简爱性格特征

Contents

Abstract (1)

Key Words (1)

摘要 (1)

关键词 (1)

1. Introduction (1)

2. The Social Status of women at Victorian Time (3)

2.1 Women?s Status in Family (3)

2.2 Women?s Education Situation (4)

2.3 Women?s Job Choice (4)

3. The Feminist Consciousness in Jane Eyre (5)

3.1 The Character Analysis of the Main Women Images (5)

3.2 The Strong Feminist Consciousness Jane Expresses (10)

4. Conclusion (17)

Bibliography (17)

The Feminism in Jane Eyre

Abstract：Jane Eyre is reputed as the representative work of early English female literature. From the experience and feelings of her own, the author Charlotte Bronte wrote to challenge to the patriarchal society. The three main female images she created : Jane，Bertha and Helen have different attitudes towards their destiny and get different consequence. The struggle and compromise of women to their destiny is showed through these three women. This paper attempts to value the feminism in Jane Eyre through analyzing their images.

Key Words: rebellion; independence; equality

摘要：《简爱》被称为英国早期女性文学的代表作。作者夏洛蒂〃勃朗特从自身的体验和感受出发，用手中的笔向传统的男权社会挑战。她笔下的三个女性角色简、海伦和伯莎对自己的命运是三种不同的态度，也有着不同的结局。从她们身上可以看到男权社会中的女人对自己命运的抗争与妥协。本文将通过对三个女主人公形象的探讨，解读《简爱》中的女权主义。

关键词：反叛；独立；平等

1. Introduction

Jane Eyre is considered as charlotte?s most representative work and one of the most popular and important novels of the Victorian Age. Jane Eyre tells the story of an orphan girl called Jane Eyre, the daughter of a poor parson. This small, plain, poor governess goes through a lot of hardship with a strong sense of equality and independence. She has great courage to challenge the tradition and to fall in love with her master Rochester, a man superior to her in many ways. When she knows his wife is still alive she leaves him resolutely. Finally, she marries him when he is in the most wretched situation.

Jane is a new woman image in English literature. Almost all the women images before 19th century were created by men. “Frailty, the name is woman”, a famous statement in Shakespeare?s Hamlet reminds people of the conventional opinion of

woman?s image in the patriarchal world. Besides, we “image her a person of the utmost importance; very various; heroic and mean; splendid and sordid; infinitely beautiful and hideous in the extreme; as great as a man, some think even greater.”(Virginia Woolf, 1929：33) It betrays the truth. It can?t be prescribed better than what Virginia Woolf says in her A Room of One’s Own:“Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband.”(Virginia Woolf, 1929:11) As for Jane Eyre which written by the woman Charlotte challenged the tradition and express a true, fresh world inside women. She bravely expressed the feminist consciousness, the suffering of the English women in19th century and their resisting against the oppressive patriarchal society. The theme of Jane Eyre is women?s strong desire to be independent. The heroine Jane Eyre, with her obscurity and inferiority, stands out as a representative of the middle-class working women struggling for their basic rights and equality as a human being. Jane, small and weak as she is, becomes a heroine fighting for the liberation of women. As the first manifestation of the exploited and maltreated women, Jane Eyre is perceived as a representative work of feminist writing, i.e., works reflecting the experience and defending the interest of the weaker sex.

Charlotte created three representative women in Jane Eyre who reflect the attitudes women deal with their destiny. She wrote Helen who showed to the world how a perfect angel to be persecuted to death. She wrote Bertha who made people find frightened how strong the revenge power was when a silent woman erupt in silence. And she wrote Jane, a new woman who did n?t promise anybody to control her destiny and vindicated her rights as a human being from start to finish. This paper will begin with the social status of the women in 19th century, and discuss the feminism in Jane Eyre through analyzing the three main images: Helen, Bertha and Jane.

