Ðàçìåùåíî íà http://www.allbest.ru/

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. METAPHOR AS A FIGURE OF SPEECH THE DEFINITONS OF METAPHOR

1.1 Metaphor and analogical categories

1.2 Types of metaphor

1.3 Common speech examples of metaphors

2. TECHNIQUES OF TRANSLATION OF METAPHORS IN OSCAR WILDE'S “THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY”

NOTES

CONCLUSION



INTRODUCTION

The aim of the research is to study metaphor as a literary device, to define it, to show its use in general and to provide examples of metaphor and metaphoric expressions from Oscar Wilde's “The Picture of Dorian Gray”.

I have chosen this very topic for two reasons. The first is that I like the book and it is interesting to find stylistic devices, and as I study translation, it will be good for me to translate the passages from the book thus developing my translating skills. Metaphors give new colors to the writing, so studying them will widen my imagination. The origin of the word metaphor derives from the 16th-century Old French métaphore, which comes from the Latin metaphora, "carrying over", in turn from the Greek ìåôáöïñÜ (metaphorá), "transfer", from ìåôáöÝñù (metapherô), "to carry over", "to transfer" and that from ìåôÜ (meta), "after, with, across"+ öÝñù (pherô), "to bear", "to carry".[ Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus]

The objectives of this research:

· To distinguish Literary Elements and Literary Techniques and provide examples.

· To reveal the peculiarities of understanding metaphor, to show its types and definitions and to compare it with other stylistic devices.

· To show the use of metaphor not only in literature but also in common speech.

· To analyze the book “The picture of Dorian Gray” in order to find and provide examples of Metaphor in it.

The content of the research is reflected in the structure of the paper, which consists of an introduction, 3 chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography.

Scientific novelty of the research is to provide examples from “The picture of Dorian Gray”, translate them into Armenian and give the similarities and differences of the translated passages and distinguish the stylistic devices used in both languages.

1. METAPHOR AS A FIGURE OF SPEECH THE DEFINITONS OF METAPHOR

A metaphor can be defined in different ways. Here are some of its definitions:

1) A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech, or something that we use to replace "normal" words in order to help others understand or enjoy our message. For example, we use the phrase "a blanket of snow" to describe a snowfall that covers the ground evenly, as if the snow were a fabric. The popular software "Windows" is named for the rectangular units that show information in much the same way as the windows on our houses allow us to look outside in different directions and see different things. When you see a word that substitutes the real word one would use, it's probably a metaphor.

After time, a metaphor gets used so often that it is no longer treated figuratively. When this happens, we call it a "dead metaphor". One can always debate whether a metaphor is "living" or "dead" because there's something very special - very personal about the metaphor. A living metaphor reaches into some other part of our personal understanding in order to work: if we must form a "conceptual bridge" to get the meaning of the metaphor, then it is still quite alive, if only to ourself.

When learning English for the first time, a student may have trouble knowing that "blanket" is a dying metaphor for "layer". In North America, this phrase is heard so often that the phrases "layer of snow" and "blanket of snow" are interchangeable. Meanwhile, in Mexico, where snow may never fall, one might need an explanation of what "snow" is in order to recognize that "blanket" is being used figuratively - a metaphor. Like a blanket of snow, a "coat" of paint is also a layer - and a metaphor - so close in their figurative usage that it comes as no surprise that a real-life blanket can be worn like a coat. One language, dialect, region or jargon may accept a metaphor sooner than another, so that the same metaphor may be living in one place while stone dead in another. Untold thousands of metaphors are quietly synonymous with others in the same or other languages.

2)Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.

3) The definition of a metaphor is a word or phrase used to compare two unlike objects, ideas, thoughts or feelings to provide a clearer description.[ YourDictionary definition and usage example]

4) Metaphor - figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another.[ Webster's New World College Dictionary ,Ohio, 2010 ]

5) A metaphor is an imaginative way of describing something by referring to something else which is the same in a particular way.

6) A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.[ Oxford Dictionary, 1997]

7) Metaphor commonly means saying one thing while intending another, making implicit comparison between things linked by a common feature, perhaps even violating semantic rules.[ Dickey J. Metaphor as Pure Adventure. Washington, 1968. ]

Metaphors are not simply literary devices, but something active in understanding, perhaps even the very basis of language. Metaphors organize our experience, uniquely express it, and create convincing realities. Usually metaphors are created for the purpose of better internal visualization and comparison to another concept from which one can draw his or her own conclusion. They serve the purpose of insightful close reading. [ Wellek, Warren, Theory of Literature 2008 ]



1.1 Metaphor and analogical categories

Metaphors are most frequently compared with similes. The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th edition) explains the difference as “a simile states that A is like B, a metaphor states that A is B or substitutes B for A”.

