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摘 要

小说《德伯家的苔丝》是19世纪伟大的现实主义作家托马斯·哈代创作的名篇之一。小说叙述了女主公苔丝悲惨的人生际遇，展现了新兴工业化对农业社会带来的冲击，揭露了强调贞洁，压制妇女地位的虚伪道德。其中哈代在这本小说中大量隐喻的使用受到诸多学者的广泛研究，但大多数的研究只是过于片面，如太阳隐喻、动物隐喻本身，未形成系统的框架。从系统的角度看，这部作品隐喻其实对强调主旨、文本连贯起到了很大作用。因此本文以隐喻理论为指导进行分析文中季节隐喻、名字隐喻，颜色隐喻如何对文本起到连贯效果和强调主旨的作用。

关键词：《德伯家的苔丝》；隐喻；连贯

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1
3. Theoretical Basis………………………………………………...2
4. Analysis of Metaphors in Tess…………………………………….3

4.1 Season metaphors in Tess………………………………………3

4.2 Name metaphors in Tess………………………………………6

4.3 Color metaphors in Tess………………………………………7

5.Coherent Function of Metaphors……………………………..10

5.1 Season metaphors…………………………………..……………10

5.2 Name metaphors……………………………………….…………10

5.3 Color metaphors………………………………………….………11

6. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………12

Works Cited……………………………………………………………...13

1. Introduction

With cognitive science involving in linguistics, metaphor is becoming more and more important in the cognitive linguistics. Even if the study of metaphor has a long history, it gets great attention after the publication of Metaphor We Live By by Lakoff and Johnson. According to them, “Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.”(Lakoff and Johnson 24) A metaphor is not only used by people who are talented such as novelists, philosophers, but by the common people in their life. And metaphors always appear in people’s thinking and reasoning, which is not unnecessary.

Thomas Hardy, the author of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, is skilled in metaphor usage. Recently, more and more people pay attention to the study of metaphors in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, but it seems that they typically focus on only one aspect such as sun, animals or nature metaphors in the book. In the thesis, important metaphors like season metaphors, name metaphors and color metaphors will be all analyzed, and their function in helping achieve coherence will be further discussed.

2. Literature Review

With the deep study and research of Tomas Hardy and his works from home and abroad, metaphors and artistic value of Tess of the D’Urbervilles get a lot of attention. Li Ning and Zhang Zhiming in 2009 studied the images of birds in the wild, in the captivity, and in agony to illustrate Tess’s life. (Zhanamp;Li 1) Huang Meina in 2009 analyzed home metaphors to show the damage to Tess’s life.(Huang 74) Zeng Lizhen in 2016 analyzed the animal metaphors including horse, birds, and gnats, and object metaphors including houses, stone coffin to imply Tess’s fate at some time point. (Zeng 89)Anyway, they analyzed single kind of metaphors. Few people consider the metaphors from a systematic perspective and whether they can contribute to the organization of the text to make it more coherent and the structure more compact. The author thinks there are many metaphors in the book such as season, name and color metaphors are clearly beneficial to the coherence of the novel and presentation of the theme. Thus, the author decides to analyze them respectively.

3. Theoretical Basis

A metaphor is a figure of speech that for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. With metaphors, we can notice the hidden similarities between things or ideas. Aristotle, as the earliest scholar that studied metaphor, thought that metaphor is a linguistic method to convey the same meaning from replacing one word with another one., I.A.Richards describes that metaphors have two parts in the book The Philosophy of Rhetoric in 1965: one is tenor and the other one is the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are ascribed. The vehicle is the object whose attributes are borrowed. Later, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson who start metaphor from a whole new angle, published a book named Metaphors We Live By. Lakoff believed that understanding metaphor involves two cognitive domains: source domain and target domain. Lakoff and Johnson introduced these two terms because the traditional tenor and vehicles failed to emphasize the interaction between two domains.

