A Study On The "Women’s Captivity" In Pamela And Jane Eyre

Women in western literary works, no matter they were queens and princesses, or maids and slaves, had no power and liberty to live their own lives. To some extent, all female images in western literary history were labeled a same identity tag, that is they were female prisoner. In fact, the origin of women’s captivity in literature is the life experience of women in real society. And many other related literary subjects caused by women’s captivity, such as women’s autism, cattiness, madness and vengeance, were also rooted in women’s experience in real society. Although women’s captivity is so common in literature, many researches about women didn’t concern it. On the other hand, some phenomenal subjects about women, like which are mentioned above, were focused by many studies. After the rise of feminism, Medea and Clytemnestra’s revenge and Bertha Mason’s madness made up the most of literature research about women. Compared with the phenomenal subjects, women’s captivity was more ordinary and fundamental, and can explain female issue in essence.Pamela and Jane Eyre are two English novels featuring female character, Pamela was took as a model of women in18century because she abided strictly by women’s virtue, and Jane Eyre was seemed as spokesperson of feminism in19century as her rebellion. Whether gentlewomen like Pamela or rebellious women like Jane, they both didn’t got rid of the destiny of women’s captivity, and the different life experiences and perceptions of female self of the two protagonist reflect the experience of women and gender power mechanism in different sides in that time, which is important to understand the two works and the female protagonists.Therefore, this thesis, which is based on the description of "women’s captivity" theme, tries to analyze the significance of the theme in constructing female identity and consciousness in the two works. The thesis adopts two main methods which are the Thematic Study of Comparative Literature and Feminist Criticism, combining with the historical, social and cultural study, trying to analyze the development and evolution of the women’s captivity subject in English literature from the middle of the18th century to the middle of the19th century, and attempting to describe the different mode of gender power mechanism and it’s influence on the construction of female identity and women fate in different period, and finally trying to make a new interpretation and understanding of the two classic works in the context above.