The Translation of Simile in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre

Abstract

This thesis examines the translation of similes in Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre (1847). Data is collected from the original work and two Arabic translations of it by Munir Baalabaki (1985) and Helmi Morad (2003). It uses a critical contrastive analysis to assess the degree of accuracy between this original rhetorical device and its rendition into Arabic. This thesis posits that translation of similes of Jane Eyre suffers from serious mistranslation. Some similes deviated from the intentions of the original text; others violated linguistic and cultural norms of the target text. Consequently, this mistranslation undermines the overall literary value of the novel in Arabic. The nature of similes used in the novel and the translators' overreliance on formal equivalence approach and literalism along with inconsistent translation strategies resulted in mistranslation of a good number of similes.