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1 Introduction

In the literary development of the Victorian era in 19th-century Britain, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre has always been a landmark work with milestone significance in the history of British female literature. Born in an era when male discourse held absolute discursive power, this novel takes the life growth and spiritual struggle of the orphan girl Jane Eyre as the main narrative line. It completely breaks the stereotyped dual female characterization in the British literary world at that time, namely the “docile and virtuous Angel in the House” and the “unruly and rebellious fallen temptress”. Furthermore, with a full female first-person internal focalization, it truly and profoundly presents the lifelong pursuit of individual dignity, independent personality and equal rights by ordinary women. Also, it provides a classic text with great reference value for later female literary creation and feminist criticism.

Since its publication in 1847, Jane Eyre has always been a core hot topic in the field of foreign literature research in Chinese and foreign academic circles for nearly two centuries. Western academic research on this work has roughly gone through three core stages: in the early stage, after its publication, critics mostly focused on the authenticity of the novel’s first-person narrative, the controversy over the moral stance of the text and its literary expression, and the discussion of the female subjectivity contained in it was scattered and unsystematic. In the mid-20th century, with the rise of Western feminist movements and the systematic development of feminist literary theory, Jane Eyre became a core model for feminist literary criticism. While Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex provided the philosophical foundation for understanding the social construction of womanhood (De Beauvoir, 1998), it was later critics like Elaine Showalter who systematically established Jane Eyre as a core model for feminist literary criticism. Showalter included it in the core genealogy of British female literature in A Literature of Their Own, establishing the pivotal position of the work in the history of female literary development (Showalter, 2016). Since then, different schools, including radical feminism, psychoanalytic feminism and Marxist feminism, have interpreted the work from their respective theoretical perspectives, either focusing on the marginal female image of Bertha Mason (Zou, 2020) or analyzing the dual oppression of class and gender in the text, which greatly broadened the interpretive boundary of the work. However, most of these studies take the theory of a single school as the entry point, and rarely conduct a full-chain and systematic sorting of the complete process of Jane Eyre’s construction of female subjectivity.

Domestic research on Jane Eyre began with the translation and introduction of the work in the Republic of China period, and studies after the founding of the People’s Republic of China mostly focused on the protagonist’s rebellious spirit and the class criticism of the work. After the 1980s, with the introduction of Western feminist literary theory into China, the academic circle began to re-interpret this classic from a feminist perspective, and a large number of relevant research results emerged. A review of relevant results published in journals such as English Square, Masterpieces Review and Foreign Literature Studies in recent years shows that the existing domestic feminist interpretations of Jane Eyre still have obvious research limitations (Zhang, 2021; Wang, 2017). Most studies remain at the superficial analysis of the protagonist’s rebellious behavior, or only unilaterally deconstruct the awareness of equality in her view of love, failing to form a deep logical correspondence between Jane Eyre’s complete life growth experience in Gateshead Hall, Lowood School, Thornfield Hall and Marsh End and the core theories of feminist literary theory. At the same time, existing studies mostly focus on the one-dimensional interpretation of character images, failing to put the text back into the social and historical context of Victorian patriarchy for contextualized interpretation, nor do they systematically clarify the complete progressive path of the protagonist’s female subjectivity from germination to rational maturity (Zhang, 2021). A holistic, systematic, analytical framework for feminist criticism on Jane Eyre has not yet been formed.

Based on the achievements and deficiencies of existing domestic and foreign research, this paper takes the three core critical dimensions in Western feminist literary theory as the theoretical fulcrum, namely the critique of structural patriarchal oppression, the construction of female subjectivity, and the decoding of the gender politics of the text (Cai, 2013; Chen, 2011; Li, 2005), and carries out systematic research by putting the text back into the social and historical scene of patriarchal society in the Victorian era of the 19th century. The core purposes of this study are as follows: first, to jump out of the limitations of one-dimensional and fragmented interpretation in existing research, completely restore and deeply analyze the construction logic and growth context of Jane Eyre’s female subjectivity, and clarify the complete progressive path of her female subjectivity from germination to maturity; second, to deeply explore the feminist ideological core of the work rooted in the era, break the stereotyped cognition of the work only as a “cross-class romantic love legend”, and redefine its milestone value in the history of British female literature; third, to build a more holistic and systematic analytical framework for feminist research on Jane Eyre, meanwhile re-examine the contemporary enlightenment of the work across time and space, so as to provide new theoretical reference and analytical path for subsequent relevant research.

In terms of research methods and analytical means, this paper mainly adopts four research approaches. First, the method of close reading: taking the full text of Jane Eyre as the core research object, it conducts in-depth close reading of the narrative details, plot settings, symbolic images and character dialogues in the four core spaces of the protagonist’s growth process, to decode the gender political codes embedded in the deep layer of the text. Second, theoretical analysis: anchoring the three core critical dimensions of feminist literary theory as the theoretical framework, it realizes the deep mutual interpretation between literary text and theoretical system, so that theoretical analysis always fits the text narrative and avoids empty theoretical deduction divorced from the text. Third, historical context analysis: combining the text with the legal system, gender norms and living conditions of middle-class women in the Victorian era of the 19th century, it conducts a contextualized interpretation of Jane Eyre’s rebellious behavior and awakening of consciousness. It restores the historical scene of the work’s birth. Fourth, literature research method: it systematically sorts out the relevant research literature on Jane Eyre at home and abroad in the past two centuries, clarifies the evolution context, core achievements and existing gaps in academic research and defines the research positioning and innovation direction of this paper.

