The Love Relationship of the Two Main Women Characters and Their Couple in Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side of Midnight

The Other Side of Midnight is the second novel of Sidney Sheldon that was published in 1973 which has won The New York Times Best Seller List. This novel consists of many kinds of relationship through the characters that exist in this novel. The relationship among the characters can be because of love, family, friend, and even partner in sexual necessary and job. Further, this study uses the triangular theory of love from Robert J. Stenberg that consists of three basic components of love; intimacy, passion, and commitment components. Furthermore, the combination of these three basic components of love will produce eight different types of love. They are; Nonlove, Liking, Infatuation, Empty Love, Romantic Love, Companionate Love, Fatuous Love, and Consummate Love. These three basic components of love from Stenberg’s theory and its type of love are appropriate to use in analyzing Sidney Sheldon’s The Other Side of Midnight, since there are many kinds of love that are appeared in this novel.
This study applies qualitative research design to analyze the source of data, and the key instrument is the writer himself. This study finds three types of love; they are consummate, fatuous, and romantic love, and some effects that are appeared in the love relation of the two main women characters and their couple; Catherine Alexander and Larry Douglas, and Noelle Page and Constantin Demiris. First, the consummate love is appeared in Catherine’s love toward Larry. Second, fatuous love is appeared in Larry’s love toward Catherine. And third, romantic love is appeared in Noelle’s love to Demiris and Demiris’ love toward Noelle. Furthermore, there are some effects that this study finds in their love relation. The effects of the love relation between Catherine Alexander and Larry Douglas are the unstable relationship, infidelity, and the termination of their marriage. Meanwhile, the effect that is appeared of the love relation between Noelle Page and Constantin Demiris is a free relationship or free sex, because they have no commitment component in their love relation.