A Study Of The Scarlet Letter From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Metaphor is the focus of cognitive linguistics. It is not merely a matter of wordsor language but rather of thoughts. It is a cognitive mode, a meta-mode of thinking, anannouncer of nature. As the base of human cognition mechanism, metaphor has beensystematically developed by Lakoff and Johnson into the theory of conceptualmetaphor on the cognitive level which consists of three categories: structuralmetaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor, among which thestructural metaphor is the most complicated one for its highlighting certain aspectswhile hiding others when elaborate a concept.Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American romantic writer whose masterpiece TheScarlet Letter is a piece of work full of symbols and metaphors which are significantin illustrating characters’ inner struggle. By analyzing those revelatory metaphorsfrom the perspective of conceptual metaphor，this paper intends to probe into themysteriousness of Hawthorne’s language and comprehend the novel systematically.By interpreting natural scenery and phenomena like meteor, sunshine, forest,brook, chapter one outlines a metaphorical conclusion—GOD IS NATURE, andfurther expounds it through the elaboration of three detailed structuralmetaphors—FOREST IS THE GARDEN OF EDEN, SUNSHINE IS THE BLISS OFGOD, BROOK IS THE MIRROR OF LIFE, and finally proves us how the author, bythe hand of “God”, communicates successfully with his characters and readers.Chapter two goes further to turn its focus to the Puritan world in which the wholestory is set, and by analyzing the religious image—scaffold, the strict morbid systemof Puritanism will be criticized on the base of a structural metaphor—LIFE IS ADRAMA. Both the fellow-sinners and their illicit daughter will be interpretedmetaphorically in accordance with three scaffold images and their performance on itin order to acquire a better understanding of the work from the perspective of religion.Chapter three brings the life progress of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale andthe narrator of “The Custom House” into rigorous comparison through the contrastive analysis of the body of The Scarlet Letter and its controversial preface—“The CustomHouse”, and hence confirms the inevitable relationship in light of a structuralmetaphor—LIFE IS V-STRUCTURED PROGRESS.What we observe from the external world is just the indicator and metaphor ofsomething mysterious internal, and the spirituality underlying beneath it is the accessto a cognitive acquirement of the world. By analyzing these metaphors in The ScarletLetter from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory, which proved to havegrown vitally in Hawthorne’s art as well as to our appreciation of it, this paper intendsto penetrate into the characters’ inner thoughts, to search for their buried secretmotivations, and to explore the misgivings and anxieties brought by hidden sins andevils.