Where a metaphor asserts the two objects in the comparison are identical on the point of comparison, a simile merely asserts a similarity. For this reason a metaphor is generally considered more forceful than a simile.

The metaphor category also contains these specialized types:

· Allegory: An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of the subject. The symbolic meaning of an allegory can be political or religious, historical or philosophical. An example of allegory can be C.S. Lewis's “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, a famous religious allegory. The lion Aslan is a stand-in for Christ, and the character of Edmund, who betrays Aslan, is a Judas figure.

· Parable: An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching such as in Aesop's fables, or Jesus' teaching method as told in the Bible.

· Pun: A pun is a play on words. The sound or spelling of the words might be similar, but the meanings are very different. A bright example of pun - Oscar Wilde uses puns in his play “Importance of being Earnest”. Jack Earnest, the main hero, says: “I always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn't I? Well, it is Ernest after all. I mean it naturally is Ernest.” Here Jack discovers his father name which makes him truly earnest.[ Herscberger, Ruth (Summer 1943). "The Structure of Metaphor"]

Metaphor, like other types of analogy, can usefully be distinguished from metonymy as one of two fundamental modes of thought. Metaphor and analogy both work by bringing together two concepts from different conceptual domains, whereas metonymy works by using one element from a given domain to refer to another closely related element. Thus, a metaphor creates new links between otherwise distinct conceptual domains, whereas a metonymy relies on the existing links within them.

1.2 Types of metaphor

· Dead metaphor is a metaphor that has lost its force and meaning through overuse. Examples:

world wide web, flowerbed, dishing for compliments, windfall

· Catachretic metaphor is a metaphor that uses words in a figurative sense to fill in the gap caused by an insufficient language. Parts of the body can be used in these metaphors. Examples:

leg of a table, head of a pin, eye of a needle, foot of a mountain, blood vessels and veins referred as rivers and tributaries.

· Primary metaphor is a metaphor that is immediately understood. Examples:

knowing is seeing, time is motion.

· Complex metaphor is a metaphor where the literal meaning is expressed through more than one figurative term or primary terms. Examples:

lose our cool, anger welling-up inside, person flaring up, and outburst of anger.

· Conceptual metaphor is a metaphor where one idea or concept is understood as another. Example:

Time is money.

· Creative metaphor is a contrast to conventional metaphor, a metaphor that is an original comparison and draws attention to itself. Example:

"Her tall black-suited body seemed to carve its way through the crowded room."[ Josephine Hart, Damage, 1991]

· Extended metaphor is a metaphor that is a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem. Example:

Emily Dickinson's poem “Little Bird” talks about a bird as hope.

· Grammatical metaphor is a metaphor that substitutes one grammatical class or structure for another. Example:

“Mary came upon a wonderful sight and a wonderful sight met Mary's eyes” as metaphorical variants of “Mary saw something wonderful."

· Mixed metaphor is a succession of objectionable combinations that are actually clichés and dead metaphors. Examples:

"Sir, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I'll nip him in the bud."

· Personification is when inanimate objects are given human-like qualities. Example:

"Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there."

1.3 Common speech examples of metaphors

Most of us think of a metaphor as a device used in songs or poems only, and that it has nothing to do with our everyday life. In fact, all of us in our routine life speak, write and think in metaphors. We cannot avoid them. Metaphors are sometimes constructed through our common language. They are called conventional metaphors. Calling a person a “night owl” or an “early bird” or saying “life is a journey” are common conventional metaphor examples commonly heard and understood by most of us. Below are some more conventional metaphors we often hear in our daily life:

1. My brother was boiling mad. (This implies he was too angry.)

2. The assignment was a breeze. (This implies that the assignment was not difficult.)

3. It is going to be clear skies from now on. (This implies that clear skies are not a threat and life is going to be without hardships)

4. The skies of his future began to darken. (Darkness is a threat; therefore, this implies that the coming times are going to be hard for him.)

5. Her voice is music to his ears. (This implies that her voice makes him feel happy)



2. TECHNIQUES OF TRANSLATION OF METAPHORS IN OSCAR WILDE'S “THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY”

I decided to give the original text, its translation into Armenian and to bring my variants of translations into Armenian maximum to the original text without losing the metaphoric meanings. The book, of course, has many metaphors and metaphoric expressions, and writing all of them would have been nonsense, so I chose those examples which have attracted me most.

