Post-colonial Interpretation of the Property in Jane Eyre

Abstract

As a world-renowned book that influences long-lasting ambitions, Jane Eyre has been favored by Chinese literary theory critics since its birth. Along with the development of post-colonial theory, after the 1980s, the domestic academic circles conducted a related post-colonial interpretation of Jane Eyre from multiple dimensions, but few studies have carried out an in-depth exploration of property issues in literary works. This paper is based on the analysis of the post-colonial meaning of the relevant property in the novel, and exposes the postcolonial nature of the unclear property in many literary works of the 19 century. 1. Domestic Post-colonial Interpretation of Jane Eyre As one of the classic works of world literature, the Chinese academic circles have long studied the renowned novel Jane Eyre. In the 1917 Women's Magazine, the article "Tai Xi Female Novelist" first introduced the Bronte sisters to Chinese readers. With the rise and fall of literary theory in the 20th century, Chinese scholars and readers praised the words. And pointed out its many shortcomings. Nowadays, in the Chinese online search keyword "Jane Eyre", there are 1857 related papers from 1979 to 2011. Most of them are researched and analyzed from the perspectives of literary theory such as feminism, post-colonialism, Marxism, and Christian cultural studies and narratology. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the introduction of postcolonial theory in domestic academic circles and the interpretation of post-colonialization of Jane Eyre had a clear causal relationship. As early as 1986, Spivak pointed out in her book, “If we don’t remember that imperialism, as the mission of the British society, was once a key part of Britain’s construction of its culture, then we have no way of interpreting British literature in the 10th century. The function of literature in cultural expression cannot be ignored. In the 19th century Britain In the reading of literature, these two obvious 'facts' have been ignored, and it itself proves the continued success of imperialism that is constantly evolving into a modern form,"[1] In 2000, Zhang Zhongzai pointed out in "The Trip to India: The Disharmonious Double Voice: Anti-colonial Discourse and Colonial Discourse", starting from the "Robinson Crusoe" in the 18 century, the British people involved in the writer should be overseas. Adventures, business, missions and other activities are more or less imprinted with racism. "The British generation of literati is more or less inherited the empire or colonial consciousness in this text reference tradition, and in many Under the construction of the text saturated with colonial discourse, it formed a collective consciousness that was sometimes not realized by the writer himself; this collective consciousness constructed countless colonial images and formed a white discourse of a colonial country." [2] Even though many writers have their own anti-colonial tendency, "both British writers and colonial writers maintain the colonial rule of the empire to varying degrees, and their narratives fail to transcend the colonial perspective."[3] Some researchers have combined · After reading the interpretation of Rees's "The Sea of the Sea" and "Jane Eyre", it is basically agreed that "Jane Eyre" written in the prosperous period of the colonial empire inevitably permeates a strong sense of imperialism. They believe that Charlotte Grande clearly demonstrates the superiority of Westerners through the description of the demonization, materialization, and marginalization of mad women. From the perspective of post-colonial review of Jane Eyre, it is not so much that it sacrifices the "mad woman" to complete the high-level rational image and pure love of Jane Eyre. It is better to consciously deprive the mad woman of the right to speak and construct it. It represents the central voice of imperialism. It can be said that domestic academic circles have carried out in-depth Journal of Arts & Humanities Studies, Volume 1, ISSN: 2664-0295 Copyright © (2019) the Authors and AEE DOI: 10.35532/JAHS.V1.001 1 excavation and discovery in the comparative reference of foreign "Jane Eyre" research, but in the post-colonial perspective, there are still many places for further study. For example, two property issues that play an important role in the work. 2. Post-colonial Analysis of Bertha's Property The 19 century was the heyday of Britain. In 1180, the merger of Ireland, the establishment of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland"; in 1815 "Waterloo" defeated Napoleon, determined its dominance in Europe. In 1837, the Victorian era opened. Ten years later, Charlotte published the world-famous book, Jane Eyre. Based on the background of this era, it is not difficult to understand that all kinds of novels in the 19 century, such as Jane Eyre, are full of various colonial and commercial operations. The wealth plundered from the colonies in various ways flowed into the pockets of British citizens, and Bertha’s hometown, the West Indies, was one of the many colonies of the year. In the descriptions of Bertha's parents, such as "His (Rochester's father) old friend Mr. Mason is a plantation owner and a businessman in the West Indies. He is convinced that his property is again More reliable."[4] Another example is that Rochester, who is offered by Bertha’s brother in the church, has testimony of bigamy: “...with my sister, businessman Jonas Mason and his wife Creole (born in Latin American European descent, or A mixed-race with a black or Indian), the daughter of Antoinette Mason, Bertha Antoinette Mason, married in the XX Church in the Spanish city of Jamaica...".[4] It is not difficult to see that Bertha's father is also an Englishman, and her mother is likely to be a local Latino. As we clarify these relationships, we believe that many questions have arisen. Is Joshua’s father, Jonas Mason, a young man who went to the West Indies to carry out slave trade and slavery for plantation work? If not, how does he rely on so many wealth? Why did he marry Bertha’s mother, a mixed-race non-European woman? Is Bertha’s mother crazy before Bertha’s parents get married? Is Rochester the revival of Bertha's father (Bertha's father sneaked into the property of his mother's family and married his mother, and then maddened Bertha's mother because of cultural differences and imperialism?) Is Bertha’s madness related to his father? This series of problems cannot be explained by the shortcomings of today's prototype materials. But what we can be sure of is that the 30,000-pound dowry provided by Bertha’s father must be the wealth that was found through colonial means such as plantations. What is the fortune of 30,000 pounds? In 1816, the United Kingdom passed the "Gold Standard System Act", which recognized the use of gold as the currency standard to issue banknotes in the form of law. In 1821, the British officially adopted the gold standard, and the British pound became the standard currency unit of the United Kingdom, with 7.32238 grams of pure gold per pound. If the current futures gold is about 385 yuan a gram, then the first pound in the early 19th century is equivalent to 2800 yuan now, that 30,000 pounds are about equal to the current 84 million yuan. In the novel, Rochester, who is in the second place in the family, marries Jonas Mason's daughter under the arrangement of his old father who loves money. The money he got from the other party has become the life of Rochester. get on. In other words, the colony became the "safe place" for the rich life of Great Britain. Such arguments are also reflected in the legacy of his uncle who is inherited by Jane Eyre. However, as a typical representative of the colonizer, Rochester did not appreciate the land of the “other” who brought him a lot of wealth. On the contrary, he had nowhere to exclude people from the environment there, shouting “That kind of life "is simply hell"[4], even reaching "close to the edge of despair."[4] On the other hand, respect for the more advanced, more civilized, more glamorous Western civilization. "The lovely wind that blows from Europe is still whispering between the leaves that have become fresh. The Atlantic is freely and indulgently whistling. My long-lost heart, I heard this whistling sound stretched out, fill the boiling blood my life is praying for renewal, my soul is eager to clear the nectar. I see the hope of resurrection I feel that regeneration is possible." It is not advisable to despise or strongly reject Eastern culture in the form of colonial imperialism. But because of Rochester's own class and utilitarianism, he and Bertha are destined to be able to communicate on an equal cultural discourse.