毕业论文从女性主义角度浅析《简爱》中男女平等摘要女性作为社会的社会成员之一，在人类的生存繁衍中扮演着不可或缺的角色。
作为女性由于身体和心理上的差异，在历史上，一直作为依附男人而活的载体。
而在现代社会，女性已经成为能独挡一面，自立自强的载体，她们对于女性地位的追求也越来越高，于是乎，男女平等已成为现代女性的基本社会要求之一。
20世纪60年代，女权运动兴起。
随后，女性主义开始在全世界流行开来。
男女平等也成为许多作家学者研究的对象。
然而，许多学者主要针对女性主义中女性的政治权利和女性的角色理论进行研究，为女性解放运动制造舆论支持。
本文以《简爱》这部作品为研究对象，主要运用女性主义分析了简爱的职业观、爱情观和维权意识。
文章首先引用《简爱》中一些关于简爱职业、爱情及维权意识的片段，然后运用女性主义相关的理论对这些片段进行分析，从这些分析中我们可以的到对现代女性的启发。
本文在一定程度上丰富了《简爱》这部作品的理论研究，与此同时，对于女性的维权意识有一定的启发督促作用。
关键词：《简爱》；简爱；女性主义；男女平等The Analysis of Equality Between Male and Female in JaneEyre From FeminismEnglish Major（Teacher Education), 2009-1, Chen DenglingSupervisor Zhao QiuyingAbstractAs an important member part of the social community, female plays an integral role in the human’s live. Because of the different physical and psychological factors, female has been living as a carrier of man in the history. However, women have become self-empowerment and independent in the current society. Women’s pursuit of the advancement is getting higher and higher, which makes the equality between male and female become one of the female’s social requirement.In 1960s, the feminist movement is popular for a time. And then feminism has prevailed all over the world. And the concept of sexual equality has become one of the hottest topics among researchers and scholars. Many previous researches on feminism are mainly about women’s political rights and their roles, with purposes to cater to the women’s liberation movement.This thesis mainly analyzes Jane Eyre’s values of occupation, love and rights protecting on the theory of feminism, and takes Jane Eyre as the material of researching at the same time. This research just quotes some parts of Jane Eyre, which include Jane’s occupation, love and rights protecting, and then uses the feminism to analyse them. At last, we can get the enlightenment from that analysis.To some extent, this thesis not only enriches Jane Eyre’s theoretical research on the foundation of the previous researches about the book, but also inspires modern female’s awareness of protecting rights. As a student’s research, there are some limitations in this thesis, but the author hopes those enlightenment can give some inspirations to the females.Key words: Jane Eyre; Jane Eyre; feminism; equality between male and femaleContentsI. Introduction (1)1.1 Research background (1)1.2 The significance of the thesis (2)1.3 An overall structure of the thesis (2)II. Literature Review (3)2.1 A brief introduction on feminism (3)2.2 Previous research of feminism at home and abroad (3)2.3 Previous research of the equality between male and female (4)III. The Analysis about Jane Eyre’s Pursuit of Equality Between Male and Female (5)3.1 The pursuit of free occupation (5)3.1.1 Jane Eyre’s pursuit of free occupation (5)3.1.2 Enlightenment to modern female (6)3.2 The pursuit of free love (7)3.2.1 Jane Eyre’s perception of equal love (7)3.2.2 Enlightenment to modern female (7)3.3 The pursuit of equal rights (8)3.3.1 Jane Eyre’s pursuit of equal rights in her different age stages. (8)3.3.2 Enlightenment to modern female (10)IV. Conclusion (10)4.1 Major findings (10)4.2. Limitations (11)Acknowledgment (12)Bibliography (13)I. IntroductionThis part opens with the background of this research. Moreover, the theoretical and practical significance of this research is presented next, and the overall structure of the thesis is presented at the end of this part.As an important member part of the social community, female plays an integral role in the human’s live. Because of the different physical and psychological factors, female has been living as a carrier of man in the history. However, female has become self-empowerment and independent in the current society. In a word, female has the same intelligence and courage as men. Compared with men, female’s pursuit of the advancement is getting higher and higher, which makes the equality between male and female become one of the female’s social requirement. For hundred years, people have paid great attention to female’s position and their rights in the society. In 1960s, the feminist movement is popular for a time. Without a doubt, feminism has prevailed all over the world. And the concept of sexual equality has become one of the hottest topics among researchers and scholars. This thesis is going to explore the equality between female and male in light of feminism.1.1 Research backgroundJane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte (1816~1855) in 1847, has gained great popularity, and it became one of the most popular books during Victorians. It was Jane Eyre’s revolt, hating of giving in and the spirit of requiring equality that made this book distinguished from others.