外国语学院
本 科 学 期 论 文
题 目：Analysis on Jane Eyre’s Character 课 程：英国文学
姓 名：
学 号：
指导教师：
完成日期：2012 年6月16日
Contents
Introduction:……………………………………………………………3 Character:………………………………………………………………3 1The stage and social position of women:………………………………3
2The spirit of rebelling: ………………………………………………...4
2.1The rebelling spirits in Gates held……………………………4
2.2The rebelling spirits in Logwood Orphanage ………... ………5
2. 3The rebelling spirits in Thorn field......………………….. …...5
3The desire for freedom:………………………………………………..5
3.1 Desire for freedom when leaving Gates held…………...........6
3.2Desire for freedom when leaving Logwood Orphanage……...6
3.3 Desire for freedom when leaving Thorn field………………..7
4 The desire of her own voice:…………..……………………………...7
4.1When she was at Gates held………………………………….7
4.2When she was at Logwood Orphanage………………………8
4.3When she was at Thorn field…………………………………8
Conclusion:…………………………………………………………….8 Bibliography:………………………………………………………….10
Analysis on Jane Eyre’s Character
Introduction
GK Chesterton said: “The novel of the writer 19th century was female.” There emerged a number of brilliant women whose works gave voice to the feelings and aspirations of the educated women of their age. Charlotte Bronte is one of those kinds of the greatest woman writers, and her Jane Eyre is undoubtedly an outstanding woman‟s declaration of independence and consciousness.
This paper will through analyzing the character of Jane especially her strong desire for rebellious spirits and freedom, it is easy to see that Jane refused to obtain economic security from Mr. Rochester, Jane aspired for equal and true love, and she emphasized on the significance of being spiritual equality and independence in love affairs. Her rebelling character and persistent of love and freedom made her change
her plain little orphan destiny to a harmony life with her spouse in the end. Luojingguo said “Jane Eyre is the first English novel even the most powerful and popular novel, which presents the modern view of women‟s position in society.” Although Jane lived in the 19th century in England, she had set a glorious image and example for the modern woman. Jane‟s spirits had an effective influence on woman who lives in the 21century.
Character :
1The stage and social position of women:
In 19th century, woman did not have any status. At that time, they were discriminated and inferior to man. At that time, women did not enjoy some of the most basic political, educational, emotional, and material power in the circumstances.
In the Victorian Age, it was very humble to be a governor, the ideal status of women in the age was stay at home, the working women were regarded as eccentric person; people thought women should stay at home to look after their husbands and children, otherwise they had violated the nature of women, at that time men played a central role in both society and family.
Under the influence of the industrial revolution, Britain in 19th century was during the process of social transformation from agricultural society to industrial society. The development of society and economic promoted the large changes in women's education. Although patriarchy had deep rooted, and there were phenomenon of gender inequality in many aspects of education, British women's education increased, which includes not only the education opportunities of common women, but also the kinds of education. Thus, the development of women's education enhanced the women's level, promoting the reformation on gender relations, laying the basis for the changes of the women's social status. Jane Eyre is just the transitional image of that time. Dionel Stevenson said, “Jane Eyre was an intolerable renegade from all the standards behavior expected of respective girls.” W .A Craik thought, “The Bronte‟s biography does them a disservice with the reader, may prevent him from seeing properly are air individual merits or indeed what is her purpose in writing it.”
2The spirit of rebelling:
The main character of Jane Eyre‟s thoughts expressed the women‟s sense of rebelling spirit towards the male world. Because for centuries women are subordinated, oppressed and discriminated by the society. The rebelling spirit of Jane is just the symbolization of women‟s conscious about their social position.
