-
对简爱宗教人物形象与道德的分析
Religion, Morality and Christianity in
Jane Eyre
摘要
在《
简?爱》中，宗教是一个频繁出现的主题。主要的宗教人物有海伦、布洛克
赫斯特先生、
圣约翰和简?爱。
简?爱最终拒绝选择走和前三者相同的宗教信
仰之
路，而是她一边学习，一边经历，一边成长，最终开辟了一条与众不同而且最适
合她走的路。依赖上帝的力量和指引，同时不放弃自我的价值和尊严。
关键词
:
宗教；道德；基督徒
Abstract
Religion
is
frequently
recurring
theme
in
Jane
Eyre
.
The
religious
beliefs
and attitudes of Helen Burns, ehurst,
and Jane are the
most impressive. Helen
represents a mode of Christianity that stresses
tolerance
and
acceptance.
She
believes
that
justice
will
be
found
in
God's
ultimate
judgment--the
good
will
be
rewarded
and
the
evil
will
be
punished.
ehurst is a cruel,
hypocritical and abusive man. All his piety
to God is shallow display. He embodies
an evangelical form of religion
and
seeks
to
gain
power
and
control
others
by
taking
advantage
of
religion.
is
entirely
alienated
from
his
feelings
and
devoted
solely
to
an
austere
ambition--be
a
missionary,
the
follower
of
God.
Though
he
is
not
a
religious
hypocrite
like
Brocklehurst,
but
he
is
also
rigidly
principled
and
lacking
empathy
that
his
behavior
is
potentially
just
as
destructive.
Jane
ultimately
rejects
all
the
three
models
of
religion
as
she
forms
her
own
ideas about faith and principle. But she does not
abandon morality,
spiritualism and a
belief in a Christian God. For Jane, religion
helps
curb immoderate passions, and it
spurs one on to worldly efforts and
achievements. These achievements
include full self-knowledge and
complete faith in God.
Keywords: Religion; Morality;
Christianity
Outline
Thesis
:
This
article will analyze the principle religious
characters in
Jane Eyre
and
find out why Jane rejects to follow
Helen, Brocklehurst and 's models of
religion and how Jane becomes mature as
a Christian through her own efforts and
choice and others' force.
I. Introduction
II.
Three models of religion modes Jane rejects
A. Helen Burns
B. Mr. Brocklehurst
C. St.
John
III. The maturity
of Jane as a Christian
A. In Gateshead
B. In Lowood
C. In Thornfield
D. In
Moor House
IV. Conclusion
Religion, Morality and Christianity
in
Jane Eyre
I. Introduction
Among all the religions
by which people seek to worship, Christianity is
by far the
most influential and widely
spread, especially in the west. Every phase of
westerners'
life is touched by this
religion, so much so that it has become part and
parcel of
western culture. The Bible is
a collection of religious writings comprising
stories of
God, the laws of God and the
doctrine of Jesus Christ. The Bible is the most
popular
book in the culture of mankind.
It is the essential of western civilization,
having
shaped the western civilization
more decisively than anything else ever written.
Almost all great authors of Biblical
themes have been a literary tradition. In fact few
great English writers of the
seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century can
be
read and appreciated with
satisfaction without a sufficient knowledge of the
Bible. In
Charlotte Bronte's
Jane Eyre
, religion is
frequently recurring theme. The principle
religious characters represent some
widely differing views of religion in general and
Christianity in particular. Helen
Burns, ehurst and are the most
impressive and each represents a model
of religion that Jane, the heroine of this book,
ultimately rejects as she forms her own
ideas about faith and principle.
II. The three
typical religious modes Jane rejects
A. Helen Burns is Jane's first and the
best friend in Lowood. Helen represents a mode
of Christianity that stresses tolerance
and acceptance. She has a matyrlike attitude
toward the miseries she suffers at
Lowood. Though Helen is always punished for
trifling faults, vengeance never comes
to her mind. She tells Jane there is no good in
revenge and the Bible bids Christians
to return good for evil. Besides, only because
she sometimes fail to live up to her
ascetical standards, she chatises herself for
daydreaming, for unable to be
concentrating on her studies. She is self-
critical,
believing herself has too
many faults. That is why she is frequently
punished by Miss
Scatcherd. Helen
ascetically trusts her own faith and strictly
abides by the laws of
God. When Helen
tells Jane that she practices a doctrine of
Christian endurance which
means loving
her enemies and accepting her privation, Jane
disagrees strongly with
such meek
tolerance of injustice but Helen takes no heed of
Jane's arguments. She is
not oblivious
to the injustices the girls suffer at Lowood. She
believes justice will be
found in God's
ultimate judgment--God will reward the good and
punish the evil.
Utterly passive and
accepting of any objection, Helen embodies the
Christian ideas of
love and
forgiveness. The angelic Helen Burns and her
doctrine of endurance
represent a
religious position that contrasts with
ehurst's.
B. ehurst is the
headmaster of Lowood school. He is a cruel,
hypocritical
and abusive man, preaching
a doctrine of poverty and privation to his
students. By his
orders, girls in
Lowood are underfed, overworked and forced to sit
still during
seemingly endless sermons.