The source domain is typically concrete but the target is typically abstract (Deignan 198). A metaphor is a cognitive process that allows one domain of experience, the target domain, to be reasoned about in terms of another, the source domain.(Lakoff amp;Johnson 173) Some characteristics of the source domain are mapped to the target domain, and the latter is partially understood by virtue of the former. The target domain is usually an abstract concept such as life while the source domain is comparatively more concrete, such as a day. So, we will know that arguments, protection, sadness can be target domains and water, books, buildings can be source domains. In short, through the source domain we can more easily understand the target domain. (kovecsees 16)

In the thesis, the author will use source domain and target domain to analyze the metaphors in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

1. Analysis of the Metaphors in Tess
   1. Season metaphors in Tess

4.1.1 Spring

In the North Hemisphere, the average temperature is between 10 to 22 centigrade in the spring. When the northern part of the earth declines to the sun, the and gets more sunshine, and the temperature is getting higher and higher. With the melting of snow, hibernating animals begin to wake up, and birds start to fly away to breeding places. Spring in China is called the season that everything comes back to life. At the beginning of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Hardy describes the beautiful scenery of the village of Marlott in spring where Tess’s family live. “It looks like a map and the field of the countryside is green”, “the rivers never dries up”, “the sky is deep blue, and everywhere you can see is a greenery of grass and trees covering the smaller hills and valleys.” (Hardy 6) Even if Tess’s family is not in a good financial condition, she has a happy childhood. In May-Day dance, young girls gather together to dance happily, with a red ribbon in their hair. In the dance, Tess first meets the hero Angel, and has an unforgotten impression of him though it is only because he does not invite her to dance. That time Tess is a beautiful girl living in a normal life with desire for a simple love. Spring contains the metaphorical meaning of happiness, freedom, pureness or a better future. It seems that everything will direct to a good future. Spring is the metaphorical expression of purity. The source domain is Spring and the target domain is Tess’s virginity and hope for life.

4.1.2 Summer

We all know that summer is the hottest season in a year, which lasts from June to August, and the average temperature is over 22 centigrade. In summer, plants grow greatly because there is full of sunshine. It seems that summer can bring passion and enthusiasm. In Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Angel and Tess meet again in summer. After the death of her baby, Tess seeks for work opportunities away from Marlott. Consequently she finds a work in a milk mill, where she starts a new life. “Either the change in the quality of the air …or the sense of being amid new scenes…set up her spirits wonderfully. Her hopes mingled with sunshine… ’’ (Hardy 93) She becomes energetic in the summer. And she encounters Angel, the educated and gentle man. He is the son of a parson, but unlike his brother, he does not want to be a parson. He has his own dream to learn philosophy. He notices beautiful and kind Tess and always sends her favorite cows for milking. “They met continually; they could not help it. They met daily in that strange interval, the morning....”(Hardy 229) In a day in July, when Tess and other three girls hurry to the Church Mellstock. At the lowest part of the road which is submerged by water, Angel appears and carries them through the water one by one. It is that time when Tess first confirms Angel’s love for her. At last, Angel gets the courage to confess his love for Tess and go back home to ask his parents to allow him marry Tess. The summer is so hot and people are so enthusiastic. Angel’s passion meets with Tess’s gingerliness and reservation on the surface but excitement in heart, bringing summer a sweet feeling. We can find enthusiasm of summer contained the metaphorical meaning of the maturity of their love. The high temperature is a metaphor of the passion between their love.