2.1The rebelling spirits in Gates held
Jane Eyre had showed her rebelling spirits when she was a little girl. After her mother and father dead, Jane Eyre was sent to her uncle to bring up. Although she
depended on her uncle for a living, she hated her aunt‟s mistreatments and insults to her. When she was beat by her cousin-Jane Reed, she rebelled bravely and scolded him “Wicked and cruel boy,” “you are like murder….you are like a slave-driver you are like the Roman emperors!”(in chapter one). And kept asking her “why was I always suffering, always browbeaten always accused forever condemned? ...unjust!” (in chapter two). She blamed all the bad deeds that her aunt had done to her, “my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest scene of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It was cruel to a 10 years old girl, she never felt desperate.”(in chapter four)
2.2The rebelling spirits in Logwood Orphanage
After Jane came to Logwood Orphanage, her rebelling spirits became mature, her continue st ruggling image became vivid and distinctive. She said to Helen “if people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their way, they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we 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 to do it again.” (in chapter six). These sharp words and critical comments all came from a ten years child. It is obvious that Jane was born with the character of rebelling spirit.
2. 3The rebelling spirits in Thorn field
When she came to thorn field, although she loved Mr. Rochester deeply, she had always obeyed him. She said to him she just obey him when he is right. Mr. Rochester, a grim-looking, energetic, quick-tempered, a middle-aged man. Mr. Rochester lived in a higher class than Jane, while Jane„s idea being equal and balanced relationship with Mr. Rochester impressed him.
3The desire for freedom:
One can hardly be fail or be poor, but not to give up the pursuit for the freedom
in heart. In Bronte‟s Jane Eyre, Jane was looking for a new life, pursuing of progress and happiness especially the desire for freedom all the time made her successfully in her own life.
3.1 Desire for freedom when leaving Gates held
The moment she left Gates held was the beginning of her to find a new life for herself. Although she was delicate and thin, she was born with courage to adventure. She had strong desire for freedom to come across all the adventure deeds before her life. When she was ten years old in Gates held at her uncle‟s home, she could not withstand her aunt‟s mistreat, so she required her aunt to send her to charitable school. Although she was a little girl at that time, she was not afraid of her mysterious world. She knew that if she lived in her aunt‟s home, she will be lost her freedom for a long time or maybe her whole life. “Besides school would be a complete change: it implied a long journey, an entire separation from Gates held, and an entrance into a new life.”(in chapter3).
3.2Desire for freedom when leaving Logwood Orphanage
Jane spent eight years in Logwood, she had being a student for six years, and the last year she became a teacher there. She overcame all the difficulties and hardship in that brutal and nightmarish school. The girls in that school almost became machines which can only work and read Bible. After leaving her best friend and teacher, she was tired of the dull life in Logwood. Life in Logwood Orphanage may be the most agonizing memory to Jane. “My world had for years in Logwood: my experience had been of its rules and systems, now I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations, and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils” (in chapter 10) Jane lost herself in Logwood, and she felt she lost her freedom in there. So she left Logwood Orphanage, and an advertisement gave her chance to be a new governor at Thorn field Hall.
3.3 Desire for freedom when leaving Thorn field
It was obvious that Jane was found of changing and unknown, and very curious about exploring the mysterious world. In Thorn field she found herself, and also found her true love. When Mr. Rochester and Jane be going to get married, she heart that Mr. Rochester wife Bertha is still alive. Shocked and deeply hurt, and also because of her inner heart of her was free and rebelled, she makes up her mind to leave Rochester decisively.
4 The desire of her own voice:
In the 19th century, women did not have the rights to speak out their own feelings and ideas; they were the subordinations of men. Jane Eyre conveyed a deep and profound significance on the human being in that Victorian Age, which women were equal with men and they were at the same class as men.
4.1When she was at Gates held
That time, women simply could not prove that their own language of the value for the equal and women will not always have their own voice. But Jane said, did not hide the truth in her hearts and thoughts, she said to Reed: “people, thought you were a good woman, but you bad, you hard-hearted, you will lie.” When she mistaken Rochester would marry Miss Ingram, she said: “You thought I was an automatic machine? No feelings of a machine? And do you think that because I am poor. Obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong, I have as much as you-and full as much heart. And if God had gifted me some beauty and much wealth…and we stood at God‟s feet, equal as we are.”(in chapter 4 ) The purpose of these words for status of women was not a strong defense for inequality, but also showed her thinking. That is the spirit of the new women.
