Metaphor as stylistic figure (using from literary works "Jane Eyre" and "The Old Man and the Sea")

One of the most important concepts used in the novel Jane Eyre is the concept of “Fire and Burning”. Now we can use the method of metaphor analysis so called “the metaphorical chain”:

When it first becomes truly obvious that Rochester has feelings for Jane, she has just saved him from the fire in his bed. >

When Rochester tries to keep Jane with him after this incident, she says: “strange energy was in his voice, strange fire in his look” [9], p.237 >

When Rochester suggests that he and Jane remain together even though they cannot be married, Jane writes: “…a hand of fiery iron grasped my vitals. Terrible moment: full of struggle, blackness, burning! Not a human being that ever lived could wish to be loved better than I was loved” [9], p.326. Jane is tempted to succumb to her and Rochester's passions, but she does not. >

So, we can see that passion, force, fire, struggle, burning - all this expressions are used throughout the novel to represent passion as an uncontrollable force.

Another interesting moment in the novel includes the expression of “Chestnut Tree”. This tree that had been struck by lightning during a storm is a symbol for the relationship between Jane and Rochester. When Jane is running in the rain toward Rochester, she sees the tree and writes that it had not been split in half, but that while there was a hole in it and it was separated much, the roots held it together. Jane says: “You did right to hold fast to each other.” At the end of the novel when Rochester compares himself to this ruined tree, Jane says that he is not ruined, but that plants will grow around him and take delight in him.

Metaphor analysis of the novel Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is a heroic tale of man's strength pitted against forces he cannot control. It is a tale about an old Cuban fisherman and his three-day battle with a giant Marlin.

In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses the literary device of metaphors. Hemingway uses the metaphor of “the ocean” to symbolize life and to depict the role that individuals play in life. Hemingway uses the metaphor of “the lions” to signify people who live their lives as active participants. “The tourists” in the novel represent the individuals, who observe their lives and are not active participants. We can see that in the novels that Ernest Hemingway writes, he uses metaphors to reflect his life experiences and opinions.

“The ocean” in The Old Man and the Sea is a metaphor, which represents
Hemingway's personal view of life. Hemingway believes that in life
everyone must find their own niche and uses the metaphor of “the ocean” and “the boats” on it to demonstrate this:

“...most of the boats were silent except for the dip of the oars. They spread apart after they were out of the mouth of the harbour and
each one headed for the part of the ocean where he hoped to find fish. The old man knew he was going far out...” [22], p.22.

Hemingway feels that in life there are people who participate in life
and people who observe life as it passes just like on the ocean where there are boats that do not test their boundaries. The boats are the people in life, and most of the boats are silent. They paddle within the areas they know to be safe and always are cautious not to upset the life that they have established for themselves. Hemingway is explaining that most people don't raise a commotion, they just allow life to happen to them. The old man is testing his limits, he is challenging the ocean, and rowing where he wants to go not where the ocean wants to take him. Hemingway believes that in life, the farther person stays from the observers, the more free and exhilarated he will be:

“If there is a hurricane, you always see the signs of it in the sky for days ahead, if you are at sea. They do not see it ashore because they do not know what to look for, he thought. The land must make a difference too, in the shape of the clouds. But we have no hurricane coming now.” [22], p.51

Hemingway theorizes that in life there are going to be unexpected
collisions. Just as the sea creates storms life creates storms. Those who live life to the fullest will be the least affected by these storms because they have the strength and the knowledge to handle them, but the observers or those on land will be destroyed because they do not have the power to handle the destruction that the storms will cause. The individuals who are far out to sea have the knowledge that the ocean will test them with momentous storms, and this is why they go so far out to sea. The people who Hemingway thinks face life head-on are represented by ions in the novel.

Hemingway uses the metaphor of the lion to depict the participants in life. When Santiago is a child he visits Africa, and tells Manolin of the lions he saw: “When I was your age I was before the mast on a square-rigged ship and that ship ran to Africa and I have seen lions on the beaches in the evening.” [22], p.17. Hemingway uses the lions on the beach as a metaphor, because most lions would never be found on a beach.

The only lions that would ever be found on a beach are the lions which
are equivalent to the humans who are participants. The lions on the beach are going where most lions would never dare go. These lions are testing their boundaries, seeing just how far they can go, just like participants. This line also hints at Hemingway's belief that age impairs, but does not extinguish one's ability to be participants in their own lives.

Santiago realizes that all of his glories were in his youth, and strongly relates the power that the lions in his dreams have to his youth:

“He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy.” [22], p.19

Even more so than the lions, the boy provides Santiago with the ultimate symbol of youth, potency, and hope. More often than he prays to God for help, the old man recalls memories of Manolin wishing the boy were there to give him strength in his time of need. The hotel, terrace at the edge of the harbor, where the boy goes to obtain coffee, meals, and bait for Santiago can be also a symbol, a metaphor. This establishment (not coincidentally the site where tourists ultimately mistake the skeleton of Santiago's great marlin for a shark's) reflects society, where Santiago is misunderstood, ridiculed, and pitied.

The old man's sail was “patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat” [22], p.9. Other fishermen seem to believe that Santiago himself is a walking symbol of permanent defeat, as he does not catch a fish for eighty-four days. Yet, when unfurled, the sail still carries out its function, carrying Santiago out into the deepest water where his great Marlin awaits. Likewise, the old man proves himself when the time comes, giving a lasting impression of endurance.

