Interpreting The Destiny Of Tess In Tess Of The D'Urbervilles From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a brilliant pearl in the world literature history.Destiny is a very important theme in this novel from the very beginning to the end.Scholars in China and abroad have already researched on this theme from different perspectives.But given that few scholars have made related research from the perspective of conceptual metaphor,and Lakoff and Turner's(1989)More Than Cool Reason:A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor exhibited the vital explanatory power of applying conceptual metaphor to analysis of literary works,thus,this paper attempts to conduct a research on the theme of the heroine's destiny from this perspective to well answer two questions:(1)What metaphors are related to Tess's destiny?(2)How are the most frequently used metaphors connected to Tess's destiny?With the guidance of Lakoff and Johnson's(1980)conceptual metaphor theory,this paper analyzes metaphors in this novel,and has three main findings:Firstly,there do exist metaphors related to the fate of Tess.They are mainly season metaphors,color metaphors,place metaphors,plant metaphors,animal metaphors,object metaphors,up/down metaphors and etc.among which season metaphors and color metaphors are used most frequently.Secondly,changes of Tess's fate are consistent with the natural phenomena---alterations of four seasons of a year:the alteration of four seasons in the novel is not only the pass of time,change of temperature,variation of precipitation or change of natural landscapes but also has a metaphorical meaning of the change of Tess's physical and mental states,experiences and encounters or even destiny.In the season of renewal---spring,Tess gained "the second life";in the hot summer,the affection between Tess and Clare passionately developed and sublimed;in the bleak autumn,after all those misfortunes,Tess turned silent,lonely and depressed;and in the freezing winter,Tess was tricked by fate once again and the tragedy reached the highest point.Thirdly,the repeatedly occurred "color words" in the novel also have significant metaphorical meanings:changes of colors are connected to changes of Tess's good luck or bad luck."Green",has a metaphorical meaning of Tess's inexperience towards affairs on one hand,and the hopefulness in her inner mind on the other hand;"red"has a meaning of hidden danger and punishment;"co-occurrence of white and red"means a conflict between inexperience and danger;and "co-occurrence of white and black" shows a conflict between the purity and the evilness.This thesis is a tentative study of applying conceptual metaphor to the interpretation of the hero's destiny in literary works.The writer hopes this study can shed light on related research.