On Gender Relationship in Jane Eyre 英语毕业论文.doc

submission, restriction and resistance-on gender relationship in jane eyre屈从，束缚与抗争:简爱中的两性关系摘要：这篇论文从两性关系的角度分析小说简爱，以罗彻斯特与伯莎、圣。约翰与简爱、简爱与罗彻斯特这三对的两性关系为研究重点，探讨了男权制社会下女性低下的地位。并最终得出只有不屈从于金钱和地位，不受缚于无爱情的婚姻，敢于为幸福抗争，女性才能在获得真正两性的和谐。婚姻要建立在男女平等的基础上，否则只能酿造悲剧。从两性关系的角度研究这部小说以期引起读者的思考，并能正确看待两性关系。关键词：两性关系 平等 抗争 男权社会 婚姻 独立 女性主义submisssion, restriction and resistance_on gender relationship in jane eyreabstract: this paper analyses jane eyre the aspects of gender relationship. and use rochester and bertha, st,john and jane, rochester and janes marriage as the key to research the way how female obtain independent and real happiness in male-dominated system. from analyze we get a conclusion: only not submission by money values and the ranking system, not restriction by love without emotion, resistance for your own happiness can get the real harmonious of gender relations. true marriage must be built on the basis of equality between men and women. love shouldnt add extra factors. through this paper i want to get your attention about marriage and have a correct view on gender relations.key words: gender relationship, equal, resistance, patriarchal society, marriage, independence, feminism.table of contents. introduction1.1 the writer and the work1.2 literature review1.3 the purpose of the research. theoretical background2.1 the brief history of feminism2.2 the characteristics of feminism. various kinds of gender relationship in jane eyre3.1 bertha and rochester: submission in marriage3.2 st. john and jane eyre: restriction of marriage3.3 eyre and rochester: resistance for love. conclusionv. works citedi. introductionjane eyre was created by famous writer charlotte bronte in the 19th century. nineteenth century england was characterized by unique moral, political, and social beliefs. in turn, such beliefs shaped how individuals viewed such things as marriage and class divisions. charlotte brontes jane eyre can be seen as a snapshot in history, a social commentary which subtly reveals a distaste for traditional victorian beliefs. the novel follows the life of jane eyre from childhood through adolescence and adulthood. she is portrayed as a female heroine who oversteps the gender and class barriers of her time to pursue and secure her own happiness. this novel is an autobiographical novel, the whole story can be said to be derived from the experience of authors life. charlotte bronte was born in the mid-19th century. there have six childrens in her family, her mother died in early years. when she was 8 years old, her father send her to a boarding school. all these things are exactly as same as story in the novel. jane eyre is charlotte brontes master piece but the divergent views to this work is various.among them, the marxist criticism think that this novel reflects the strict hierarchy of british society, they praised janes rebellious spirit to the hierarchy of society. psychological criticism is focused on the inner world of characters in the novel. there still have lots of research and theory about this work, i will not do too much description.this paper focus on the gender relationship in jane eyre and mainly analysis the unequal relations between man and woman, it also reflect the condition women lived in our real society. in another hand janes character is also one of content we need to research. from janes character we can get what feminism really is. from this paper you can get that to establish a harmonious gender relationship we must respect females independence of subjectivity, and we need to liberate women from the subsidiary position. theoretical background2.1 the brief history of feminismalthough feminism can not be absolutely equaled with marxism but feminism originated from marxism. the history of marxism represents the dependence of feminism. western feminism can be divided into three stages: the first generation of feminism, modern feminism and postmodern feminism.the first generation of western feminism originated in the french bourgeois revolution and the enlightenment, and happened in the same time with the industrial revolution occurred at the middle of the 19th century. the first generation of western feminist movement demanded have the equal wrights with male in education and legislation , they also hope economically independent.modern feminism: from the early 20th century to the 1960s. after two world wars, the colonialism collapsed. the feminism is also divided into several branches during this period. feminism in this period is divided into radical feminism, marxist feminism and freedom feminism. between them, radical feminism and freedom feminism pursuit womens liberation in sex. they challenge the entire male community and challenge the sex class system. but the marxist feminism mainly ask for equal between male and female in the economic and class fight .and also ask for womens position in the material.post-modern feminism begin at 1980s , its happen is related with two factors. first, because of sexual liberation and the radical feminism conception which set women opposed to men bring a lot of broken families, single mothers, question children and aids pandemic. so people began to think: is it worth to pay the price so much for the feminist community. the second factor is that more and more women go to leadership status, post-modern feminism came into being .and post-modern feminism pay more attention to the philosophical thinking2.2 the characteristics of feminismfirst, we should explain the definition of feminism. except the narrow, extreme and irrational elements of feminism in womens liberation movement, those who want to get rid of male hegemony and to expose and criticize the harm and unreasonable of