We can use the metaphorical chain one more to trace the interesting metaphor in the Old Man and the Sea. As to “Santiago's hands” we can see that the scars on the old man's hands are introduced in an opening description of Santiago. The metaphorical chain is represented in the table 2.6.

Table 2.6. “Santiago's hands” metaphorical chain

Another metaphorical figure can be “Santiago's Mast”. Christian imagery returns near the end of the novel when Santiago shoulders his mast after returning, and climbs towards his shack. It was only then that “he knew the depth of his tiredness” [22], p.121. As the old man stumbles home he falls, and finds the mast on his back too heavy to rise with. The imagery of Christ carrying his cross continues as Santiago “put the mast down and stood up. He picked the mast up and put it on his shoulder and started up the road. He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack” [22], p.121. Even after his three days of suffering the old man dutifully carries his burden on his back, Christ-like, before falling into a well-deserved sleep.

The Great DiMaggio, New-York Yankee Joe DiMaggio, whose career Santiago follows in the newspapers is a metaphorical character that means a two time American League Most Valuable Player, and one of the greatest baseball players ever was plagued by injuries throughout the second half of his career. One of the better known injuries was the bone spur in the heel of his left foot, which limited his abilities in 1946. The next year, however, DiMaggio made a comeback with another season. Santiago sees the Great DiMaggio as an ultimate symbol of resilience and courage.

In the novel Santiago is slowly losing his ability to be an effective participant in his life because of the limitations that are associated with aging. Hemingway also experiences inabilities that he has never known and which bring him into a depression. Santiago is beginning to believe that he is not a participant in his life so he doesn't depress himself by dreaming of anything other than the lions, who are participants. In his dreams, Santiago is living vicariously through the lions. The lions represent all that Hemingway ever was, and what he wishes he still could be. The tourists in the novel are metaphors for what Hemingway isn't.

“The tourists” are metaphors for the people Hemingway believes live their lives as passive observers. The tourists appear only briefly but the statement that Hemingway makes through them is profound.

“I didn't know sharks had such handsome tails.” “I didn't either,” her
male companion said [22], p.109. These two tourists who speak are hardly differentiated from the group to which they belong. They are all metaphors for individuals who are spectators of the human scene rather than participants in its activity. They see, but they see without fully comprehending. They are only faintly curious, passively interested, superficially observing, they have not been initiated into the mysteries that Santiago understands. These tourists live their lives as
tourists, skimming the surface of life, without resolution or clarity.

Their life reflects that of all people who dare not grapple with the mysteries of the ocean, or of life. This is the type of life that Hemingway always tried to avoid, to the point of his taking his own life. Hemingway uses metaphors to reflect his opinions of life and the people that he has met in life. The metaphor of the sea symbolizes all of life and the roles that people must choose to have in life. The lions are the metaphor for the people Hemingway respects and the type of person Hemingway is. The tourists are a metaphor for the individuals who choose to live their life as onlookers but never participants. Through Hemingway's use of penetrating metaphors in his novels, readers gain an understanding of Hemingway's life and or their own. Through his novels Hemingway challenges every member of society to admit that most people are observers and through his novels dares them to head out to sea and catch their marlin.

CONCLUSION

To sum up, we should say that this degree research was conducted with the purpose of entire investigation of metaphor sense, main features, structure, theories, problems, types and usage. According to this purpose the main task of the degree consisted in carrying out of metaphor analysis using the example of literary works of English authors (Charlotte Bronte's “Jane Eyre” and Ernest Hemingway's “The Old Man and the Sea”).

In compliance with specified purpose and main task of the research the following theoretical and analytical tasks were resolved in this degree:

1. A lot of different existing definitions of metaphor made by different linguists were examined and metaphor essence and structure were reviewed (including metaphor and simile comparison).

2. Great number of emphasized metaphor types was investigated, its sense, use and examples were represented; and also metaphor categorization on allegory, catharsis and parabola took place in the research. Conceptual metaphor was considered in details.

3. The importance of metaphor in literature and our everyday life was showed by examples. Metaphor use in different scopes was examined (political, literary, poetic, language metaphors).

4. Metaphor theories that still cause polemics among linguists were discussed in the research.

5. Metaphor interpretation in philosophy was also considered in the work. Bodily metaphors and metaphors for the body as the metaphor initial comparison were also reviewed in the degree.

6. The ways of metaphor identification and analysis were fully investigated using examples.

7. The metaphor analysis of literary works “Jane Eyre” (C. Bronte) and “The Old Man and the Sea” (E. Hemingway) was conducted.

Theoretical tasks, that include (1)-(5) tasks were accomplished in the first theoretical chapter and practical tasks (6)-(7) were implemented in the second analytic chapter of this degree. As a whole, the concernment and urgency of this degree consists in conducted research, that includes entire and useful theoretical consideration of the phenomenon “metaphor”, its main features and questions arising in this regard, and also practical approach based on existing methods of metaphor identification and analysis.

In general, we can say that offered research can be worthy of notice because of reasons specified above and that is why it can be used for increase of effectiveness during the process of metaphor studying, investigation and analysis.

LITERATURE

metaphor stylistic novel

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