浅析简爱的双重性格-文学学士毕业论文.doc

Abstract

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is far more popular than her other books because in superficial level this novel presents us a Cinderella-type love story. The only difference is that Jane Eyre is a short, plain and orphan girl with low social status, but she is not failing apart with self-esteem, self-respect, and self-reliance when she faces difficulties in life, economy and love. Due to her rebellious spirit and rich inner world, she fights against her fate successfully and gains her happiness at last.
These positive characters make Jane Eyre an advanced woman in the history of western literature and the representative of personal charm in a prolonged period, but she also shows her negative side to us on her roads of life to fighting: self-abasement, weakness and conservative personality.
This thesis will break the traditional thinking, analyzing Jane Eyre’s double characters both the positive and negative sides. It can help us to have a better understanding of our great heroine from a new angle and new ways.
Key words: Jane Eyre; double characters; analysis

中文摘要

夏洛蒂勃朗特的《简爱》因其灰姑娘似的爱情童话故事而一直享有广泛的读者群。与灰姑娘不同的是，简爱是一个身材矮小，地位低微的孤儿。在面对生活，经济，爱情方面的困难时，她展现出自尊，自重，自强的一面。也由于她的反抗精神和丰富的内心世界，让她成功地战胜了命运，并赢得了最后的幸福。
简爱积极的特性使她成为了西方文学史上的先进妇女和具有经久不衰魅力的人物代表。但在她人生道路上，她也表现出了她自卑，软弱和保守的一面。
本论文将打破传统观念，简析简爱的双重性格——正面和负面。这有利于我们从新的角度和新的途径更好地了解主人公的性格特征。
关键词：简爱；双重性格；分析

1. Introduction
1.1 A brief introduction of the author
Very few Critics of Charlotte’s works will be authoritative if they just choose to ignore the author’s growing background and personal experience and focus only on the novels themselves. As for seemingly semi-biographic novel Jane Eyre that the author has attached much of her own self to the main protagonist, a brief review of the author’s personal experience is very necessary. It will enable us to know the fact that not only Charlotte’s own time contributed to the portrayal of the main women images, but also her own experience was indispensable to the development of the plot and the passions of Jane Eyre. So a summarized account of some of the most important anecdotes is necessary.
Charlotte Bronte (1818 - 1855) was the third daughter of a poor country clergyman at Haworth, Yorkshire, in northern England. It was a family of six small children that Mr. Bronte moved to take up his position as perpetual curate there in February 1820. At her age of 8, Charlotte and her four sisters were sent to a charity school where they were cruelly treated, and two of her elder sisters died there by having lung disease. At the age of 19, she worked as a school-teacher to afford on education for her brother and sisters, and later as a governess. In 1846 appeared a volume of verse entitled “Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell”, the pseudonyms of Charlotte and her little sisters Emily and Anne. In the same year her first work of fiction, The Professor was sent to different publishers and was rejected by them all, and it was not published till after her death. She went on writing another novel, Jane Eyre, which was published in 1847 and achieved an immediate success. In the next year, The Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey by her sister Emily and Anne respectively were also published. But sorrow came to her when in that year, her only brother and her sister Emily died, and Anne died in the following year. Charlotte wrote two more novels after that, Shirley in 1849 and Villette in 1853, still under the pseudonym of Currer Bell. In 1854 she married her father’s curate A.B. Nicholas, and she died the next year. Another novel, Emma, appeared as a fragment after her death, in 1860(Chen, 2006:258).

