Tocompare Jane Eyre and Great Expectations简爱与远大前程比较分析

Tocompare Jane Eyre and Great Expectations, the first thing to do is to have abetter understanding of their authors. As we all know, Jane Eyre is written byCharlotte Bronte, one of the most famous

authoresses. Charlotte was short, unlovely, self-contemptuousdeep inside, which made her sensitive. However, all these couldn’t ruin herdesperation for bright, holy and good life. Like Charlotte Bronte, CharlesDickens, the author of Great Expectations, was also born in 1810s, who was the representativeof the realism literature in that time. He made his way to success by studyingindependently assiduously and working hard. Besides what I’d like to mention is that inthe middle of the

19th century, England was transiting from anagricultural country to an industrialized country, during which period, theemerging bourgeoisie is growing rapidly. The social status really left animprint on their works. Next,I will compare Jane Eyre and Great Expectations from the following threeaspects, character, writing technique and theme.

First, let’s talk about Jane Eyre and Pip. They are both orphans, depending on somebody for a living. However, Jane has her own belief, protecting her from desperation, self-destruction and downfall. All the unfortunate just brings her confidence and courage which are required in constructing the indomitable personality. Oppositely, Pip lacks such a powerful inner strength and denies himself constantly. The changing of his personality can be divided into three phases. Initially, Pip is a kind young boy, who is

innocent and generous. With the changing of the environment, he becomes snobbish, seeking for vanity and self conceited and a little greedy. After going through ups and downs, he turns into a person with high morality. Besides, as we can see, the characters in Great Expectations are richer and more varied than that in Jane Eyre, and the relationship among them is more complex. Apart from Pip, some other characters also leave a deep impression on us readers such as Joe, Miss Havisham, Magwitch and so forth. Take Miss Havisham as an example, her experience tells us that women are supposed to show a good attitude towards life. No matter what is encountered with, women should be strong enough to survive. Never punish ourselves by others’ mistakes.

Second, let’s appreciate the writing techniques used in the two pieces of works. Jane Eyre is a typical Gothic style writing. The story is mainly set in the old Thornfield Hall. Furthermore, nightmares, hallucinations, and premonition create the atmosphere of hel l. And at last, Mr. Rochester’s mad wife appears, uncovering his biggest secret, and contributing to the big fire in the end of the story. Gothic style writing usually involves in decay and death, which make it mysterious and horrible. And the truth is always hidden in those seemingly romantic stories. Great Expectations isn’t so typical as Jane Eyre, but it consists of some Gothic elements like Gothic material environment and spirit space. At the beginning of the story, through Pip’s eyes, it demonstrates a mouldering mansion to us which looks