings for Tono since childhood, begins seducing him, and after a while, he accepts her advances. The two begin furtively meeting, often taking long walks at the port Tanjung Priok. When Tini goes to Surakarta to attend a women's congress, Tono decides to stay at Yah's house for a week.
While at Yah's, Tono and Yah discuss their pasts. Tono reveals that after he graduated from elementary school in Bandung, where he studied with Yah, he attended medical school in Surabaya and married Tini for her beauty. Meanwhile, Yah was forced to marry an older man and move to Palembang. After deciding that life as a wife was not for her, she moved to Batavia and became a prostitute, before serving as a Dutchman's mistress for three years. Tono falls further in love with Yah, as he feels that she is more likely to be a proper wife for him; Yah, however, does not consider herself ready for marriage.
Tono, a fan of traditional kroncong music, is asked to judge a singing competition at Gambir Market. While there, he discovers that Yah is also his favourite singer, who sings under the pseudonym Siti Hayati. At Gambir, he also meets with his old friend Hartono, a political activist with the political party Partindo, who enquires about Tini. On a later date, Hartono visits Tono's home and meets Tini. It is revealed that Tini was romantically involved with Hartono while the two of them were in university, where Tini surrendered her virginity to him; this action, unacceptable in traditional culture, made her disgusted with herself and unable to love. Hartono had made the situation worse by breaking off their relationship through a letter. When Hartono asks her to take him back, Tini refuses.
Tini discovers that Tono has been having an affair, and is furious. She then goes to meet Yah. However, after a long talk she decides that Yah is better for Tono and tells the former prostitute to marry him; Tini then moves back to Surabaya, leaving Tono in Batavia. However, Yah feels that she would only ruin Tono's respected status as a doctor because of her history. She decides to move to New Caledonia, leaving a note for Tono as well as a record with a song recorded especially for him as a way of saying goodbye. On the way to New Caledonia, Yah pines for Tono and hears his voice calling from afar, giving a speech on the radio. Tono, now alone, dedicates himself to his work in an attempt to fill the void left in his heart.
Characters Sukartono Sukartono (abbreviated as Tono) is a doctor, Tini's husband and Yah's lover. He treats poor patients for free and thus is well-liked by the general populace. He is also a big fan of traditional kroncong music: in medical school he preferred to sing rather than study, and as a doctor he keeps a radio in his treatment room. Suffering from loneliness in his loveless marriage with the modern-minded Tini, he becomes involved with Yah, whom he perceives as being more willing to play the traditional wife. However, when Tini and Yah leave him, he is left alone.
The Australian scholar of Indonesian literature A. Johns writes that Tono's inner turmoil is caused by his inability to understand Tini, Yah, or the bacteria which he must kill to cure his patients.
Sumartini Sumartini (abbreviated as Tini) is Tono's ultra-modern wife. While in university, she was very popular and enjoyed partying. During this time she lost her virginity to Hartono, an act which is viewed as unacceptable in traditional Indonesian culture; when Hartono left her, Tini became increasingly aloof and distant from men. After marrying Tono, she felt increasingly lonely and became involved in social work as an effort to give her life meaning. After learning of Tono's infidelity and seeing that Yah could take better care of him, Tini leaves her husband and moves to Surabaya.
Yoseph Yapi Taum, a lecturer at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, views Tini's aloof nature as a major force driving Tono to Yah; her lifestyle, of which Tono is not a part, alienates him and drives him to find a more traditional woman. Tham Seong Chee, a political scientist from Singapore, views her as a weak-willed character, unwilling to act before meeting Hartono again and even then unable to solve her marital difficulties with Tono. He also sees her as being fettered by her own values, which are incompatible with those held by the general Indonesian populace. The Indonesian writer and literary critic Goenawan Mohamad views her as driven in part by the stress placed on her by her husband's expectations.
Rohayah Rohayah (also known by the pseudonyms Nyonya Eni and Siti Hayati; abbreviated Yah) is Tono's childhood friend and later lover, as well as a popular kroncong singer. After Tono, who is three years her elder, graduated from elementary school, Yah was forcibly married to a man twenty years her senior and brought from Bandung to Palembang. After escaping him and returning to Bandung, where she found that her parents had died, she moved to Batavia and became a prostitute; she also became a popular kroncong singer under the pseudonym Siti Hayati. When she discovers that Tono has become a doctor in Batavia, she pretends to be a patient and seduces him. Although the two fall deeply in love, Yah decides to leave Tono and move to New Caledonia because she feels that society would view the doctor poorly if he married a former prostitute.
Tham sees Yah as being a good match for Tono in personality, as she shows a willingness to serve as the traditional wife. The American scholar of Indonesian literature Harry Aveling writes that Yah's employment as a prostitute was likely a capitulation by Pane to cultural constraints; Indonesian readers at the time would not have accepted Tono having an affair with someone of the same socio-economic status. Mohamad describes her as being fatalistic and notes that she downplays her past by saying that any of a thousand girls in Tanjung Priok could tell the same story; he found her touching without being melodramatic, and notes that Yah was the first prostitute featured portrayed sympathetically in an Indonesian work.
Hartono Hartono is Tini's lover from university; he was also Tono's friend. After hearing that Tini enjoys partying, he approaches her and they begin dating. After they have sex, he breaks off their relationship through a letter. He then drops out of university and becomes involved with the nascent nationalist movement, following future-president Sukarno; these acts cause his family to disown him. He later comes to Batavia to search for Tono and is surprised to find that Tini has married the doctor. Hartono asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He then goes to Surabaya.
Clive Christie, a lecturer on Southeast Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, describes Hartono as the only overtly political character in the novel.
Women's group The various members of Tini's women's group, including Mrs. Sutatmo, Mrs. Padma, Mrs. Rusdio, and Aminah, aid her in planning different social events. Mrs. Rusdio is Tini's friend from university. Aminah was one of Tini's competitors for Tono and enjoys interfering in the couple's lives. The other two disapprove of Tini's modernness and her lack of attention to Tono.
Servants Tono and Tini are served by two men, Karno and Abdul. Karno, Tono's loyal manservant, dislikes Tini and considers her overly emotional. Abdul is their driver, who usually drives Tono to meet his patients.
Influences