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The Bronte sisters’ school was far from success, but their literary career flourished. At a young age, many of their novels, poems and dramas showed their writing talents, leading them on the path of the novelists. Charlotte spent nearly a year on a novel, named Teacher. Emily and Anne respectively wrote the novel Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray. They sent the three novels together to publishers. Soon, the publishers replied that Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray had been accepted and printed, but Charlotte’s Teacher would be refunded. It was a big blow for Charlotte. But she did not flinch, instead she hold a breath and began to write another novel — Jane Eyre.
The publishment of Jane Eyre had innovated the British literary history. The original publisher Mr. Smith spared no effort to praise that the novel was his greatest works; the great proletarian revolutionary mentor Karl Marx also admired Charlotte’s deep revelation of British society, and listed Dickens and Thackeray and Mrs. Gaskell and Charlotte as a group of distinguished novelists of modern Britain. (Huang Jing&Li Duo, 2006:115) Charlotte was a special woman who lived in her lonesome moor all the time. Her female consciousness was an inspiration to her life. Every heroine in Charlotte’s works has a striking personality with strong self-consciousness, which also represented the writer’s strong feminist consciousness. (Huai Baozhen, 2004:216)
On June 29, 1854, 38-year-old Charlotte finally overcame the disagreement of stubborn father, and got married with a priest. Belated love brought her comfort and joy, but happiness was so short. After six months of the day, Charlotte and her husband left home to the depths of the miles of wilderness to watch the mountain stream waterfall and they came home in the rain cold. Since then, she became feeble. On March 31, 1855, unfortunately, 39-year-old Charlotte passed away with an unborn baby. (Peng Shuhuai, 2005:45)
1.2 Introduction to Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a poor orphan adopted by her late uncle’s widow — Mrs. Reed, who promised her husband to raise his niece. She lived a shameful and miserable life, suffering hatred and abuse from her cousin. Fighting with her cousin, Jane decided to escape from the insupportable oppression, with the result of being sent to Lowood, a charity school run by a religious zealot hypocrite who treated students cruelly and inhumanly. 文献综述
Jane Eyre continued to be devastated mentally and physically at the orphanage. Because of poor living conditions, the orphanage children often died. Jane’s best friend Helen also died of typhus, which ultimately made the orphanage a big improvement. Jane studied there for six years in the new environment and taught for two years at this school. With Miss Tan Boer’s leaving, Jane Eyre was tired of living in the orphanage and was advertised to seek a tutor job. The housekeeper of Thornfield manor hired her. The owner of the manor, Mr. Rochester, the guardian of a less than 10-year-old girl called Adela Valentine, often traveled outside.
One evening, Jane Eyre went for a walk and met Mr. Rochester who had just returned from abroad. Although this was the first time they had met, Jane she found that Mr. Rochester was a melancholy, moody person. The whole house was empty and gloomy, and sometimes a strange creepy laughter could be heard. One day, Jane was awakened in this laughter and found Rochester’s room on fire. Immediately, Jane waked him up and helped him put out the fire. Gradually, Jane and Mr. Rochester fell in love with each other and they decided to marry.
When the wedding ceremony was holding in the church, however, suddenly someone said: Mr. Rochester had been married 15 years ago. It was his wife, the mad woman, who had been locked in the closet on the third floor. The law hindered their love, so the two fell into deep pain. On a cold wet night, Jane Eyre decided to leave Mr. Rochester.