对简爱宗教人物形象与道德的分析Religion, Morality and Christianity in Jane Eyre摘要在《简•爱》中，宗教是一个频繁出现的主题。
主要的宗教人物有海伦、布洛克赫斯特先生、圣约翰和简•爱。
简•爱最终拒绝选择走和前三者相同的宗教信仰之路，而是她一边学习，一边经历，一边成长，最终开辟了一条与众不同而且最适合她走的路。
依赖上帝的力量和指引，同时不放弃自我的价值和尊严。
关键词: 宗教；道德；基督徒AbstractReligion is frequently recurring theme in Jane Eyre. The religious beliefs and attitudes of Helen Burns, Mr.Brocklehurst, St.John and Jane are the most impressive. Helen represents a mode of Christianity that stresses tolerance and acceptance. She believes that justice will be found in God's ultimate judgment--the good will be rewarded and the evil will be punished. Mr.Brocklehurst is a cruel, hypocritical and abusive man. All his piety to God is shallow display. He embodies an evangelical form of religion and seeks to gain power and control others by taking advantage of religion. St.John is entirely alienated from his feelings and devoted solely to an austere ambition--be a missionary, the follower of God. Though he is not a religious hypocrite like Brocklehurst, but he is also rigidly principled and lacking empathy that his behavior is potentially just as destructive. Jane ultimately rejects all the three models of religion as she forms her own ideas about faith and principle. But she does not abandon morality, spiritualism and a belief in a Christian God. For Jane, religion helps curb immoderate passions, and it spurs one on to worldly efforts and achievements. These achievements include full self-knowledge and complete faith in God.Keywords: Religion; Morality; ChristianityOutlineThesis: This article will analyze the principle religious characters in Jane Eyre and find out why Jane rejects to follow Helen, Brocklehurst and St.john's models of religion and how Jane becomes mature as a Christian through her own efforts a nd choice and others' force.I. IntroductionII. Three models of religion modes Jane rejectsA. Helen BurnsB. Mr. BrocklehurstC. St. JohnIII. The maturity of Jane as a ChristianA. In GatesheadB. In LowoodC. In ThornfieldD. In Moor HouseIV. ConclusionReligion, Morality and Christianity in Jane EyreI. IntroductionAmong all the religions by which people seek to worship, Christianity is by far the most influential and widely spread, especially in the west. Every phase of westerners' life is touched by this religion, so much so that it has become part and parcel of western culture. The Bible is a collection of religious writings comprising stories of God, the laws of God and the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the most popular book in the culture of mankind. It is the essential of western civilization, having shaped the western civilization more decisively than anything else ever written. Almost all great authors of Biblical themes have been a literary tradition. In fact few great English writers of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century can be read and appreciated with satisfaction without a sufficient knowledge of the Bible. In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, religion is frequently recurring theme. The principle religious characters represent some widely differing views of religion in general and Christianity in particular. Helen Burns, Mr.Brocklehurst and St.John are the most impressive and each represents a model of religion that Jane, the heroine of this book, ultimately rejects as she forms her own ideas about faith and principle.II. The three typical religious modes Jane rejectsA. Helen Burns is Jane's first and the best friend in Lowood. Helen represents a mode of Christianity that stresses tolerance and acceptance. She has a matyrlike attitude toward the miseries she suffers at Lowood. Though Helen is always punished for trifling faults, vengeance never comes to her mind. She tells Jane there is no good in revenge and the Bible bids Christians to return good for evil. Besides, only because she sometimes fail to live up to her ascetical standards, she chatises herself for daydreaming, for unable to be concentrating on her studies. She is self-critical, believing herself has too many faults. That is why she is frequently punished by Miss Scatcherd. Helen ascetically trusts her own faith and strictly abides by the laws of God. When Helen tells Jane that she practices a doctrine of Christian endurance which means loving her enemies and accepting her privation, Jane disagrees strongly with such meek tolerance of injustice but Helen takes no heed of Jane's arguments. She is not oblivious to the injustices the girls suffer at Lowood. She believes justice will be found in God's ultimate judgment--God will reward the good and punish the evil. Utterly passive and accepting of any objection, Helen embodies the Christian ideas of love and forgiveness. The angelic Helen Burns and her doctrine