Through systematic analysis and research, this paper finally draws the following core conclusions. First, Jane Eyre’s construction of female subjectivity follows a complete progressive path from instinctive resistance to rational awakening, from passively enduring discipline to actively constructing herself. Every choice in her growth process is a rebellion and a breakthrough against the patriarchal gender order. Second, the enduring classical value of Jane Eyre lies not only in shaping a female image who dares to face and resist patriarchal oppression, but also in completing the systematic construction of female subjectivity through the protagonist’s complete character arc, which completely breaks through the shackles of the rigid dual narrative of women in the Victorian era. Finally, the work’s core adherence to women’s economic and spiritual independence, as well as its in-depth discussion of personality equality in intimate relationships, still has cross-era practical significance to this day, and can provide continuous spiritual reference for contemporary women’s self-realization and subject construction.

2 Theoretical Anchor: The Adaptation Logic Between Feminist Literary Theory and the Interpretation of Jane Eyre

In the academic context of feminist literary criticism, Western feminist literary theory has never been a static, rigid and single theoretical system. Instead, it has been continuously iterated and developed along with the practical advancement of feminist movements. Through the theoretical construction and academic debates of core schools, including liberal feminism, radical feminism and psychoanalytic feminism, it has gradually formed a diverse and open critical pattern. Although the theoretical entry points and critical paths of different schools vary, they always share the core problem domain of “the root causes and solutions of gender inequality”, and have precipitated three core critical dimensions that run through the long-term theoretical evolution. This paper takes these three dimensions as the core analytical framework to carry out a close reading and a theoretical interpretation of Jane Eyre.

2.1 Exposing Patriarchal Culture: The Core Root of Gender Oppression

The core starting point of feminist literary criticism is essentially to expose patriarchal culture, the root of gender oppression. In the social structure dominated by patriarchy at that time, male groups firmly monopolized the core power of the economy, politics and law. Further, they infiltrated the logic of androcentrism into the social fabric through soft cultural institutions such as language, education, religion, literature and art, turning it into the default and self-evident “common sense” of the whole society. Thus, a pervasive and nested system of female repression was built. Based on the “ideology of separate spheres”, this system firmly imprisoned women within the scope of the private domestic sphere, delimited a single rigid social role of “virtuous wife and loving mother” for them and packaged traits such as obedience, humility and self-sacrifice into the “exclusive virtues” that women must abide by. Ultimately, it eliminated women’s rights and the possibility of surviving and developing independently from the root.

The classic assertion put forward by Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex has long pierced the constructive nature of gender identity: women’s social positioning and lifelong role discipline are never the inevitable result of innate physiological differences, but the product of long-term and systematic shaping by patriarchal culture (De Beauvoir, 1998). This continuous cultural discipline eventually made women gradually accept their status as the Other relative to men, and internalized the external constraints of patriarchy into strict self-requirements. This is the universal survival dilemma that women in the Victorian era could not break free from, and it is also the core shackle that the protagonist in Jane Eyre has been struggling against with individual strength from childhood to adulthood.

2.2 Constructing Female Subjectivity: The Core Demand of Feminist Literary Theory

After fundamentally exposing the oppressive nature of patriarchal culture, the construction of female subjectivity has become the core theoretical demand of feminist literary theory. Also, it constitutes the core ideological foundation for women to resist gender oppression and realize their own liberation. In traditional androcentric narrative tradition, female images have always been imprisoned in the object position of “being watched, defined and written”. They are either the projection object and carrier of male desire, or the functional foil and reference for male growth narratives. They almost have no independent thoughts, wills and emotional demands independent of men and can never break through the identity cage of the Other (Cai, 2013). The core theoretical mission of feminist literary theory is precisely to break this century-old closed loop of objectified narrative and to rediscover, confirm and construct women’s subject identity in the close reading and interpretation of literary texts. It truly focuses on women’s unique life experience, emotional logic and value pursuit, firmly affirms women’s independent intrinsic value without attachment to men and strives to explore the realistic and spiritual paths for women to complete self-definition, independent choice and self-realization in the airtight patriarchal structure. This adherence to and emphasis on female subjectivity is never just a perspective shift in the field of literary criticism, but a fundamental confirmation of women’s independent personality and subject rights at the ideological level. This is also the core spiritual thread that runs through the entire work of Jane Eyre and prompts the protagonist to complete her growth and transformation. Domestic scholar Li Yinhe also clearly pointed out in her feminist theoretical system that the core goal of feminism is to break the objectified definition of women by patriarchy, and complete the self-construction and value confirmation of women’s subject identity (Li, 2005).