4.2When she was at Logwood Orphanage
Jane lived in British capitalist class when is always not her survival. But her words stood for a spirit of self-respect and self-esteem. After she got to the Logwood school, she suffered the cruel treatment and poor habitation condition at there. Where most of the teachers seemed to be not polite and been involved in complexity for power. She said to her friend that when they undergone injustice, they need take a righteous attack. Or they could be a harsh response. As the Bronte‟s writing, this girl with no money and no status was so bluntly, is a bit ungrateful. After six years, she had a job in teaching at this school, but she was not complement. She yearned for a more abundant life and give up her present job.
4.3 When she was at Thorn field
When Mr. Rochester asked Jane to marry him, Jane refused to accept the jewelries and silk Mr. Rochester had bought for her. She felt uncomfortable and being insulted. She thought: “it would, in deed, be a relief; if I ever had so small an independence…I will wr ite to Madeira the moment I got home, and tell my uncle John I am going to be married, and to whom: if I had a prospect of one day bringing Mr. Rochester an accession of fortune, I could better endure to be kept by him now.”(in chapter 24) These words stro ng conveyed that she is independent and not subordinated to men. She had her own voice, she did not always listen to anybody except she or he is right.
Conclusion:
Women who live in the bottom of the society as stratum, their situation can reflect that the class oppresses them. It also reflects the oppressions for women from discrimination, regardless of humanity, religion, morality and justice. Jane Eyre, an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved, a poor, plain, little governor who did not dare to love her master, a man superior to her in many aspects,
and even is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him, cuts a completely new woman image. She represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being. Her rebelling spirit and desire for freedom undergoing her own voice gave readers a repetitive lasting impression of that 19th century‟s condition of women. All this characters in her soul and inner heart indicates that she would live a harmony and equal life as a new woman image.
As a great book, Jane Eyre not only awakens its early readers of the Victorian Age, but also stimulates and encourages modern women‟s equal spirits.
Bibliography:
[1]Luojingguo. A New Anthology of English Literature [M].Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1997
[2]夏洛蒂. 勃朗特. 简爱.[M].成都：四川文艺出版社，1984
[3]张京媛，当代女性主义文学批评[M],北京：北京大学出版社，
1992
外国语学院
本 科 学 期 论 文
题 目：Analysis on Jane Eyre’s Character 课 程：英国文学
姓 名：
学 号：
指导教师：
完成日期：2012 年6月16日
Contents
Introduction:……………………………………………………………3 Character:………………………………………………………………3 1The stage and social position of women:………………………………3
2The spirit of rebelling: ………………………………………………...4
2.1The rebelling spirits in Gates held……………………………4
2.2The rebelling spirits in Logwood Orphanage ………... ………5
2. 3The rebelling spirits in Thorn field......………………….. …...5
3The desire for freedom:………………………………………………..5
3.1 Desire for freedom when leaving Gates held…………...........6
3.2Desire for freedom when leaving Logwood Orphanage……...6
3.3 Desire for freedom when leaving Thorn field………………..7
4 The desire of her own voice:…………..……………………………...7
4.1When she was at Gates held………………………………….7
4.2When she was at Logwood Orphanage………………………8
4.3When she was at Thorn field…………………………………8
Conclusion:…………………………………………………………….8 Bibliography:………………………………………………………….10
Analysis on Jane Eyre’s Character
Introduction
GK Chesterton said: “The novel of the writer 19th century was female.” There emerged a number of brilliant women whose works gave voice to the feelings and aspirations of the educated women of their age. Charlotte Bronte is one of those kinds of the greatest woman writers, and her Jane Eyre is undoubtedly an outstanding woman‟s declaration of independence and consciousness.
This paper will through analyzing the character of Jane especially her strong desire for rebellious spirits and freedom, it is easy to see that Jane refused to obtain economic security from Mr. Rochester, Jane aspired for equal and true love, and she emphasized on the significance of being spiritual equality and independence in love affairs. Her rebelling character and persistent of love and freedom made her change
her plain little orphan destiny to a harmony life with her spouse in the end. Luojingguo said “Jane Eyre is the first English novel even the most powerful and popular novel, which presents the modern view of women‟s position in society.” Although Jane lived in the 19th century in England, she had set a glorious image and example for the modern woman. Jane‟s spirits had an effective influence on woman who lives in the 21century.
