earticle

영어

Most critics have studied Jane Eyre mainly focussing on the success of Jane who used to be a poor and ugly British girl, but who changes her miserable life with endless effort and unyielding will. This kind of reading reflects the humanistic trend of criticism which emphasizes the universal truths of humanity. The criticism considers human beings as an existence that keeps a timeless human nature as a unified and autonomous subject, and considers authors as omniscient beings who are the origins of the texts, the sources of their meanings and the only authority for interpretation. Recent critics, however, argue that authors also internalize the ideology of their times as culturally artificial subjects confined by the context of time and space. This dissertation takes the latter point of view when reading Jane Eyre. With the view, Jane's success does not depend on her effort and will but on the sacrifices of the two human beings called Bertha and Mason living in a British colony. The author defines Bertha and Mason as barbarians to justify the marriage of between Rochester and Jane. It is the barbarian discourse to make a discrimination between Rochester and Jane, the British, described as civilized and educated people, and Bertha and Mason, the different race, described as the barbarious people who are uncivilized and uneducated close to animals. This contrast functions to provide the idea that the barbarious Bertha and Mason should be removed for the love of between Rochester and Jane. According to Foucault, discourse is the medium for the ruling class to control the lower class by using the knowledge invented by them to solidify their power. The knowledge about Bertha and Mason through the barbarian discourse by Rochester and Sane leads readers to rationalize their violent intention, cleverly working without being revealed, of driving Bertha crazy and taking advantage of Mason's cowardness and meanness for their superiority. However, the representation of Bertha and Mason in this manner conflicts with the meaning of the story it is displayed in. Bertha, as described in the story, looks exactly like Jane who is passionately revolutionary and rebellious against the injustice and irrationality of the ruling class as a marginalized person in the society at that time Meanwhile, Mason, her brother, is a submissive subject of imperialists, blindly following and imitating them. Jane, who is highly self-conscious, certainly ignores him. In this way, although their personalities clearly differ from each other, Jane unconditionally stipulates both of them as barbarians. She portrays Bertha as a vampyre and never questions why Bertha can not but become a mad woman. Her prejudice results from the racism unconsciously rooted deep inside her that white people, including the British, are superior to other races. especially Asians and Africans. This shows even Jane can not transcend the ideology of society and culture completely. Jane's limitation makes it clear that the arguments of Foucault and Althusser that nobody can absolutely overcome the social power and ideology of his days.