2. The Social Status of Women at Victorian Time

For quite a long time, the western people believed wome n?s duty was to be a good wife and mother. Women should please their husbands and created a comfortable family. It was accepted universally that god prescribes different realms for men and women. The proper sphere of womanhood ruled a woman who would be a perfect lady and an angel in the house and submissive to man contentedly. The female lived far away from the mainstream of the society.

2.1 Wome n’s Status in Family

In the early time of 19th century, most of the middle-class women didn?t engage social production and they needn?t do much housework either. They just stayed at home and became a symbol of their husbands? success. A woman?s only way was to marry an ideal husband. However, it wasn?t their free will to choose their marriage. Their marriage depended on their parents. The most important condition was good extraction. Many people believed the noblest action of a da ughter was to add the family?s fortune through her marriage that had nothing to do with the man?s age or morality. Because the law didn?t allow divorce before 1857, a wife must bear pain if the marriage was not happiness. The husband could process many mistresses. As to the wife, she must suffer great pressure from the public voice if she had a paramour.

Before a woman got married, she had some right to possess her fortune and income. But once she got married, she lost her legal status. When a man got married, he got not only his wife?s trousseau but also the wife herself. She and he became a whole in law, which means the wife?s legal status stopped or at least be fused into her husband?s. A married woman didn?t have property right. She couldn?t possess her properties at will. All her properties were entitled to and controlled by her husband. She should submissive to her husbands all their life. She changed her family names to her husband?s. Her money, no matter she owned or she earned, belonged to her husba nd.

2.2 Wome n’s Education Situation

Woman?s education in 19th century had something to do with marriage. In early years of 19th century, the traditional woman education belonged to the girls who lived in rich family. The aim was creating ideal wives and mothers. As to the working class girls, they must learn work skill as same as boys for living. Because a woman was not decent to working outside in tradition, middle-class women must depend on the men. These girls prepared for their rich marriage when they were very young. In order to be a perfect lady and have more counter in marriage market, they just learned how to add their charm to attract an ideal man. Some women who wanted to learn something useful must learn secretly. That was because most men didn?t want a literate and thoughtful wife. These women were believed hard to be qualified wives or mothers.

This kind of education made middle-class women difficult to choose a suitable job. To be a governess was the only decent profession for them at that time. We can see Jane Eyre who can be recognized as a feminist fighter is always a governess. The education also influenced their value. They lost themselves and lived for satisfying the men.

2.3 Wome n’s Job Choice

As inferred above, governess was the only decent job for woman at that time. The low class women worked for upper class as maidservant or for English industry as worker. They toiled at their jobs and earned slender wages. As the awaking of the feminist consciousness, a minority group of middle-class women who were educated and thoughtful began to strive for the independence and freedom of their own. The situation of women seems to be improved on the surface, but the reality was not optimistic. The jobs offered to these women were very limited and were looked down upon by the society.

These middle-class women, who didn?t want to be traditional, like marring a wealthy man and burying life in marriage, could find a job just like nurse or governess. Some of them chose to be a novelist. Even so, people were still prejudiced to the

women who went outside to work. Their jobs were thought inglorious. As to writing, it was accepted as the realm of men. The work written by woman couldn?t be valued candid. For the first generation of English Victorian feminine writers, to meet the standards of the society and be accepted by the readers, many of them used pseudonyms. So did the author of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte. She used the pseudonyms, Currer Bell, to press Jane Eyre.

3. The Feminist Consciousness in Jane Eyre

With indignation for the patriarchal society, Charlotte wrote out the thirsty of women for equality and independence. The three women Helen, bertha and Jane in Jane Eyre show the compromise and struggle for their destiny. They are all living under the oppression of patriarchal society and choose different acts towards it.

3.1 The Character Analysis of the Main Women Images

3.1.1 Helen: a Compromiser in Patriarchal Society

Helen in Jane Eyre is an ideal woman. She is a perfect angel. However, she becomes a victim of the oppression at that time no matter how perfect she is. She can?t change her destiny, or we can say she never thinks about changing something. She is always patient and submissive. She just let the evil surroundings kill her little by little.