of endurance represent a religious position that contrasts with Mr.Brocklehurst's.B. Mr.Brocklehurst is the headmaster of Lowood school. He is a cruel, hypocritical and abusive man, preaching a doctrine of poverty and privation to his students. By his orders, girls in Lowood are underfed, overworked and forced to sit still during seemingly endless sermons. The girls have neither chances nor rights to take pleasure in worldly things. While he claims to be purging his students of pride, his method of subjecting them to various privations and humiliations, like when he orders that the naturally curly hair of one of Jane's classmates be cut short so as to lay down straight, such cruelty is entirely unchristian. On one hand, Mr.Brocklehurst orders the girls be poor, simple, devout and economical, live as ascetical as Christians should be. On the other hand, he uses the school's funds to provide a wealthy and opulent lifestyle for his own family. His wife and daughters have beautiful curly hair which he claims the most hateful and unnatural and they are splendidly attired in fashionable clothes made by velvet, silk, and furs. That proves Brocklehurst's hypocrisy. Mr.Brocklehurst embodies an evangelical form of religion. He illustrates the dangers and hypocrisies that Charlotte Bronte perceived in the nineteenth century evangelical movement. “Conventionality is not morality” Bronte wrote. “Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last” (From the preface of Jane Eyre).Mr.Brocklehurst claims to be self-righteous, he pretends to be “God” in Lowood. He gives the laws and others accept and obey. In fact, his “piety” is shal low devotional display. He is a religious hypocrite as Helen says,“ Mr.Brocklhurst is not a god；nor is he a great and admired man” (Chapter 8). Compared to the most devout Helen, Brocklehurst is a religious mimic.C. St.John is Jane's cousin. He is a clergyman, the minister at Morton. St.John is cold, reserved and often controlling in his interactions with others because he is entirely alienated from his feelings and devoted solely to an austere ambition—to be a missionary in India. He makes this decision because he heard God's call. Though he admires Rosamond for her beauty, he refuses to allow worldly affection to interfere with his holy duties. He knows Rosamond would make a terrible wife for a missionary. At last, he asks Jane to go to India with him and to be his wife. Because he believes Jane would make a good wife for him, for Jane’s endur ance, her strength of principle and her ability to fulfill her goal proves to him. Jane refuses his proposal many times because they are not in love. St.John harshly insists that she should marry him, declaring that to refuse his proposal is the same as to deny the Christian faith. St.John's character emerges forcefully in the last parts of this book. He provides an interesting comparison to the models of religion embodied in Helen Burns andMr.Brocklehurst. Unlike the meek and forbearing Helen, St.John is active and even ambitious. He is not a religious hypocrite, for there is a true Christian charity in his heart. He gives poor Jane foods and a shelter even a home. But he is so rigidly principled and lacking in empathy and worldly affection that his behavior is potentially just as destructive. St.John believes that all worldly emotion and love areweaknesses of human and should be abandoned. He urges Jane to resist such temptation and do as him to be a follower of God. That is God's will. Finally, he goes to India by himself. In his last letter to Jane, he says he has a premonition of his own approaching death. He has fulfilled his promise to God and done God's work. In the end of the letter, he begs the Lord Jesus to come for him quickly. The Christian morality and Christianity in St.John is overwhelming.III. The maturity of Jane as a ChristianThe maturity of Jane's morality and Christianity is central to the novel. The three main religious figures she encounters, Helen Burns, Mr.Brocklehurst and St.John Rivers, each represents a model of religion that Jane ultimately rejects as she forms her own ideas about faith and principle. Jane quests for love and happiness not only through her own efforts, but also counts on God's guidance and support. Jane struggles to find the right balance between moral duty as a Christian and earthly pleasures, between obligation to her Christianity and attention to her body. The course of Jane's maturity on her morality and Christianity can be divided into four parts: In Gateshead Hall-- In Lowood school-- In Thornfield Hall-- In Moor House.A. Jane spends ten years in Gateshead. Little Jane possesses a sense of herself-worth and dignity, a commitment to justice and principle, a trust in God and a