A study on similes used in the novel david copperfield by charles dickens

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ THỊ THÚY HẰNG A STUDY ON SIMILES USED IN THE NOVEL DAVID COPPERFIELD BY CHARLES DICKENS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng biện pháp tỉ dụ tiểu thuyết David Copperfield Charles Dickens) MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Hanoi, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGÔ THỊ THÚY HẰNG A STUDY ON SIMILES USED IN THE NOVEL DAVID COPPERFIELD BY CHARLES DICKENS (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng biện pháp tỉ dụ tiểu thuyết David Copperfield Charles Dickens) MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Supervisor: Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm Hanoi, 2010 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………… …vi LIST OF CHARTS ……………………………………………………………………….vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Scope of the study Aims of the study Methods of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………… 1.1 Word meaning…………………………………………………………………… ….4 1.1.1 The meaning of the word ……………………………………………………….….4 1.1.2 Collocation and contextual effects ……………………………………………… 1.2 Meaning transference …………………………………………………………… 1.2.1 Metaphor ………………………………………………………………………… 1.2.2 Metonymy ………………………………………………………………………… 1.3 Contextual meaning ……………………………………………………………… 1.3.1 Context………………………………………………………… 1.3.2 Co-text ………………………………………………………… 1.4 Simile……………… 1.4.1 Definitions on similes v 1.4.2 Components of simile …………………………………………………… …… 11 1.4.3 Nature of simile …………………………………………………………….… 12 1.4.3.1 Simile as a figurative comparison ……… …………………………… … … .12 1.4.3.2 Simile and Metaphor …………………………………………………… … 14 1.4.4 Functions of similes 16 1.4.4.1 Simile is used to create images …………………………………………… … 16 1.4.4.2 Simile has the function of decoration ……………………………………….……17 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY …………………………………………………….…… 19 2.1 Research question ……………………………………………… ………… … 19 2.2 Data collection …………………………………………………………….… … 19 2.3 Analytical framework…………………………………………… …… .….… 20 2.3.1 “AS” simile …………………………………………………………….…… 20 2.3.2 “LIKE” simile ………………………………………………………….…… … 20 2.4 Data analysis and discussion ……………………………………………….… 21 2.4.1 Simile in terms of structures ……………………………………………….… 21 2.4.2 Simile in depicting characters’ features………………………………… … 24 2.4.2.1 Vehicles as animals ……………………… …….……………… …………… 26 2.4.2.2 Vehicles as man-made objects ……………… …… …………… …….…… 30 2.4.2.3 Vehicles as supernatural beings……………… …………… ………………… 32 2.4.2.4 Vehicles as natural phenomena ……………………………………………… 33 PART C: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………… 36 Main findings ………………………………………………………………… 36 Implication of the study ……………………………………………………… 37 Suggestions for further study ………………………………………… …… 37 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………… … 38 APPENDIX ………………………………………………………………………….I vi LIST OF TABLES 21 Table Types of simile in depicting characters’ features in David Copperfield ……… Table Vehicles in simile of depicting character’s features ………………………… 24 vii LIST OF CHARTS 22 Chart The frequency of simile in depicting characters’ features ………………… Chart Vehicles of simile in depicting the characters’ features ………………… …25 PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Figurative language is always an interesting and mysterious phenomenon in language in general and in literature in particular This special kind of language is widely used in any types of texts like literature, science, journals, advertisement, religion, politics or everyday language When somebody says that ―Crime is like a disease‖, it is when figurative language is being constructed Figurative language is especially common in literature because they can impose their power in this creative world Being considered one of the most common kinds of figures of speech, simile is a literary device employed by writers to increase the ability of literature to fascinate, trigger emotion, and even change the way we as human beings experience our world As other figures of speech, it is often a challenge to gain a firm grasp on the ability to understand similes because their meaning is not just based on the literal meanings of certain words or phrases Because ―though a simile is easily recognized, it is not always easily understood: in most cases, the reader has to discover the aspects for the claimed similarity and this is the central problem in the interpretation of similes (Chippe & Kennedy 2001: 270-271) However, due to its appearance in different types of discourse in different fields, especially in literature, readers face a lot of difficulty that prevents them from being able to comprehensively understand the figurative meaning of simile as well as the implied