Though little is known about Helen?s early life, we can infer that she has had a good childhood. She was accepted good education before she went to Lowood institution. That can de detected through her good style of conversation, especially when she communicates with miss temple. We can feel strongly that how lettered she is. Jane feels it is incredible for a 14-aged girl knows so wide. Her amazement reaches its climax when Helen reads and construes a Latin work for miss temple. Her Latin was taught by her father. We can image that Helen?s happy life stopped after her mother died. This girl was abandoned to this Lowood institution, where there was a disaster for any girl. Though Helen is clever and wise, she is maltreated in this school. She is often

blamed for trifle. Miss Scatcherd won?t let go any chance to scold Helen. As what Jane says: “such is the imperfect nature of man! Such spots are there on the disc of the clearest planet; and an eye like Scatcherd?s can only see those minute defects, and are blind to the full brightness of the orb.”(Bronte, 1847:49)

Helen resists little against any unjust treatment. The patience shows her wise and her passiveness. When Jane feels indignant for Helen being stricken, Helen is disapproval for resisting. She believes rebellion is in vain and it will bring more punishment. She says: “it is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody fells but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequence will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the bible bids us return good for evil.”(Bronte, 1847:35) But Jane considers we should strike back again hard if somebody strikes us without a reason. Helen thinks Jane?s view is a behavior of an untaught girl. She ascribed all unjust treatment to her fault. She doesn?t want the revenge thing worry her heart. For Helen, indignant and rebellion only make people unhappy. She believes that life is too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. Body will die but the spirit is immortal. She prefers live in calm to suffer in pain of hatred. Her attitude reflects her wide bosom and deep thought. But her creed does not bring her real comfort. She can?t be apathetic for all the maltreatments. She just has no choice but to endure for her destiny. She doesn?t know how to save her out of such a situation. So religion becomes the last shelf. She believes all these pains will be recompensed by god. She says; “god waits only the separation of spirit from flesh to crown us with a full reward. Why, then, should we ever sink overwhelmed with distress, when life is so soon over, and death is certain an entrance to happiness-to glory.”(Bronte, 1847:70)This is trying to calm Jane, but Jane felt the impression of woe as she spoke. Why is she sad? I don?t think she gets real calm. There is still struggle under her calm surface. We can?t consider her tranquil and submissive as a totally compromise. She just can?t find a better way to live in the world full of oppressors.

Helen doesn?t live long. She dies of consumption whereas the other girls die of the contagious disease of typhus. To die for her is a relief. She feels free at the escape from present suffering and is full of anticipation of the joy of heaven. That is her long home

and her last home. In that place, god will give her all warm that she lacks in the present

world. Death for her is a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss.

Helen?s resisting against the injustice is forcing her to be indifferent to all the sufferings and escaping the reality. Her creed for god is good to cultivation. But she needs more courage to fight against her contradiction inside. Because she can?t neglect all sufferings in present world, she can only expect to go to god and escape to another world.

The attitude Helen keeps reflects the life station of many women at that time. They were intelligent and they were discontented with the suffering women undergo. However, they didn?t think it would be useful to resist. They found no way to change their social status. They had no choice but to be numb. At last they became an angel in the house or a perfect lady. When they were maltreated, they went for religion. God had said that people bore with sin and they must suffer pains. Million oppressive women comfort themselves with this creed. They might not look for the end like Helen, but most of them became slaves of the patriarchal society and lived their life without any

character.

3.1.2 Bertha: a Crazy Avenger under the Oppression of Patriarchal Society.

As for Bertha, she is a wordless woman in Jane Eyre.Contrast with Helen, she goes to another extreme. She revenges on the oppressors crazy and prefers to die with the oppressor.

