| Sense and Sensibility is the first novel written by Jane Austen; Jane Austen is one ofthe most famous writers of feminist literature in United Kingdom of late18th century andearly19th century. She has had a significant effect on the development of the women’sliterature. Jane Austen looks onto the issues which women care about, such as the youth,love, marriage, family, and so on. Although she only accomplished six novels all throughher life, she is believed to have the same place as Shakespeare in the history of theliterature of England; she was also hailed as one of the greatest writers of the world. AndSense and Sensibility is a famous one. There is so much research on the world classicliterature---Sense and Sensibility. Chinese and foreign scholars researched the workfrom Austen’s views on love and marriage, on the rational and emotional manner, on theapplication of feminism of the novel, language style and narrative techniques. As we allknow, Sense and Sensibility was directed by Li An in1995in China, and it was a greatsuccess.Jane Eyre, which was written by Charlotte Bronte, is considered as the greatestrealistic novels in the19thcentury in England. After it was published in1847, it causedsensation. To great extent, Jane Eyre is considered to be the autobiographical novelwhich was a mental course of the author. From the1980s, the discussion on Jane Eyre isback, and the criticism review Jane Eyre with the method of Marxism and feminism. Thecriticism is from many factors and the content is very wide. They are related to thecharacters in her works; women’s consciousness, love, marriage, religion, workcharacteristics, as well as the relationship between author and the novel, work of art andother works that have involved comparative studies, and so on.This thesis is a comparative analysis between the heroines in Sense and Sensibilityand Jane Eyre with the starting of feminism. And it then finds out the similarities and thedifferences, and then analyzes the reasons for the differences.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which mainly makes a brief summary of the two writers, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte, including their writing background and theirliterature works. It also introduces the research situation of these works in academiccircles in different period of time, give the general idea of feminism, and the feminismwhich appeared in the two novels, and then makes the readers know that this article willmake a comparative analysis of the heroines in the two novels from Feminism.The second part is the main body, which is made up of four chapters:Chapter One mainly introduces the definition of feminism and the development offeminism. Feminism starts from France and began to slowly spread to the UnitedKingdom and the United States and all through the world. In the late18th and early19thcentury, feminism is in the early stage of it. At that time feminism is only in the pursuit ofequality between men and women, which was the time when the two works waspublished.Chapter Two mainly analyzes the heroines in the two novels from feminism. First ofall, it analyzes the independence and resistance of Dashwood sisters: For Elder sisterElinor, she is sharp, cool and she also has a unique perspective towards everything. Shealways has a rational analysis towards things and persons around her. She has the abilityof self-recognition, she can make decisions independently and correctly, and she knowsself-respect and self-control. As to Marianne, she always changes the real life around her,her character is treasonous, and she can express her feeling audaciously. She also dares toresist the insincere social customs. When her and her families’ benefit was damaged, shedares to speak out her own thought, and she dares to stand out and protect her family.Secondly, the thesis analyzes the resistance and pursuit of freedom and equality on JaneEyre. From her childhood, she poses all the unequal things around her. She fights againstall the unequal treatment. All through her life she pursues the mental equality, economicequality and status equality.Chapter Three makes a comparative analysis of the heroines in the characters and theattitudes towards love and marriage based on the second chapter. Then it finds out thesimilarities and the differences. Firstly, the independence on Jane Eyre is much morecomplete than Dashwood sisters, because Jane Eyre can make financial equality, butDashwood sisters can’t. In pretest, Jane Eyre fights against more radically than Dashwodsisters; she not only fights against the persons and things around her and also fights against the social inequality. She not only cares about her own equal status in the society,and also concerns about the fate of the women around the world. Secondly, in theirattitudes toward love and marriage, they have the same ideas about that. The heroines allbelieve that love is the most important thing in their marriage, and they also believe thatmarriage must be based on the mutual respect and mutual understanding. Though theyare pursuit of their own love all their life, the only difference is that their pursuit of theadvancement of women for love and marriage are not consistent.Chapter Three analyzes the reason for the differences. The author dues thedifferences to the authors’ social backgrounds, family backgrounds and the personalities.Charlotte Bronte was born later than Jane Austen, so she has much mature ideas aboutfeminist. Thus we can say that to Jane Austen’s feminist consciousness, Charlotte Brontehas improved a lot. Their awareness and understanding of women’s position is not thesame; moreover, their living environments as well as the family members’ attitudes to lifeare also not the same!The last part is conclusion. Dashwood sisters and Jane Eyre reflect the socialrealities, women’s position and women’s female consciousness in the certain period theircreators were in to some extent．The comparison presents the improvement of women’sposition and women’s female consciousness with the passage of time. Also in the future,we must learn from them and make our marriage happy and comfortable. We mustbelieve that women must have an attitude that love is the most important factor inmarriage, and also love and marriage must be restricted by sense. And also love must bebased on the equality of the spirit; it can’t depend on the social status, fortune, and theappearance. This is the right and reasonable attitude towards love and marriage. |
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