message of a text Simile is a figure of speech used in general language as well as specialized language, in everyday conversations as well as literary, journalistic and promotional texts Research on simile which is carried out within rhetoric (Mortara Garavei 2002 (251-252), literary studies (Wellek & Warren 1973: 186-211), linguistics and psycholinguistics (Ortony 1993: Bredin 1998) often discussed simile along with metaphor However, simile is still less investigated Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to consider simile as a figure of its own right, to illustrate some of its basic forms and functions through exploring how similes are constructed in literature in general and in the novel in particular It is well known that Dickens‘s novels include various linguistic techniques and tropes that make his descriptions of characters, their backgrounds or surroundings more graphic and real The novel David Copperfield is famous for Dickens‘s language with humor and vivid style as he makes particular use of figurative devices such as simile to observe and describe the characters successfully With these ideas in mind, I chose to study similes used in depicting features of the characters in the novel David Copperfield by the famous English writer, Charles Dickens with the hope to study the nature and the way to obtain deeper understanding on simile in order to demonstrate its strong power in the world of novel and to help gaining more comprehensive understanding about the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Scope of the study Like other figure of speech, simile plays an indispensable part in literature However, literature is a broad field that it will be too ambitious to cover all the types of literature Thus, a focus that is paid attention to in my thesis is similes used in novel More specifically, the novel David Copperfield written by Charles Dickens, a talented English author is chosen In my study, I will focus on the use of simile in depicting features of the characters in this novel Aims of the study This study aims to investigate the characteristics of simile in the novel discourse The objective of my study is: - To investigate the use of similes in depicting the features of characters in the novel David Copperfield More details on the aimed objective of the study are discussed in Part 2, chapter – The study Methods of the study As the thesis sets its main objective of investigating the characteristics of simile in English novel discourse The study was conducted in a deductive approach where data was collected from English literature to describe simile in a natural linguistics process Therefore it is descriptive and explanatory research The techniques involved in data analysis are both qualitative and quantitative The main points in the thesis are analyzed and discussed with the support of such methods as analysis, synthesis and documentation Organization of the study The study consists of three main parts:  Part I: Introduction This part introduces the relevant, the aims, the scope and methodology of the study  - Part 2: Development This part is composed of two chapters Chapter is Literature Review which provided the theoretical background of the study Its focus was on introducing important concepts relevant to the topic of the thesis This chapter gave a general picture of simile - Chapter is the main focus of the study which investigates similes used in depicting features of the characters in the novel David Copperfield In this chapter, the research design applied in the study was reported and the results of the studies were presented  Part is the conclusion of the study which summarized the issues addressed in the main part and offered implications for teaching as well as further study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Word meaning 1.1.1 The meaning of the word There has been quite a number of attempt designed to define what the meaning of the word is Acccording to Nguyen Hoa (2004: 67) ―words are regarded as the smallest indivisible meaningful units of a language which can operate independently‖ And more detailed, he defined ―the meaning of a word reflects reality or express human conceptualization of reality, as it were‖ It is generally agreed that the words, phrases and sentences of language have meanings and sentences are made up of words and that the meaning of a sentence is the function of the meaning of the words of which it is made up In the word meaning, it is necessary to distinguish two types of meaning, denotation (or conceptual meaning) and connotation Nguyen Hoa (2004: 98) states that ―Denotation is the ability of a word or expression to identify all the objects covered by a word These objects, which are diverse in reality, share certain features relevant enough to be identified as covered by a word‖ Denotation