1.2 The background information of Victorian feminine writer
In Charlotte Bronte’s time, the middle-class ideology of the proper sphere of womanhood, which developed in post-industrial England and America, prescribed a woman who would be a perfect lady, an angel in the house, contentedly submissive to men, but strong in her inner purity and religiosity, queen in her own realm of the home.
Women beginning their literary careers in the 1840s were seeking heroine – both professional role model and fictional ideal – who could combine strength and intelligence with feminine tenderness, tact, and domestic expertise. At the same time, they perceived themselves and their fictional heroines as innovators who would provide role models for future generations. The feminine writers were thus looking for two kinds of heroines. They wanted inspiring professional role-models; but they also want romantic heroines, a sisterhood of shared passion and suffering, women who sobbed and struggled and rebelled. It was very difficult for the Victorians to believe that both qualities could be embodied in the same woman. The simplest resolution would have been to find the role model in life, the heroine in literature, but it did not work that easily.
As the first generation of English Victorian feminine writers, in order to meet the standards of the society and be accepted by the readers, many of them used pseudonyms. Victorian feminine novelists thus found themselves in a double bind. They felt humiliated by the condescension of male critics and spoke intensely of their desire to avoid special treatment and achieve genuine excellence, but they were deeply anxious about the possibility of appearing unwomanly. As we can see when the author of Jane Eyre turned out to be a young maid, there was a sudden change of tone in critics (Yang, 2003: 23). Under such kind of environment, Charlotte Bronte has both rebellious spirit and conservative personality that reflected in her masterpiece – Jane Eyre.

1.3 A brief introduction of the novel
Jane Eyre is by far the best known of Charlotte Bronte’s novels. The story begins at Gateshead. A penniless orphan girl – Jane Eyre, about ten years old, is brought up by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, a harsh and unsympathetic woman. She reacts strongly against her aunt’s bad treatment and she is sent to Lowood Asylum, a charity school for poor girls. The school teacher Brocklehurst is here portrayed as a very severe and hard-hearted person who not only keeps the children half-starved but prevents them from having normal mental growth. Quite different from Helen, who is a thoroughly obedient child under the rigid displine of the school, Jane Eyre strives for independence and in her the novelist expresses her humanistic and democratic protest against the suppression of personality in Victorian society.
After her years of misery in school the heroine goes to Thornfield Hall to be a governess to pursue a different life in a different environment. The little girl she teaches is the natural daughter of Mr. Rochester. Life at Thornfield was the most romantic experience for the protagonist but it also brought Jane to the most severe psychological inner conflicts, because here the author takes up a new theme - love and marriage. In spite of Jane’s plainness, Rochester is fascinated by her wit and courageous spirit and falls in love with her. Their marriage is prevented at the last minute by the revelation that he has married Bertha Mason fifteen years before. It turns out that the real imprisoned woman in the attic is his wife who is charged by Grace Poole and who is now a raving maniac.
Jane then goes away and after nearly perishing on the moor is taken in by a clergyman St. John Rivers and his sisters. The clergyman almost succeeds in making her agree to marry him - not because he loves her, as he admits, but because he admires her and wants her service as an assistant, but she finally declines his offer and goes back to look for Rochester. Upon her arrival at Thornfield Hall, she finds that the place had been burnt down by Bertha Mason and that Rochester, attempting in vain to save his mad wife from death in the fire, becomes blind. She marries him in spite of his misfortune and restores him to happiness. The author tries to show here that Jane Eyre, different from many other women in the mammon-worship society, considers marriage not as a bargain but as a union of kindred soul.
Jane Eyre is a great piece of work, full of profound intention, complicated plots and sincere emotion. It also shows its unique artistic charm and literature values, though it has enjoyed popularity for more than one and a half century.

1.4 Literature review
Jane Eyre is one of the masterpieces in English literature for its unique contents and exquisite methods of impression. It has been analyzed from different angles since it was published. People constantly study it from different perspectives, such as realism, modernism, feminism and so on. The thesis – Women Images of Jane Eyre written by Yang Hongyan, reveals the special feminine sexual reality and awareness of female sexuality from realistic perspective (Yang, 2003). Hu Chunling from modernist way regards Jane Eyre as the precursor of feminism on her master thesis – the Modernity of Jane Eyre (Hu, 2002). Li Shuyan explores women’s liberation in Jane Eyre on her paper – Gender Awareness of Jane Eyre, which is based on feminism (Li, 2005). Scholars still keep on digging its potential intentions, delicate skills and writing style.
My discussion of the novel, based on characters, does not only focus on the analysis of the protagonist’s pursuit of equality and independence, but also focuses on the heroine’s sense of inferiority, conservative personality and weakness. Analyzing Jane Eyre’s character in both the positive and negative side can help us to have a better understanding of the heroine and the theme.