[1]The novel is about Jane Eyre’s life. Jane Eyre is a poor orphan, who lives with her wealthy aunt. However, her aunt and cousin are unkind to Jane, never failing to emphasize how she is below them, but Jane never gives in. When tensions escalate, Jane is sent to Lowood, a boarding school by the inhumane Mr Brocklehurst, she is soon branded a liar, but she never gives up. With the help of Miss Temple, she becomes a teacher eight years later. When Miss Temple marry and move away, Jane decides to change careers, and then she come to the Thornfield Hall as governess. During this time, she falls in love with MrRochester. As she knows that Mr Rochester is married, she is not willing to sacrifice her morals or self-respect to accept the status of mistress. Therefore, Jane flees Thornfied in the middle night. After wondering for a few days, Jane finds a safe haven, she is saved by St. John. John learns Jane’s true identity, so he insists they must be married and go to India together, but Jane refuses. At that time, Jane hears Rochester’s voice calling her in the wind, she immediately travels to Thonfield Hall, only to find it destroyed by a fire and abandoned. This also can not destroy the true love, when Jane finds Rochester, they get and live a happy life.A large number of researchers have researched on Jane Eyre for decades. From the standard search of CNKI, there are 107,000 descriptions about Jane Eyre. Many previous scholars’ researches on Jane Eyre are mainly about women’s political rights and their roles, with the major purpose to cater to the women’s liberation movement. However, this research will pay more attention to eulogize the charm of female and the equality between male and female.1.2 The significance of the thesisTheoretically, this research has enriched the theoretical research of Jane Eyre. It gives a deeper analysis of this book from Jane Eyre’s work, it will fully explore the marriage and her awareness of protecting female’s rights, which will enable readers to have better understanding and appreciation of Jane Eyre.Practically, female students belong to the modern female, who are also going to go into the society, to face life and face to marriage. From this thesis, they can gain certain enlightenment from the analysis of Jane Eyre’s pursuing in the equality between male and female. In some way, it can tell us how to protect the status and dignity of our females in the future life of work and marriage.1.3 An overall structure of the thesisThere are four parts in my research. The first part is an introduction about the background and as well as the research significance of the thesis, the second part mainly describes the literature review of this dissertation, namely feminism, the third part is a deepanalysis Jane Eyre’s pursuit of equality between male and female in her different age stages, when she was a child, she confronts her aunt’s mind, cousin’s of contempt, insults and abuse. As she grows up, young Jane Eyre hopes to own an equal opportunity as men in terms of applying her talents and creating her own success. When Jane is wandering outside, she refuses priest John’s propose because of his conception of regarding female as tools and dependency. And the last part is a conclusion of the whole passage.II. Literature ReviewThis part begins with the brief introduction of feminism, which form the theoretical base for this research. And this part discusses in terms of a study on feminism in Jane Eyre. And then it provides the general research on the feminism and the previous research of equality between male and female.2.1 A brief introduction on feminismFeminism is a primary source and motivation on female’s experience of social theory and political movement. Many feminism supporters criticize on social relationship, and they also pay attention to analyze the gender inequality. Although there are various theories and focuses on feminism, they all come to a conclusion: to achieve gender equality in all humanity.One of the most important goals of feminism is to fight for the equal value of family and social labor, and political rights equivalence. Thus it emphasizes there are not differences in intelligence and ability between male and female, that is to say, feminism emphasizes on the equity in social labor, namely, to realize equality between male and female in the work, in marriage, family, and political rights as well.2.2 Previous research of feminism at home and abroadThe history of feminism idea can date back to six century BC in ancient Greek. However, feminism began to grow up as a trend of political and social thought until eighteen century. In 1792, the Britain journalist and translator Mary Wollstonecraft[2] finished her first important feminism theory book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Andthere were more than one hundred magazines and newspapers about women’s liberation movement in America until 1997. What worth us to mention is that there are also many books about feminism theory published around the USA, for example,Betty Friedan(1963) wrote Feminine Mystique, Kate Milite(1970) wrote Sexual Politics, Shulamisi Feiersitong(1970) wrote Dialectic of Sex, etc. Moreover, feminism became an important academic research from 1990s and it is still a popular topic in the 21st century. Lijun Nie and Lan Ma[3] (2011) make the previous theories into practice in their book of A Discuss on Feminism Awareness During the Vicissitude Journey of Chinese Equality Between Men and Women.Many previous scholars’ researches on feminism are mainly about women’s political rights and their roles, with purposes to cater to the women’s liberation movement. It is a condition as Dale Spencer explain:I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people callme a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.