Study On Thematic Structure In Jane Eyre

Mainly based on the textual metafucntion theory in systemic functional grammar, this study attempts to explore the relationship between the hero and the heroine, through the analyses of the dialogues in Jane Eyre.In this study, the conflated Theme is realized by the first person pronouns as well as the first person-concerned elements,and the second person pronouns as well as the second person-concerned elements. These elements mainly involve two language functions:the interpersonal and the experiential function.The study makes findings from two aspects:(1)interpersonally, the Themes in both the hero and the heroine's words all involve the emotional factors. The analyses of these interpersonal meanings display the development of Jane's emotions for Rochester and Rochester's emotions for Jane.The changes of the interpersonal meanings disclose the progression of their relationship. (2) experientially, the Themes in both the hero and the heroine's words all include the concernedness of each person. The I-concerned Theme shows the speaker only considers from his or her stance, while the you-concerned Theme reveals their consideration from the counterpart's viewpoint. The more attention the speaker pays to the opposite, the more emotional he or she becomes to the opposite.The analyses demonstrate that both the hero and the heroine keep the you-concerned Theme at a consistent proportion. The fluctuation of the you-concerned Theme implies there is something wrong in their relationship. After getting rid of the obstacles, their relationship improves greatly.The significance of the study lies in that it adopts the conflated Theme to analyze the mutual relationship between the hero and the heroine in novel.Furthermore, the study develops the Hallidayan interpersonal meaning to that in the conflated Theme, and uses this kind of interpersonal meaning to do the research. From this point, it will lead to more and further studies on the analyses of the plot in novel.