Bertha is a mad woman in Jane Eyre. She never speaks for or defends herself. All stories about her come from Mr. R ochester?s tongue and Jane?s description. From these depictions we know this miserable woman?s life.

From Rochester?s voice, we know Miss Mason was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty. She was beautiful and rich. She didn?t lack wooers. She was a perf ect Lady in Jamaica. We can find the reasons Rochester married Bertha Mason as follows: On one hand, Bertha satisfied his vanity as a man. Bertha flattered him, and lavishly displayed for his pleasure her charms and accomplishments. All the men in her circle seemed to admire her and envy him. He was dazzled and stimulated. Rochester could not but acknowledge that he thought he loved her. To be objective, Rochester was

conquered by Bertha?s charm without any oppression outside.

On the other hand, Bertha Maso n was rich. Rochester?s father decided to keep his property together, he could not bear to divide his estate and leave a fair portion to Rochester. In order to keep this son rich, he chose Bertha. Bertha had her marriage of thirty thousand pounds. We can s ay Rochester will be poor without Bertha?s thirty thousand pounds. For a man who must marry a wealthy woman to keep him rich will he choose true love or money? I don?t think Mr. Rochester would give up the idea of marring if he knew she might be mad. It is Bertha?s dowry that enables him to live a luxurious life at the first four years of their marriage.

However, Mr. Rochester defended himself that his and her family cheated him and he was blind. He described himself as the most victim of this marriage. Before he married, he was cheated. After he married he found he didn?t love his wife, and this wife has no virtue. He alleged that it wasn?t her mad that disgusted him but her coarse, perverse and imbecile. He said that “I found her nature wholly alien to min e, her taster obnoxious to me, her cast of mind common, low, narrow, and singularly incapable of being led to anything higher, expanded to anything larger.” (Bronte, 1847:20) He blamed that his father and brother joined in the plot against him for that thirty thousand pound. Why doesn?t he admit that he betrayed his marriage for the thirty thousand pound? He hated this mad woman, but he lived a degenerate and luxuriant life with this mad woman?s money. When his father and brother were dead, he became rich e nough. He shut Bertha in an attic for ten years.

What a miserable life Bertha had! She once was a beautiful charm woman. She must yearn to happiness marriage in her maid time. But she was like other women in Victoria Age. She flatted man in society to marry a man with wealth or good race. She married a man without deep understanding. She was just a business in the patriarchy. Bertha, a burden to her father and brother with a potential mental defect, was “sold” to Rochester who was of a good race for thirty thousand pounds. She might have some expectation for her husband. But she was disgusted for the deep disparity between her and her husband. This unhappy marriage aggravated the state of her illness. This made her husband hate her more and she was poisoned for ten years. The face was purple, the

lips were swelled and dark; the brow furrowed; the black eyebrows widely rose over the bloodshot eyes. This woman who once was the boast of Spanish Town for her beauty became a Vampire. What gloomy life she lives! When she was showed public first time in Thornfiel d, this is the description. “In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell: it groveled, seemingly, on all fours it snatched and growled like some strange wide animal; but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark grizzled hair, wild as a mane hid its head and face.” (Bronte, 1847:90)

Bertha was mad. She would be forced to mad eve n if she didn?t have the crazy gene. Bertha was confined to the attic at the third story. Her existence was totally cleared up from the outside world, only Grace Poole, the only woman that everybody could repose confidence in, shared her insane or lucid moments. According to Rochester?s account, we can see she didn?t lose her reason totally. “She had lucid intervals of days-sometimes weeks—which she filled up with abuse of me.” (Bronte, 1847:77)What did she think when she was lucid? Her beautiful face had been ruined. Her marriage was a disaster. Her husband gave her no love. She was imprisoned in an abyss while her husband flirts with different mistresses.

When Rochester gave a ball or a party in Thornfield, she heard the music and laughs downstairs where an ocean of was happy, she must remember the time she was the most beautiful lady in Spanish Town. But look what the life was now! It couldn?t imagine how sad and angry she was. She hated this patriarchal world that gave her such miserable destiny. She wanted to revenge.