The first chapter of the book begins with an introduction to Basil Hallward's studio: metaphor figurative sense analogy

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.[ All the examples are from this book: Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Airmont PB Classic Series, 1964](Wilde, 1964: 5)

Of course, the sentence is full of not only metaphors but also with epithets and personifications. Wilde used the words “odour”, “scent” and “perfume”, all synonyms to each other, to avoid the repetition of one and same word. Just imagine how pale would be “perfume of roses”, “heavy perfume of the lilac”, “the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn”. So I translated all three words with synonyms.

Wilde used metaphors not only in sentences but in whole passages. In the passage given below we can see a piece of horror:

The suspense became unbearable. Time seemed to him to be crawling with feet of lead, while he by monstrous winds was being swept towards the jagged edge of some black cleft of precipice. He knew what was waiting for him there; saw it, indeed, and, shuddering, crushed with dank hands his burning lids as though he would have robbed the very brain of sight and driven the eyeballs back into their cave. It was useless. The brain had its own food on which it battened, and the imagination, made grotesque by terror, twisted and distorted as a living thing by pain, danced like some foul puppet on a stand and grinned through moving masks. Then, suddenly, time stopped for him. Yes: that blind, slow-breathing thing crawled no more, and horrible thoughts, time being dead, raced nimbly on in front, and dragged a hideous future from its grave, and showed it to him. He stared at it. Its very horror made him stone. (Wilde, 1964: 166-167)

A huge passage with scary thoughts, but how beautifully it is described! In the book we can see many examples of this kind. The author describes a scary scene but with such adorable words and beautiful stylistic devices that make paradoxes. When one tries to imagine the given scene, he may become horrified. Here, the time is personified as a living creature. In this part “the jagged edge of some black cleft of precipice” Wilde tried to prolong a simple word-group “edge of precipice” and I should say it became more literary. In fact such things are one of the main reasons that the book has its honorable place in literature.

Let's see how Wilde describes the negative effect of sin on Dorian:

What the worm was to the corpse, his sins would be to the painted image on the canvas. They would mar its beauty and eat away its grace. They would defile it and make it shameful. And yet the thing would still live on. It would be always alive.(Wilde, 1964: 122)

Here Wilde made a brilliant comparison of worms with Dorian's sins. In the following sentences he gives us a definite thought of what the picture and the sins are to Dorian:

The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all. (Wilde, 1964: 109)

This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. (Wilde, 1964: 110)

As we read the book we understand that these sentences are telling us the truth. Here is an example that the portrait is “alive” at it HAS its own consciousness:

His own soul was looking out at him from the canvas and calling him to judgement. (Wilde, 1964: 122)

The changing process of the painting is noteworthy:

No; that was impossible. Hour by hour, and week by week, the thing upon the canvas was growing old. It might escape the hideousness of sin, but the hideousness of age was in store for it. The cheeks would become hollow or flaccid. Yellow crow's feet would creep round the fading eyes and make them horrible. The hair would lose its brightness, the mouth would gape or droop, would be foolish or gross, as the mouths of old men are. There would be the wrinkled throat, the cold, blue-veined hands, the twisted body that he remembered in the grandfather who had been so stern to him in his boyhood. The picture had to be concealed. There was no help for it. (Wilde, 1964: 125)

The words hollow, flaccid, fading, droop, wrinkled, blue-veined and twisted make the atmosphere more dramatic and emphasized. These words are all related to the idea that beauty dies with age. Something once youthful, full, firm, lively, and nimble becomes old, flaccid, faded, droopy, wrinkled, blue-veined, and twisted. The expression “yellow crow's feet” mean “wrinkle” so I translated it into Armenian as “?????”.

Another example of nature description:

The bright dawn flooded the room and swept the fantastic shadows into dusky corners, where they lay shuddering. (Wilde, 1964: 95)

The quivering ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing. (Wilde, 1964: 95)

Wilde has a specific word usage. The reader is always struck by the peculiar use of stylistic devices and expressive means. The epithets “bright dawn”, “quivering ardent sunlight”, “fantastic shadows” make the novel more emphatic. The word “shadow” here is translated into Armenian in its connotative meaning.

Returning to the sin issue, Oscar Wilde writes:

Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed. (Wilde, 1964: 150)

The sin, as we can see, has a huge role in the book as the picture. From the given example we can come to the conclusion that this specific metaphor speaks about how big is Wilde's great ability of playing with words, and this helps him keep readers' interest.

Let us concentrate on another topic:

He was prisoned in thought. Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away. (Wilde, 1964: 186)

As we know, one can't be “prisoned in thought” and, moreover, “memory” can't “eat his soul away”. This is undoubtedly a nice piece of creative writing where one can come across the use of personification, similie and metaphor.

Another good example of a beautiful scene:

The sky was an inverted cup of blue metal. A thin film of ice bordered the flat, reed-grown lake. (Wilde 1964: 199)

From this part we can understand that the sky is compared with a cup, and ice had covered the lake, but just see how fascinating it is described! Wilde knows how to make a simple sentence a piece of good literary writing.