2.3 Decoding the Gender Politics of the Text: The Core Path of Literary Criticism

After exposing the essence of patriarchal culture and establishing the core demand of female subjectivity construction, feminist literary theory further extends its critical tentacles to the internal texture of literary production. It puts forward a highly subversive view of textual politics: literary texts are by no means value-neutral, purely aesthetic carriers divorced from the real power structure, but always carry specific gender power games, and are the core field where the patriarchal gender order completes cultural reproduction. From this perspective, every narrative strategy choice, character image shaping, plot logic setting and symbolic image arrangement in the text may be embedded with hidden gender political codes. They may either strengthen and solidify the established gender norms of patriarchy through stereotyped and instrumentalized writing of female images, or form an impact and challenge to the existing gender order through women’s resistance narratives and subject expression.

On the basis of this core cognition, the decoding and disenchantment of the deep-seated gender power relations in the text have become the core mission of feminist literary criticism: it is necessary to systematically expose the distortion, dwarfing and repression of female images in traditional androcentric literature, and criticize the underlying narrative logic behind them to consolidate male hegemony; it is also necessary to deeply explore the resistance and subversion power against the patriarchal gender order hidden in women’s writing, and fully affirm the expression and exploration of women’s independent subjectivity in the text (Wang, 2017). This critical method, combining close reading and power decoding, provides a complete and operable analytical path for us to deeply interpret the protagonist’s consistent resistance behavior and analyze her breakthrough and challenge to the strict gender norms of the Victorian era. In her systematic sorting and research on Western feminist literary criticism theory, Chen Xiaolan further clarified the core logic and critical paradigm of decoding the gender politics of the text, providing a complete theoretical reference and analytical framework for the localized feminist interpretation of literary works (Chen, 2011).

3 Contextual Shackles: Women’s Survival Predicament Under Victorian Patriarchy

The narrative of Jane Eyre is closely linked to the Victorian era of the 19th century, a historical node when the patriarchal power structure and gender order in Britain reached their peak after the Industrial Revolution. At that time, the access rules in law, the private property system and the public sphere in Britain were deeply bound with the gender moral discipline practiced by the whole society, which together constructed a set of interlocking and seamless gender oppression system. Whether it was the complete loss of women’s property and marriage autonomy at the legal level, or the comprehensive squeeze on women’s public activity space at the social level, all ultimately pointed to the identity imprisonment of women. Especially for middle-class women without property and class protection, they were firmly locked in the stereotyped gender paradigm of the Angel in the House. They were always trapped in the dual shackles of deprived survival rights and dissolved subjectivity.

Jane Eyre’s entire growth process, from her childhood at Gateshead Hall, her adolescence at Lowood School, to her adulthood at Thornfield Hall, is essentially a vivid microcosm of the structural patriarchal oppression suffered by middle-class women in the Victorian era. This oppression is not an isolated event or conflict. Still, a continuous discipline running through the three core stages of the protagonist’s life, which fully demonstrates the pervasive control and suppression of women by patriarchy.

3.1 Gateshead Hall: Patriarchal Discipline and Instinctive Resistance in the Domestic Sphere

Gateshead Hall is the first space of Jane Eyre’s growth narrative, the first head-on confrontation between her and the patriarchal family order, and also the initial field where her female subjectivity germinates. As a foster orphan who lost parental protection, had no property and no right to speak in kinship, Jane Eyre was placed on the double margins of this patriarchal family from the moment she entered the Reed family: she was neither an heir to the family blood, nor met the patriarchal gender expectation of docility and obedience for women, and was excluded from the emotional connection and order rules of the family from the root. Here, she not only had to endure the unbridled physical violence, verbal insult and power bullying from John Reed, the male heir, for a long time, but also faced the cold discipline, biased suppression and moral stigmatization from Mrs. Reed, the representative of patriarchal allies. She was repeatedly labeled as “bad-tempered”, “lying” and “ungrateful”, and portrayed as the “alien” and “troublemaker” of the whole family, so as to rationalize all unfair treatment to her.

The Red Room incident is the ultimate presentation of patriarchal discipline within this family, and also Jane Eyre’s first head-on resistance to the patriarchal order in her life. Jane Eyre was forcibly locked in the Red Room for resisting her cousin’s violence. Her cry in loneliness and near-death fear did not shake the power order of the family, but was regarded as a provocation to male authority and a deviation from patriarchal norms, labeled as “rebellious” and “crazy”, and finally ushered in harsher punishment. This plot is the most representative spatial metaphor in the whole novel: the Red Room is not only the symbolic space of Mr. Reed, the original male power of the family, but also a disciplinary cage of physical and spiritual dimensions. It declares the core rules of the patriarchal family in the most intuitive way: in the family structure with male power as the absolute core, marginal women have no right to resist, no qualification to express emotions, and no room to defend their personal dignity. The only allowed way of survival is to unconditionally obey the established subordinate status (Zou, 2020). The experience at Gateshead Hall did not soften Jane Eyre’s resolve. On the contrary, it made her deeply recognize the systematic injustice of patriarchal society against women in the earliest stage of her life and planted the initial seed of resisting discipline, adhering to herself and defending the equality of personality in her spiritual core.

