Bohdana Hodyk
Kamianets-Podilskyi National Ivan Ohiienko University
Scientific supervisor: PhD, Associate Professor O.V. Halaibida
METAPHOR IN JEROME K. JEROME’S NOVELETTES
Abstract
The article investigates the role of metaphor in creating comic effect in Jerome K. Jerome’s novelette. Attention is focused on examples from the novelette which characterize metaphor as the most widespread trope that appears as a result of using of the word in the figurative meaning of the similarity of the object to the other.
Key words: metaphor, personalization, comic effect, novelette.
A powerful means of expressiveness of speech is metaphor. Metaphors have always been in the centre of attention of linguists and were investigated by І.V. Arnold, N.D. Arutiunova, M.V. Nikitin, І.V. Tolochin, M. Black, G. Lakoff and M. Johnson [4], I.R. Galperin and other scholars.
Metaphor (Greek metaphora means transference) is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest likeness or analogy between them [5].
Metaphors are a powerful means of creating humoristic effect in the works of fiction. In the stories of Jerome K. Jerome, one of the greatest English humorists, there are a lot of metaphors. For example, in describing one of the characters of the novelette “Three men in the boat (to say nothing of the dog)”, Jerome uses a metaphor to create a comic effect of describing an episode when Montmorency sees a cat:
We were, as I have said, returning from a dip, and half-way up the High Street a cat darted out from one of the houses in front of us, and began to trot across the road. Montmorency gave a cry of joy – the cry of a stern warrior who sees his enemy given over to his hands – the sort of cry Cromwell might have uttered when the Scots came down the hill – and flew after his prey [2, p. 136].
Another vivid Jerome’s metaphor is in the example: We are but the veriest, sorriest slaves of our stomach [2, p. 105]. The protagonist calls human beings the slaves of our stomachs, because we do what our stomachs say and depend on them. Humorous effect is also added by the violation of grammatical norms in lexemes veriest, sorriest.
It should also be noted that the narrative of Jerome K. Jerome contains not only humorous scenes of life, the author often reflects on social problems, history and nature of Great Britain.
Among the bright means of humorous image of the characters and events in the stories of Jerome K. Jerome is personalization. This is a type of metaphor. Personalization (or personification) is the presentation of human behavior to non-living things, animals or abstract phenomena [1, p. 126].
So, for example, we encounter personification in the novelette “Three men on the Bummel”, when the protagonist agreed with the acquaintances about the bicycle ride:
“That’s a good-looking machine of yours. How does it run?”
“Oh, like most of them!” I answered; “easily enough in the morning; goes a little stiffly after lunch” [3, p. 40].
Jay says that the bike rides easily in the morning and a little harder after lunch, although, of course, it would probably be less like a cyclist, because the bike does not exactly dine and its properties do not change throughout the day.
As a continuation of his idea, Jay mentions how things “behave” in the house: when we are dressed in thin slippers, they come into your way and you hurt yourself:
Everything – especially everything with a sharp corner–takes a cowardly delight in hitting him. When you are wearing a pair of stout boots, things get out of your way; when you venture among furniture in woolwork slippers and no socks, it comes at you and kicks you [3, p. 47].
In the novelette “Three in the boat (to say nothing of the dog)” personification is often used in reference to a dog Montmorency. So, when friends decide to go on a trip along the river, only the dog “was against it”:
The only one who was not struck with the suggestion was Montmorency. He never did care for the river, did Montmorency.
“It’s all very well for you fellows,” he says; “you like it, but I don’t. There’s nothing for me to do. Scenery is not in my line, and I don’t smoke. If I see a rat, you won’t stop; and if I go to sleep, you get fooling about with the boat, and slop me overboard. If you ask me, I call the whole thing bally foolishness” [2, p. 10].
Once again Jerome gives the dog a human feature when describing how Harris was cooking an omelet and some hot oil hit Montmorency:
Montmorency went and put his nose over it once, and the fat spluttered up and scalded him, and then he began dancing and cursing [2, p. 119].
Jerome also personifies the big black cat that Montmorency meets and accepts as his next victim, describes their dialogue as follows:
The Cat: “Yes! You want me?”
The Cat: “Can I do anything for you?”
Montmorency: “No-no, thanks.”
The Cat: “Don’t you mind speaking, if you really want anything, you know.”
Personification is often used in stories for humorous characterization of attempts of characters to transfer their fault or mistake on inanimate objects, as we see in the following example:
For lunch, he said, we could have biscuits, cold meat, bread and butter, and jam – but no cheese. Cheese, like oil, makes too much of itself. It wants the whole boat to itself [2, p. 35].
In the example given, not people, namely cheese, are guilty of misfortunes that occur with the characters of the story. Thus, the author draws attention to the fact that people often try to blame for their problems those who have absolutely nothing to do with them.
Personification can also be found in the description of objects that, in the opinion of the characters, behave not as they should, but as they want to, for example:
It [barometer] evidently wanted to go on, and prognosticate drought, and water famine, and sunstroke, and simooms, and such things, but the peg prevented it, and it had to be content with pointing to the mere commonplace “very dry” [2, p. 48].
In this example, a barometer that works incorrectly, is depicted as a live body that strongly wanted to predict severe heat and drought.
So, Jerome K. Jerome often used metaphor and other stylistic means to achieve a humorous effect. Some of them are new and fresh. In his stories he used colloquial language and mocked the matters of everyday life, which made him famous and brought him glory all over the world.
References:
- Пропп В. Я. Проблемы комизма и смеха. Москва: «Лабиринт», 1999. 285 с.
- Jerome, K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the dog). URL: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/308/308-h/308-h.htm
- Jerome, K. Jerome. Three Men on the Bummel. URL: https://www.e-reading.club/bookreader.php/70984/Jerome_-_Three_Men_on_the_Bummel
- Lakoff G. Metaphors We Live By / G. Lakoff, M. — Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003, Chapters 1 – 8. — P. 3-112.
- Online Merriam-Webster Dictionary [Електронний ресурс] – Режим доступу до ресурсу: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphor