英美女性文学作品赏析期末论文要求及模板

题目 A Literature Review about Feminism in “Jane Eyre”

关于国内学者对《简·爱》的女权主义研

究的文献综述

课程英美女性文学作品赏析___

教师史丽娜___________

学生张璐_____________

学号114050096__________

班级002______________

2014年07月01日

I. Introduction

Jane Eyre is one of the most complex novels of the mid- nineteenth century, offering more than progressive political content and trenchant social observation. Since it was published, there are hundreds and thousands of experts devote their life time to study it. The Victorian Age was men-centered and men-controlled times. Women were discriminated against by men at that time. However, the ahead-of-age female consciousness of Jane Eyre, the main character of Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte, challenged men's authority. In this novel of the Victorian Age, Charlotte exposed and denounced men's oppression of and discrimination against women. On the other hand, Charlotte is remarkable in portraying Jane Eyre as a self-respecting and rebellious girl, desiring equality, bravely showing her love and deciding on her own marriage. Through the portrayal, Charlotte sets a new rote model for women of Victorian times as well as modern age.There are some literature reviews about it.

Keywords: feminism female consciousness self-respect equality

II. Domestic studies

A.The background of Charlotte Bronte

Bronte was born in a poor family, whose mother died when Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their brother Barnwell were children. Because of the poor condition, Bronte and her sisters had to spend a period time in a charity school. However, the conditions of that school were very bad, which led to the death of her two sisters.

After that cruel period, Bronte went back home which was in a remote mountain areas. Therefore, the only thing Bronte could do was read and writing. However, order to make a living, Bronte had to work. She worked as a governess, which made her feel humiliated and lonely. Nevertheless, the devoted sisters found support and companionship in one another; at night, they read their novels and their poems to one another. Their society did not encourage women to fulfill their talents. The twenty- year old Charlotte wrote to Robert Southey, the poet laureate, for his opinion about writing. His response showed the barriers facing women writers: "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it 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 a recreation." That was why she used her penname Currer Bell.

B.The background of Jane Eyre.

This novel presents a number of conflicts and struggles within Jane and

between Jane and other characters, conflicts which must be resolved for her to achieve self- fulfillment and happiness: Reason and common sense range against feeling and imagination. Jane must learn to subordinate her passions to her reason. She must also learn to control imagination, which may take the form of superstition, as when she is locked in the Red Room. When she is a child, her passions erupt unchecked, with both positive and negative results. Jane's need for love is so great that, according to Charles Burkhart, "Love is a religion in Jane Eyre." A closer scrutiny of Jane's romantic relationships raises the question of whether they are really power struggles for control and, perhaps, show some sado-masochistic tendencies. She must also learn to adapt her desire for experience and independence to her dependent position. An orphan, she suffers the humiliations of being dependent on the charity of wealthy relatives. Though as an adult she supports herself as a teacher and a governess, she insists on her status as a lady and struggles with feelings of inferiority. She alternates between submission and rebellion, between passivity and self- assertion, between restraint and freedom. Jane's quest for self- fulfillment is tied to her spiritual growth. When divine love and human love prove incompatible, Jane is forced to choose between them.

C.The comparison between Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte are strikingly similar in many ways, and the characters Jane Eyre and Charlotte Bronte are almost mirrors of each other. (Li, 2009: 485) Many researchers point out that Jane Eyre is another Charlotte Bronte. They both have the unfortunate childhood. Jane Eyre started her life with no parents, no money, inferior position and terrible family environment. (Li, 2008: 105) While, Charlotte Bronte was also short of her mother’s love and lived in a bad family environment. In order to make a living, Jane Eyre worked as a governess as well as Charlotte Bronte. Because Jane was an orphan who had no family to call her own, and lived with an aunt and cousins who despised and disliked her; she was left penniless by the death of her parents, and was reminded daily by her housemates that she was inferior to them because of her circumstance; Charlotte Bronte grew up in a more loving home with three adoring sisters and a father; however, she also felt the absence of a parent because her mother was away and Charlotte Bronte was also poor, her father having lost all his money in an attempt to help a needy friend, in this way, both Jane and Charlotte Bronte are alike - they both long for the life they had before they were poor, although Jane longs more for the richness of a family while Charlotte Bronte and her sisters desire the material wealth and the return of their father. However, in both cases, the girls' longing for these "riches" influence their whole young adulthood - - Jane clearly shows this the best when she refuses to become Mr. Rochester's mistress later in life, because of

