Abstract: Jane Eyre and Tess are two typical images of women in the Victorian Age, and both of them came from poor families and lived in the bottom of society. However, endings of Jane Eyre and Tess were entirely different.  Jane Eyre harvested eternal love whereas Tess was killed at the gallows and her short life was ended as a tragedy. Charlotte Bronte, the writer of Jane Eyre, lived in the early Victorian Age whereas Thomas Hardy, who wrote Tess of d’Urbervilles, lived in the late Victorian era. Jane Eyre was published almost 43 years earlier than Tess of d’Urbervilles. This paper, based on feminism theory, aimed to analyze different fates of Jane Eyre and Tess as well as their root causes.

  Keywords:  Jane Eyre; Tess; fate; comparison

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review.3

  2.1 Previous Studies on the Heroine Jane Eyre4

  2.2 Previous Studies on the Heroine Tess4

  2.3 Previous Studies on Comparative Analysis of Jane Eyre and Tess5

  2.4 Deficiencies of Previous Studies5

3. Feminism Theory6

3.1 The Sprouting, Production and Development of Feminism Theory.6

3.2 Feminism in the Victorian Age.8

4. Comparative Analysis of Jane Eyre and Tess.9

4.1 Comparative Analysis of Jane Eyre and Tess’ Social Background10

4.2 Comparative Analysis of Jane Eyre and Tess’ Characters11

  4.3 Comparative Analysis of Jane Eyre and Tess’ Attitudes toward Love and Marriage.13

4.4 Comparative Analysis of Jane Eyre and Tess’ Social Awareness.15

5. Conclusion16

References17