In the novel, she shows her face five times. Every time she has definite intention and never hart the innocent person. In the first time, she fired the curtains and perpetrated the attempt to burn Mr. Rochester in his bed. In the second time, she hided a knife and with it she stabbed her brother. When she appeared the third time, she tore Jane?s wedding veil top to bottom in two halves the night before Jane got married. The fourth time she was pulled to the public to let everyone know her exist. She sprung and gripped Rochester?s throat viciously, and laid her teeth to his cheek. And the last time, she burned Thornfield to ruins and committed suicide. Mr. Rochester became

handicapped.

She knew exactly the aim she wants to revenge. We can infer this from the keeper Grace?s words: “Ah! Sir, she sees you! You?d better not stay.”(Bronte, 1847)This shows Bertha hates Mr. Rochester very much. Her misery was brought by this man directly. The other man that she chose to hurt was her brother Mr. Mason. It was his family that chooses this marriage for her. Mr. Mason, her brother, didn?t help her to get just treatment. The two men that she hurts own her. As to tear the wedding veil, she might be brought back vague reminiscences of her own bridal days. When she got married, she must by very happy, but how misery her marriage became. So she torn the wedding veil and flung it on the floor, trampled on it. She wanted to know what noble taste her husband chose this time, so she glared upon Jane before she left.

At last, with desperate to the world, Bertha decided to ruin anything that oppressed her. She fires Thronfield—her prison and the symbol of the patriarchal society. It is no meaning to live without any dignity as a human being. Bertha chose to die with the

oppressor. It is an extreme revenge of a miserable and oppressive woman.

3.1.3 Jane Eyre: a New Woman Image

Jane Eyre was very popular at Victorian age and is still welcomed all over the world nowadays. The main reason is that it created a new conman image that is quite different from average women that endure oppression of both the upper class and circumstance. Helen is too patient, and Bertha is too crazy. They are dissatisfied about the patriarchal society, and they have their way to resist. But one is too negative and the other is too extreme. Ordinary women cannot accept their ways. As to Jane, the unique image, she never stops resisting to the oppressor. She pursues independence and equality all the time and she finds happiness at last.

Jane, the heroine in Jane Eyre, is different from any other heroines in novel before. She isn?t an ideal woman in men?s eyes. She isn?t beautiful. She demands too much in men?s eyes. And she doesn?t plan to change herself in order to satisfy men?s taste. She asks for re spect. She never thinks of being men?s pet. She wants to be herself. She had miserable experiences in her early years. She lost her parents and always suffered unfriendly treatment. However, she never surrenders to the patriarchal society. Even

love doesn?t make she gives up her insistence of independence. The following will analyze Jane?s unique character in detail.

3.2 The Strong Feminist Consciousness Jane Expresses

3.2.1 Rebelling Against Oppression

In 19th century, there was no equality in English .It still had strict class. Even the man, the mainstream in society, could not have the courage to call for equality in public. But Jane, small and common as she was, seeded equality in her heart when she was a child. She dared to tear the hypocritical veil of those people who claimed themselves as benefactor or protector. She spoke to the world that we should resist against the oppressor. This is not only the awaking of feminist consciousness, but also the declaration of equality as a human.