includes conceptual and referential meanings Denotation exists by virtue of what it refers to As we know, one of the functions of words is to denote things, concepts and so on For example, the word ―computer‖ is used to denote a wide range of computing machines in different shapes and size, which may be called computer However, a word may convey certain affective or evaluative associations, generally referred to as connotation Nguyen Hoa (2004: 99, 100) states that connotation arises as words become associated with certain characteristics of the items to which they refer to, over and above its purely conceptual content This kind of meaning is rather unstable They vary considerably according to culture, historical period and the experience of the individual Connotation including stylistic, affective, evaluative, and intensifying, is the pragmatic communicative value the words acquires by virtue of where, when, how, and by whom, for what purpose and in what context it is or may be used This kind of meaning may fall into: 31 the deepest attention, her breath held, her blue eyes sparkling like jewels, and the color mantling in her cheeks‖(137) Emily‘s eyes are compared with ―jewels‖, a precious stonean ornament If we read the whole novel and pay attention to Emily‘s life, the image ―jewels‖ in this simile case not only a symbol for physical beauty but also a mark implied her miserable life later when she was seduced by glamorous and immoral Steerforth He considered her as an ornament to decorate his life and later he deserted her without any hesitation Although type III is less frequently used than others, it still make a great contribution in portraying the characters in the novel as in: ―He was but a poor man himself, said Peggotty, but as good as gold and as true as steel those were her similes‖(32) In this example, gold and steel are used to describe the nature of Mr Barkis who is a man of few words, kind-hearted though mean with money He helped David during his life It is him who brings David from his home village of Blunderstone, Suffolk, to Yarmouth, where the Peggottys live Yarmouth is also David's gateway to London and the larger world, so David travels in Mr Barkis's cart quite often once he starts school In chapter 2, he is also described as a clock which symbolizes for the calm person: ―In his attempts to be particularly lucid, Mr Barkis was so extremely mysterious, that might have stood looking in his face for an hour, and most assuredly should have got as much information out of it as out of the face of a clock that had stopped, but for Peggotty‘s calling me away‖ (132) Type IV also plays a crucial part in describing characters as in “I should have stayed there, oblivious of Traddles, if Miss Lavinia had not come in to take me away Miss Lavinia was very fond of Dora (she told me Dora was exactly like what she had been herself at her age - she must have altered a good deal), and she treated Dora just as if she had been a toy‖ (894) The image ―the toy‖ is repeatedly used: “One thing troubled me much, after we had fallen into this quiet train It was, that Dora seemed by one consent to be regarded like a pretty toy or plaything My aunt, with whom she gradually became familiar‖(897) Dora Spenlow compared with the toy, David‘s first wife It means that Dora is considered as a child-like person 32 Besides the man-made objects that are used to portray good characters, there are some like beam, pump, ash, pyramid used to depict the bad ones Although type III is less frequent in the novel, it is an effective mean for Dickens to delineate the nature of a character graphically:“Mr Creakle cuts a joke before he beats him, and we laugh at it, miserable little dogs, we laugh, with our visages as white as ashes, and our hearts sinking” (137).With the image ―ashes‖, the reader can not only imagine how David and his friends are terrified when they see Creakle beating Traddle- his closed friend but also have a clearer image about Creakle, a violent headmaster who caused David painful and frightened feeling in his childhood Uriah Heep is one of the main characters who is portrayed successfully by the author This charracter is not only compared with the symbol of devil like snake, fox but also with man-made objects like corkscrew and beam: ―Really, Master Copperfield,‘ he said, ‗- I should say Mister, but I know you‘ll excuse the abit I‘ve got into - you‘re so insinuating, that you draw me like a corkscrew! Well, I don‘t mind telling you,‘ putting his fish-like hand on mine, ‗I‘m not a lady‘s man in general, sir, and I never was, with Mrs Strong‖(903) His portray appears more vivid with the following comparison: ―He certainly did look uncommonly like the carved face on the beam outside my window, as he sat, in his humility, eyeing me sideways, with his mouth widened, and creases in his