The girls have neither chances nor rights to take
pleasure
in worldly things. While he
claims to be purging his students of pride, his
method of
subjecting them to various
privations and humiliations, like when he orders
that the
naturally curly hair of one of
Jane's classmates be cut short so as to lay down
straight,
such cruelty is entirely
unchristian. On one hand, ehurst orders the girls
be
poor, simple, devout and economical,
live as ascetical as Christians should be. On the
other hand, he uses the school's funds
to provide a wealthy and opulent lifestyle for
his own family. His wife and daughters
have beautiful curly hair which he claims the
most hateful and unnatural and they are
splendidly attired in fashionable clothes made
by velvet, silk, and furs. That proves
Brocklehurst's hypocrisy. ehurst
embodies an evangelical form of
religion. He illustrates the dangers and
hypocrisies
that Charlotte Bronte
perceived in the nineteenth
century
evangelical movement.
“Conventionality
is not morality” Bronte wrote.
“Self
-righteousness is not religion.
To attack the first is not to assail
the last” (From the preface of
Jane
Eyre
).
ehurst claims to be
self-
righteous, he pretends to be “God”
in Lowood. He
gives the laws and others
accept and obey. In fact, his “piety” is
shal
low devotional
display.
He is a religious hypocrite as Helen says,“ hurst
is not a god
；
nor is
he a great and admired man” (Chapter
8). Compared to the most devout Helen,
Brocklehurst is a religious
mimic.
C. is Jane's cousin. He
is a clergyman, the minister at Morton. is
cold, reserved and often controlling in
his interactions with others because he is
entirely alienated from his feelings
and devoted solely to an austere
ambition
—
to be a
missionary in India. He makes this
decision because he heard God's call. Though he
admires Rosamond for her beauty, he
refuses to allow worldly affection to interfere
with his holy duties. He knows Rosamond
would make a terrible wife for a
missionary. At last, he asks Jane to go
to India with him and to be his wife. Because
he believes Jane would make a good wife
for him, for Jane’s endur
ance, her
strength
of principle and her ability
to fulfill her goal proves to him. Jane refuses
his proposal
many times because they
are not in love. harshly insists that she should
marry
him, declaring that to refuse his
proposal is the same as to deny the Christian
faith.
's character emerges forcefully
in the last parts of this book. He provides an
interesting comparison to the models of
religion embodied in Helen Burns and
ehurst. Unlike the meek and forbearing
Helen, is active and even
ambitious.
He is not a religious hypocrite, for there is a
true Christian charity in his
heart. He
gives poor Jane foods and a shelter even a home.
But he is so rigidly
principled and
lacking in empathy and worldly affection that his
behavior is
potentially just as
destructive. believes that all worldly emotion
and love are
weaknesses of human and
should be abandoned. He urges Jane to resist such
temptation and do as him to be a
follower of God. That is God's will. Finally, he
goes
to India by himself. In his last
letter to Jane, he says he has a premonition of
his own
approaching death. He has
fulfilled his promise to God and done God's work.
In the
end of the letter, he begs the
Lord Jesus to come for him quickly. The Christian
morality and Christianity in is
overwhelming.
III. The
maturity of Jane as a Christian
The maturity of Jane's
morality and Christianity is central to the novel.
The three main
religious figures she
encounters, Helen Burns, ehurst and Rivers,
each represents a model of religion
that Jane ultimately rejects as she forms her own
ideas about faith and principle. Jane
quests for love and happiness not only through
her own efforts, but also counts on
God's guidance and support. Jane struggles to find
the right balance between moral duty as
a Christian and earthly pleasures, between
obligation to her Christianity and
attention to her body. The course of Jane's
maturity
on her morality and
Christianity can be divided into four parts: In
Gateshead Hall-- In
Lowood school-- In
Thornfield Hall-- In Moor
House
.
A. Jane
spends ten years in Gateshead. Little Jane
possesses a sense of her
self-worth and
dignity, a commitment to justice and principle, a
trust in God and a
passionate
disposition. Her cousin John Reeds treats her with
appalling cruelty during
their
childhood. Jane feels exiled and astracized in
Gateshead because no one loves
her.
Jane is forbidden to play as her cousins do. John
chides Jane for being a lonely
orphan
who is only permitted to live with the Reeds
because of his mother's charity.
They
quarrel and fight. Mrs Reed holds only Jane
responsible for the scuffle, even the
servants think Jane is wicked and
should be punished. The servants believe Jane is
not
as good as them because she is
penniless and naughty and she can do nothing to
reward Mrs Reed's charity. In little
Jane's opinion, all these are injustice. At that
time
Jane is not moralized. Her
knowledge about the Christian morality is scarce,
never
mention laws of God. That is why
she is not well-principled. In the early chapters,
Bronte establishes the young Jane's
character through her confrontations with John
and Mrs Reed, in which Jane's good-
hearted but strong-willed determination and
integrity become apparent. Little Jane
knows little about Christianity, she reads a few
stories about the Christian spirit
which she is interested in. When she cannot bear
her
aunt's accusation she cries out to
defend herself to her aunt. “I am glad
you are no
relation of mine. I will
never call you aunt again as long as I live. I
will never come to
visit you when I am
grown up...” (Chapter 4). She does as her
passionate disposition
permits. Little
Jane has no proper principle to abide
by.