3.2 Lowood School: Institutional Discipline and Rational Cognition of Public System

Following the patriarchal oppression in the private domestic sphere of Gateshead Hall, Lowood School constitutes the second core disciplinary space in Jane Eyre’s growth narrative. Also, it makes her face the systematic and institutional discipline imposed on women by patriarchy through social public systems for the first time. This boarding girls’ school, under the banner of “charity education,” is by no means the “place of female enlightenment” advertised in the Victorian era. Its essence is a female disciplinary machine with patriarchal gender norms as the core and religion as a cover. Its core goal is never to provide knowledge, empowerment and upward channels for middle-class women, but to mass-produce reserves of the Angel in the House who are docile and uncompetitive and meet the expectations of patriarchal society.

3.2.1 Physical Discipline

Physical discipline at Lowood School is the primary means of patriarchal domestication, which centers on the extreme control of the female body. The girls are in bitter cold for a long time with insufficient food rations, and their shabby clothes cannot resist the cold, making their bodies suffer from long-term hunger, cold and illness. This systematic physical control is not an accidental omission of school running conditions, but a deliberate disciplinary strategy of patriarchy: by erasing the girls’ physical perception and making their bodies in a state of extreme weakness, patriarchy eliminates the physiological basis of women’s resistance, and paves the necessary physical foundation for the subsequent spiritual domestication of female students.

3.2.2 Spiritual Domestication

On the basis of physical discipline, Lowood School constructs a comprehensive spiritual domestication system that shrouds the whole campus in the name of religion, whose core goal is to completely imprison women’s thoughts and shape them into docile subjects in line with patriarchal expectations. The school packages absolute obedience, humility and forbearance, and unconditional self-sacrifice into religious virtues and moral codes that women must abide by, and characterizes any expression of individuality, emotional expression, and resistance to injustice as “original sin” and “moral corruption”. Mr. Brocklehurst, the concrete embodiment of patriarchal power, publicly humiliates Jane Eyre, labels her a “liar,” and orders all students to isolate her. This public disciplinary ceremony is to strengthen the spiritual domestication effect, declare the unshakable nature of patriarchal rules to all girls, and try to erase the rebellious spirit in Jane Eyre’s bones and integrate her into the docile female framework preset by patriarchy.

3.3 Thornfield Hall: Implicit Discipline Intertwined with Gender and Class and Cognitive Upgrading

After experiencing the family discipline at Gateshead Hall and the institutional discipline at Lowood School, Jane Eyre left Lowood with the yearning for independence and freedom, and stepped into Thornfield Hall as a governess. She thought that she had finally broken free from the direct discipline of patriarchy with her knowledge and gained the dignity and possibility of independent living. Still, she did not realize that she had entered a more hidden and core disciplinary field of the patriarchal gender order, trapped in the inherent power imbalance dilemma under the dual shackles of gender and class.

In the British social structure of the Victorian era in the 19th century, the governess was a paradoxical profession in the cracks. It was the only way for educated middle-class women to obtain a legitimate income with their own knowledge and avoid being reduced to servants at the bottom. Still, it was framed by the patriarchal gender and class order from its birth. Although such women had far higher cultural accomplishments, moral standards and knowledge reserves than servants and were entrusted with the responsibility of educating the employer’s children, they could never break through the identity shackles of “employees”, had to survive attached to the employer’s family and had no independent economic status and public discourse space. They were required to have a decent upbringing, complete knowledge and noble character in line with middle-class standards. Still, they could never truly integrate into the upper class of the employer, nor obtain the same personality respect and right protection as men, always suspended in the cracks of class and gender.

The spatial attribute of Thornfield Hall itself replicates the power structure of Victorian patriarchy: Rochester, as the owner of the manor and the male heir, is the absolute power core in this space, holding the unquestionable economic hegemony and discourse dominance; while Jane Eyre, as an employed governess, is placed in the lower position of the power structure from the moment she steps into the manor. The emotional relationship between the two is accompanied by this inherent power imbalance from the very beginning of its germination. Rochester’s initial attention and appreciation for Jane Eyre are always wrapped in the scrutiny, control and play of androcentrism: he calls Jane Eyre an “elf” and a “little witch” to dispel loneliness condescendingly, tests her emotions with layers of dramas such as pretending to be a gypsy witch and deliberately showing his intimacy with Miss Ingram, and always tries to dominate the rhythm and direction of this relationship with his own will. In the early stage of this relationship, Rochester never really put Jane Eyre in an equal position with himself. Jane Eyre in his eyes was just a spiritual accessory that could bring him freshness, could be disciplined and controlled, rather than a female subject with independent thoughts, complete personality and equal rights.

This power imbalance in individual relationships is by no means an isolated emotional problem, but a microcosm of the collective survival dilemma of women under Victorian patriarchy. In the legal and social rules at that time, once a woman got married, she would lose all property rights and independent personality and become an accessory of her husband; even if she chose to remain unmarried and make a living by occupation, women could hardly get the same income, social status and development space as men. Even a governess with independent consciousness and professional ability would still be attached to a male employer in the end. She could never get rid of the subordinate fate of the Other, as mentioned by Beauvoir.

