Female Consciousness of Jane Eyre and Villette.doc

毕业论文(设计)Female Consciousness of Jane Eyre and Villette1.Introduction12.The authors ideas and her works32.1 Development of Charlotte Brontes female consciousness32.2 A brief introduction of Jane Eyre and Villette63. Female consciousness of Jane Eyre and Lucy snow83.1 Female consciousness of Jane Eyre83.1.2 Jane Eyres self-respect93.1.3 Jane Eyres bravery113.1.4 Jane Eyres attitude to love and marriage113.2 Female consciousness of Lucy Snow133.2.1 Lucy Snows character and mentality133.2.2 Lucy Snows independence143.2.3 Lucy Snows attitude to career153.2.4 Lucy Snows attitude to life164. Conclusion17References191.IntroductionCharlotteBronte is one of the female writers in 19th century. Jane Eyre is her representative work, but many foreign scholars praised Villette is more mature than Jane Eyre. One of the Bronte researchers Margerate Laine said that Villette is the only novel to manifest Charlottes best creative period. Scholar in ShanDong ShiFan University Huai Baozhen wrote that: “every heroine in Charlottes works has a striking personality with strong self-consciousness, which is alien to family angels at that time, it also represented writers strong female consciousness. Charlotte is a special woman who lived in her lonesome moor all the time. Her life was accompanied with sadness and loneliness, her female consciousness is an inspiration to her life.” （怀宝珍，2004）. Jane and Lucy are poor without beautiful appearances, but they both have a strong female consciousness, the spirits in them seems still precious for us today. Female consciousness is womans self-consciousness of status, influence and value as the subject in the objective world (Net. 3). It is a personal motive to stimulate womens pursuit for independence, freedom, initiative, creativity. Concretely speaking, female consciousness means women wake up and fulfill her historical mission, social responsibility, personal obligation, meanwhile they know their self-feature well and take part in social activities in their own ways. The establishment and development of female consciousness is a process of changing and enrichment with the change and development of the society. The standards of female consciousness status are still in research. Peking University scholars Fu Xin and Wang Sufang claimed that the wakening and improvement of female consciousnesss manifest in four main aspects: Women realize themselves as the subjects in the society, this realization is one of the universal attributes of human beings, according to human beings overall necessities to establish their lives spontaneously; they realize womens special qualities and portray a real female quality in harmony with their physiology and psychology; they understand and play a variety of roles in balance; they regards man properly and can work with man in harmony (Net. 4). I think the standards of wakening should include the sex consciousness, which requires women to be self-respective、self-confident but not self-abased、self-flabby; they can take a correct judgment on the two sexes, insisting on sexual equality, but not male superiority nor female inferiority or woman supremacists; the female groups consciousness awakening begin with self-respect, self-confidence, independence, and towards to female groups self-reliance.Jane Eyre and Lucy Snow are the heroines in Jane Eyre and Villette, they have strong women awareness. They came through lots of sufferings, but they are with independence and self-respect. They are in pursuit of their career so as to be economically independence and made great efforts to achieve their dreams; they are righteous and go for their love bravely. All these precious spirits seem still valuable till now. This thesis focuses on analyzing Jane and Lucys female consciousness, and contacting with Charlotte Brontes works created life, integrating with the two heroines then we can find out writers female consciousness from Jane and Lucy in her works.From the brief introduction of the two heroines, we can find that they have suffered many difficulties and lives are not easy for them, but they never give up their hope of pursuing their ideal lives.2.The authors ideas and her works2.1 Development of Charlotte Brontes female consciousness The Industrial Revolution modified the whole structure of English society in 19 century in Britain. The tide of democracy and science makes a great impact on every aspect of the society. There are a lot of female writers coming forth in literary at that time; they were infected by the historical words in that era and they described the world in female perspective, beginning from Romanticism then changed to Realism. They created many favorite works which were mainly about getting rid of male supremacy and praising highly of womens independent consciousness. Charlotte Bronte is one of the English realistic female writers in mid 19th century. In the Victoria era, English women still stayed in the interior status. No matter in family or in society, they have no right and at a disadvantage position. Most of the women did not have a career, though a few of them were forced to work because of living pressure, and what they can only choose were teaching，sewing or washing. Charlotte was born in a poor family and she came through lots of hardships. Her mother died when she was a little child, and two elder sisters passed away years later. Her father was a priest in the countryside and he could not get much payment. She had to work hard to get the minimum living guarantee. In spite of prejudice and discrimination, she worked as a governess twice. Being a governess seems to be respectable and the only way out, but there is no difference between a governess and a maidservant. Charlotte has said that a personal