cheeks‖(229) It can be seen that the device of simile includes a symbolical effect that suggests the non-human artificiality in civilized society, as the author attempts not only to comically delineate someone‘s mechanical figure but also to suggest his inhuman nature in terms of ‗coldness‘, ‗oddity‘ or ‗ferocity‘ 2.4.2.3 Vehicles as supernatural beings There are 12 cases of simile in which supernatural beings are used as vehicles to depict features of the characters in the novel If Dickens tends to use images for devil to portray bad characters, in describing good characters he is so fond of using simile with images for angel In terms of describing good characters as supernatural beings, Dickens was so fond of utilizing the images like angel and fairy However, with the bad characters, he used the images of monster and ghost 33 There are two similes containing the image ―angel‖ which is used to appraise the nature of characters who are kind-hearted, self-sacrifice, and innocent Agnes is an example of kindness and charity After the death of Dora, and other events in his life have a maturing effect on him, and he eventually realizes that he has always loved Agnes Agnes becomes his confidante: ―like an Angel, I hope I thought no harm‖(561) If the image ―angel‖ in above simile indicates a beauty of soul that Agnes has a good, sweet-tempered and gentle nature, this image brings the reader a beauty in terms of appearance when describing Dora, David‘s first wife ―and if I thought of her sweet face and placid smile, as though they had shone on me from some removed being, like an Angel‖ (560) In terms of describing bad characters, Dickens tends to use the supernatural beings as the ghost and monster as vehicles Moreover, he has been seen as a barely human, in chapter 52, Mr Micawber calls Uriah ―like monster in the garb of a man." Monster is an imaginary creature which usually symbols for wicked person His physical appearance and nature are described in demonic imagery We can see that he is so cunning a character in David‘s eye that the author constantly attempts to degrade him to an animal- like state Once his fraud and treachery are unmasked, he persists in hounding Micawber and Copperfield Like most of Dickens‘ villains, greed is his main motivation 2.4.2.4 Vehicles as natural phenomena There are 13 cases of simile using natural phenomena to describe the characters in the novel such as light, shadow, sun, peach, and frog In order to describe the good characters, the author used some popular natural phenomena like Heavenly light, shadow, and sun In the last chapter, we saw David pervaded with happy feeling: ―And now, as I close my task, subduing my desire to linger yet, these faces fade away But one face, shining on me like a Heavenly light by which I see all other objects, is above them and beyond them all And that remains‖(1307) Heavenly light might be the symbol for Agnes who can bring David a happy life as he used to expect ―Agnes, O my soul, so may thy face is by me when I close my life indeed; so may I, when realities are melting from me, like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward!‖(1307) Like an angel as in David‘s words, Agnes must have been so affectionate to David that she could overcome all the obstacles to bring him a happy life In David Copperfield, Dickens often uses such parallel situations with 34 contrasting outcomes in which he portrays many types of human: the brutal, greedy with the suffering; poverty, child labor, social disgrace, and betrayal by friends and loved ones In London, David is abused by the head master Mr Creakle, when he moves to Dover, he was carefully taken care of by Dr Strong who is the headmaster of the school in which Betsey enrolls David to complete his broken education In order to describe Dr Strong as a kind and generous man, Dickens compared him with the phenomenon the sun: ―…Really the time is come (we being at present all mixing ourselves up with what oughtn‘t to be), when Doctor Strong must be told that this was full as plain to everybody as the sun, before Mr Maldon went to India; …‖ (599) In terms of depicting the features of the bad characters, the author used the phenomena such as frog, air In order to emphasize the nature of coldness and ferocity of Uriah Heep, Dickens depicted him as frog: ―I led him up the dark stairs, to prevent his knocking his head against anything, and really his damp cold hand felt so like a frog in mine, that I was tempted to drop it and run away‖ (367) Dickens is more successful in depicting the characters with the figurative comparison image ―Pyramid in Egypt‖ as in: ―Littimer touched his hat in acknowledgment of my good opinion, and I felt about eight years old He touched it once more, wishing us a good journey; and we left him standing on the pavement, as respectable a mystery as any