Jane Eyre in My Eyes.docVIP

jane eyre in my eyesi. introductionin the late 18th-century and early 19th-century, a strong feminist voice was eager to make it heard through novels in england. this group of women writers, including jane austen, the bronte sisters and so on, broke out from their confinement to a private world, in which children, husband and kitchen were the chief worries. they entered into a public world, where they through various novels, presented their unique views of the world surrounding them. and industrial revolution of the 18th-century made womens liberation possible.as the sensitive nerve of social life, literature will touch naturally the field of womens liberation with the strong sense of feminist. charlotte bronte is one of them, with the view of independence and her own experience, charlotte bronte observes the world and expresses female consciousness in a special way, thus criticizing the male culture and the whole human civilization.the author charlotte bronte was born in a pastor family in the northern britain in 1816, her mother died when charlotte bronte was young. when she was eight years old, she was send into a residential school. the living condition was extremely bad, her two elder sisters died of pulmonary tuberculosis successively. therefore charlotte brontere and her younger sister aimilly returned to the hometown, passed their childhood in the bleak mountainous area of york county. when she was 15 years old, she entered into the school which miss lowwood set up to study. several years later she worked as teacher in this school, then she became a tutor as her living, however, she cannot endure the rich lady and misss discrimination and pungent, and gave up. she planned to started her own school, so with her aunts subsidization she and her sister went to italy to study french and german for further education. but because of nobody went to study the school had not been able to complete. however, her study experience in italy stimulated her to display the self-strong aspiration, it urged her to join in the literary production path.in jane eyre, charlotte bronte s masterpiece, the carefulness to the womens status and rights runs through the whole book.jane eyer was a born resister, whose parents went off when she was very young, and her aunt，the only relative she had，treated her as badly as a beggar. since janes education in lowood began, she didnt get what she had been expecting-simply being regarded as a common person, just the same as any other girl around. the suffers from being humiliated and devastated teach jane to be persevering and prize dignity over anything else.as a reward of revolting the ruthless oppression, jane got a chance to be a tutor in thornfield garden. there she made the acquaintance of lovely adele and the owner of thornfield garden, rochester, a man with warm heart despite a cold face outside. jane expected to change the life from then on, but fate had decided otherwise: after jane and rochester fell in love with each other and got down to get marry, she unfortunately came to know in fact rochester had got a legal wife, who seemed to be the shadow following rochester and led to his moodiness all the time -rochester was also a despairing person in need of salvation. jane did want to give him a hand, however, she made up her mind to leave, because she didnt want to betray her own principles, she didnt want to be his mistress and she was independence, because she was jane eyer. the novel has finally got a symbolist end: jane inherited a large number of legacies and finally returned. after finding rochesters misfortune brought by his original mad wife, jane chose to stay with him forever. and after a year they had a baby and rochester eyes turned for the better, they had a happy life. although jane eyre is an orphan, no matter what she met, no matter where she was, she always rebelled against that unfair society; she never gave up to try her best to get free, independence, fair life and true love. by unremitting efforts she finally got dignity, freedom and true love, the girls inner excellent qualities make people perfect. and this thesis will analyze the character of jane eyre in my eyes through three aspects: her rebellion, her equality and love and her independence. in her rebellion aspect, this paper will analyze it according to her own experiences and compare with other women, in her equality and love aspect, it will analyze from her attitude with life, in her independence aspect, it will express her own life style. ii. analysis on jane eyres charactera. jane eyres rebellion1. experience of jane eyrethe great characteristic of feminism opinion is to express their resistant consciousness towards the society that is led by men. during the 19th century, women have very little status in britain, and people do not attach importance to the discrimination and prejudice to women. therefore, to the feminist, the most important problem which should be solved is to rise up against the unjust society and strive for the rights of being a “person”. the rebellious spirit is the spiritual starting point of self-looking by the protagonist jane eyre, and it is also the foundation of her growing process.at gateshead hall, jane had the first consciousness of the unfair society; she began to realize the importance of rebellion. at mrs. reeds jane was an orphan without any property and had to live with the help of others. under this background, everyone looked down upon her. in the face of johns violent tyrannies, johns sisters proud indifference, his mothers aversion and the servants partiality, jane asked herself “why i was always suffering, always browbeaten, always abused, for every condemned.” her reason said “unjust!