A Study of the Heroine of Jane Eyre --from a perspective of Feminism英语专业毕业论文.doc

毕 业 论 文论文题目 A Study of the Heroine of Jane Eyre -from a perspective of Feminism学 院 专 业 英语语言文学年 级 06级姓 名 指导教师 职 称 教授（2010 年 6月）CONTENTI.IntroductionII.A Brief Introduction of FeminismIII. Jane Eyres Rebelliousness as a Woman 3.1 Jane Eyres Rebelliousness as a Woman3.2 Jane Eyres Desire for Equality and LibertyIV. ConclusionBibliographyAcknowledgement内 容 摘 要夏洛蒂勃朗特作为十九世纪英国杰出的女作家之一，她的代表作简爱自出版以来受到读者和文学评论者的广泛关注和欢迎。作者从女权主义的角度分析了作品中的女主人公 -简爱，从而发现了女权主义在当时社会的发展情况。本文共分为四部分。第一部分介绍了作者夏洛蒂勃朗特的生平以及她的代表作简爱，第二部分简要地介绍了女权主义及其发展。第三部分主要从女权主义角度分析了简爱。这也是整篇论文的主体部分。简爱是一位充满感情和激情的女性，在她生活的那个时代是不合时宜的。她渴望得到自由和平等，同时她的反叛精神贯穿了整部小说。更为可贵的是，她不仅争取自己在社会中的平等地位，她还关注所有女性的命运。简爱从孩提时就具有反抗精神，她认为她的舅妈和表弟对她是不公正地，并加以反抗，她希望与表兄妹处于平等的地位。后来她在罗伍德慈善学校时，她又希望与其他同学处于平等的地位；进入桑菲尔德庄园当一名家庭教师后，她还是努力地想获得尊严和平等，即使当她和罗彻斯特先生恋爱之后，罗彻斯特想给她很多奢侈品，但是她都一一拒绝了。当她在婚礼上得知罗切斯特先生有一位精神失常的妻子，毅然决然地拒绝成为他的情妇而离开了他。这些都能看出一位伟大的女权主义者的本色。第四部分是本文的结论。简爱在一定程度上反映了她的创作者所处时代的社会现实、女性地位和女性意识。本文认为随着时代的发展，女性地位和女性意识都得到了不同程度的提高。关键词：女权主义 平等 独立 爱情 婚姻ABSTRACTCharlotte Bronte is one of the most remarkable women writers in the 19th-century English literature. Her representative work-Jane Eyre - has been enjoying enormous popularity since its publication.By analyzing the heroine-Jane Eyre from feminism, we can find the development of feminism. It can be clearly seen that Jane Eyre is rebellious and desires for equality and liberty, she is financially and spiritually independent in her relationship with her lover, Mr. Rochester, and appears to be a new woman. In short, Jane Eyre reflects the social realities, womens position and womens female consciousness in the certain period its creator was in .The thesis presents the improvement of womens position and womens female consciousness with the passage of time.KEY WORDS: feminism equality independence I.IntroductionJane Eyre is one of the most famous novels written by women in England in the 19th century and its among my favorite novels. Jane Eyre tells the story of an orphan girl. Jane Eyre, the daughter of a poor parson, loses both of her parents shortly after birth. She lives at the household of her aunt, Mrs. Reed, an unfeeling woman, who is rude and unjust to the poor orphan. Mrs. Reeds children also find pleasure in teasing and mocking Jane. One day, unable to bear the ill-treatment any longer, Jane tells straight to her aunts face what she thinks of her. Mrs. Reed is furious and gets rid of Jane by sending her to a charity school for poor girls in Lowood. Maltreated by the authorities and leading a half-starved existence, Jane stays here for 8 long years, spent in studies, and the remaining in the capacity of a teacher. Then Jane gets a position of governess in the family of Mr. Rochester, a rich squire. Rochester falls in love with Jane, and she with him. They are about to be married when Jane breaks the engagement on the wedding day, learning that Mr. Rochester has a wife, a raving lunatic who is secretly kept under lock and key in the house. Shocked by the news, Jane flees from the house. She goes through a lot of hardships. After nearly perishing on the moors, she is taken in and cared for by a parson, Rev. Rivers. He helps her to get the job of a teacher in a village school. Meanwhile, a great misfortune befalls Mr. Rochester: he loses his sight during a fire in the house, set by his mad wife who dies a tragic death by jumping off the roof in spite of his attempt to save her. Hearing that Mr. Rochester is penniless and disabled, Jane Eyre hurries to him and becomes his wife.Since its publication, it has attracted a lot of attention from critics and common readers. In 1847, George Henry Lewes, one of the soundest of Victorian critics, reviewed Jane Eyre in Frasers magazine that “reality - deep, significant reality - is the greatest characteristics of the book” (Blackburn, 2002:99). Then, some critics began to focus on its character drawing, its treatment of love, its plot, etc. At the end of the twentieth century, discussions moved to Bertha Mason. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, in The Madwoman in the Attic in 1979, took the figures of Bertha Mason “as representative of the 19th century female imagination, forced to divide itself between a compromising heroine like Jane Eyre, and an outrageous figure like Bertha Mason who, by her very presence in the text, register the anger which is also experienced by the heroine.” From the literature review, the author of the thesis has learned that feminist criticism appeared after World War II as a literary branch of the womens liberation, which is a comparatively new kind of criticism and is still popular today. In the later part of the twentieth century, it becomes common for literary critics to pay attention to the feminist elements in Charlotte Brontes novels. Feminism, as a literary