Abstract

In the Victorian era, the industrial revolution promotes a fierce collision between traditional agriculture industry and emerging industry. The collapse of the small-scale peasant economy made great impact in people’s traditional way of thinking, especially the female group. Jane Eyre and Tess of the D’Urbervilles are two typical novels which describe female lives in the Victorian era.
This thesis is composed of three parts. In the first part, the essay will make a presentation about the Victorian era, elaborating the generation of feminism, its development and impact on the two novelists and also give a preliminary analysis of the two heroines’ character traits. The second part will analyze the similarities and differences in the two heroines from the perspective of feminism. According to the analysis, the conclusion will elaborate the independent source of female consciousness. The third part is a conclusion part. The thesis will give the profound thinking from Jane’s happy ending and Tess’s tragedy life.

Key words: fate  independence  feminism  character analysis

摘  要

维多利亚时期，工业革命的推动，使得传统农业和新兴工业产生了激烈的碰撞。小农经济的瓦解使得人民发展经济的方式和传统思维受到巨大冲击，特别是女性群体。《简爱》和《德伯爵家的苔丝》是维多利亚时期描写女性生活的经典小说。
本研究由三个部分组成。第一部分将对维多利亚时期的历史背景做一个总体介绍，阐述当时女性主义思潮的产生、发展和对两位作者的影响，并且初步分析两位女主人公的性格特征。第二部分将从女性主义的不同角度对简爱和苔丝两人命运的相同点和不同点进行分析，通过对比阐述女性自主独立意识的来源。第三部分则是对整个论文的总结，论文讲阐述从简爱的幸福生活和苔丝的悲剧中所带来的深思。

关键词：命运  独立  女性主义  性格分析.

1 A Brief Introduction of the Two Novels and Feminism
The Victorian era is the development of extremely prosperous period in the UK. It is considered to be not only the apex period of the British Industrial Revolution, but also the heyday of British economic and cultural. “During the long reign of Queen Victoria, England grew from an agricultural country into a financial and political center.”(Luo, 2011, p.102). “Social was experienced change, unrest and confuse, further more, in the nineties, melancholy became the sprite of the time and the intellectuals were tainted by a feeling of fin-de-siecle.”