[4] At that time, the research just displayed the pursuit for the woman’s political rights. The feminist just means the equality of political status between male and female. However, many modern scholars pay more attention to eulogize the charm of female and the equality between male and female.2.3 Previous research of the equality between male and femaleTo be equal between male and female, it is a wonderful social ideal. Since the New Civilization Movement (around the time of the May 4th Movement in 1919), a great number of researchers have studied on the equality between male and female. In 2012, Litvinova Sventlana,[5] a licentiate of Legal Science who come from the far east of Russia University, has his questionnaire research about the equality between men and women, ‘‘Report of Chinese Young Men and Women Equality--According to the questionnaire reseach’’. From his research, we can learn about the fact of Chinese young men and women. There are two antithetical ideals in litvinova Sventlana research in the process of equality between men and women. The one is respect woman's rights, and the other is the obsolete ideal of maintaining female role. But Chinese traditional culture maintains thestale ideal of female. As we all know, cultural tradition is the inherent form of thinking, it is difficult to change and the research of equality between men and women is necessary.Employing feminism as the theoretical support, the writer of this thesis takes Jane Eyre as the research object. And this thesis does research on Jane Eye’s pursuit of gende r equality in her occupation, love and her awareness of protecting rights. To some extent, this thesis not only enriches Jane Eyre’s theoretical research on the foundation of the previous researches about the book, but also inspires modern female’s awareness of protecting rights.III. Analyzing from Jane Eyre’s Pursuit of Equality Between Maleand FemaleThis part presents several parts of the content about Jane Eyre. At first, it will present the content about Jane’s free occupation pursue in Jane Eyre with the analysis, and then we can learn about the enlightenment to Modern Female. Second, it will provide the content about Free Love Pursued Jane Eyre, it uses the same research method, at last, Jane Eyre’s the pursuit of Equal Rights are researched from the content of Jane Eyre. This part used the Feminism as the theoretical basis to analyze the content of Jane Eyre. We can get the enlightenment at last. And all the materials used in analysis in the following sections are quoted from the novel Jane Eyre.[6]3.1 The pursuit of free occupation3.1.1 Jane Eyre’s pursuit of free occupationIn the early years of the Victorian age, people believes that woman’s place is at home, so women were not allowed to go to work at that time. Even some middle class women went to work, they just can work as governesses or tailor career. Furthermore, people always think that women are obedient, female who have more privilege hold the opinion that they should only do pudding, knit socks, playing the piano and embroidered purses. But Jane do not want to stay at home, she want to go to work as a man.“A new servitude! There is something in that I soliloquized (mentally, be itunderstood; I did not talk aloud).”[6]This thought always occured in Jane Eyre’s mind during her eight years in Sally Ward School, and she wanted to get away with the limitations of school’s regulations and system. Women can realize economic independen ce only by owning a career, and economic independent can protect female’s rights of equivalent.When she finally came to Sandfield as a teacher, she still insisted of pursing equality. For instance, confronting difficulties or confusion, without any cowardice, she talk to Rochester, her owner, a man with strange temper and unstable emotionally.No matter how Rochester combat her or did not like her, Jane can always maintain her dignity. As Jane Eyre said：I don't think. Sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, orbecause you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.[6]Jane Eyre looks forward to freedom and the freedom to choose occupation. Furthermore, she protects her own dignity during her occupation pursuit even if she’s treated unfair. She declaims that female as an employee can also own the equal dignity as that of male, so she works hard to realize her own value. Finally, she does a good job in her work and gains the employer’s acknowledgment, which is one form of her pursuing occupation equality.3.1.2 Enlightenment to modern femaleAs discussed in 3.1.1, Jan Eye is a female who pursues freedom and the freedom to choose her occupation. And her struggle for pursuing equality finally facilities her to a beautiful life. Thus, There are some valuable enlightenment in Jane Eyre’s occupation pursing for the modern female to study: one point is Jane’s earnest working attitude, because the working attitude is one of the effective way of achieving others’acknowledgment; and the other point is Jane Eyre’s depreciation in superiors that worth modern female to learn about. Therefore, we should be neither humble nor pushy when we are treated unfair or impolitely in order to show our female’s dignity.3.2 The pursuit of free love3.2.1 Jane Eyre’s perception of equal loveAt the early years of the Victorian age, people’s marriage is the God's decree, they could not get a divorce easily, but the rich man often have a intruder, it became a life style at that time. A lady wants to become a wife of rich man, even if the man is order than her. Living in this society, Jane also has her pursuit of equal love and marriage.