male hegemony, and fully demonstrate the characteristics of women, their talent and ability. so that make the women themselves obtain the corresponding equality and freedom. by one simply word ,to pursuit equal status between male and female in social life.feminism features in jane eyre mainly embody in four aspects. first, against the oppression of patriarchal society. in patriarchal society, women are only regard as males dependency. in janes childhood she was often bullied and beaten by her cousin john reed who can be seen as symbol of patriarchal society, this aroused janes resist in spirit. in order to maintain her dignity, she bluntly said that john reed is a demon child and said hi: youre like a murderer-you are like a slave-driver-you are like the roman emperor . second, jane eyre pursuit the equal marriage which based on love. in the male-centered reality life, love is often the temptation of females or males conquest the female. in marriage women often become followers of the hero, prisoner of money or the slave of power. and they will lost an equal footing with men. rochester and jane eyre, bertha mason and rochesters marriage all reflect these. third, the pursuit of independence in economic. to be personality independent one must be economic independence, only economic independence, women can have their right to choose and their dignity. jane knows this, so she has been trying to find a job to support herself financially. finally, the novel also reflects a major feature of feminism: do not want to be the family angel. confucianism in china advocates that women should comply with her husband and her father which in fact ignore the equal status of women and men. in fact it is just that man want to control female and make woman be what they want. jane eyre is not a docile woman, she does not want be the family angel because it is a bondage to her and she need be a free person. she hope she can do anything that a man can do. various kinds of gender relationship in jane eyre3.1 bertha and rochester: submission in marriagebertha and rochesters marriage is a typical case of gender relations in jane eyre. bertha is a jamaica business mans daughter, she has hereditary mental disease. to make bertha marry with rochester, her father promised that he will give 30000 dollars to berthas husband. under rochesters fathers arrangement, rochester married with bertha with little known about bertha. when he find all these about bertha, he closed bertha in a dark and moist room. bertha suffered so much misfortune, at first, her father abandoned her and her husband unfrequented her. under disappointed, she is breakdown. to vengeance rochester, she burned thornfield but also burned herself. she died in the big fire.berthas destiny is unfortunate. but what reasons produce such a tragedy? if bertha can master her life, it will be a different result. in berthas story it is not just reflect the gender relationship between her and rochester but also her father. bertha is under a submission position in both of gender relations. in relation between father and daughter, father is the central absolutely, daughter can not decide things independently. female just is another species who can not have same rights with male. actually bertha approve this identity man give her and all these are caused by the central idea which society approved. 19th century in england male culture is the central culture. people usually appreciate female use mans view, because man is central and control all things. woman exist satisfy mans need. their value can not embody by themselves but by their husband. in china there is a word: the glory of wife rely on how wealth her husband is。this reflect that females value is embodied by her husband. bertha is a weak woman, she choose submission when face some questions about gender relationship. she capitulate to the male culture which seemed can not be resist. in somewhere her life is as same as jane. in persuasion austin write“the reason why female exist is that to serve for father, grandfather, husband, brother and various kinds of male.” female have no free pursuit but just be the family angel.although bertha know nothing about her husband but because it is her fathers decision so she can not refuse. after she married with rochester, how about berthas life? the answer is submission too. in jane eyre, rochester said like this:“when i left college, i have was send out to jamaica, to espouse a bride already courted for me. my father said nothing about her money; but he told me miss mason was the boast of spanish town for her beauty: and this was no lie.”“she flattered me, and lavishly displayed for my pleasure her charms and accomplishments.” this words is just rochesters excuse, he exaggerate his innocent. from rochester we can see a mans selfishness and supercilious. rochester has his right to refuse such a matrimony that he doesnt like. but for money and his requirement he accepts it. he governs bertha as free as he like. when he met jane, to get janes love, he said bertha is a mad woman and even hide berthas real identity. he can not assume responsibility that a husband should have. he does not love bertha and this make bertha be a victim. with development of society females question get more and more attention. but even feminism movement has not promoted status of female absolutely pure. most of female have adapt their unequal status. they usually submit to the life man give them, bertha is such an example. and from ancient time matrimony has been mixed a lot of factors out of emotion. such like: your family must matching your wifes family, you need have enough mony, you need have a good family background and woman must beautiful and so on. marry become a social phenomenon but not pure gender relationship. in manifesto of the communist party，it said “ the capitalist class tear the softhearted veil which is cover on family relations before, and make this relation become pure money relations.” we can see that in capitalism society money means everything and exceed matrimony itself. because of berthas submission she lost her happiness time and her life. at the same time, complex gender relationships and marriage destroyed rochester too and mike his life a tragedy.3.2 st. john and jane eyre: restriction of marriageafter jane left thornfild hall, jane met another man st.john. after they get along with each other for a long time, st.john found himself fall in love with janes personality. use his word“jane docile, hard-working, selfless, loyal, strong and brave.”