Metaphorical Analysis Of Animal Images In Edgar Allan Poe’s Works

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most controversial American writers. The researches and surveys on Poe and his works have been lasting for over 150 years. Those critics have used lots of theories to explain the works of Allan Poe, and the major method is to analyze Poe’s works from the social background, his special life experience and characters. However, the critics don’t pay enough attention to the images that appear in Allan Poe’s works.Most of the images have been considered as a kind of narration, which are used for symbol or hint. But its cognitive function cannot be explored in understanding the literary works. There are many animal images in Poe’s works. He often uses the metaphorical meanings of these animals to express his typical understanding of life and thought of humanity.The thesis is based on the theory of metaphor to analyze the metaphorical meanings of the animal images in Poe’s works. The first chapter briefly introduces the background, framework and significance of the thesis. The second chapter gives the detailed research on metaphor and metaphorical meaning of animal images, and review of Edgar Allan Poe and his works. Chapter Three analyzes the metaphorical meanings of six animal images. Chapter Four presents the influencing factors in Allan Poe’s creation of animal images: Poe’s life experience, social background of U.S. and Poe’s view on art. The last part is a conclusion of the whole thesis.In this thesis, the author intends to collect and analyze six animal images metaphors from those 30 works, which are accepted widely by the people. And then the author intends to analyze the unique influence of these animal image metaphors on the understanding of the stories and poems of Allan Poe. The analyses make us easily understand the interpretation of the living environment and mental state of these people, who were reflected by those animal images. At the same time, the analyses of the metaphorical meanings of Poe’s animal images can also be a new and unique angle to research Edgar Allan Poe.