From Jane Eyre To Carrie And Anna:a Concise Discourse On The Growth Of Female Consciousness

The word "Feminism" refers to the faith and action for women’s equal rights and opportunities, and it may also refer to one proposal for the social transformation or the movement that sought to end the oppression of women. The past years have seen two feminist waves, during the first of which some civil rights were granted to women. The second wave, taking place in the1960s, is the women’s liberation movement, and designed to fight for equal rights with the men and against racial discriminations.The theory of feminist literary criticism originates from women’s liberation, and its goal is the changes of women’s situations and its basis the reflection upon women’s situations and their specific practice. Feminist criticism is one part of feminist evolution, making effort to interpret women writer’s works and their ideas. It is the sexual language that distinguishes feminist criticism from other schools of criticisms.Female consciousness refers to what women experience and understand when they are treated especially and solely as the female. In other words, it refers to the fact that women are able to be conscious of their sexual features, to carry on their duties, and to finish their commitments. More or less, such a consciousness finds its expressions in literary works. The current paper argues that the three heroines in Jane Eyre, Sister Carrie and The Golden Notebook are representative of different identifications of female consciousness, which are fittingly described as distinct but not divided and shown respectively by words and actions in the fore-mentioned novels. Although some research work has been done in interpreting one single heroine’s female consciousness in search of the independence and liberty, no evolutionary and progressive development in terms of female consciousness has emerged from previous research.The paper explains the heroines’ speeches and actions from three aspects, summarizes what they are sharing with and what they are differing from each other, and discourses on one whole progress with three continuous steps. Firstly, the three heroines differ from each other on their ideas about love and marriage. Jane wants to find the equal love within which no money, status nor reputation be involved. At last Jane finds the true love and gets the happiness marriage to live with her husband. Carrie wants to find the true love in her life as well, and she discards the poor feeling bravely when she finds that the two men just cheat her feeling in her life, and choose the independent life. Anna can not find the true love, so she chooses the lover constantly in order to find the love. And she has much opener mind.Secondly, the heroines hold different views on their profession. Jane knows the importance of the job, so she finds the job constantly in order to get the good of the life, Carrie finds her abilities through the play and get the best life according to the work eventually, Anna have the better life through the work.Thirdly, the heroines may be distinguished in terms of economy, money and other material or worldly affairs. Jane obtains the salary through working as a family teacher with the faith in her mind that only economic self-support can minimize the distance between herself and her lover. Carrie gets salary through playing. Anna neither loves nor hates the money. She depends on regular money to live the better life. They all know the importance of money.To summarize the above, the heroines want to find the equal, free and true love. And they need not the men’s sympathy for their feeling. They choose the job relying on their abilities in order to seek the purpose of economic independence and to get the free and independent life.