『제인에어』 에 나타난 페미니즘과 제국주의적 한계

Abstract

The novel『Jane Eyre』 is a kind of Bildungsroman in which a woman named Jane Eyre tries to reclaim autonomy while resisting the Victorian society where women were usually oppressed. In this novel, Jane was left an orphan when she was born and suffered from social and class suppression, but she managed to tide over such difficulties and grew to finally get married to Rochester. This novel suggested a new image of woman, not a traditionally passive image of woman of that time period. It could be interpreted from a feminist viewpoint, and this work has much room for positive and negative criticism simultaneously for Jane's resistance in a patriarchal society and its subsequently revealed woman's role in the situation of the time. Jane, who had been vehement in resisting undue suppression during childhood in the custody of her aunt, finally complied with traditional social value. This novel was evaluated as a revolutionary work growing out of immoral, overly deep-rooted social ideas at that time; on the other hand, this novel was reviewed as a work portraying Jane as a woman who helplessly compromised with social convention and went with its standard of value. Jane came to form her identity while resisting male-dominant ideology. However, her resistance was not just a woman's resistance, but was also based on racial discrimination by imperialistic principles. The fact that the novel 『Jane Eyre』 had to do with the imperialistic principles was portrayed through the racial and sexual discrimination revealed through Rochester's former wife, Bertha, who was locked in an attic by Rochester. The imperialist's aspects were noticeably revealed at the scene where Saint John desired to be a superior man by civilizing and dominating other races by working as a white missionary in India. Jane also revealed her imperialistic dominant desire, as seen in St. John's getting enslaved to the idea of civilizing India.