The experience at Thornfield Hall is a key node for the cognitive awakening of Jane Eyre’s female subjectivity. She finally soberly touched the core logic of the patriarchal gender order: economic independence is the cornerstone of women’s personality independence. Without economic ability, free from attachment to men, and possessing an undisciplined, independent personality, women can never obtain real equality and respect.

4 The Path to Break the Situation: The Awakening of Jane Eyre’s Female Subjectivity and Her Practice of Resistance

Faced with the whole chain of oppression network built by patriarchy from private family to public system, from physical control to spiritual domestication, Jane Eyre never succumbed to the subordinate fate designated for women by patriarchy. She never gave up her adherence to personality equality, spiritual independence and individual dignity. From the instinctive counterattack against male violence and bullying in Gateshead Hall, to the sober persistence against institutional spiritual discipline in Lowood School; from the resolute departure to defend the complete and independent personality in Thornfield Hall, to the precipitation and confirmation of her economic ability and spiritual value in Marsh End, her female subjectivity completed a complete transformation from ignorant germination to sober maturity, from instinctive resistance to rational and systematic construction of subjectivity. The layers of patriarchal discipline neither subdued her nor made her abandon her bottom line in the temptation of romantic emotion. Finally, in the airtight patriarchal gender order, she completed the construction of female subjectivity. She walked out of a path to break the situation of women’s liberation with an independent personality as the core and equality as the background.

4.1 Instinctive Resistance: Defense of Dignity and Germination of Consciousness at Gateshead Hall

Jane Eyre’s construction of female subjectivity began with the instinctive defense of individual dignity. Although this resistance starting from Gateshead Hall was spontaneous and simple like a child, it had already touched the core rules of the patriarchal gender order. It became her first step to break the shackles of discipline. In the micro field of the patriarchal family of Gateshead Hall, Jane Eyre was in the double marginal position of “orphan + female” from the very beginning. The gender norms of “docility, forbearance and obedience” designated for women by patriarchy were exactly the core tool used by this family to discipline her.

Faced with the violent bullying from her cousin John, the concrete embodiment of the family’s male inheritance right, she did not choose to endure silently as expected by the patriarchy. Still, she rose to fight back, bluntly calling the other party a “wicked and cruel boy” and completing the first head-on challenge to male violent authority. Faced with the unfair suppression from Mrs. Reed, the representative of patriarchal allies, she dared to tear off the hypocritical mask of the other party as a “charitable guardian”, complained about all the harsh treatment she suffered, and resolutely declared a break with this unfair order. Although this childhood resistance did not form a systematic feminist thought, it had highlighted her instinctive desire for equality and respect: she refused to accept the inherent injustice brought by gender and identity. She was unwilling to exchange living space at the cost of giving up her personality dignity. Even in an absolutely isolated, desperate situation, she had to speak for her subject rights. The desperate cry in the Red Room was more than a child’s emotional catharsis of fear; it was a miniature rebellion against the patriarchal family discipline, the initial signal of the awakening of her female subjectivity, and planted the most core spiritual seed for her lifelong resistance and persistence.

4.2 Rational Persistence: Self-certification and Cognitive Upgrading at Lowood School

After entering the field of institutional patriarchal discipline of Lowood School, Jane Eyre’s instinctive resistance completed a key transformation from emotional stress catharsis to rational bottom-line adherence. Lowood School, in the name of “charity education”, actually carries out the domestication of women under patriarchy. Its core disciplinary logic is to erase women’s individuality and rebellious spirit through physical harm and spiritual domestication, and mass-produce docile women in line with patriarchal expectations. Faced with the public humiliation, stigmatized judgment and group isolation disciplinary ceremony by the headmaster, Mr. Brocklehurst, Jane Eyre was not crushed by this institutional oppression. With the spiritual company of Helen Burns and the positive guidance of Miss Temple, she completed self-certification through hard study. She tore up the negative labels affixed to her due to her excellent academic performance.

Unlike other girls who became numb and obedient in the day-to-day discipline, she always maintained independent thinking and sober cognition. She held on to her personality bottom line in the airtight domestication environment. More importantly, the eight-year experience at Lowood enabled her to complete a profound upgrade of her understanding of independence and freedom, from “defending the individual dignity at the moment” to “seeking long-term life autonomy”. She began to realize that only instinctive resistance could not break through the layers of shackles of patriarchy, and only by mastering knowledge and obtaining the ability to survive independently could she truly get rid of the attachment to men and gain real personality autonomy.

4.3 Active Construction: Economic Independence and Boundary Adherence at Thornfield Hall

Jane Eyre’s life choice of taking the initiative to bid farewell to Lowood and become a governess is the practical practice of her cognitive awareness of economic independence. As a governess, she earned an independent and stable economic income through her own labor and knowledge for the first time, which enabled her to get rid of the material attachment to patriarchy and gain the basic confidence of personality independence. Facing Rochester’s material temptation, such as expensive jewelry and gorgeous clothes, she firmly refused all forms of material attachment, always adhering to the bottom line of independent personality and taking economic independence as the core support of her self-worth.