governess wasnt regarded as a person, a rational person; she must finish boring work (Elizabeth, 1975: 3). Therefore she knew by heart the mental suffering and physical hardship of this profession. There were all kinds of psychological pressure: separation from her home, being a stranger in another family, the indifference or the contempt from the employers, hostility from the servants, anxiety and diffidence due to lack of experience and so on. Governess was often given tasks that belonged to a ladys maid or nurse. Charlotte had a plan to establish a school with her sister, but it failed finally. Through those hardships, her female consciousness developed in her mind gradually. When she began working, she realized the class gap, especially the sex discrimination, which drove Charlotte to have a deep thought on womens status, power and life. The themes in her works are mainly about advocating womens independence and equality between men and women. When Charlotte published her Jane Eyre, she used a male name “Currer Bell”, hoping to get the respect from the society and avoid critics ridicule. She thought much of her duty, and had loftier and clearer notions of it than most people, and held fast to them with more success. It was done; with much more difficulty than people with stronger nerves, and better fortunes. All her life was labor and pain; and she never threw down the burden for the sake of present pleasure (Elizabeth, 1975: 188). It is that hardship which provides Charlotte with writing materials. In Charlottes works, her heroine, breaking through the boundary of describing females as a feeble female, a victim and a lamia that was written according to mens level and prejudice, was described as a figure of self-respect, self-struggle and fighting against patriarchal society. Therefore, she was treated and attacked unjustly. By disclosing poverty and contradiction between labors and capital, Charlotte revealed womens perplexities and poor status, and showed her strong female consciousness. Charlottes female consciousness mainly manifests in two respects: one reflects females disillusionment of selfconsciousness and independent consciousness from womens education and economic independence; the other reflects attic faith on marriage which is based on love. A person, especially a woman who has strong selfconsciousness can realize that people are equal, and a woman isnt a mans plaything, and isnt an “angel at home” no longer.2.2 A brief introduction of Jane Eyre and VilletteWhen Charlotte Bronte set out to write the novel Jane Eyre, she was determined to create a main character who challenged the notion of the ideal Victorian women, or as Bronte was once quoted: “a heroine as plain and small as myself” (Gaskell, Chapter XV). Brontes determination to portray a plain yet passionate young woman who defied the stereotype of the docile and domestic Victorian feminine ideal most likely developed from her own dissatisfaction with domestic duties and a Victorian culture that discouraged women from having literary aspirations. At the beginning of the novel, Jane is an isolated, powerless ten-year-old girl living with an aunt and cousins who dislike her. As the novel progresses, she grows in strength. She distinguishes herself at Lowood School because of her hard work and strong intellectual abilities. As a governess at Thornfield, she learns of the pleasures and pains of love through her relationship with Edward Rochester. After being deceived by him, she goes to Marsh End, where she regains her spiritual focus and discovers her own strength when she rejects St. John Rivers marriage proposal. By the end of the story she has become a powerful, independent woman, blissfully married to the man she loves, Rochester.Jane Eyre made a name for Charlotte, but there is another important and the last work of hers which is named Villette. The book got more praise from the critics than Jane Eyre. These two works are similar with writers autobiography, but Villette is more mature than Jane Eyre in thought or in artistic way. The heroine in the story named Lucy Snow is an orphan and lived in her god mothers house when she was 14 years old. The first three chapters describes little Lucys experience at Bretons, where she met another little guest Polly who just lost her mother. Polly was about 6 years old, but she acted like an adult. Several stories happened between little Polly and John who is Mrs. Bretons son, and the story seemed funny but meaningful. It is 8 years later when chapter 4 begins. At that time Lucy came to a small city named Villette. She got a job as a tutor in a female school which is managed by Mrs. Beck. Mrs. Beck is a mystical woman in her middle age. She is strict with her school in a emissary way. Paul is Mrs. Becks cousin, and he paid much attention to quiet Lucy. He is a man with plain appearance and quick temper which remind us of Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. Paul encouraged Lucy to express herself by his special way and stimulated her desire for knowledge. In a long and boring vacation Lucy fainted in front of a church and was saved by Doctor John, and she found that the doctor is Mrs. Bretons son John Gramm. Lucy was taken good care by Mrs. Breton and John. John is a very considerate doctor; he helped Lucy get rid of depressing spirit and she attached to him day after day, but John finally fell in love with Polly not Lucy. The real hero in this novel is Paul. He appreciated Lucys adamancy and self-respect under her cold appearance and Lucy found his gentleness and goodness under arbitrary attitude. They finally fell in love. When they took off their masks and expressed their love to each other, Mrs. Beck interfered in this relationship. Paul was forced to work in West Indies for 3 years. He