『제인에어』(Jane Eyre): 새로운 여성상의 창조 = Jane Eyre: The Creation of a New Type of Heroine

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this article, I try to think of both the achievements and the limitations of Jane Eyre, a new type of heroine from the feminist point of view. After a brief survey of the Victorian view of women, I analyse what Jane is different from the other traditional stereotypes of heroines, that is, what are the new and revolutionary things about Jane: 1) Jane who is not a beauty, but a plain woman, becomes a heroine, and who shows the desire of self-achievement through her resistant and independent spirit, 2) Her relation to Edward Rochester in which she speaks of the feminist thinking, and 3) Her decision to leave Rochester not to be his mistress which is the most controversial among critics. Then I consider about 4) Jane’s marriage to Rochester that poses several problems, though it is described as a “perfect concord”by Bronte: whether Jane achieves her strong desire of self-achievement, whether Rochester, as Jane’s spouse, is a convincing character, and whether the many coincidences, such as Jane’s inheritance from her uncle which makes Jane ascend in social and economic status, and Rochester’s use of supernatural telepathy, are truly convincing.
Thus Jane, a plain heroine who wants self-achievement, opens the way to a new type of heroine through her feminist sayings and actions. In this sense, this is a pioneer work of feminism posing women’s question such as women’s self-achievement in the Victorian early period.