Macbeth And King Lear:a Study From The Perspective Of Cognitlive Metaphor

In the field of the study of imagery and metaphor in Shakespeare’s tragedies, most traditional studies have treated metaphor as a figure of speech, limiting the criticism of metaphor to a poetic conception of imagery.As a result of the development of cognitive science and cognitive linguistics, there is a trend of applying the cognitive linguistic theories to analyzing the literary discourse. Among the cognitive linguistic theories, the theory of cognitive metaphor is commonly used in interpretation of literary discourse. This thesis attempts to apply the theory of cognitive metaphor to analyzing the conceptual meaning and the thematic meaning of the conceptual metaphor of image-schema in Macbeth and King Lear for an interpretation of the overall meaning in these two plays with some attention paid to the significance of some of the metaphors Shakespeare used in these two plays.This thesis proceeds from a literature review of the traditional imagery approach and the cognitive metaphoric response to the images and metaphors in Shakespeare’s tragedies. Then the theory of cognitive metaphor is introduced briefly as the theoretical angle for the analysis of Macbeth and King Lear. The analysis of Macbeth and King Lear is carried out from the angle of cognitive metaphors, such as "BODY IS A CONTAINER","LIFE IS A JOURNEY","SIGHT IS AN ARROW", and "OUTSIDES ARE EQUIVALENT TO INSIDES". And the thesis analyzed how Shakespeare painted the inner thoughts of characters, revealed the special qualities of the characters, and expressed the themes in these two plays through the use of conceptual metaphors. In this analysis, the roles of some metaphors in expressing the variant emotions, inner thoughts and the overall themes of the plays are discussed. Through the analyzing of the mapping of source domains onto the target domains of the conceptual metaphors present in these two plays, the readers can experience the sufferings of the tragic heroes and have a comprehensive seizing of the themes of the plays.This thesis makes clear in the plays Macbeth and King Lear the significance of some metaphors in expanding the atmosphere and action, revealing the personality of and the relationship between the characters, expressing the themes and emphasizing the overall style of the plays. In reading Macbeth and King Lear. we can experience the appealing charm of some metaphors and Shakespeare’s awe inspiring command of metaphors as a great master.