Caroline's journey in achieving her transcendence in sarah penner's the lost apothecary

The main purpose of this study is to examine the characterization of Caroline Parcewell. It also studied her steps and decisions she took to achieve her transcendence to become an individual with her own identity in the novel The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner. This study focuses on two topics that direct the discussion, namely: (1) How is Caroline described in The Lost Apothecary? (2) How does Caroline decide to achieve her transcendence in The Lost Apothecary? This study uses descriptive qualitative methods to depict situations, phenomena, and events in depth and detail based on qualitative data. This study analyzes the narrative, words, and dialogue describing how Caroline is described and her decisions to achieve her transcendence. The data was collected by reading the novel repeatedly and selecting relevant data to be then analyzed using the theory of new criticism and existentialist feminism to find out the characterization of Caroline and what steps and decisions she takes to achieve her transcendence. The result of this study shows that Caroline’s journey in The Lost Apothecary is a process of transformation from a woman who is initially dependent and obedient to the traditional role as a wife and is seen as “the other” who has the characteristics of being passive, submissive, and dependent into a woman who is able to free herself from shackles and unhappiness of her married life and is able to find her desires and identity.Caroline’s changes are visible when she finds an old vial, which arouses her curiosity about the origin of the vial, from that, she re-explored her interest in history, then decides to continue her education in a master’s program and chooses to divorce from James. All of these give her the courage to step forward and symbolize her liberation and the steps she takes to strengthen her autonomy. With her courage to continue and rebuild her life, this is her achievement of transcendence, which succeeds in overcoming James’ view of her, achieving freedom as an independent individual, as well as marking her struggle against patriarchal oppression or domination.