4.4 Mature Transformation: Resolute Departure from Thornfield and Finalization of Subject Consciousness

The milestone of Jane Eyre’s female subjectivity moving to complete maturity and achieving a qualitative leap is her choice to resolutely leave Thornfield Hall after learning that Rochester already has a legal wife, Bertha Mason. After Rochester let go of all his dignity and begged her to stay and become his mistress, although she had deep and equal love for Rochester, and faced with the seemingly stable emotional destination and superior material life if she stayed, she still did not waver and firmly chose to turn around and leave.

At this moment, she had clearly seen through the power essence behind this romantic love: even if the two had spiritual resonance, this relationship was built on the foundation of unequal power dominated by men from the very beginning. Once she stayed as his mistress, she would completely lose the legal status of marriage and the basic respect at the social level, eventually become an accessory of Rochester, and lose the personality dignity and subject status she had exchanged for half her life of resistance. Her deafening words at the farewell, “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself”, are the best footnote to the complete maturity of her female subjectivity (Brontë, 2008). At this moment, Jane Eyre had completely broken through the core discipline of the Victorian era for women, that “love and marriage are the ultimate goal of life”. She placed women’s self-dignity, personality independence and subject status above the secular romantic love and happy destination. Her departure was not a negation of love, but a complete rebellion against the patriarchal gender order and an absolute adherence to the female subject status. What she pursued was not the defined happiness attached to men, but the complete self based on equality and respect. This was also the most powerful and thorough challenge to the stereotyped role of “virtuous wife and loving mother” endowed to women by patriarchy.

4.5 Final Confirmation: Self-integration at Marsh End and Construction of Equal Relationship

After leaving Thornfield Hall, Jane Eyre experienced the survival test of vagabond life at Marsh End, completed self-precipitation and integration at the spiritual level, and at the same time, truly realized economic freedom independent of anyone by unexpectedly inheriting her uncle’s inheritance. At this time, she had a solid material foundation to support her personality independence, completed the cognitive reconstruction of self-worth, love and marriage, and her construction of female subjectivity was finally completed and confirmed in the reunion and union with Rochester.

Jane Eyre’s final choice to return to Rochester, who was disabled and lost his wealth and status, to marry him as a lifelong partner, is by no means a compromise and return to the patriarchal order, but a completely independent and free life choice made based on completely equal subject status. At this time, Thornfield Hall, the symbolic space of patriarchal male power, had been reduced to ruins in the fire. Rochester was blind in both eyes and disabled in his arm due to the fire, completely losing his former wealth, class advantage and physical hegemony, from the high-ranking manor owner to a weak person in need of care. At the same time, Jane Eyre had independent wealth, a complete personality and strong spiritual power. The inherent power imbalance pattern between the two was completely broken, and they finally realized the real personality equality and relationship reciprocity.

In this new intimate relationship, Jane Eyre always maintains a complete and undissolved self: she loves Rochester, but it is not blind worship and attachment, but the mutual attraction, mutual respect and mutual support of two independent and equal souls. She dares to have equal dialogue with Rochester intellectually, dares to frankly express her own views and emotional needs, always puts herself in a completely equal position with the other party, and never gives up her subject status for love. What she pursues is not the fairy tale narrative of “Cinderella being saved by men”, but a marriage based on equality where both parties maintain complete subjectivity, and the possibility that women still do not lose themselves and do not degenerate into the Other in intimate relationships. This adherence to the female subject status in love and marriage was highly subversive and pioneering in the Victorian era of the 19th century, which reconstructed the position of women in intimate relationships and provided a new imaginative space for women’s liberation (Showalter, 2016; Zou, 2020).

From instinctive resistance at Gateshead Hall to rational persistence at Lowood School, from the bottom line defense at Thornfield Hall, to the self-completion at Marsh End, Jane Eyre completed a complete transformation from an “oppressed object” under patriarchal discipline to an “independent subject” with complete personality. With her lifelong choices and persistence, she proved that women do not have to be attached to men, nor be defined by the inherent roles of marriage and family and can completely achieve economic independence, personality autonomy and spiritual freedom through their own efforts and resistance. This is exactly the feminist ideological core that makes Jane Eyre still have vitality after a hundred years, and also the most precious spiritual wealth left by this work to later generations.

5 Reinterpretation of the Classic: The Literary History Value and Contemporary Enlightenment of Jane Eyre

Re-examined from the three core critical dimensions in Western feminist literary theory, the image of Jane Eyre created in Jane Eyre occupies a milestone foundational position in the development of British female literature. In the nearly two centuries since its publication, it has crossed the barriers of region, era and culture, always maintained a strong ideological vitality and provided continuous spiritual resources and practical enlightenment for women’s self-awakening, subject construction and liberation practice in different historical stages.