her continuous search for a stable family life. Besides the similarities in family situation, Jane and Bronte are also similar in their characteristics. They are both mature for their ages, spending a great deal of time reading and thinking. From the beginning of the story, we can see that Jane spend much of her time reading books left by his uncle, while during Bronte’s life, she is also fond of reading and thinking. They are both passionate and willful, although Jane shows her spirit more through occasional outbursts when provoked, while Charlotte Bronte is constantly losing her temper and making inappropriate comments. Both are also plain children, Jane having no features to make her beautiful, and no features to make her unattractive, as well. Charlotte Bronte is a tomboy, and therefore rejects the "appropriate" dress and actions for a girl of her age, hiding her beauty because it is "unmanly." Though all these researches, we can see that Jane Eyre is a shadow of Charlotte Bronte. Unlike her sisters, Charlotte rejected the convention of the beautiful heroine. While writing Jane Eyre, she told them, "I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself." She succeeded in her goal and established a trend of ordinary- looking or unattractive heroines. Jane Eyre - The protagonist and narrator of the novel, is an intelligent, honest, plain- featured young girl forced to contend with oppression, inequality, and hardship. Although she meets with a series of individuals who threaten her autonomy, Jane repeatedly succeeds at asserting herself and maintains her principles of justice, human dignity, and morality. She also values intellectual and emotional fulfillment. Her strong belief in gender and social equality challenges the Victorian prejudices against women and the poor. Charlotte Bronte’s own experiences were reflected in the novel. Jane Eyre is the mirror of Charlotte Bronte.

II. Feminism in Jane Eyre

A.The background of Feminism

Feminism is a collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies largely motivated by or concerned with the liberation of women. In simple terms, feminism is the belief in social, political and economic equality of the sexes, and a movement organized around the belief that gender should not be the pre-determinant factor shaping a person’s social identity or socio-political or economic rights. A large portion of feminists are especially concerned with what they perceive to be the social, political and economic inequality between the sexes which favors the male gender; some have argued that gendered and sexed identities, such as “man” and “woman”, are socially constructed. Feminists disagree over the sources of inequality, how to attain equality, and the extent to which gender and gender -based identities should be questioned and critiqued.

B. Feminism in Jane Eyre

This book is written in the first person and contains some authentic autobiographical experiences. Jane Eyre is the leading role in this book, and she is the symbol of new female who have the courage to pursue the ideal and dare revolt. The author wants to portray the special character of the leading role – Jane through their love story. This contrasts with the situation of women’s low status in Victoria n age, and shows the idea that women want freedom and independence. In this book, author leads us to see Jane’s opinion about marriage and Jane’s attitude towards equality between man and women. (Shi, 2009:73) Jane fights against those who believe women to be inferior to men. She thinks women and men are equal. In chapter12 Jane said “women are supposed to be very calm generally, but women feel just are 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 plan and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more that custom has pronounced necessary for their sex!”(Charlotte Bronte, 1996: 53) Though the love story between Jane and Mr. Rochester, we can see that Jane wants the equal marriage. Jane was very sober when she towards love, she was self-confident and stubborn, she did not put herself in a non-result and passive status, and the most important is, Jane put the personality and self -respect first, she thought they are more important than love. In Charter23 Jane said “Do you think I can stay become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton machine without feelings? And can bear to have my morsel of bread, snatched from my cup? Do you think because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! 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 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!” (Charlotte Bronte, 1996: 159) Jane lived in that time, which men were the authority in a family. But the behave that Jane’s offer of marriage to Mr. Rochester showed Jane’s pursuit to happiness and reflected Jane’s expression towards equality of men and women.From the above we can see Jane is a good model for women in all aspects of her self -esteem, self -confidence, respect, independence, her views on love, her courage, her spirit and ideas. We can also see a new women’s contemporary image from Jane: self-esteem, self-respect, self-reliance, self-improvement, and for its own personality, emotional, life, judgment and choice of the firm ideals and persistent pursuit. Jane is a symbol of feminism as well as a hero among women species.

IV. Comments and Limitation

“Jane Eyre”is the master piece of Charlotte Bronte. She portrays Jane’s story in the angle of herself. In the story, it includes many reflections of Charlotte’s own experience, including her childhood memory, her working, her characteristics even her attitude towards life and marriage. Jane is brave enough to fight against with the man’s world as well as Charlotte. Because Charlotte spent much of her energy portraying Jane, it is a pity that there aren’t many studies on Mr. Rochester who another main character in this book. The Victorian Age was men-centered and men-controlled times. Women were discriminated against by men at that time.However, the ahead-of-age female consciousness of Jane Eyre, the main character of Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte, challenged men’s authority. In this novel of the Victorian Age, Charlotte exposed and denounced men’s oppression of and discrimination against women. On the other hand, Charlotte is remarkable in portraying Jane Eyre as a self-respecting and rebellious girl, desiring equality, bravely showing her love and deciding on her own marriage.

v.Works Cited

Li Xiaoyan. Jane Eyre, a Plain but Spectacular semi-autobiographic Portrait of Charlotte Bronte [J] 人文社科2008 105-106

Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre[M]. Shanghai: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 1996

Li Meiju.Jane Eyre —the mirror of Charlotte Bronte’s own experiences [J]. 人文科技2009 485-486

Shi Beibei.An Analysis of Fem inism in Jane Eyre[J] 青年文学家2009-21 72-75

Charlotte Bronte．Jane Eyre[M]．Yili People's Press．

LiuLi．Western woment's study--origin connotation and development[M]．Social and cultural circles press．