Character :
1The stage and social position of women:
In 19th century, woman did not have any status. At that time, they were discriminated and inferior to man. At that time, women did not enjoy some of the most basic political, educational, emotional, and material power in the circumstances.
In the Victorian Age, it was very humble to be a governor, the ideal status of women in the age was stay at home, the working women were regarded as eccentric person; people thought women should stay at home to look after their husbands and children, otherwise they had violated the nature of women, at that time men played a central role in both society and family.
Under the influence of the industrial revolution, Britain in 19th century was during the process of social transformation from agricultural society to industrial society. The development of society and economic promoted the large changes in women's education. Although patriarchy had deep rooted, and there were phenomenon of gender inequality in many aspects of education, British women's education increased, which includes not only the education opportunities of common women, but also the kinds of education. Thus, the development of women's education enhanced the women's level, promoting the reformation on gender relations, laying the basis for the changes of the women's social status. Jane Eyre is just the transitional image of that time. Dionel Stevenson said, “Jane Eyre was an intolerable renegade from all the standards behavior expected of respective girls.” W .A Craik thought, “The Bronte‟s biography does them a disservice with the reader, may prevent him from seeing properly are air individual merits or indeed what is her purpose in writing it.”
2The spirit of rebelling:
The main character of Jane Eyre‟s thoughts expressed the women‟s sense of rebelling spirit towards the male world. Because for centuries women are subordinated, oppressed and discriminated by the society. The rebelling spirit of Jane is just the symbolization of women‟s conscious about their social position.
2.1The rebelling spirits in Gates held
Jane Eyre had showed her rebelling spirits when she was a little girl. After her mother and father dead, Jane Eyre was sent to her uncle to bring up. Although she
depended on her uncle for a living, she hated her aunt‟s mistreatments and insults to her. When she was beat by her cousin-Jane Reed, she rebelled bravely and scolded him “Wicked and cruel boy,” “you are like murder….you are like a slave-driver you are like the Roman emperors!”(in chapter one). And kept asking her “why was I always suffering, always browbeaten always accused forever condemned? ...unjust!” (in chapter two). She blamed all the bad deeds that her aunt had done to her, “my soul began to expand, to exult, with the strangest scene of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It was cruel to a 10 years old girl, she never felt desperate.”(in chapter four)
2.2The rebelling spirits in Logwood Orphanage
After Jane came to Logwood Orphanage, her rebelling spirits became mature, her continue st ruggling image became vivid and distinctive. She said to Helen “if people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their way, they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we 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 to do it again.” (in chapter six). These sharp words and critical comments all came from a ten years child. It is obvious that Jane was born with the character of rebelling spirit.
2. 3The rebelling spirits in Thorn field
When she came to thorn field, although she loved Mr. Rochester deeply, she had always obeyed him. She said to him she just obey him when he is right. Mr. Rochester, a grim-looking, energetic, quick-tempered, a middle-aged man. Mr. Rochester lived in a higher class than Jane, while Jane„s idea being equal and balanced relationship with Mr. Rochester impressed him.
3The desire for freedom:
One can hardly be fail or be poor, but not to give up the pursuit for the freedom
in heart. In Bronte‟s Jane Eyre, Jane was looking for a new life, pursuing of progress and happiness especially the desire for freedom all the time made her successfully in her own life.
3.1 Desire for freedom when leaving Gates held
The moment she left Gates held was the beginning of her to find a new life for herself. Although she was delicate and thin, she was born with courage to adventure. She had strong desire for freedom to come across all the adventure deeds before her life. When she was ten years old in Gates held at her uncle‟s home, she could not withstand her aunt‟s mistreat, so she required her aunt to send her to charitable school. Although she was a little girl at that time, she was not afraid of her mysterious world. She knew that if she lived in her aunt‟s home, she will be lost her freedom for a long time or maybe her whole life. “Besides school would be a complete change: it implied a long journey, an entire separation from Gates held, and an entrance into a new life.”(in chapter3).