2. Analysis of Jane Eyre’s Double Characters
In traditional English novels, the heroines are usually beautiful women, and their love stories are described as modest and sincere, rich in poetic flavor. Against traditional style of writing, Charlotte discards all the established standards in novels, and boldly creates a heroine as herself, short and ordinary looking, but can arouse the interest of the readers. It is a pioneering work in the history of English literature (Liu, 2008: 62). The attraction of Jane Eyre lies in her unique character. The basic characteristic of Jane Eyre is her claiming balance in life, seeking independence in economy and spirit, pursuing equality in love. However, she also shows us her negative side to us on her roads of life to fighting with the conventional thinking of women, traditional marriage form that is self-abasement, weakness and conservative personality.
Having the dignity, living freely and possessing the right to pursue happiness are the basic power. However, the realities she faces are ruthlessness of “relatives”, hypocrisy, oppression of “Orphanage” and unction of upper class. Jane Eyre’s life is flooded with all of these completely.
On one hand, miserable fate causes Jane Eyre to learn that dignity and freedom are so estimable and inviolable. On the other hand, the hard life and the extraordinary situation trains Jane Eyre and gives her fortitudinous spirit and marvelous courage. The analysis consists of the following five stages of the heroine’s life: Gasteshead – Lowood – Thornfield – Moor House – Ferndean.

2.1 Jane Eyre in Gateshead
Jane is an orphan whose parents died when she was very young and it was her uncle - Mr. Reed took her in and brought her to Gateshead. He made his wife promise to bring her up as their own daughter when he was dying. After her uncle died, Jane suffers all kinds of maltreat from both her aunt and her cousins, even the servants are unfriendly to her. During the nine years without her uncle’s care, Jane, the ten-year-old little girl, experiences deeply the unfairness of the world. However, Jane is by no means a girl who resigns herself to adversity. Although she is orphaned and helpless, young and friendless, she does not pander to her aunt’s and cousins’ tastes against her own will. She tries her best to rebel even though it will invite worse maltreatment.

2.1.1 Fighting for liberation, equality and freedom
Jane walked across our field of view as a traitor, and she was the representative of a brave woman to fight for her destiny. Though Jane depended on her own efforts, her courage to challenge the unjust society should be respected. She was brought up by her aunt, and never be taken care of, but always given a stern ticking off and bloody-minded by Mrs. Reed and her children. Her cousin John Reed curses her:
You have no business to our books; you are a dependant, mamma says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mamma’s expense. Now, I’ll teach you to rummage my book-shelves; for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows
(Bronte, 2003: 6)
The servants in the family also look down upon her, and say she is less than a servant, for she does nothing for her keep.
Jane seemed to be pale, thin and weak. She was like a piece of dust, nobody paid attention to her. At any time she may disappear, however, Jane was a brave girl who dared to face up to all kinds of injustice and fight against them (Yan, 2007: 16 - 17).
Mrs. Reed wants to send her to Lowood School to throw away the burden, and calumnies and slanders her to her face. Jane can not tolerate such humiliation, and exposes Mrs. Reed’s lies and hypocrisy angrily. She declares that “I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world”, and rebuked her aunt-in-law’s cruelty, “You think I have no feelings, and that I can do without one bit of lobe, or kindness, but I can not live so: and you have no pity. I shall remember how you thrust me back…You are deceitful” (Bronte, 2003: 41), displaying her unhumiliating rebellious spirit.
She also strived for equality and freedom. When the servant Bessie said John was their young master, Jane asked “Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?” (Bronte, 2003: 8). Here, a simple rhetorical question embodies Jane’s desire to fight for equality and freedom. Jane suffered various violent treatments by her aunt and cousins, and finally broke out and spoke all her anger.
Misfortune and sufferings built up her strength of character and stubborn disposition with a gentle nature and a strong will. Under her little, weak and plain appearance, hardly anybody would believe she has the tensile spirit and passionate soul.

2.1.2 Lack of confidence in appearance
Beauty is one of the gifts of women and such kind of value-orientation has never been changed from ancient times to present. The woman who is lack of beauty can make her feel inferior. Therefore, the plain and poor girls, among whom Jane Eyre was, have a self-abased mentality naturally. Jane Eyre felt tiny and low about her out-looking, which