An Interpretation Of John Fowles's The Collector From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Regarded as one of the most well-known contemporary writers in British history,John Fowles(1926-2005),with his highly innovative writing style,sets up a new path for the British literary world in the 1960 s when his contemporaries are still following the old routine.The novel The Collector is John Fowles' s maiden work,and the plot of the novel is rather fascinating and thought-provoking.However,the publication of The Collector has given rise to constant debates.Up to now,although many scholars and critics have analyzed and made comments on The Collector,their researches and comments generally focus on existentialism,feminism,psychological criticism,ecological criticism and other perspectives.Unfortunately,few of them have noticed the conceptual metaphor in the novel.In view of the importance and universality of metaphor in language and thinking,metaphors are often used by writers as a cognitive method to convey their reflections on life and social reality.Therefore,it is a sound strategy to analyze and interpret metaphors existing in literary works.With the help of conceptual metaphor theory,this article focuses on the three types of conceptual metaphors in John Fowles' s The Collector: orientation metaphors(spatial metaphors),entity metaphors,and structural metaphors,to dig into the deep meanings and connotations of Fowles' s metaphors.The thesis consists of five chapters in structure.The first chapter is a brief introduction to the life achievements of the author John Fowles,his maiden work The Collector,and their relevant literature reviews both at home and abroad,and then proposes a new research perspective: conceptual metaphor.The first chapter also introduces the definition,development,and classifications of conceptual metaphors,as well as its applications in literature works.The second chapter of this thesis explores the “up-down” and “in-out” orientation metaphors in the book.After detail analysis,it can be found out that Fowles deliberately reverses the traditional cognition about orientation metaphors and shapes a character Clegg who desires to advance into the upper class of society but is caught in his own trap and a character Miranda who is imprisoned within a basement but eventually obtains spiritual freedom in the end.By doing so,Folwes satires the social reality of class division and shows his deep concern for the bottom society people.The third chapter analyzes the two ontological metaphors in the book: “Money is a Force” and “Money is Nothing” to compare the three main characters' attitudes towards money.With the ontological metaphor “Money is a Force”,Fowles sharply satirizes the phenomenon of lower-class people gradually losing faith,becoming more and more ignorant,and blindly exaggerating about money in face of the material abundance and consumption society.At the same time,with the ontological metaphor “Money is Nothing”,Fowles expresses his deep concern for the imbalances of wealth distribution in English society,his criticism for those well-educated upper class who always hold an ingrained superiority complex,and his good wishes that the downtrodden can be taught to abandon their inferiority and the few elite can be taught to get rid of their superiority.Focusing on the two structural metaphors “Women are Butterflies” and “Ignorant Men are Monsters” in John Fowles' s The Collector,the fourth chapter of the thesis mainly probes into Fowles' s thinking on gender relations.The structural metaphor “Women are Butterflies” seemingly shows women's beauty and freedom,but it can also reflect the cruel reality that many men regard women as butterflies which is an inferior species,to maintain their dominant position.Behind the simple metaphor lies the plight of women's exploitation and oppression by men.With the structural metaphor “Ignorant Men are Monsters”,Fowles on the one hand connects the main character Clegg in The Collector with the monster Caliban in Shakespeare's drama The Tempest,and portrays Clegg's image of brutality,ugliness and uncivilization;while on the other hand,Fowles uses this metaphor to accuse Clegg for his misconducts of collecting.The fifth chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis,which sharply points out the deficiencies of this thesis and what should be carried out to further the study of interpreting The Collector from the perspective of conceptual metaphor,while presenting my research achievements.In short,studying John Fowles' s The Collector from the perspective of conceptual metaphors can not only promote the interdisciplinary research between cognitive linguistics and literature,providing a new paradigm for exploring the relationship between conceptual metaphor and literary creation,it can also enrich both domestic and foreign researches to a certain extent and help readers have a deeper understanding of the novel.Also,by studying conceptual metaphors contained in The Collector,the three major themes—class contractions,economic predicament and gender relations are revealed,which can also foster our understanding of John Fowles,the master of language.