4.1.3 Autumn

Autumn, from September to November, is a season of harvest as well as a a season of gloom. On one hand, in traditional opinion in China, Autumn is to reap the crop and fruits. Wheat in the field turns yellow, looking like a golden sea. The red apples, yellow oranges, purple grapes, are full of the trees and vines. On the hill, we can see the red maple leaves. What a beautiful scene! In western countries, there are some festivals in autumn, like Thanksgiving Day. It is set to appreciate the good harvest from God and the help from Indians. But in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, we know that Tess experiences a great number of troubles and unhappy things, and she does not get harvest. After she was seduced by Alec, she becomes the target of other people’s gossip. She does not want to meet people and always appears in the dark to avoid the crowd. She decides to work outside like a stranger in the harvest to make money to raise her baby. At the intervals of the rest in the field, She has to feed her baby and bears the gossip. But the most miserable is that her baby dies because of illness. She does not care what would happen to her, But to her baby, it was different. In her mind, Her baby is innocent and does not do anything bad. He should not have gotten such an end. Tess is so sad. She loses everything, her virginity, her baby, her hope for life. So, in the autumn, the harvest season, she does not reap but lose. How ironical! On the other hand, in autumn it is getting cold in temperature and some trees start to wither. The keynote of gloom in the autumn, matches with the tragic experience. How distressing! Autumn is the metaphorical expression of Tess’s sorrow. The source domain is cooling down of the temperature and chill that Tess can feel in her body, and the target domain is the low mood and hopelessness in her heart. The source domain is the fallen leaves from the trees, which looks depressing in the nature, and the target domain is Tess’s desolation.

4.1.4 Winter

Winter, from December to February, is the coldest season. It is the most difficult season for Tess to live in after her husband Angel leaves her for Brazil. In winter, everything loses their energy and vigor. And in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, people lose their vigor and energy too. After Angel’s departure, Tess sends the money that he left her to her family, and is unwilling to ask Angel’s family for help. Tess finds temporary dairy work for the spring and summer. Later in the winter, she goes to a new farm, where work is much harder than before. The farm she works in is in a poor condition. The land is barren, the work is difficult, and she has to dig out the vegetables in the rain. She is even bullied by the man who manages the farm because Angel once fought with him. So unlucky Tess is made work twice as hard as others. Eventually, poor Tess decides to visit Angel’s family, who she thought, would surely be kind to her to comfort her loneliness. While before she meets his parents, she hears his friends talking:“Poor Angel! I never see that nice girl without more and more regretting his precipitancy in throwing himself away upon a dairymaid, or whatever she may be.”(Hardy 273) His friends looked down upon her, and her self –abasement appears. She runs away. She is scared and misses Angel so much after their separation. However, Tess writes to him several times but does not get any reply. The worst thing is that she meets Alec and gets pestered by the man again. In conclusion, in the cold winter, Tess works alone, down in mood, and again encounters Alec who destroys her life forever. Tess’s miser gets its peak in this season. She suffers great pain physically and mentally. Winter is the metaphorical expression of Tess’s biggest and deepest misery. From metaphorical perspective, the source domain here is winter, a season with low temperature, and the target domain is the great misery of her life. The lowest temperature contains the metaphorical meaning of her frozen heart. The coldness indicates the indifference of other people. The bad weather is the unluckiness and unfortunate experience in the farm.

4.2 Name metaphors in Tess

4.2.1 Angel

Angle Clare is the hero in Tess of the D’Urbervilles. His name Angel is derived from the Greek word angelos, which originally meant ‘messengers’. Angels are the communication channel between God and human beings. In art, angels are sometimes with glowing bodies, halos on top of their heads, and some have wings. Angels will protect the saints and good people At the same time they will punish the wicked severely according to God’s command. We may think that Angel Clare offers an asylum to poor Tess. In their first and second meeting, they looks so well-matched. Their love saves Tess’s broken heart. Angel seems smart and gentle and does not care about the traditional limit, but he changes his attitude to Tess after she confesses that she is not a virgin at their wedding night. It seems that Angel is not an angel, but a hypocritical man. Who he loves is not Tess, but a woman he dreams, a woman like Tess but a totally different woman, a perfect woman. In the letter that Tess writes to Angel, Tess shows her depression but does not get reply. Angel is not like an angel who can save her and give her instruction, but a man who makes her more confused. Even at last, the happiness Tess gets is not from Angel, but from Tess ’s love towards him. Angel is supposed to be an angel, but he is not. He is just the opposite of an angel. We can find that from the metaphorical perspective, the source domain in this metaphor is angel, the target domain is Angel Clare or the marriage, which finally turns out to be an unhappy marriage.

