从女性主义的角度分析《简爱》

Feminism Interpretation in Jane Eyre

从女性主义的角度分析《简·爱》

摘要

夏洛蒂·勃朗特是十九世纪英国杰出的女作家，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。从很大程度上讲，《简·爱》被认为是作者的心理历程的自传体小说。夏洛蒂把自己的很多的人生经历和性格特点都赋予了她作品中的女主人公一简·爱。外表平平、孤独贫苦、无依无靠的简·爱在作品伊始就一直处于社会的边缘地位，因而经历了一个漫长的确定自己女性意识的痛苦的心理历程。此篇论文旨在从女性主义的角度，通过对作品中女主角简。爱、海伦及梅森的分析，揭示这部小说中所反映的维多利亚时期女性性别意识的觉醒和当时女性的社会地位，从而进一步了解作为女性作家的夏洛蒂在作品中反映出的女性作家的性别颠覆意识。

论文第一章简要介绍了作品创作的社会背景、作品的类型及论文的主题。第二章阐明了该论文的理论依据一女性主义的形成以及对《简·爱》创作的影响。第三章通过对比作者的人生经历和《简·爱》的故事梗概，为后面章节从女性主义的角度进一步确定和探讨分析作者夏洛蒂的性别颠覆意识奠定基础。第四章分析了简·爱的女性意识从萌芽、发展到成熟的三个主要阶段。简爱女性意识的发展也正映射出维多利亚时期女性主义的蓬勃发展及女性争取平等和权利的意识。第五章通过分析作品中三位主要女性简·爱、海伦和梅森的命运，反映了作者所处时代的社会现实、女性地位和女性意识的局限性。第六章是论文的结论。维多利亚时期，女性作家夏洛蒂·勃朗特通过对小说中女主人公的形象塑造表达作者特殊的女性话语，简.爱的形象成功驳斥了维多利亚时代认为女性天生是冲动的没有理性的动物。本文认为虽然女性意识的发展仍然受到社会等级和社会地位的限制，但总体来说，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: 简·爱; 夏洛蒂.勃朗特; 女权主义;

Abstract

Charlotte Brotte is a remarkable woman writer in the 19th-century English literature. Her masterpiece Jane Eyre received comprehensive attention and reception after published. Jane Eyre is the most popular one among her books for its spiritually attractive Cinderella-like heroine in love story. The heroine, Jane Eyre, is a passionate woman full of affection, which is unseasonable in her age.

First of all, this thesis briefs the background in Victorian age and the theme of the paper.

Secondly, the thesis gives an introduction to the theory feminism in the literary. The novel writing of this kind in Victorian age has great significance in offering feminine writers an opportunity to exercise their literary ability and express their special feminine voice.

Thirdly, this thesis gives a brief review of Charlotte Brotte's life experience and Jane Eyre. It introduces Charlotte Brotte's own life experience and her view of point as a feminist from the novel because heroine Jane Eyre embodies Charlotte Brotte’s aspects of life and personality and shares much in common which lend a realistic overtone to the novel.

Then the thesis analyzes Jane Eyre's female consciousness and the feminism limitation in Jane Eyre. This thesis is dedicated to the study of profound meaning underlying in the female

social, psychological and sexual reality in this novel in Victorian England. This thesis explores into the heroine Jane Eyre to study Charlotte Brotte's special perspective on feminism in the patriarchal society.

In conclusion, this thesis examines the nature of Charlotte Brotte's pioneering literary feminism, and both the positive and negative characterizations of Jane Eyre in the text reveal the writer's feminist value in the Victorian England. This paper also demonstrates that the positive development of female consciousness had achieved and also the limitation of female consciousness in the middle of 19th century.