passionate disposition. Her cousin John Reeds treats her with appalling cruelty during their childhood. Jane feels exiled and astracized in Gateshead because no one loves her. Jane is forbidden to play as her cousins do. John chides Jane for being a lonely orphan who is only permitted to live with the Reeds because of his mother's charity. They quarrel and fight. Mrs Reed holds only Jane responsible for the scuffle, even the servants think Jane is wicked and should be punished. The servants believe Jane is not as good as them because she is penniless and naughty and she can do nothing to reward Mrs Reed's charity. In little Jane's opinion, all these are injustice. At that time Jane is not moralized. Her knowledge about the Christian morality is scarce, never mention laws of God. That is why she is not well-principled. In the early chapters, Bronte establishes the young Jane's character through her confrontations with John and Mrs Reed, in which Jane's good-hearted but strong-willed determination and integrity become apparent. Little Jane knows little about Christianity, she reads a few stories about the Christian spirit which she is interested in. When she cannot bear her aunt's accusation she cries out to defend herself to her aunt. “I am glad you are no relation of mine. I will never call you aunt again as long as I live. I will never come to visit you when I am grown up...” (Chapter 4). She does as her passionate disposition permits. Little Jane has no proper principle to abide by.B. Jane leaves Gateshead to Lowood wondering how her new life would begin. At Lowood, Helen becomes Jane's first and the best friend and she impresses Jane with her expansive knowledge and her ability to patiently endure even the cruelest treatment from Miss Scatcherd. Jane disagrees strongly with such meek tolerance of injustice. Tolerance is not Jane's doctrine. At Lowood, neither Helen nor Mr. Brocklehurst's form of religion satisfies Jane, who, because of her strong sensitivity to indignities and injustices, reviles Brocklehurst's shallow devotional displays and fails to understand Helen's passivity. Once Jane declares:“ When we are stuck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard... so as to teach the person who struck us never to do it agai n”(Chapter 6). Helen's doctrine of endurance and love is incompatible with Jane's belief in fairness and self-respect. Though she admires Helen, she cannot and will not be Helen.Maria Temple is a kind teacher at Lowood. She treats Jane and Helen with respect and compassion. She serves as one of Jane's first female role models. In Jane's opinion, she embodies all moralities Christianism advocates. She is religious, tolerant, benevolent, kindhearted and patient. Jane learns from Maria as she adjusts her own morality and Christianity accordingly. Jane spends eight years at Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher. Though there is still a long way to go to be mature, Jane has been forming her own ideas about faith and principle and their practical consequences. She just needs time and experiences.C. After teaching for two years at Lowood, Jane yearns for new experiences. She accepts a governess position at a manor called Thornfield Hall. Later, she falls in love with her employer--Mr.Rochester there. Mr.Rochester keeps his first marriage in secret and asks Jane to be his wife. Jane and Rochester's marriage is antichristian and would not be admitted by the state and the church. In Thornfield Jane's morality and faith become more and more mature. When conversing with Mr.Rochester, she talks about concepts of sin, forgiveness and redemption. She prefers forgiveness to vengeance now, for vengeance gives her a sensation as if she was poisoned, she knows. When her aunt is dying, she goes to visit her, tries to patch things up with Mrs Reed, but the old woman is still full of hostility toward her. Despite of her aunt's behavior, Jane tries once more to smooth relations with the dying woman. She is not the little Jane who cries out her anger for injustices any more. Though she ends up rejecting all Helen's, Brocklehurst's and St.John's models of religion, she does not abandon morality, spiritualism, or a belief in a Christian God. When her wedding is interrupted, she prays to God for solace; as she wanders the heath, poor and starving, she puts her survival in the hand of God. She strongly objects to Rochester's lustful immorality. She refuses to consider living with him which church and state still deem him married to another woman. Even so, Jane can barely bring herself to leave theonly love. Here, principle overwhelms passion. She credits God with helping her to escape what she knows would have been an immoral life.D. Knowing that Rochester's wife