- 上一篇：德语论文浅析联邦德国职业教育
- 下一篇：场独立场依存的认知风格对大学英语口语的影响
As for the female writers’ social status in the 18th century and 19th century, the British government has established a series of bills such as the Labor Act to protect women’s rights. The act stressed that women could have the rights to get independent properties and get porced with their husbands. With the expansion of the scale of factory, many women were allowed to join in the factory team. They stepped into the society and through their own labor, exercises; they found out the life values, cultivated the self-esteem and self-confidence. This, to some degree, ensured female status in the society and family and the equality between the men and women. In addition, this helped the female to build their confidence so that they could see the light of life. They slowly showed their pursuit of liberation and of their personality traits. Then they improved and strengthen their inpidual consciousness. In terms of their marriage, women in that time were used to be arranged to marry to someone, but later they wanted to fight against this situation. They still believe marriage should be based on the love between men and women, which is so precious in their life. They tried their best to be totally equal with men.
The author of this paper attempts to interpret Jane Eyre from the feminist perspective so that we can learn more about the women’s life in the 19th century England and learn more women’s life in the 19th century and provide a fuller and deeper perspective for the further study of feminism.
II. Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre
2.1 An Introduction to Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte was born in the city of Thornton, Yorkshire. She was the daughter of an Anglican clergyman. However, unfortunately, her mother died and left her to be taken care of by Charlotte Bronte’s aunt. Many years has passed Charlotte begun to go back to her school and studied in Roe Head, England. In 1835, she was given the chance of being a good teacher at this school, however, later she became a private governess many years later. Later she studied at the Clergy Daughter School at Cowan Bridge, but the bad learning atmosphere as well as bad living conditions forced her to get out of this school, which were also the reasons that leading to her two sisters’ death and her disease of melancholia. In the year of 1939, she began to be a governess for the Sidgwick family at the town of Skipton. It was in 1841 that she transferred to become the governess with the White family at Rawdon. But although she attempted to make a living by being a governess, her shyness, strong desire to be together with her sisters, her indifference to children, her hatred for love and marriage for twice have hindered her success of being a governess. However, fifty years have passed, and Miss Charlotte’s fame has begun to accelerate and then her main novels has begun to be written for publication, which were focused on the recall of women’s spirit for freedom, equality, self-independence and so on.
2.2 An Introduction to Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is Charlotte Bronte’s most famous novel, which is regarded by the distinguished critic G. H. Lewes as “decidedly the best novel of the season”(Ashton 128). It fights against the accepted conceptions of the equality between man and woman as well as patriarchal system at Victorian era. Jane is unyielding pursuit of freedom, autonomy and equality. Jane Eyre conveys her fierce feminism both directly and indirectly. She is considered to be the writer who “has impressed her mark so clearly on contemporary literature” or “drawn so many followers onto her own peculiar path” (Showalter 106). The width and depth of her feminism adds a lingering charm to her masterpiece. Both Jane, the heroine in the novel and Charlotte Bronte herself are often identified as outstanding representatives in the feminist movement.
Jane Eyre, Charlotte’s “self-portrait from appearance” but “ideal in spirit”, has conquered numerous readers in the world. In their mind, she becomes the true symbol of a female with modern consciousness. With successful portrayal of plain-looking but strong-willed Jane Eyre, the romantic, realistic novel has been unquestionably well known and warmly liked in the world. It not only created a minor sensation in the history of British literature the moment it was published, but also has attracted and continues to command popular attention. From the moment it was published, it is the feminism spirit that has grabbed its countless readers and most perceptive critics and has won film makers’ high favor. Generations of film producers have made numerous adaptations of Jane Eyre from different perspectives.