Walking Invisible

In the Victorian era,due to the development of Industrial Revolution,women began to enter the public sphere occupied by men.They wanted to appeal to the same rights as males,but could not be free from the influence of the patriarchal ideology of this era.Therefore,they were constantly involved in the dilemma of rebellion and obedience.Charlotte Bront(?) also lives in such a dilemma.Thus,in order to release her passion out and express her pursuit under the patriarchal culture,she has to “walk invisible” through writing by creating female figures who bravely rebel while they have to suppress their passion so that Charlotte can implicitly express her ambiguous passionate self and attitude to women’s passion.This is most vividly reflected in her first semi-autobiographical novel — Jane Eyre.The heroine,Jane Eyre,escapes and rebels the symbolic order at the same time she enters and is reconciled to the symbolic order,from the beginning to the ending of her spiritual journey,which exactly reflects the struggle of women in order to survive under the symbolic order.This thesis aims to explore Charlotte Bront(?)’s ambiguous attitude towards women’s passion by combing the letters of Charlotte Bront(?) with the biographies and employing close reading and feminism,symbolism and psychological analysis.Finally,this thesis reveals that Charlotte Bront(?) has both positive and negative attitudes toward women’s passion by analyzing from five aspects: the ambiguity of Charlotte Bront(?)’spassionate life,the presentation of Jane’s passion,the naming of influential characters and Jane’s five dwelling places,other characters’ attitudes toward Jane’s passion,Jane’s split self and three important related images.Further,Charlotte’s ambiguity reflected in Jane Eyre contributes to reveal the difficult predicament of women’s passionate self and the self-sacrifice they have to make in order to survive under male dominance and discourse.