Jane always resists against the people who give her unjust treatment. Her spirit of striving for equality and her rebellion character are fully exposed in her childhood. Fate throws Jane into such a living conditions where she loses her parents and has to depend on her aunt for support. Her aunt despises her. Her cousins insult and beat her. This ten-year-old little girl, experiences deeply the unfairness of the world. In the depth of her heart, rebellious consciousness has been born and the basic shape of feminism has been formed. She believes that her cousins and she are equal. When her cousin John strikes her, Jane?s terror has passed its climax. She faces him directly and says, “Wicked and cruel boy! You are murderer. You are like a slave driver! You are like the Roman emperors!”(Bronte, 1847:63)As a punishment, she is locked in the red-room where she shouts out: “Unjust! Unjust!” In order to get rid of her, Mrs. Reed decides to send her to Bracklehurst?s charity school at Lowood. Before Jane leaves, Mrs. Reed spreads ru mors to injure her reputation. Jane is so distressed by being called a liar that she can?t help launching her angry to Mrs. Reed, “I am not deceitful: If I were, I should say I loved you; but I declare I do not love you … I am glad you are no relation of m ine; I will never come to see you when I am grown up; and if any one asks me how I liked you, and how you treated me, I will say the very thought of you makes me sick, and that you

trusted me with miserable cruelty…You think I have no feelings, and that I can do

without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so: and you have no pity.…People think you a good woman, but you are bad, hard-hearted. You are deceitful!” (Bronte, 1847:38) These words show Jane?s rebellion completely. This helpless girl, un der the insult of the oppressor, doesn?t give in and lose self-esteem, but creates a kind of feeling of revolt in her heart. Really, her rebellion frightens her aunt.

Jane rebels oppression and fights for equality all the time. At Lowood, Jane?s spirit is increasing. This firstly shows clearly from her attitude towards Helen?s endurance. When Helen endures Miss Scatcherd?s insult and punishment for inadequate reason, she says she will resist if she were in Helen?s place. She says she must resist those who p unish her unjustly. It is natural. In Jane?s heart, as long as you live in the world, you are equal with any other. No one should accept anything unjust no matter what social status the oppressor has. When the headmaster Brocklehurst criticizes and punishes Jane before all girls and calls her a liar, unlike Helen who endures all the inequality, she chooses to resist and explains the truth to Miss Temple courageously. This gives her innocence back. She can?t accept Helen?s theory that “loves your enemies” (B ronte, 1847). She tells Helen: “If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; I am sure we should—so hard as to teach the person who struck us never do it again.”(Bronte, 1847:45) This shows her rebelling spirit thoroughly.

The female are oppressed for million years. They are told to obey. What Jane expresses is resisting against all injustice. Obviously she is not a “perfect lady”. But she gives women a new standard. Her rebellion tells the world that women shouldn?t be

silent to injustices.

3.2.2 Keep Independence as Her Identification of a Female

Jane?s rebellion in her childhood shows her identification as a human being. Her identification as a female grows in Lowood and forms after she leaves Lowood. The feminism in her heart increases the time she goes to Thorn field. A feminist must first

have her opinion that everyone is born equal, and then she will realize that women should not be inferior to men. Just like Jane, when she was young, she believed nobody should accept injustice and when she grew up she thought women and men should on an equal footing.

Jane is an independent woman. She lives on her slender wages. Because she lives on her own, she doesn?t feel shame for her status. She doesn?t look down upon herself and admire the noble for she is a governess. She is loyal to herself. She will change if she wants to change. She depends on herself. She grasps her destiny tightly.

When she was a student in Lowood, she studied hard. She desired to excel in all. She availed herself fully of the advantage offered her. In time, she rose to be the first girl of the first class, and she was invested with the office of teacher. Jane had money of her own the first time: 15 pounds per annual. However, after eight years in Lowood, she expects to broaden her horizons. The real world is wide and varied of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, waits that have courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its peril. She is tired of the routine of eight years. She desires liberty. And she decides to look for a new job. She finds a job of governess with 30 pounds per annual in Thorn field. Obviously, Jane always looks forward to wider world. As she describes in the novel “I longed for a power of vision which might overpass that limit; which might reach the busy world, towns, regions full of life I had heard of but never seen—that then I desired more of practical experience than I possessed; more of intercourse with my reach.”(Bronte, 1847:76)

This view will be criticized. A woman should keep tranquil and not always think about surpassing the life in hand. But Jane desires to learn more and experience more. She doesn?t think human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility. She believes, “they must have action; and they will make it if the y cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot.”(Bronte, 1847:50) People should be aggressive in their life. Many “shackles” in the society bound people. Rebellions exist anywhere and anytime. Everyone should grasp the life of one?s own and keep life active instead of tranquil dead water. Jane claims life should be created and be changed bravely if necessary. It is the same to all the women.