is still alive and it is impossible for her to be with Rochester, Jane leaves Thornfield. Penniless and hungry, Jane is almost sick to death. The owner of Moor House, St.John and his two sisters take her in. St.John provides another model of Christian behavior to Jane. His is a Christianity of ambition, glory and extreme self-importance. St.John urges Jane to sacrifice her emotional deeds for the fulfillment of her moral duty, offering her a way of life that would require her to be disloyal to her own self. According to Christian tradition, a good woman does not need to feel physical passion or require it in her lover. That is one reason why St.John insists Jane marrying him and be a missionary's wife. St.John believes that his words reveals God's will. To refuse his proposal is the same as to deny the Christian faith. Despite Jane's protracted attempt to integrate Christian morality harmoniously into her own life and behavior, St.John is a dangerous influence on her, because his forceful personality compels her obedience against her own internal feelings. St.John pressures Jane to ignore her feelings and submit to his powerful conception of necessary moral duty. Jane remains true to herself with great difficulty.IV. ConclusionAt last, Jane finds a comfortable middle ground. Her spirit is not hateful and oppressive like Mr.Brocklehurst's, nor does it require retreat from the everyday world as Helen's and St. John's religions do. For Jane, religion helps curb immoderate passions, and it spurs one on to worldly efforts and achievements. These achievements include full self knowledge and complete faith in God. To trust God and counts on his guidance is necessary, but to trust one's own strength and be self-respect is as important. That is a lifestyle Jane believes Christians should live up to. Jane will not let her love be the victim of religion. To believe in God and to trust one's own strength is not contradict. Humankind has their own thoughts and feelings are also God's will. They have rights to enjoy worldly pleasures. Jane ultimately becomes mature and lives a life she chooses which God permits.Bibliography⒈Bloom, Harold, ed. Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1987.⒉Charlotte Bronte, Jane eyre. The Ballantyne Press, 1927.⒊Christopher Gillie, ed. The Longman Compansion to English Literature. Longman, 1977.⒋Vicinus, Martha, ed. Suffer and be Still: Woman in the Victorian Age. Bloomington: Indiana University press, 1972.⒌(英) 安得鲁.桑德斯, 1999, 《牛津简明英国文学史》[M]. 人民文学出版社.⒍(英) 夏洛蒂.勃朗特(著), 祝庆英译, 2001, 《简爱》. 上海: 上海译文出版社.⒎王虹, 2000, 《英国文学选读与欣赏》[C]. 广州: 华南理工大学出版社.⒏张定铨, 吴刚(编著), 2002, 《新编简明英国文学史》. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社.⒐朱虹, 1997, 《英国小说的黄金时代》. 中国社会科学出版社.⒑朱卫华, 王红欣(主编), 2004, 《西方文明史概述》[C]. 中国电力出1简爱性格分析The Independent Spirit——about“ Jane Eyer”This is a story about a special and unreserved woman who has been exposed to a hostile environment b ut continuously and fearlessly struggling for her ideal life. The story can be interpreted as a symbol of t he independent spirit.It seems to me that many readers’ E nglish reading experience starts with Jane Eyer. I am of no exceptio n. As we refer to the movie “Jane Eyer”, it is not surprising to find some differences because of its bei ng filmized and retold in a new way, but the spirit of the novel remains----to be an independent person, both physically and mentally.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 ragtag. Since Jane’s education in Lowwood Orphanage began, she didn’t get what she had been expecting——simply being regarded as a common person, just the sa me as any other girl around. The suffers from being humiliated and devastated teach Jane to be perseveri ng and prize dignity over anything else.As a reward of revolting the ruthless oppression, Jane got a chan ce to be a tutor in Thornfield Garden. There she made the acquaintance of lovely Adele and that garde n’s owner, 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 a nd 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 al so a despairing person in need of salvation. Jane did want to give him a hand, however, she made up h er mind to leave, because she didn’t want to betray her own principles, because she was Jane Eyer. The film has finally got a symbolist end: Jane inherited a large number of legacies and finally returned. Aft er finding Rochester’s misfortune brought by his original mad wife, Jane chose to stay with him forever.I don’t know what others feel, but frankly speak ing, I would rather regard the section that Jane began h er teaching job in Thornfield as the film’s end----especially when I heard Jane’s words “Never in my lif e have I been awaken so happily.” For one thing, this ideal and brand-new beginning of life was what