5.1 Literary History Value: Breaking Through the Binary Narrative of Female Images and Creating the Writing Paradigm of Female Internal Perspective

In the androcentric literary field of the Victorian era in the 19th century, female images were always imprisoned in the dual narrative framework of the Angel in the House and the “fallen temptress”. This image system constructed by male writers, with the extreme black-and-white logic, completely bound women’s existence value to men’s needs and judgments: the Angel in the House, with docility, obedience and selfless dedication as the core traits, is the ideal survival model for women designated by patriarchy, and its existence is to serve men’s family needs and spiritual comfort; the “fallen temptress”, with rebellion, desire and challenging the order as the core labels, is the stigmatization and demonization of women who break through gender norms by patriarchy, used to warn all women who try to break free from discipline. These two seemingly opposite images are essentially the products of the male gaze and the concrete presentation of the patriarchal gender order in literary narratives. They completely strip women of their real-life experience, complex inner world and independent personality core, making women completely reduced to functional symbols in male narratives.

The birth of the image of Jane Eyre completely broke through this century-old shackles of the either-or image system. Charlotte Brontë neither shaped her into a perfect Angel in the House in line with patriarchal expectations, nor defined her as a “fallen temptress” who challenges the order. Instead, with courageous writing, she portrayed a real, complex, three-dimensional female individual who always maintains inherent resistance power: she is ordinary, thin and plain-looking, not in line with the external expectations of women in male aesthetics, but has an unshakable strong spiritual core; she is sensitive and delicate, extremely eager for sincere love and emotional belonging, but always refuses to give up the bottom line of personality for love even a little; she has also fallen into vulnerability, confusion and helplessness in her vagabond life, but never gave up the ultimate pursuit of personality equality, spiritual independence and life freedom. She has both the tenderness, kindness and empathy traditionally recognized as female traits, and the tenacity, rationality and rebellious spirit exclusively defined as “male traits” by patriarchy at that time. This rich and contradictory character complexity makes her the first female image in the history of British literature that truly has a complete, independent soul not attached to men, and also becomes the prototype and ideological source of the “New Woman” image in European and American literature since the end of the 19th century (Showalter, 2016).

What is more subversive in literary history is that Jane Eyre is the first work to completely, frankly and unreservedly show women’s inner world, spiritual growth and ideological transformation from childhood to adulthood with a female first-person internal focalization, which completely broke the male narrative’s monopoly and imagination of women’s inner world. Before this work, women’s inner monologues in British literature were always expressions filtered through the male perspective and in line with male expectations. Charlotte Brontë, however, gave women the real right to speak for themselves: let women change from the “written object” in male narratives to the “narrative subject” of their own lives; from the “watched object” under the male gaze to the “active expressor” of their own spirit. Through Jane Eyre’s lifelong growth, struggle and choice, the work deeply participated in the public discussion on women’s right to education, employment, property and marriage autonomy in British society in the 19th century, broke the long-term monopoly of male narrative on the shaping of female images, provided a referable writing paradigm for later feminist literary creation, and provided core ideological resources and classic analytical texts for feminist literary criticism. For this reason, Jane Eyre is never just a romantic love novel that has been circulated for a hundred years, but also a well-deserved foundational classic in the history of world feminist literature.

5.2 Contemporary Enlightenment: Adhering to the Independent Core and Providing Spiritual Reference for Contemporary Women’s Liberation

In the nearly two centuries since the birth of Jane Eyre, the living conditions and social status of women around the world have undergone earth-shaking changes: the concept of gender equality has become the core consensus of modern society, and women have long obtained basic civil rights such as the right to education, employment, marriage autonomy and property rights, which were completely deprived by patriarchy. The breadth and depth of women’s participation in public life have long exceeded the imagination of the Victorian era. However, to this day, the residual discipline of patriarchy has never completely dissipated. It permeates all levels of social life in a more hidden way: the hidden gender barriers and fertility discrimination in the workplace, the still unbalanced gender division of labor and care responsibilities in the family, the appearance anxiety and stereotypes of women at the social level, the loss of female subjectivity and self-dissolution in intimate relationships, and other issues are still common survival dilemmas faced by contemporary women. Jane Eyre’s growth and struggle across a hundred years, her adherence to personality equality, her defense of independent self, and her persistent construction of subjectivity still provide profound spiritual enlightenment for contemporary women’s self-realization and liberation practice.

Jane Eyre’s adherence to the core logic that “economic independence is the foundation of personality independence” has profound cross-era practical significance and provides core enlightenment on the material foundation for contemporary women’s liberation practice. In modern society, economic independence is still the core material support for women to get rid of all forms of attachment, realize life autonomy, safeguard personality dignity and obtain equal social status. This is the essential prerequisite for contemporary women to complete the construction of female subjectivity, and its value has transcended the Victorian era, becoming a universal reference for women’s pursuit of self-liberation in all ages.

At the same time, Jane Eyre’s cognition of love and marriage also provides an important value reference for the construction of intimate relationships for contemporary women. A truly healthy intimate relationship is never the attachment of one party to the other, nor the control of one party over the other, nor the Cinderella-style being saved, but the two-way rush, mutual respect, mutual understanding and joint support of two independent, equal and complete souls (Liu, 2024). In love and marriage, women are never accessories of men, nor functional roles of the family, but equal subjects with complete and independent personalities. Only an intimate relationship based on personality equality and mutual respect can enable women to truly achieve the dual perfection of love, happiness and self-worth realization.