“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; it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal, as we are!” [6]Jane Eyre is so natural all the time, snobbish hatchets can not cut down the inborn branches and tendrils. Finally, Rochester realizes his heart and is in love with Jane. Many readers are moved by that scene and most of them believe the two young lovers will live a prince and princess life in their future. However, Jane Eyre leaves Sandfield after someone reveals that Rochester has married, even if the two young lovers are going to marry. As a matter of fact, it is not an unusual thing for the nobles to own one or two intruders at that time in Britain. But Jane Eyre herself cares about it very much, she thinks ‘‘the more lonely I am, the less friends I have, but the more lonely I am, the more I respect myself.’’Jane Eyre can not bare herself to lower her self-esteem and personality to become man’s toys. Therefore, she chooses to leave Rochester in order to protect her own independence and dignity. In Jane Eyre’s eyes, love can only exist under the condition of freedom and equality, so she gives up her deepest love.3.2.2 Enlightenment to modern femaleAs discussed in 3.2.1 Jane Eyre shows strong hopes and desire for free love, true love, and her id greatly distinct from those who are willing to be intruders for the sake of money, fames, etc. As the finial of the novel shows us that Jane Eyre finally gets true love from Rochester without the sake of money, fames and so on.It is obvious that free and equal conception of love is worth of learning to the modern female. There are many intruders in the current society of marriage, and these women earn money, fame and fortune from men at the expense of the reputation .they are willing to be canaries despite of being locked in the gilded cage, and do you think this is the so-called love. It is obvious not, and it is just distorted values. Because their love just as a precondition of the wealthy, if this precondition is gone, the love is gone. Thus, we should take Jane Eye’s pursuit of free and true love as a good example, and then we can achieve true love and happiness.3.3 The pursuit of equal rights3.3.1 Jane Eyre pursuits equal rights in her different age stages.Jane Eyre’s personality of daring to love-hate was reflected from her childhood. When she was originally in Hyde Manor, confronting her aunt’s mind, cousin’s of contempt, insults and abuse, Jane still didn’t give in but was aware of achieving her own rights and maintaining her status. In a word, Jane Eyre’s childhood called up her rebellion which hided under her young soul. She learned to protect her own legal rights when complained by her aunt. As written in the novel:If we always let the cruel and unfair people to jump through hoops, then the bad guys may also gradually to do whatever they want to without fear. This will never change for the better but worse. Therefore, when we are beaten for no reason at all, we have to fight back. Jane Eyre was brought up under this loveless circumstance, which inspired her strong desire for love in her life.“No one knows there are so many other kinds of rebellion brewing in the world except the rebellion of political. Furthermore, people always think that women are obedient, but actually women are as the same as men in exerting their talents and hardworking. So they feel painful for the harsh detention and bond, which absolutely different from the feeling of men. However, those female who have more privilege hold the opinion that they should only do pudding, knit socks, playing the piano and embroidered purses. And this view is so selfish and reckless. If women are taunted or condemned only because they seek for more opportunities to study or to do other thingsthat jump over the scope of gender permission customs.”[6]The above-mentioned extracts are quoted from the novel Jane Eyre. It tells us that a woman in Victorian Age just was encouraged to stay at home, they just need to do some housework and try to please man, just like the man’s ornament. But some women do not want to live that life, as Alanis Morissette said: “I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament’’,[7]which quoted in Reader’Digest, March 2000. Jane is one of those women.Young Jane Eyre hopes to own an equal opportunity as men in terms of applying her talents and creating her own success rather than doing embroidered purse, playing the piano, and living as a narrow female under the doctrine of men. Although Jane can not shake the foundation of male chauvinism under the reality of imprisoning and binding, the thoughts of protecting her own equality and freedom reflected in her advocacy.After leaving Hyde Manor, Jane Eyre was taken in by priest John when she was wandering outside. John found Jane Eyre’s unusual characteristic while he talking with Jane Eyre, and he thought that Jane Eyre’s characters such as frankness, innocence, rich-passion and especially her persistence and hard working are suitable to be a wife of a priest, so he propose to Jane Eyre under the name of God’s requirement.As a matter of fact, John’s propose to Jane Eyre was under the name of religious which men is far more higher in status than women. As we can predict, Jane Eyre refuse his propose because of his conception of regarding female as tools and dependency. The reason why Jane Eyre still are not willing to surrender despite her lonely background and the pressure of religious authority is that she believe that she owns the equal rights as John in her mind, so it is impossible for her to make her mind to submit to the religious authority.To sum up, Jane Eyre pursues and maintains her equal