criticism, has attracted my attention. So I decide to make a analysis of the heroine from a perspective of feminism. Through the analysis, I hope to find out the reflection of social realities in the literary work and womens position in a certain period of history and the improvement of womens position with the passage of time.This thesis, chiefly made up of four chapters, aims to analyze Jane Eyre from a perspective of feminism. The first chapter briefly introduces the life of Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre, the argument of the thesis and the purpose that I wrote this thesis. The following chapter is an introduction of Feminism in literary history. The third chapter is the body of the thesis. In this part, the author make a deeply analysis of Jane Eyre from a perspective of feminism.The last chapter is the conclusion of the paper. On the basis of the analysis of Jane Eyre, it is concluded that women in nineteenth century desire to be as equal and liberal as men.II.A Brief Introduction of FeminismFeminism first appeared in France, which refers to “the belief and aim that women should have the same rights, power, and opportunities as men” (Collins Cobuild Advanced Lerners English Dictionary, 2003:527). Then, it began to spread through England andAmerica and gradually became popular. Later, it affected China through the medium of Japan. Virginia Woolf, an English woman writer, published A Room of Ones Own in 1929, which is the first major achievement of feminist criticism in the English language. TheSecond Sex, written by the French woman writer Simone de Beauvoir and published in 1949, declared that “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” Both of the women writers have had a great effect on the later development of feminism in the western world.Elaine Showalter, one of the leading feminist critics in the United States, has identified three historical phases of womens literary development: the Feminine phase as the period from the appearance of the male pseudonym in the 1840s to the death of George Eliot; the Feminist phase as 1880 to 1920, or the winning of the vote; and the Female phase as 1920 to the present, but entering a new stage of self-awareness about 1960. There are four significant current practices of feminist approaches, which are gender studies, Marxist feminism, psychoanalytic feminism and minority feminist criticism. “ Elaine Showalter has observed that English feminist criticism, essentially Marxist, stresses oppression; French feminist criticism, essentially psychoanalytic, stress repression; American feminist criticism, essentially textual, stresses expression” (Guerin, 1999: 203). Marxist feminist criticism focuses on the relation between reading and social realities. Karl Marx argued that all historical and social developments are determined by forms of economic production. Marxist feminists thus combine study of class with that of gender. In Marxist feminism, personal identity is not seen as separate from cultural identity. Indeed, feminism and feminist literary criticism are often defined as a matter of what is absent rather than what is present. In its diversity, feminism is concerned with the marginalization of all women; that is, with their being relegated to a secondary position. Most feminists believe that our culture is a patriarchal culture: that is, one organized in favor of the interests of men. Feminists try to explain how power imbalances due to gender in a given culture are reflected in or challenged by literary texts. Literature will often reflect the cultural assumptions and attitudes of its period, and that of course includes attitudes towards women: their status, their roles, their expectations. In general, the target of feminist criticism is to awaken womens individual consciousness, so as to expose the fraudulent values of patriarchy, break the shackles it has long since imposed on the female and call for their resistance against the unjust treatment to them.III.Charlotte Bronte was actually the third of the five daughters born to the Irish curate of Haworth. The girls mother died in 1821, leaving the children in the care of their aunt. Living in the rectory, Charlotte had little to do other than read or write. For such, it is perhaps less surprising that as a child in her early teens, she wrote at least 23 complete “novels”. The loneliness she experienced was clearly quite acute. She was first educated at the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, perhaps an unsurprising choice of institution for a father who, it is understood, preferred to take meals alone in his study. She later went on to attend Roe Head School between 1831 and 1832, and returned to teach at the school later in the decade. From 1839 to 1842, she acted as a governess beforetraveling to Brussel with Emily, her