6 Discussion

This study always closely follows the three core critical dimensions in Western feminist literary theory, takes the construction process of Jane Eyre’s female subjectivity as the core narrative main line, systematically restores the complete progressive path of her female subjectivity from germination and rational precipitation to complete maturity and completes the systematic interpretation of the core feminist ideology of Jane Eyre. However, limited by the core research framework and the length of the study, this study still has two directions to be expanded and deepened. First, this study focuses on the protagonist Jane Eyre’s main growth narrative. It does not carry out systematic comparative interpretation and in-depth theoretical excavation of the secondary and marginal female images that constitute the female image spectrum in the text, such as Bessie, Miss Temple and Bertha Mason and does not fully present the diversity, contradiction and complexity of Charlotte Brontë’s feminist writing. Second, this study takes the three core critical dimensions as the core analytical framework, and there is still further academic space for deepening the analysis of the adaptability, mutual interpretation and dialogue between other literary theory schools, except liberal, radical, and psychoanalytic feminism in their engagement with the text.

Based on the limitations of this study and the existing research gaps in the academic circle, follow-up research can achieve breakthroughs from two core directions to further broaden the theoretical vision and text analysis boundary of feminist research on Jane Eyre. First, it can break through the existing single research framework with the protagonist as the core, introduce more diverse cutting-edge theoretical perspectives such as post-structuralist feminism and Marxist feminism, and based on systematic close reading, focus on the female images marginalized by existing research such as Bessie, Miss Temple and Bertha Mason, dig into the gender political logic, narrative function and feminist connotation hidden behind their images, fill the gap in the current academic circle’s systematic research on the female group image writing in Jane Eyre, and fully present the complexity and diversity of Charlotte Brontë’s feminist writing. Second, it can build a cross-era theoretical dialogue framework, carry out mutual interpretation research between feminist literary theory in different development stages and the text of Jane Eyre, jump out of the interpretation mode of a single theoretical dimension, further enrich the dimensions and levels of feminist research on this classic work, and provide more innovative academic paths and broader interpretation space for its continuous interpretation and classic reconstruction in the past nearly two centuries.

7 Conclusion

Taking the three core critical dimensions in Western feminist literary theory as the theoretical anchor, returning to the patriarchal social context of the Victorian era, and re-reading Jane Eyre, this literary classic that has spanned nearly two centuries, we can clearly see that the core reason why this work can still maintain fresh vitality through the changes of the times is never only that it writes a romantic love that breaks class barriers and crosses secular prejudices, but that it completes the full exposure of the systemic gender oppression of patriarchy, the whole-process writing of the female subjectivity from germination to complete construction, and the lifelong adherence to women’s independent personality, equal rights and self-value through the female first-person internal focalization.

In the whole chain of oppression network built by Victorian patriarchy, from private family to public system, from physical control to spiritual domestication, Jane Eyre completed a pioneering journey of female subject construction: from the instinctive counterattack against male violence and family discipline in Gateshead Hall, which planted the first seed of female subjectivity; to the rational persistence against institutional discipline in Lowood School, completing the cognitive upgrading of independence and freedom; then to the resolute farewell to the love with unequal power in Thornfield Hall, completing the complete maturity of female subjectivity; finally completing the double precipitation of economic independence and spiritual integrity in Marsh End, and realizing the final confirmation of subjectivity in equal intimate relationships. With her lifelong choices and struggles, she completely broke through the stereotyped shackles of the Angel in the House designated for women in the Victorian era, broke the patriarchal discipline that “love and marriage are the ultimate destination of women”, and proved with her own life that women are born with the right to pursue personality equality, spiritual independence and life freedom, and have independent and complete self-worth not attached to any man.

Today, nearly two centuries after the publication of Jane Eyre, women’s social status and living conditions have undergone earth-shaking changes. Gender equality has become the core consensus of modern society, and women have long obtained basic rights such as the right to education, employment and marriage autonomy that were completely deprived. However, the residual discipline of patriarchy has never completely dissipated. The hidden gender barriers in the workplace, the unbalanced gender division of labor in the family, the stereotypes of women at the social level, and the loss of subjectivity in intimate relationships are still common survival dilemmas faced by contemporary women. The unyielding rebellious spirit, firm independent consciousness, and lifelong adherence to equality and dignity in Jane Eyre are still inspiring us to continue thinking about the core propositions such as gender order, power relations and female subjectivity.

As a foundational classic of feminist literature, Jane Eyre is never a closed work that only belongs to the Victorian era. It always opens up the possibility of interpretation to readers and researchers of different eras. This work will continue to serve as the core model of feminist literature and criticism and continue to emit cross-era ideological light on the road of generations of women pursuing self-realization, spiritual liberation and life freedom.

Acknowledgements

The completion of this thesis is inseparable from the careful guidance of my supervisor and the selfless help of my fellow students. At the same time, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the School of Foreign Languages of Henan University for providing the academic research platform.

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