“she is very gentle and heroism.”.he hope jane can be his wife. st.john is a kind person and he is sensible. but from what he said and did we can see that he does not respect females feeling. the reason why he want to marry jane is because that jane have characters he need and jane will give him help which can make him finish his destination. in fact it is all his wish not jane. he said“god and nature intend you to do missionarys wife.”“i was defending the cause of god, i was recruiting you stand under the banner of his”. from these we can know his real purpose. st.john is a churchman. to satisfy his ideal, he demand jane sacrifice for religion too. actually what he need is not a wife but an assistant who can help him finish his religion ideal. st.john think himself as the messenger of god, and he said go to india to preach is his duty. he even enforced jane be his wife use the command of god. he cover janes true felling and never consider what jane need. he want jane be his wife not because he love her but he think jane is a good assistant for preach. missionary have marriage but no love, rochester can give her love but not marriage. jane felt more threatened from st.john compare with rochester. st.john will convert jane be a tool. but to rochester, he will not regard jane as a tool he need. marry with st.john will killed jane indeed. johns need seemed like reasonable and womans live condition seemed like insignificant in mans system. but after years understanding and thinking, jane masters the knowledge and power which can master her fate. she refused this loveless marriage. although she is not beautiful and not rich but what she has is a perfect heart which is other woman can not have in victoria period.but jane is a normal woman she just want to have a husband who can give her love not males tool or dependency. so she refused st.johns demand because she does not want to be restricted by this kind of marriage. from these also reflect janes resist to religion, st.john is a church man whose individual heroism so strong. he intends to sacrifice his emotion to achieve responsibility on morality and justice. janes resistance is also resistance to religion. although sometime jane is weak and tolerant, when she refused st.john she once felt compunction and even becomes his wife. she agree st.johns need and went to india with st.john. from these we can see jane is a kind woman but she refuse restriction in love and marriage. if she agree st.john and become his wife, she will lost her free all her life and be st.johns slave. in janes mind she has her answer and her hope, she know she is not just a woman but also a person who is equal with man.from jane and st.johns story, it give us another question: should one sacrifice all what she can give to reward her benefactor? it is really not easy to give answer. but in this story if st.john can consider janes feeling and respect females status, maybe jane will accept him and become his wife. female is a kind of person as same as male. they need love but not a kind of gender relation which will bundle them. in our society many people think marriage just like a cage. if you get married, you will like a bird in cage and lost freedom. why this phenomenon happened because they are restricted by marriage. only you choose a man or woman you really love you can avoid fear in marriage. marry should be paradise not a cage, gender relationship need build on believe in each other and need respect each other. woman is not mans tools but mans responsibility. the bible write that woman is one of mans rib and so people think that woman must be mans subsider. it should not be like this and bible means nothing. one need believe themselves not book like bible. st.john in somewhere need respect jane. he is not god, even if he is god he still can not decide how a woman should be like.3.3 jane eyre and rochester: resistance for lovejane and rochesters relation is the main gender relationship in this work. coming to thornfild hall is one of important change in janes life. in this place she nearly find her pursuit but finally it broken. jane and rochester are in a big distance in status. when jane found herself fall in love with rochester, she doesnt retreat because of their different but pursue what she wants. she is brave and dare to resist with hierarchy。she believe that people are equal in anywhere and anytime. she told rochester she love him. when rochester feigned courtship of miss ingram, jane said:“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 gods feet, equal_as we are!” from jane s word we can see that what jane pursues is the equal combine of soul and soul not control. when jane know mason is rochesters wife and they still do not divorce, jane left thornfild hall hopeless. she felt disappointed about rochesters cheat even she still love him. actually, she wasnt pretty, and of course, the ordinary appearance didnt ma