On Charlotte Bronte’s Feeling Of Inferiority And Her Literary Creation

Since the publication of Jane Eyre in1847, the connection between Charlotte Bronte’s personal life and her literary creation has become a debatable topic among Bronte critics. While critics tend to associate Bronte with the image of a new Victorian woman of independence, self-esteem and self-reliance, few have noticed Bronte’s feelings of inferiority over her lack of beauty and its connection to her literary creation. Mainly based on Alfred Adler’s theories on individual psychology, this thesis is going to explore Bronte’s desperate feeling of inferiority over her lack of beauty and its connection to her literary creation. However, psychology or physiology alone would not be sufficient to account for Bronte’s feeling of inferiority over her lack of beauty, as the Victorian cultures also have a role to play. Therefore, this thesis will cover several parts of the Victorian cultures, such as Victorians’standard for beauty, Victorians’loss of faith in religions and Victorian women’s dependence on men, in order to gain an insight into Bronte’s feeling of inferiority.Close reading would be the primary methodology adopted in this thesis, and Jane Erye, Villette and The Professor would be the main text books analyzed in this thesis. This thesis attempts to address Bronte’s feeling of inferiority and her literary creation from psychological, physiological and cultural perspectives. Psychologically, Bronte has a constant feeling of inferiority over her physical plainness. Physiologically, Bronte is obsessive about her own and others’appearance, whether it is physical plainness or physical attractiveness. Culturally, Victorian cultures have played an essential role in Bronte’s feeling of inferiority.On the whole, Bronte’s physical plainness has greatly contributed to her feeling of inferiority, which in turn has greatly influenced her literary creation. Bronte’s feeling of inferiority is not only a psychological or psychological issue, but also a cultural one.