ABSTRACT

This paper aims to analyze and compare Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason’s personal experiences. Freud’s famous theory of Id and Ego was used to analyze Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason’s characteristics and experiences and their subtle relationship. It is not hard to find that Bertha was not only an important character, but also had the very same living experience and fell in love with the same man as Jane Eyre did. Although they had different tracks of life, they had the same attitudes towards life, and were both brave in fighting for happiness. Therefore, they were “two women with one soul”.

Key words: Jane Eyre  Bertha Mason  Subtle Relationship  Soul

摘  要

本文通过分析和对比简爱与伯莎两人的个人经历，运用佛洛伊德自我与本我理论解析，从她俩的性格、生活经历等方面分析了简爱和伯莎之间微妙的关系，证明伯莎不仅不是一个可有可无的人物，而是和简爱有着十分相似的生活经历并爱上了同一个男人的人。虽然她们过的是两种截然不同的生活，却有着同样的生活态度，勇于为自己的幸福而奋斗，因此，她俩是拥有同一灵魂的人。

关键词：简爱  伯莎梅森  关系  灵魂

Chapter One    Introduction
1.1 Introduction to the Author
Charlotte Brontë (1816 –1855) was an English novelist and the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell.
Published to widespread success in 1847 under the name of “Currer Bell,” the novel Jane Eyre catapulted 31-year-old Charlotte Brontë into the upper echelon of Victorian writers. With the novel’s success, Brontë was able to reveal her true identity to her publisher, and it soon became widely known that the author of the popular novel was a woman. This revelation allowed Jane Eyre to achieve an additional level of interest in contemporary society by forcing the public to redefine sexist notions of female authorship. Although the text presumably related events from the first decade of the 19th century, contemporary Victorians, women in particular, identified with Brontë’s critique of Victorian class and gender modes. In particular, Brontë’s commentary on the difficult position of a governess during this period was one with which many women could relate and empathize.