Key Words: Jane Eyre; Charlotte Brotte; feminism; equality; freedom

Chapter I Introduction

Jane Eyre was published in 1847, in the early years of the Victorian period. The revolutionary fervor of the Romantic period was at bay. The American Revolution was almost three-quarters of a century in the past; the French Revolution has run its course; the Napoleonic Wars had ended before Charlotte Brotte was even born. Life in Charlotte Brotte's England was relatively. stable, with everyone knowing his or her place in the social order and most people accepting that place without public complaint. The agitation for women's rights that had resulted from the revolutionary ideas that all people were entitled to equal opportunities had gone underground. Late eighteenth-century proponents of rights for women, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, had been discredited because of lifestyles that were considered wholly inappropriate during Victorian times. Those who espoused similar ideas tended to be pilloried in the press, tarred, as it were, by the same brush as their predecessors merely for publicly supporting women's rights.

Into this world came Charlotte Brotte, the writer. Charlotte Brotte had been raised by a father who taught his children to think for themselves. Charlotte Broad learned to trust her instincts, instincts that encouraged her to believe that women, as well as men, had a need to dream, to explore, that they \brothers do\so much those of political entitles against one another as of individuals who recognized a need to stretch their wings and explore their abilities and desires more fully than the society of the day allowed.

All experiences of Charlotte Brotte herself, her sisters, and her female friends has at school and work combined with her own ideas of romantic love, gleaned primarily from Romantic novels and poetry, to create the novel Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre Takes the form of both a fictional autobiography and a bildungsroman. As a autobiography, it presents the story of Jane's life from her own adult perspective and in her own words. As a bildungsroman, it is the story of the education of an individual, both through formal education and by growing into maturity. By linking Jane's stages of development to the various institutions or geographic locations with which she is involved (Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Moor House, and Ferndean, in order), the book positions itself among a literary genre known as the Bildungsroman.

The Bildungsroman, a novel that details the growth and development of a main character through several periods of life, began as a German genre in the seventeenth century, but by the mid-1800s had become firmly established in England as well. Such important Victorian novels as

David Copperfield base themselves on this form, which continues as an important literary sub-genre even today. The Bildungsroman typically told the story of a man growing from boyhood to adulthood; Charlotte Bronte's appropriation of the form for her heroine represents one of the many ways in which her novel challenges the accepted Victorian conceptions of gender hierarchy, making the statement that a woman's inner development merits as much attention and analysis as that of a man. Still, although Jane herself and Jane Eyre as a novel are often identified as important early figures in the feminist movement, Jane experiences much inner questioning regarding her gender role; she is not a staunch and confident feminist at all times. That is, while Jane is possessed of an immense integrity and a determination to succeed on her own terms, her failure to conform to ideals of female beauty nonetheless troubles her and makes her question herself.

This paper focuses on analyzing the rising and limitation of feminism in the Victorian England. The author tries to demonstrate in depth a great many characters designed to show ways of feminism expression.

Chapter 2 Feminism in Literature

The idea of \be given to it without sounding at least slightly vague. In the encyclopedia on line, feminism is defined as a social theory and political movement. Primary informed and motivated experience of women, it provides a critique of gender inequality and promotes women's rights, interests and issues.

\is difficult to define because of the many different kinds of feminisms, which exist today. Most feminists hold a belief that women as a group are treated oppressively and differently from men; they are subject to personal and institutional discrimination (Steven Goldberg, 1973). Feminists believe that being female to a large extent determines one's life. Being female means having certain anatomy, chemistry, genes and other biological determinants. Being a woman means having a certain gender, specifically femininity. Generally speaking, being feminine means being nurturing, responsible, and passive. Feminists also believe that society is organized in such a way that it works, in. general, to the benefit of men rather than women. This does not imply that all men in different degrees, but also it does not imply that all men take part in the continuance of the system, since men can decide to oppose the oppression of other groups. But it does imply that there is a general difference in the way that men and women are treated in society as a whole and in the way that they view themselves and others view them as gendered beings.\ And feminist theorists aim to understand the nature of inequality and focus on gender politics, power relations and sexuality. Feminist political activists advocate for social, political, and economic equality between the sexes. They campaign on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, discrimination and sexual violence.

It is the commitment to change that stimulates the feminist analysis and research of language. Feminist analysis is to explore the possibilities of using languages as an important means for reaching feminist political agenda, and they share a confidence in the power of language to help liberate women from oppressive circumstances and identities

When we talk about the Feminist criticism, we must mention the word \According to the New Encyclopedia Britannica, \\