4.2.2 Tess

Tess is the short form of Teresa or Theresa，containing the meaning of ‘reaper’. The word“ Tess” has a great relationship with the agricultural society. (Chen 117) Under the conditions of that time, whether people can reap or not greatly relied on the nature, and it is in this way that we can know Tess’s fate is not controlled by herself. In the novel, Tess loses her virginity because of Alec’s seduction. But Alec not only gets no punishment, but also becomes an admired priest. On the contrary, Tess, the victim, is criticized by the villagers, loses her first baby, has to leave home alone, and gets abandoned by her husband. Just like a reaper whose harvest mainly relies on weather, Tess’s fate is changing with seasons. In May, Tess meets angel for the first time with an good impression and some regret that they cannot dance together. Later, Tess is seduced by Alec in Autumn. After her baby’s death, Spring brings new hope for Tess. In summer, Angel and Tess meet again at the milk mill Then they fall in love. After the confession at their wedding night, Angel leaves her, and she becomes alone again. Next October, she has to work in a remoter and colder farm and is pestered by Alec again, and chooses to live with him for money to raise her family. At last, Angel comes back, and Tess kills Alec. These are Tess’s whole story in her life, full of twists and turns. Tess is a metaphorical expression of a reaper. The source domain is Tess, the target domain is reap. The irony is that she does not reap but always loses things.

4.2.3 Prince

The horse in Tess’s house is called Prince. In western literature, prince is supposed to protect princess. In the story of Snow White, the beautiful, pure and noble snow white is kissed by her prince and wakes up. In Chapter one, Hardy uses a lot of beautiful phrases to describe Prince. It seems that Prince is to protect her. However, in the book Prince dies early by accident. The book describes the scene of its death in details: “Pointed shaft of the cart had entered the breast of unhappy Prince like a sword, and from the wound his life’s blood was spouting in a stream, and falling with a hiss into the road.”(Hardy 22) The horse is the tool to transport honey to make money, but now it dies. The whole family suddenly gets into the financial trouble. Tess loses her prince, who should have protected her forever. So in the following plot, Tess goes to Alec’s house to make up her mistake of losing Prince and suffers a series of tragic things step by step. Tess’s fate is destined to be hard from the death of Prince. Prince can not protect little Tess, and she is doomed to experience miserable life. In the metaphor concerning Prince, the source domain is Prince, and the target domain is love. The metaphorical meaning is that Tess is losing her love and starts her miserable life.

4.3 Color metaphor in Tess

4.3.1 Green

Green suggests that Tess is a pure girl with her virginity. At the beginning of the book, Tess is dancing with other girls on a green grassland that extends as far as the eyes can reach. We know that green has the meaning of youth and freshness in Chinese. In English, it also has the meaning of energy and a new life. Green indicates that Tess is unsophisticated and pure. Her world is so calm and safe, with hope and desire, but without sinister. (Wang 10)Even though she lives in a family in poor financial condition, she still wants to learn from teachers. She has her own dreams and wants to be a teacher. She wants to be a girl with knowledge but not someone who relies on the male for living. It seems that Tess at that time has the modern thought of women emancipation. She is energetic, dreaming for a pure love. That is why she feels regretful when Angel does not invite her to dance on the May Day Dance. But it is her purity that gets her seduced by Alec and throws the truth to Angel at their wedding night, leading to her miserable life. In the metaphor of this color, the source domain is green and the target domain is her purity and simplicity.