3.2Desire for freedom when leaving Logwood Orphanage
Jane spent eight years in Logwood, she had being a student for six years, and the last year she became a teacher there. She overcame all the difficulties and hardship in that brutal and nightmarish school. The girls in that school almost became machines which can only work and read Bible. After leaving her best friend and teacher, she was tired of the dull life in Logwood. Life in Logwood Orphanage may be the most agonizing memory to Jane. “My world had for years in Logwood: my experience had been of its rules and systems, now I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations, and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils” (in chapter 10) Jane lost herself in Logwood, and she felt she lost her freedom in there. So she left Logwood Orphanage, and an advertisement gave her chance to be a new governor at Thorn field Hall.
3.3 Desire for freedom when leaving Thorn field
It was obvious that Jane was found of changing and unknown, and very curious about exploring the mysterious world. In Thorn field she found herself, and also found her true love. When Mr. Rochester and Jane be going to get married, she heart that Mr. Rochester wife Bertha is still alive. Shocked and deeply hurt, and also because of her inner heart of her was free and rebelled, she makes up her mind to leave Rochester decisively.
4 The desire of her own voice:
In the 19th century, women did not have the rights to speak out their own feelings and ideas; they were the subordinations of men. Jane Eyre conveyed a deep and profound significance on the human being in that Victorian Age, which women were equal with men and they were at the same class as men.
4.1When she was at Gates held
That time, women simply could not prove that their own language of the value for the equal and women will not always have their own voice. But Jane said, did not hide the truth in her hearts and thoughts, she said to Reed: “people, thought you were a good woman, but you bad, you hard-hearted, you will lie.” When she mistaken Rochester would marry Miss Ingram, she said: “You thought I was an automatic machine? No feelings of a machine? And do you think that because I am poor. Obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong, I have as much as you-and full as much heart. And if God had gifted me some beauty and much wealth…and we stood at God‟s feet, equal as we are.”(in chapter 4 ) The purpose of these words for status of women was not a strong defense for inequality, but also showed her thinking. That is the spirit of the new women.
4.2When she was at Logwood Orphanage
Jane lived in British capitalist class when is always not her survival. But her words stood for a spirit of self-respect and self-esteem. After she got to the Logwood school, she suffered the cruel treatment and poor habitation condition at there. Where most of the teachers seemed to be not polite and been involved in complexity for power. She said to her friend that when they undergone injustice, they need take a righteous attack. Or they could be a harsh response. As the Bronte‟s writing, this girl with no money and no status was so bluntly, is a bit ungrateful. After six years, she had a job in teaching at this school, but she was not complement. She yearned for a more abundant life and give up her present job.
4.3 When she was at Thorn field
When Mr. Rochester asked Jane to marry him, Jane refused to accept the jewelries and silk Mr. Rochester had bought for her. She felt uncomfortable and being insulted. She thought: “it would, in deed, be a relief; if I ever had so small an independence…I will wr ite to Madeira the moment I got home, and tell my uncle John I am going to be married, and to whom: if I had a prospect of one day bringing Mr. Rochester an accession of fortune, I could better endure to be kept by him now.”(in chapter 24) These words stro ng conveyed that she is independent and not subordinated to men. She had her own voice, she did not always listen to anybody except she or he is right.
Conclusion:
Women who live in the bottom of the society as stratum, their situation can reflect that the class oppresses them. It also reflects the oppressions for women from discrimination, regardless of humanity, religion, morality and justice. Jane Eyre, an orphan child with a fiery spirit and a longing to love and be loved, a poor, plain, little governor who did not dare to love her master, a man superior to her in many aspects,
and even is brave enough to declare to the man her love for him, cuts a completely new woman image. She represents those middle-class working women who are struggling for recognition of their basic rights and equality as a human being. Her rebelling spirit and desire for freedom undergoing her own voice gave readers a repetitive lasting impression of that 19th century‟s condition of women. All this characters in her soul and inner heart indicates that she would live a harmony and equal life as a new woman image.
As a great book, Jane Eyre not only awakens its early readers of the Victorian Age, but also stimulates and encourages modern women‟s equal spirits.
Bibliography:
[1]Luojingguo. A New Anthology of English Literature [M].Beijing: Beijing University Press, 1997
[2]夏洛蒂. 勃朗特. 简爱.[M].成都：四川文艺出版社，1984
[3]张京媛，当代女性主义文学批评[M],北京：北京大学出版社，
1992