-unjust!” (bronte 10) a first angry voice busted out from her deep heart. jane had always yielded to john but this time. when john beat her again, with her head broken, she attacked him viciously. she shouted at him, “wicked and cruel boy! you are like a murderer! you are like a slave-driver-you are like the roman emperors!”(bronte 5) even when mrs. reed locked her in the red room, she rushed to the door without obedient. jane exposed boldly mrs. reeds lies and hypocrisy. she said, “i am not deceitful,” that “you have no pity”, that “you are deceitful”. (bronte 33) jane suffered weak on body and torment in spirit; her heart was filled with fury. though her strength was weak, in the face of strong oppressors, she was considering how to attack. due to janes true exposure, mrs. reed felt afraid and jane got a little victory in spirit. in those days at gateshead hall, janes strong bravery; unbending characters were expressed step by step. her every behavior showed her great indignation. isolation, poverty, discrimination and oppression caused her to revolt the unfair society with her own way. because of the revolt, jane was driven away from gateshead hall to lowood institution. lowood institution was a charity school for poor clergymens daughter. jane lived here for eight years. her rebellious spirits became mature. she saw clearly the hypocrisy of the school and exposed it viciously. charity was nothing but a lie. to be frank, charity school was a terrible hell in mens world. children there werent supported with enough food, clothes and good treatment of disease. many of them died of illness. the school preached love and sympathy, but it was in name, they had no love and sympathy at all. children must sing psalms and pray for god and thanked for oppressors. in this unfair society, helen, a clever, intelligent and beautiful girl received cruel treatment and finally lost her young life. however, she had no hate to anyone. religion poisoned her mind deeply. she believed in god. she spoke to jane “i believe god is good, i can resign my immortal part to him without any misgiving. god is my father, god is my friend: i love him; i believe he loves me”. (bronte 81) just because of these ideas, helen hadnt a little rebel against that kind of cruel treatment. however, jane was not like helen. she always tried to revolt, though she was still a child. she told helen:if people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have it all their own way, they would never feel afraid, and so they would never alter, but would grow worse and worse, when we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard; im sure we should-so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again. (bronte 81)this rhythmic and forceful speech embodied the deep oppression of bourgeoisie to the lower women and janes rebellious spirit. if in gateshead hall jane resists only her aunts family, then in lowood the resisted object has expanded into a wider environment. janes rebellious spirit is inspired once more time. she gives up her position in school to apply for the governess, because she wants to go out of the inhibited surroundings to see the outer world. it is also a good expression of her typical character-rebellious spirit.in thornfield hall, although jane goes up onto the social stage formally, she still carries her rebellious spirit all along. mr. rochester represents the upper class while jane springs from low class. a relationship between a lowly governess and a wealthy nobleman is simply unheard of. but jane is neither humble nor pert and looks on herself as equal as him. the little plain governess with her honesty, frankness and loving heart impressed mr. rochester very much. they gradually become friends and then lovers. unfortunately, on their wedding, she comes to know the existence of rochesters insane wife. the appearance of the madwoman stimulates janes rebellious spirit and her dignity again.feeling: and that clamored wildly. “oh, comply!” it said. “think of his misery; think of his dangerwho in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do i care for myself. the more solitary, the more friendless, the more myself. the more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained i am, the more i will respect myselfif at my individual convenience i might break them, what would be their worth? they have a worth-so i have always believed. (bronte 297)its a great challenge to jane, just something like hamlets question “to be or not to be”. but unlike hamlet, jane asserts her strong sense of self-respect and against her intense immediate feelings. rochester has been trying to convince her to stay with him despite the fact that he is still legally married to bertha mason. his argument almost persuades jane. yet she knows that staying with him would mean compromising herself, because she would be rochesters mistress rather than his wife. not only would she lose self-respect, but also she would probably lose mr. rochester in the end. thus jane asserts her worth and her ability to love herself regardless of how others treat her.2. comparing with opheliato preserve her self-respect and the purity of marriage, jane refuses to have an illegal relation as a mistress and leaves mr. rochester resolutely and determinedly. leaving thornfield hall is the climax of the plot, and it is also the supreme of janes developing rebellious spirit, which forms a sharp contrast with another female figure, ophelia.people are all familiar with william shakespeares work hamlet. it is a tragedy, which tells a story of how hamlet takes revenge and at the end of the story hamlet dies. his mother and his lover, ophelia also die. compared with jane, ophelia is coward. she loves hamlet, but she does not try her best to get her happiness. hamlet has the duty to get revenge for his father, the dead king. so he pretends to be mad. of