THE USE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN THE CHILDREN’S NOVEL, ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND BY LEWIS CARROLL IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLOT, CHARACTERS AND THEMES

Abstract

In the field of literature, the use of figurative language is a common practice and more prominently in works dedicated to children. Figurative language is defined as a kind of communication that does not rely on the literal meaning of the words, rather requiring the readers to look beyond its actual meaning. This kind of communication results in creative flourish elements in literary works. In this research, a popular children’s novel entitled Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, more popularly known as Lewis Carroll, was chosen in order to identify the types of figurative language used along with their roles in developing the plot, characters and themes. The research used New Criticism as the focus is more on the context of the novel, with Perrine and Arp’s theory of figurative language as the basis and a modified Metaphor Identification Procedure was used. During the analysis, several types of figurative language were identified with their analysis within the story content. In conclusion, the figurative language in the novel was able to be identified and analysed.