7.3 Jane Eyre: A Guidebook Enjoyed by Modern Women 11

8. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction  

During the 19th century, female status was lower than male in Britain. Women relied on men in every respect. At that time, the women had no chance to get the same education with men. Marriage and family life were the whole world to women. With the arrival of the 19th century, the western industrial civilization developed rapidly which made the feudal ideality lose its shackles on the spirit of people. In this social context, women began to awake and demand the equal status as men in the every aspect of life. However , influenced by the idea of enlightenment and human rights regularly, some feminists began to pursue the liberty of inpiduality and the equality of human rights for women. The first time of Feminist Movement arose in French in the mid 19th century, and then spread to England and America. In Jane’s time, it was very beginning of the phase of the Feminist Movement. The Movement can be pided into three phase: the first phase was from the mid 19th century to 1920s, the second phase was from 1920s to 1970s, and the third was after 1980s. The feminism had not a systematic theory, the aim of the Movement was to have legal rights for female.

Jane Eyre is one of the hottest novels that have been researched and analyzed from different perspectives with different literary and art criticism. But up to now, many studies and researches at home and abroad still focus on this work. Feminism has attracted my attention. On the other hand, few have explore and appreciate the spirits of feminism reflected in Jane Eyre.  

Through the paper, I want to know the reflection of social realities in the literary works and women’s position in a certain period of history and the improvement of women’s position with the passage of time. And the same time , the author of the paper hope that findings the paper can send out some good example of the females on the present and into the future. 

2. Literature Review

Literature Review is pided into two major parts. One part will focus on definition of feminism. The other parts related to the review on the previous studies and researches of this novel.

The concept of “feminism” aroused several centuries ago. Defining feminism can be really a challenging task. A board understanding of it includes the acting, speaking, writing, and advocating on behalf of women’s issues and rights and identifying injustice to females in social status quo. The feminism definition is quoted from the Wikipedia. Feminism is defined as a political movement and social theory in the encyclopedia on line. It provides a critique of gender inequality . And It promotes women’s issues, interest and right. It keeps a watching eye on the injustice to women especially compared with men by morality, society, law and so on. The feminist theorists intend to comprehend the nature of inequality and concentrate on sexuality, power relations and gender politics as the goal. Feminist political activists advocate for political, social and economic equality between men and women. when we discuss the feminist criticism with them , we have to talk the word “feminism”. From the New Encyclopedia Britannica, “feminism”, also called “feminist movement” or “women’s liberation movement”. It refers to the women movement that seeks equal rights between man and women. Women will decide their own careers and life. Women will have equal status with men. Women will decide their own careers and life. It promotes the equality between the two genders forcefully permeating to every aspect. Feminist analysis is to explore the possibilities of using language as an import means for reaching feminist political agenda. They share a confidence in the power language to help liberate women from oppressive circumstances and identities .文献综述