The contribution of figurative language to elaborate the hollow dignity of a 1960s feudal family in Sri Lanka: with special reference to novel, giraya by Punyakante Wijenaike

Abstract

Punyakante Wijenaike is an eminent Sri Lankan novelist who has addressed women issues of Sri Lanka throughout previous six decades. Giraya is her second novel in which depicts the oppression of a middle class woman who has been married to a feudal family. Feudal system in Sri Lanka features differently from western countries and one of its major characteristics is the hollow dignity of its family members. This particular feature in the novel has been elaborated by a thickly decorated figurative language and this paper provides an in-depth analysis of its figurative language in respect with the hollow dignity of the feudal family. This paper is a content analysis and it collects the secondary data from the printed book. The proposition is weighted quantitatively by referring the certain chapters. The researcher gives his qualitative analysis by deeply analyzing the quantitative data. The qualitative analysis is purely based on the figurative language used in the novel. Therefore it considers the figures of speech used in quantitative data as much as possible. After the qualitative analysis is done, it is obvious that symbolism, imagery, metaphor and simile have given a considerable impact on presenting the fact of hollow dignity of the feudal family. In there, symbolism has taken a significant place. Sarcasm has also given a considerable impact throughout the novel to establish the idea of hollow dignity of the feudal family members.