younger sister, for language training (French and German) and music lessons .In 1836, Charlotte Bronte wrote to Robert Southey to ask him for advice on her writing. In his reply, it said that: “Literature cannot be the business of awomans life, and ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and recreation” (Tang, 1998:188). Then, in her answer, she wrote that: Following my fathers advice-who from my childhood has counseled me, just in the wise and friendly tone of your letter- I have endeavored not only attentively to observe all the duties a woman ought to fulfill, but to feel deeply interested in them. I dont always succeed, for sometimes when Im teaching or sewing I would rather be reading or writing; but I try to deny myself; and my fathers approbation amply rewarded me for the privation. (Tang, 1998:283)Charlotte Brontes novel Jane Eyre embraces many feminist views in opposition to the Victorian feminine ideal. Charlotte Bronte herself was among the first feminist writers of her time, and wrote this book in order to send the message of feminism to a Victorian-Age Society in which women were looked upon as inferior and repressed by the society in which they lived. This novel embodies the ideology of equality between a man and woman in marriage, as well as in society at large. As a feminist writer, Charlotte Bronte created this novel to support and spread the idea of an independent woman who works for herself, thinks for herself, and acts of her own accord. Women of the Victorian era were repressed, and had little if any social stature. They had a very few rights andfewer options open to them for self-support. For most women the only way to live decently was to get married, and in many cases it was not up to the women to choose whom she married. It was almost unheard of for a woman to marry out of her social class. If a womandid not marry, the only ways she could make a living other than becoming a servant was either to become a prostitute or a governess. For the most part, a woman was not given the opportunity to go to school and earn a degree unless she was born into a high social class.The average Victorian woman was treated not as a person, but as an object or piece of property. She had very few rights either in society, or marriage. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre the main character, Jane Eyre, explores the depth at which women may act in society and finds her own boundaries in Victorian England. There is an ample amount of evidence to suggest that the tone of Jane Eyre is in fact a very feminist one and may well be thought as relevant to the women of today who feel they have been discriminated against because of their gender. At the beginning of the 19th century, little opportunity existed for women, and thus many of them felt uncomfortable when attempting to enter many parts of society. The absence of advanced educational opportunities for women and their alienation from almost all fields of work gave them little option in life: either becomes a housewife or a governess. Although today a tutor may be considered a fairly high class and intellectual job, in the Victorian era a governess was little more than a servant who was paid to share her scarce amount of knowledge in limited fields to a child. With little respect, security, or class one may have no choice but become a governess, like Jane Eyre.3.1 Jane Eyres Rebelliousness as a WomanJane Eyre is a novel about one womans journey through life, so Charlotte Bronte described Janes experience in detail to show the inferior position of the woman and the poverty of society. In the opening chapters of Jane Eyre - indeed on its very first page -there is writing with that special female ink trampled from the grapes of wrath and a female who has her say “no”. “No-saying, for a woman writer, is not quite the same unimportant thing it is for a man. The first and most important qualification in a woman is good nature or sweetness of temper.” At the very beginning of Jane Eyre, there is a conversation between her and her aunt, Mrs. Reed, which can show her rebellion to some extent.“What does Bessie say I have done?” I asked.“Jane, I dont like cavilers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.” (1; ch. 1)Janes time at Gateshead Hall is a typical experience of the misery and anguish. She was subjected to domestic tyranny and continually abused by her cousin John Reed, the first oppressor Jane met in her life. John, at the age of 14, has become particularly obnoxious, afat, greedy, unwholesome bully. He regards himself as the future owner of the house. He beats and insults Jane at will. Goaded by John Reeds bullying, she hits back on two occasions, fighting like a mad cat until she is overpowered. Then she is locked up alone inthe red room. Terror as well as anger is always with her whe