rights with other people, especially with male in spite of her background, poor or rich and religion in her different age stages. During her childhood, she insisted to protect her rights of equality when facing her aunt’s unfair treatment. During the period of her youth, she kept and advocated the concept of gender equality as usual even if confronting the threat of male chauvinism. while out of job, Jane Eyre refused the priest’s non-love propose decisively rather thansubmit to the religious authority, and all of what Jane Eyre does is just to want her own equal love and marriage.3.3.2 Enlightenment to modern femaleDuring all Jane Eyre’s life, she never stops protecting her rights of equality, which is of great importance for our modern female to take as an example. Nowadays, we are living in a legal society and the rights of female are protected by laws. However, it is not hard to find from the television and internet that many women do not dare to use legal ways to protect their rights when they happen to be treated unfair by others, and this lead to more female’s misfortune or even disaster. Therefore, we should learn from Jane Eyre’s experience: when our legal rights are deprived by illegal people, we should use legal ways to protect ourselves and let the criminals to be punished by relating laws. Since Jane Eyre has the awareness of protecting her own rights equality as men under the threaten of male chauvinism，we modern female has no reason to follow and even surpass her.IV. ConclusionThis part sums up the results of the major findings of the research on Jane Eyre from the perspective of feminism, and the limitations will be presented at last.4.1 Major findingsAs discussed above, this thesis comes to the conclusion that Jane Eyre, as a female representative of pursuing female’s equality with male, endeavors all her life to seek and maintain her free job, free love and equal rights in her own life. The conclusion will be demonstrated in details as following:Firstly, in occupation, Jane Eyre pursues working equality and she dose not want to be limited by so many regulations; secondly, in love and marriage, she first and foremost requires the equality of social status, but fame and money could not affect her beliefs. Thirdly, Jane Eyre pursues her equal rights in her different age stages. When she was a child, she had the awareness of achieving her own rights, confronting her aunt’s mind, cousin’s contempt, insults and abuse; when she grew up, she wanted to have an opportunityas a man who can in terms of applying her own success. As she wandering outside, she also wanted to pursuit the equal love and marriage. As a whole, all Jane Eyre’s life is protecting the equality of social status as female and never giving in before the evils.As a modern female who lives in the legal society, they should always protect our rights of freedom and equality under the protection of law. Modern female should love her work and work hard as Jane Eyre, and do not give in the evils during working as well. Last but not least, we should communicate with our loving one with the form of independence and equality during dating, thus we can get the opportunity to seek for our true love.4.2. LimitationsEven if the author makes great efforts to enrich this research, in order to ensure this research become more reliable or available. But as a student research, there are several limitations in this investigation as following:Firstly, this research just quotes some parts of Jane Eyre, it just analyses some words or the thought of Jane, but there are many figures in the work. The research can not help readers know more about Jane’s another experience which are not mention in Jane Eyre.Secondly, this thesis use the feminism as the theoretical foundation, feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women, this includes seeking to estabish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. But this research just aims to the equality between men and women. So there will be many limitations in using the equality between male and female from the Perspective of feminism.Thirdly, Jane Eyre is the foreign literary works, and there are differences culture and language between china and England. There will be a gap when the author comprehends the meanings of the works.To sum up, in writing this thesis, many limitations cannot be avoided, because of the objective of time and fund, and the subjective limitation of the author's knowledge and experience further researches are needed to look into the field.AcknowledgmentI am indebted to many people who have contributed to the completion of this thesis. My sincere thanks first of all go to my supervisor, Zhao Qiuying, who, despite her being fully occupied and busily engaged in the teaching affairs, has managed to help me a lot, read through my thesis and instruct me in every detail. It is her enlightening instructions, valuable suggestions and encouragement that have helped me overcome many difficulties in writing the thesis.I am also grateful to Dong Ling, Huang Qinghua and other teachers whose course have greatly broadened my view in linguistic, literature and teaching methodology. And from their lectures I have learned a lot about how to study and how to do research. Without their instructions and rendered help, my study would never have been possible.Last but not least, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my parents for their love and support.。
