Abstract

As we all know, man is the authority at that time. While Charlotte Bronte, who was an excellent novelist in the field of women, just wrote out this novel to show the rebelling in mind of women. Women were discriminated against by men and treated just as the appendant of men. They had not enough rights and liberty and were restricted to a much larger degree than men. The heroine Jane Eyre is different from other traditional Victoria ones. In the book of Jane Eyre, which is wrote by Charlotte Bronte, we can see a girl who has a strong characteristics and new ideals. In this book, we can read out the main ideal of the rebellion against the men authority. She bravely pursues her liberty, equality and independence by her rebellion against the oppression's. The most important is the love she showed out to Mr.Rochester, Jane’s valuable characters help her successfully to get the equality, liberty and independence. Through the portrayal, Charlotte sets a new rote model for women of Victorian times as well as modern age.

This thesis aims to study the feminism in Jane Eyre from three aspects. Firstly, it is about the general background of the novel—the social background of that times and the author’s experience. Both of them can help us understand the heroine’s feminism deeply. Secondly, it is about the heroine’s special character—rebellion. We can find this character is the main route of the novel. Finally, it is about Jane’s pursuits of equality and liberty which are also the important themes of the feminist movement of that age. The analysis of all the three aspects can effectively give reasons for the feminism in Jane Eyre.

Key Words: Jane Eyre; feminism; rebellion; equality; liberty

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1.Introduction1

1.1 The social background of Jane Eyre .1

1.2 The author’s background 2

2. Jane’s Character of Rebellion .3

2.1 The formation of Jane’s character of rebellion3

2.2 The development of Jane’s character of rebellion.4

3.The Pursuit in Jane’s Life6

3.1 Jane’s pursuit of equality.6

3.2 Jane’s pursuit of liberty.9

4.Conclusion.11

References12