“Women are supposed to be very calm genera lly; but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.” (Bronte, 1847:66) These words expressed by Jane Eyre are a feminist declaration, which tell the world clearly that women and men are equal. It behaves women to express their ability and run aggressively in the same field with men. Jane never thinks herself inferior to others for her female sex. She keeps independence on economy, so she thinks herself equal to any other. She should be respected as other independent people. For this cognition, she can find Miss Ingram poor in mind, barren in heart with noble rank. Even though she falls in love with Rochester, she doesn?t hope to be kept and manipulated by him. Her demand for economy is very strong. Even though she falls in love with Mr. Roch ester, she can?t eliminate her uneasiness on the great disparity of economy between them. She doesn?t hope to be kept and manipulated by him. She has no interest in the jewelry and clothes Mr. Rochester buys for her. She expresses to Mr. Rochester, “I only want an easy mind, sir; not crushed by crowded obligations.” However, inside she really hopes to have property of her own. She thinks: “It would, indeed, be a relief, if I had ever so small an independency …If I had but a prospect of one day bringing Mr. Rochester an accession of fortune, I could better endure to be kept by him now.” (Bronte, 1847:86) She wants to continue to act as Adele?s governess and she shall earn her boarding and lodging, and thirty pounds a year besides. “I?ll furnish my wardrobes o ut of that money, and you shall give me nothing but your regard.” She says to Rochester. (Bronte, 1847:93)When she escapes to Moor House, she is so eager to find any job honest to keep her dignity. Realizing the importance of independence in economy, she is keenly self-conscious to pursue the independence in spirit. This is the basic of a female to be a free people. This is the only way to protect the rights and dignity of one?s own.

At the end of the novel, Jane gets a legacy of twenty thousand pounds

unexpectedly and becomes a rich woman. Jane gets totally independence in economy and she can hold her destiny thoroughly. A woman with enough money belongs to herself. It just likes what Virginia Woolf supposed, “If she inherited five hundred pounds each year. It would violently change her temper. She said: …No force in the world can take from my five hundred pounds. Food, house and clothing are mine forever. Therefore not merely do effort and labor cease, but also hatred and bitterness. I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me. So imperceptibly I found myself adopting a new attitude towards the other half of the human race. It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole.?” (Virginia

Woolf, 1929:65)

3.2.3. Pursue an Equal Marriage Based on Love

Love is an eternal theme in literature. But in traditional literature which is written by men, love is either a man being tempted or a woman being conquered. Women are never at the same footing with men. They are either tempers or adorers. Before Jane, the woman in love was always passive. A traditional perfect lady never shows her love intensely. Once a woman gets married, she will be a dependency on her husband.

As for Jane, her love and marriage challenge the tradition. The love she demands is an attraction between the souls. She claims that marriage does not equal a trade contrast but a free union of heart. Struggling out of the chains patriarchal world force upon women, Jane announces to the world that women are qualified to pursue love and marriage without bowing to money and rank. Women have free will. As a human, a female shouldn?t be a dependency to her husband in marriage.