4.3.2 Red and white

Red and white appear throughout the book. At the May Day Dance, Tess appears in a white dress holding white flowers, which implies that she was so simple and elegant. She is holy and pure, like an beautiful angel in the west who has two white wings, without any flaws. Angel loves her for her purity and beauty like an angel. He considers her as his goddess. But White not only brings her love but also destroys her. She believes Alec easily for his blandishments and at last is seduced by him. She comes back home and complains and cries why her mother does not tell her in advance that there are so many bad things outside world. (Wang 10) Angel abandons her for knowing that she is not a virgin any more. Her purity and kindness do not give her anything good, but lead her to a tragic ending. Experiencing the seduction, losing her baby, abandoned by Angel, pestered by Alec again, Tess gradually loses her simplicity, and the story leaves a mournful ending for readers.

In a white dress, Tess also wears a red ribbon. It conveys the message that she is hoping for a colorful life. But red is more of an ominous sign of danger for Tess. (Fu 271) Firstly, the horse Prince dies on the road because of an accident. The red blood bleeds quickly but Tess can do nothing but wait for its dying.(Xie 51) It is this accident that starts Tess’s tragic life. Secondly, she follows her parents suggestion to claim relatives in Alec’s house. She sees the red bricks, red strawberries and red roses in the house. These indicate that Tess will experience danger and get hurt from Alec’s seduction. Thirdly, on their wedding night, Tess confesses her past and wants to get Angel’s understanding just like she understands his indign past. That night, “the ashes under the grate … like a torrid waste … imagination might have beheld a Last Day luridness in this red –coaled glow, which fell on … and firing the delicate skin underneath.”（Hardy 116）Her body is getting hot because of the fire, and she is nervous because she hesitates whether to tell the truth or not. She confesses at last but Angel’s response is disappointing. Fourthly, Tess kills Alec in an apartment, and the landlady finds his death. “As she did so her eyes glanced casually over the ceiling…. It was about the size of a wafer when she first observed it, but it speedily grew as large as the palm of her hand, and then she could perceive that it was red. The oblong white ceiling, with this scarlet blot in the midst, had the appearance of a gigantic ace of hearts.” (Hardy 548) The writer describes Alec’s death from the landlady’s eyes. This suggests that her crime is known by others and she has no way back. She has to pay for that—getting hanged, the miserable end for her life. In the metaphors concerning the two colors, the source domain is white and target domain is purity and elegance. The source domain is red and the target domain is danger.

4.3.3Black

Black is a color that represents the unknown, fear and mystery. On the night of hunting, the whole forest is full of mist, the hunting field is in a deep darkness, and the only thing people can see is Tess’s white dress. The pure Tess loses her virginity in that darkness that night. The next scene is that Angel comes from Brazil and finds Tess in an apartment. There she wears a black dress. She chooses to kill Alec and runs with Angel. After several happy days together, they arrive at the sacrificial altar. “The silver band of the eastern horizon made the prairie appear dark, and everything is silent, with a few small black spots to move to them slowly. The light, the shade and the landscape seems to signal an impending disaster and misfortune.”(Hardy 302)Then she is arrested. When she gets hanged for murder, she also wears black. In the metaphor of color black, the source domain is black and target domain is depression and bad end.

1. Coherent function of metaphors

5.1 Season metaphors

Seasons are significant in portraying the heroin Tess. In the book, different seasons imply Tess’s mood, life track and growing process. With the changes of seasons, Tess’ s life also changes a lot. In the domain of seasons, each has their own metaphorical meaning. But a season is not completely independent. The combination of them makes contributions to helping the text go coherent and convey the theme: the tragedy of Tess.

Purity and simplicity

spring

Love and enthusiasm

Summer

Autumn

Loss and desolation

Hard work and loneliness

winter

From the above diagram, we can clearly know tess’s life track at different time. The season metaphors contribute a lot to the story’s coherence.

5.2 Name metaphors

Name reveals important information about Tess’s tragic fate. Hardy seems to have named the people and animals in the book ironically. The three names we discussed above also help achieve the coherence.

In reality

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