pyramid in Egypt (334) Dickens calls him "respectable" so often that the word gains a heavy irony, which reaches its peak when Littimer colludes with his master in taking away Little Em'ly After Steerforth abandons her, he suggests to Littimer that he (Littimer) marry her When Little Emily reacts with horror, Littimer becomes her jailer, keeping her locked in a room until she manages to escape Such activities, of course, are so far from respectable as to be morally depraved This chapter has been an attempt to clarify the role of similes in depicting characters in the novel David Copperfield There are six types of simile used in the novel with 99 cases of simile However, types V and type IV are most frequently used especially in depicting features of characters in the novel With the use of these types of similes, all the characters are described vividly The author is successful not only in depicting the features of bad characters but also in describing good ones From above study, a conclusion can be drawn that Dickens tends to use type V (V + like + N) to portray the characters who are 35 depicted as animals, supernatural beings, man-made objects and natural phenomena in order to bring the reader vivid images of these group of people Many elements within the novel follow events in Dickens' own life, and it is probably the most autobiographical of all of his novels in the preface to the 1867 Charles Dickens edition, he wrote, "… I like this the best, like many fond parents; I have in my heart of hearts a favorite child And his name is David Copperfield." This novel perhaps best reflects the grief and humiliation of Charles Dickens‘ life with a series of up and down which expressed through the life of his favorite character, David Copperfield This is one of the reasons which make his description language more vivid and real It can be said that in the novel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, the simile device in this novel plays a significant role for Dickens in depicting particular features of various characters or objects elaborately or fancifully due to its frequent appearance In his novel, a variety of fresh and extraordinary combination of tenor and vehicles are built distinctively and effectively Such popular, concrete and sometimes quite trivial objects as ―ghost, monster, giant, clock, pump handle, bird, etc‖ employed to become vehicles Above all, his technique of using simile is worthy of remark because the author attempts to observe and describe his characters‘ appearances or personalities in order to evoke an association between a human and a non-human being or substance in the reader‘s mind Through analyzing these similes in the novel we can see that if we not have background knowledge in terms of socio-culture, we cannot deeply understand the simile in this novel It is much more difficult to understand the comparison in which the author describe the characters if we not share the same experience and knowledge that the bad characters should be depicted with the symbols for devil like snake, monster or ghost and in contrast, the good characters should be described with the symbols for angel like fairy, flower, the heavenly light This is also the important role of text which I mentioned in the previous section As for Dickens‘s similes in David Copperfield, the narrator attempts to identify various characters with non- human living creatures objects with his keen observation and power of imagination These similes can not only reflect the author‘s inner thoughts and emotions towards the inhuman society that surrounds him but also reflect the humorous and vivid language of Dickens Therefore, this device produces an effect in the mind of the reader 36 PART C: CONCLUSION Major findings Our research was carried out to answer the question: ―How is simile used in depicting features of the characters in the novel David Copperfield?‖ In this paper we, have been able to reach the following achievements In examining the use of simile in depicting features of characters in the novel David Copperfield, the following findings can be shown: - In terms of structures, there are six types of simile used to depict features of the characters in the novel including : Type I (be (+ as) + Adj + as + N); Type II (V + as + Adj / Adv + as + CLAUSE); Type III (V + as + Adj / Adv + as + N); Type IV (V + as if + CLAUSE); Type V (V + like + N); Type VI (Noun -like + N) - The most frequently used of simile listed in table are type V accounting for 57.5 % The least pervasive type of simile is type VI with 5.1 % - In terms of semantic, simile depicting features of the characters in the novel can be classified into four groups including animals, supernatural beings, natural phenomena, and man-made objects - There are 99 similes depicting features of the characters in the novel in which