Another example describes a horrifying scene:

He was determined not to sleep another night at Selby Royal. It was an ill-omened place. Death walked there in the sunlight. The grass of the forest had been spotted with blood. (Wilde, 1964: 204)

I tried to paraphrase the Armenian translation of “He was determined” and instead of translating simply I translated as which is a metaphoric expression in Armenian. The death here is also an example of personification. Thus the author emphasizes the dreadfulness of the place by words “Death” and “blood” and again he does so in his famous literary manner.

The other group of examples I want to talk about are Henry “Harry” Wotton's words. Henry serves as the main philosopher in the book, and everything he said is what Oscar Wilde himself wanted to say.

We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful. (Wilde, 1964: 108)

This sentence shows us what Wilde thought of the century during which he lived, and it is a kind of irony.

As for omens, there is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that. (Wilde, 1964: 201)

In this example we see how Wilde describes the destiny and calls it “she”. And there is another example of personification here, as well as epithets and metaphors.

One more great passage which attracted me:

“Why have you stopped playing, Dorian? Go back and give me the nocturne over again. Look at that great, honey-coloured moon that hangs in the dusky air. She is waiting for you to charm her, and if you play she will come closer to the earth.”/214/

“Great, honey-coloured moon that hangs in the dusky air” contains in it both epithet and metaphor, and the continuation of the passage has metaphor as well.

And the last example I want to account for:

“Don't, Harry. The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect. There is a soul in each one of us. I know it.” (Wilde, 1964: 212)

This is Dorian's answer to Harry when he says he doesn't believe in soul. “It can be poisoned” - this is what exactly Dorian had experienced, this is what had happened to his soul, and again it is given in a metaphoric construction.



NOTES

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. He was educated at Portora Royal School (1864-71), Trinity College, Dublin (1871-74), and Magdalen College, Oxford (1874-78). After graduation he moved to Chelsea in 1879 to establish a literary career. In 1881, he published his first collection of poetry - “Poems”. He worked as an art reviewer, lectured in the United States and Canada, and lived in Paris. He also lectured in Britain and Ireland.

“The Picture of Dorian Gray”, his first and only novel, was first published as a serial story in the July 1890 issue of “Lippincott's Monthly Magazine”. As submitted by Wilde to the magazine, the editors feared the story was indecent, and deleted five hundred words before publication -- without Wilde's knowledge.

The magazine edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray was expanded from thirteen to twenty chapters; and the magazine edition's final chapter was divided into two chapters, the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of the book edition of “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Wilde's textual additions were about "fleshing out of Dorian as a character" and providing details of his ancestry that made his “psychological collapse more prolonged and more convincing.”



CONCLUSION

Nowadays the range of interests towards metaphors is becoming wider and wider. Any piece of writing without metaphors seems very poor and “pale”. Today readers expect not only aesthetic impact but also an opportunity of thinking, because everything said directly is a bit boring and uninteresting.

Metaphors are not simply literary devices, but something active in understanding, perhaps even the very basis of language. Metaphors organize our experience, uniquely express it, and create convincing realities. Usually metaphors are created for the purpose of better internal visualization and comparison to another concept from which one can draw his or her own conclusion. They serve the purpose of insightful close reading.

Oscar Wilde's “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is full of metaphors and metaphoric expressions. The author did his best to create a perfect masterpiece, and I should say he did well. The metaphors make the language of the book more beautiful, stylistically perfect and breath-taking. Of course, the book has many memorable metaphors, but the first and most obvious metaphor is, undoubtedly, the picture itself, which is the direct reflection of not only Dorian's soul, his character and his inner world, but also of all those people who try to conceal their sins.

People will never stop reading this book and, maybe, one of the reasons is the charming metaphors with the help of which O. Wilde decorated his literary work.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Dickey J. “Metaphor as Pure Adventure”, Washington, 1968.

2. Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, “A Greek-English Lexicon”, 1965

3. Herscberger, Ruth, "The Structure of Metaphor”, 1943

4. I.R. Galpen , “Stylistics”, Moscow, 1977

5. Josephine Hart, “Damage”, 1991

6. Orehovec, Barbara, “Revisiting the Reading Workshop: A Complete Guide to Organizing and Managing an Effective Reading Workshop That Builds Independent, Strategic Readers” (illustrated ed.), 2003

7. Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Airmont PB Classic Series, 1964

8. Oxford Dictionary, 1997

9. Webster's New World College Dictionary ,Ohio, 2010

10. Wellek, Warren, “Theory of Literature”, 2008

Ðàçìåùåíî íà Allbest.ru

...