J ane had been imagining for long as a suffering person; for another, this should be what the audiences wi th my views hoped her to get. But the professional judgment of producing films reminded me to wait fo r a totally different result: There must be something wrong coming with the excellence----perhaps not onl y should another section be added to enrich the story, but also we may see from the next transition of J ane’s life that “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you would get.” (By F orrest Gum p’s mother, in the film “Forrest Gump”)What’s more, this film didn’t end when Jane left Thornfield. For Jane Eyer herself, there should always be somewhere to realize her great ideal of being independent considering her fortitude, but for Rochester, how he can get salvation? The film gives the answer tentatively: Jane eventually got back to Rochester. In fact, when Jane met Rochester for the first time, she scared his horse and made his heel strained, to a certain extent, which meant Rochester would get retrieval because of Jane. We can consider Rocheste r’s experiences as that of religion meaning. The fire by his frantic wife was the punishment for the cyni cism early in his life. After it, Rochester got the mercy of the God and the love of the woman whom h e loved. Here we can say: human nature and divinity get united perfectly in order to let such a story ac cord with the requirements of both two sides. The value of this film may be due to its efforts to explor e a new way for the development of humanism under the faith of religion.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 简爱性格分析Life is ceaselessly changing, but our living principles remain. Firmly persisting for the rights of being in dependent gives us enough confidence and courage, which is like the beacon over the capriccioso sea of life. In the world of the film, we have found the stories of ourselves, which makes us so concerned abo ut the fate of the dramatis personae.In this era of rapid social and technological change leading to increasing life complexity and psychologic al displacement, both physical and mental effects on us call for a balance. We are likely to find ourselve s bogged down in the Sargasso Sea of information overload and living un consciousness. It’s our spirit th at makes the life meaningful.二、An Analysis of Jane EyreThe novel is rich in poetry, symbolism and metaphor. It does not fit easily into a definite pattern, being neither a novel of "manners" in the tradition of Austen, or a straightforward Gothic Romance in the sty le of Mrs Radcliffe. What Charlotte Bronte did was to create a work which cleverly blends elements of the two styles, and which remains uniquely independent of them at the same time, since it addresses issu es which were at the time rather controversial.The novel is written in the first person, and thus magnifies the central character - the reader enters the world of Jane Eyre and is transported through her experiences at first hand. This at once makes the wor k subjective, especially since we know that Charlottes Brontes own life and experiences were so closely i nterwoven with the heroine's. As well as this we learn only at the end of the novel that the events are being related to us ten years after the reconciliation with Rochester - thus the narrative is RETROSPECT IVE (looking back). CB is clever in blending the narrative so that at times Jane seems to be speaking as an adult with adult hindsight , while at others she she is "in the middle" of them, as a child or young woman. The indecision which is a central issue in the book, is heightened by this device. We never kn ow, as readers, whether to be entirely trustful of Janes actions and thoughts, because we are never sure wheher she is speaking impulsively or maturely.This intensifies the readers dilemma as to what is "right" and "wrong" in the dramatic relationships whic h are part of JE's life. Can we believe what the heroine says, or is she deceiving herself? The novel is primarily a love story and a "romance" where wishes come true but only after trials and suffering. The s upernatural has its place, as do dreams, portents and prophesies. The heroine begins poor and lonely and ends up rich and loved; the orphan finds a good family to replace the wicked one; all the basic ingredi ents of classic romantic fairytale are present.The romantic element is present in two forms in Jane Eyre; the "family" aspect is dealt with in the Gate shead, Lowood and Moor House episodes, which involve the exchanging of the wicked Reed family for t he benevolent Rivers one; and the Love romance is dealt with in the Thornfield and Ferndean episodes. Both aspects are, of course linked and interwoven throughout the novel.thanks。