the number of similes depicting characters as animals is biggest with 38 cases and then comes the number of similes describing characters as man-made objects with 36 cases - In terms of depicting characters as animals, such animals as snake, snail, and fish are used as vehicles to describe the bad characters Besides, such animals as bird, cowl, dog, and mouse are used to describe the good ones In terms of depicting characters as supernatural beings, the image of angel, fairy is used to portray the good characters and the image of ghost, monster used for the bad ones The image of sun, shadow, and Heavenly light are natural phenomena used to describe the good characters, the image of frog for the bad ones The objects as jewels, steel, gold, clock are man-made to portray the good characters and the images of beam, corkscrew are for the bad ones This device of simile reflects not only the vision and emotion of the author towards the inhuman society surrounding him but also reflects his humorous and vivid language Context of culture and real world knowledge play an important role in helping us to understand the use of simile in describing characters in the novel 37 Implications of the study A conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that in terms of semantics, simile is not always easy to use and interpret In most cases, the reader has to discover the aspects for the claimed similarity This is the centre problem in the interpretation of simile However, in many cases, you may face the fact that the message conveyed cannot be decoded correctly without a good background knowledge, especially in culture and cross-culture Because with one social phenomenon, people from different countries with different cultures and social norms can realize it from different perspectives Therefore, they will reflect their understanding about that phenomenon in various ways, especially in literary works As a teacher of foreign language, besides a good knowledge of cognitive semantics, we should equip ourselves with a good culture background Moreover, knowledge of simile and culture will help students in great deal in understanding and providing written task Therefore, we suggested that simile together with knowledge of culture should be taken into account in developing writing and reading materials for students Suggestions for further study This study is centered on the use of simile in depicting features of characters in the novel David Copperfield Thus, it is limited in the field of novel discourse Much of our effort has been made to analyze instances in Dickens‘ novel Therefore, further study of the topic, if possible should cover a broader and more temporary range of novel discourse Besides, researches on other genres such as advertisement, poetry, politic materials, and religion text would be great of value Furthermore, in this thesis we are only able to explore the use of simile and neglected the use of metaphor and other useful and interesting figures of speech such as metonymy, synecdoche which will be an interesting topic for other researches 38 REFERENCES Abrahams M H (1985) A Glossary of Literary Terms Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc rd American Heritage College Dictionary, 1997 Houghton Mifflin Beard, A (2003) Texts and Contexts Introducing Literature and Language Study Routledge Beard, A (2003) The Language of Literature Routledge.Bickerton, Biber, D Conrad, S and Leech G (1999) Longman student Grammar of Spoken and Written English Bredin, Hough (1998) Comparison and Similes Lingua, 105, 67-68 Brook, G.L (1970) The Language of Dickens London: Andréutsch Brown, G & Yule, G (1983) Discourse Analysis Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Celce-Murcia, M, and 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poems.com/poets/emilydickinson 53 http:// www English novel/David Copperfield I APPENDIX Tennors and vehicles of similes used to describing characters in David Copperfield Vehicle Tenor David Mr Chillip Betsy Trootwood Pegotty Mr Murdstone Mr Peggotty Little Em’ly Miss Murdstone Mr Barkis Mr Creakle James Steerforth III Traddles Mr Dick Agnes Wickfield Uriah Heep Doctor Strong Miss Dartle IV Mr Littimer Miss Mowcher Mr Spenlow Dora Spenlow Total ... information is being conveyed over and above the information contained in what has been said, the addressees have to infer what this additional information is on the basis of contextual information... …25 PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Figurative language is always an interesting and mysterious phenomenon in language in general and in literature in particular This special kind... In the case of the novel David Copperfield, the context here is all the relevant features relating to the characters including their personalities, their verbal and non-verbal actions which are