Jane, a small, plain governess as she is, gets Mr. Rochester?s love for her un ique spirit. He is tied of those women who please him by their faces. They have neither souls nor hearts. With clear eyes, eloquent tongue, a soul made of fire and character that bends but does not break, Jane gets Mr. Rochester?s love, and Jane also feels the existence of sympathy in the spirit. She falls in love with him. When their love isn?t so clear, it is Jane who shows her love activity. When she thinks Mr. Rochester will marry Miss. Ingram and she has to leave her love, the pain and the deep love urge her to

express her love to Mr. Rochester, “I grieve to leave Thornfield: I love Thronfield… I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence, with what I delight in,—with an original, a vigorous, and an expanded mind. I have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever.” (Bronte, 1847)Jane may be the first woman in literature to express her love to her beloved man. Charlotte may be the first novelist who described clearly the complex mind of a woman in love. Though there is huge disparity of ages, money, and rank between them, Jane believed all human are equal in spirit. With this realization, Jane doesn?t think she is inferior to her master. When Mr. Rochester pretends that he w ill marry Miss. Blanche and still wants Jane to stay, Jane retorts: “do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am a machine without feelings? And can bear to have my morsel of bread snatch from my lips? And my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? —You think wrong! —I have as much soul as you!—And full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; —it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God?s feet, equal,—as we are!” (Bronte, 1847:123) In Jane?s declaration of love and protest of indignation, we see through all her boldness and her persistence of equality in love. She cherishes her love and she loves Mr. Rochester dee ply. Even so, she still cherishes her independence. She can?t promise her to be subordinate to Mr. Rochester. She insists the equality between them. She won?t change herself as her lover wants. She tells Mr. Rochester: “I am not an angel, and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.” (Bronte, 1847:20) A wife always obeys her husband absolutely in that time. But Jane keeps her independent will. She believes they are equal and she can be her own. When she knows Mr. Rochester?s wife still lives in the w orld, she chooses to leave. Though leave Mr. Rochester is very miserable for her, she makes up her mind to leave. Stay means she will never get the equality in love. She will be an illegal mistress and lose all her dignity. This situation results in inferiority to him and

dependence to him. She is deep in love with Mr. Rochester, but if love runs against independence and equality, she would rather to choose the latter. Jane says to herself: “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, and the more uncontained I am, the more I will respect myself.”

In Moor House, St. John Rivers finds Jane docile, diligent, disinterested, faithfully, constant, and courageous, very gentle, and very heroic. These features just fit for his missionary. So he hopes Jane to marry him. Jane refuses him even if he claims it is God?s will. She knows clearly she is just a useful tool for him. He doesn?t love her. If she marries St. John Rivers, she gets neither true love nor equality. She must submit to him for his great mission.

At last, Jane decides to go back to Rochester though he has been blindness. His wife has died. She can be his legal wife. They love each other, and Jane realizes her hope to get true love and equal marriage.

4. Conclusion

Jane Eyre creates new women images. No matter negative or crazy, or positive, they all show the feminist consciousness to the patriarchal society. However, the limitation lies on the way woman can choose. In Jane Eyre, the only woman who gets happiness doesn?t change her destiny until she inherits a good fortune. But in reality, there is little chance for a woman who desires independence to get a good fortune luckily. Charlotte was confused on woman?s way to realize their independence. To tell the truth, she couldn?t solve this problem until the society concerned women?s rights. A helpless woman couldn?t change her destiny unless so luck to inherit a great fortune.

Although there is limitation in the feminism of Jane Eyre, Charlotte showed how cruel the patriarchal society treate d women and she expressed some new women?s desire to earn their social status. Although Helen swallows all suffering and is killed in the evil patriarchal world, Bertha?s crazy makes the men frighten to see a desperate woman who is cornered by men will choose an extreme way to ruin everything. As for the small, plain Jane, she grows out of rebellion; No man can control her and she

becomes a saver to a man.

The feminism in Jane Eyre surprised the people in Charlotte?s time s. It gave hope to the women at that time. Jane was a model for women in the 19th century. Nowadays, Jane Eyre still has its practical significance. Jane?s striving for progress and her independence mean much to the women nowadays. There are still some women nowadays who prefer to dependence on men. Under the influence of Jane Eyre, a female should live with more dignity if she chooses to enrich their knowledge and finds a job for her and live on herself. A woman can get her real happiness with her independence and the realization of equality like the feminist Jane.

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