set up a school with all his savings before leaving and made Lucy the manager. Years later Lucy became a confident, mature headmistress with a successful career. She has been waiting for Paul all the time, but theres a sea hurricane description at the end of the book which is to emphasize a sad ending, Paul was probably had a shipwreck in his way to Lucy. 3. Female consciousness of Jane Eyre and Lucy snow3.1 Female consciousness of Jane Eyre3.1.1 Jane Eyres character and mentalityThe development of Jane Eyres character is central to the novel. From the beginning, Jane possesses a sense of her self-worth and dignity, a commitment to justice and principle, a trust in God, and a passionate disposition. Her integrity is continually tested over the course of the novel, and Jane must learn to balance the frequently conflicting aspects of her so as to find contentment. An orphan since early childhood, Jane feels exiled and ostracized at the beginning of the novel, and the cruel treatment she receives from her Aunt Reed and her cousins only exacerbates her feeling of alienation. Afraid that she will never find a true sense of home or community, Jane feels the need to belong somewhere, to find “kin,” or at least “kindred spirits.” This desire tempers her equally intense need for autonomy and freedom. In her search for freedom, Jane also struggled with the question of what type of freedom she wants. While Rochester initially offers Jane a chance to liberate her passions, Jane comes to realize that such freedom could also mean enslavementby living as Rochesters mistress, she would be sacrificing her dignity and integrity for the sake of her feelings. St. John Rivers offers Jane another kind of freedom: the freedom to act unreservedly on her principles. He opens to Jane the possibility of exercising her talents fully by working and living with him in India. Jane eventually realizes, though, that this freedom would also constitute a form of imprisonment, because she would be forced to keep her true feelings and her true passions always in check (Net. 2). Charlotte Bronte may have created the character of Jane Eyre as a means of coming to terms with elements of her own life. Much evidence suggests that Bronte, too, struggled to find a balance between love and freedom and to find others who understood her. In certain the certain extent in the book, Jane voices the authors then-radical opinions on religion, social class, and gender. 3.1.2 Jane Eyres self-respect Self-respect is one of Janes precious qualities, especially when she gets along with men; her behavior and attitude have shown it distinguishingly. She treats others as equals and requests the equal treatment from others. In Gateshead Hall, when Jane fought back her cousin John Reed, she was criticized by maid Abbot and nurse Bessie，but Jane restored at once “Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?” (Charlotte, 2001: 9). Although she depends on others for living, she refused to admit herself inferior to others, the words she reproached Mrs. Reed also strengthen this point, “You think I have no feelings, and that a can do without one bit of love or kindness; but I cannot live so; and you have no pity”(Charlotte, 2001: 45). When she went to Lowood, she tried her best to get along well with people, and she got friendship from Helen Burns and Miss Temple. “You are good to those who are good to you. It is all I ever desire to be” (Charlotte, 2001: 76), which shows her treating principle. When she came to Thornfield being a tutor, it is the first time for her to get along with a gentleman. The first time she met her master Rochester in the hall, his expression was arrogant, and his behavior was rude, but she neither scared nor lost her mind. She handled calmly and got the initiative soon, which turned Mr. Rochester into admiration. Mr. Rochester has come through a rugged experience and he can be Janes father by the age, so he thought that he can be authoritarian to his employee. Jane retorted his point immediately. Jane expressed clearly that unless he forgot their positions, they can communicate sincerely. People may have different social status, different property and different appearances, but they have the equal personality. Mr. Rochester has implied Jane that he wanted to marry Miss Ingram, and tried to persuade Jane to still stay there, which was refused by Jane directly: Do you think I am an automation?- a machine without feelings? And can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? 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;- and we stood at Gods feet, equal,- as we are! (Charlotte, 2001: 373).No matter facing the arrogant noble ladies or when she became a beggar, Jane never forgot that she was as equal as others, and they had the same respect.3.1.3 Jane Eyres bravery Happiness exists when one strives ceaselessly. Only when people work hard, life will be updating, otherwise it would be like dead water. Jane is a woman, but she is brave and diligent. When she studied in Lowood, she was arranged to the lowest class and when she graduated, she was in the first place in her class, and then she stayed to be a teacher in Lowood for 4 years. The environment was bad, students often suffered from hunger and cold, but Jane lived there for 8 years. She never contented with the eventless life, she pursued a great world with hope, trouble and excitement. When she came to Thornfield, she was still not satisfied. “I must have action; and I will make it if I cannot find it” (Charlotte, 2001: 157). When Mason was hurt by Burtha at midnight, Jane took care of him alone in a dark room without scare, because of her bravery and calmness, Mr. Rochester would like to ask for help from time to time. When she escaped from Thornfield, wandered in the field