course, ophelia does not know the truth. after hamlet kills her father mistakenly, she does nothing except sad and becomes mad, dies of falling into water. so we can say she does not have janes rebellious spirit, she does not know how to face difficulties. so according to this comparison janes brave rebellious spirits open out completely.3. comparing with hesterfor love, ophelia is weak; she gives up her right to get love. however, the way of hesters love is also unadvisable. hester was the figure of the scarlet letter written by nathaniel hawthorne. hester married old killingworth because of her childish thinking. but when she loved mr. dimmesdale and had a baby with him, she was suffered great pressure, accepting the punishment because of her adultery. she did not know how to save herself. although she loved dimmesdale so much. however, mr. dimmesdale, as a minister, did not save her. on the opposite, he punished her and let her wear the scarlet letter all her life. hester suffered these disgraces, rather than choose any way to save her or to fight against that society. we can say heater loved mr. dimmesdale mistakenly. she was a beautiful, kind and strong woman. she used her own way to get the worlds acceptance again. otherwise she used another way to fight against the society. but it is not worth for her to love the minister. because as a career, the minister loved nobody except the god. hester did not realize it, that she expended many meaningless sacrifices. however, jane realized it; she did not choose mr. john as her husband. she rebelled his request for marriage. her rebellion expressed again.after fleeing thornfield, jane goes to the vast moorland. under the circumstance of almost starving to death, st. john saves her life. he is a pious pastor and religious victim. through his observation, st. john confirms that jane is “docile, diligent, disinterested, faithful, constant and courageous; very gentle, and very heroic”.(bronte 285) so st. john urges her to marry him for the sake of responsibility, not for love. jane rejects his offer and answers: “i repeat i freely content to go with as your fellow-missionary, but not as your wife; i cannot marry you and become part of you”. (bronte 302)janes heart is free, firm and revolt. we can easily prove janes rebellious spirit from her analysis in her heart. she thinks: as his wife at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked-forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consume vital after vital-this would be unendurable. (bronte 381) with respect to the “obligation” which st. john imposes on her, jane rises up and follows her own soul. in janes opinion, marriage should be based on love, so she does not want to live as a tool to serve god. so she refuses the loveless marriage. this proves janes rebellion against the untrue love as well as the hypocritical religion.through the actions of revolt against mrs. reeds family, the charity school, mr. rochester and st. john, jane is a firm feminist. she dares to resist unjust destiny and the bullying and oppression of the powerful oppositions. she has obtained the victory each time and realizes a truth: if one wants to obtain her due rights, rising up is the only one way. b. jane eyres equality and lovefeminism opinion is characterized by rebellion, but its nucleus is equality. everyone, great or small, men or women, should be equal. jane is a governess. in the victorian period, the status of governess is very petty and low. at that time, career women are depicted as strange beasts and heterodoxy in some literary works. it is prevail and commonly acceptable that women, the vassals of men, should stay at home and look after their families. this is the value of women in mens eyes.in jane eyre, with her own experience, charlotte bronte describes the mocking and insult of those so-called nobles and ladies towards the governess. “half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incult.” they make fun of the governess wantonly: “i see her yet in raging passions, when we had driven her to extremitiesspilt our tea, crumbled our bread and butter, tossed our books up to the ceiling, and played a charivari with the ruler and desk, the fender and fire-irons.”(bronte 165) in a word, the status of a governess is not more than a servant. but jane does not consider herself to be inferior to others. mr. rochester wins janes heart, because she feels they are kindred souls, and also because he is the first person in the novel to offer jane lasting love and a real home. although rochester is janes social and economic superior, and although men are widely considered to be naturally superior to women in victorian period, jane is mr. rochesters intellectual equal.janes love is based on equal soul and spiritual communication. jane declares her theory of love and equality: do you think i can stay to become nothing to you？ do you think i am automation?-a machine without feelingsdo 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 heartit is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and womens declaration for equal rights.( bronte 264)this paragraph, as one of the most wonderful parts of the novel, is actually janes declaration to defend her dignity and ask for equality. she has passionate feelings but never forget equality.jane uses her own intelligence, knowledge, love, quick-witted, the eloquence and insight to improve her social status step by step. then she gains the love of mr. rochester. jane is penniless and just a governess of thirty pounds for annual pay, but mr. rochester has high position, great wealth, abundant experience and peculiar gentleman demeanor. he is the outstanding one in the upper society. therefore, no matter what aspects, rochester has the advantage of jane. but in mr. rochesters eyes, jane is