An Interpretation Of Different Fates Between Jane Eyre And Lin Daiyu From The Perspective Of Power

Since the introduction of Jane Eyre in the 1930s into China, it has remained a hot topic for different Chinese critics on foreign literature, from the dominant . histo-social literary criticism in the 1950s to the pluralistic and multi-perspective criticism in the 1990s. This novel has continued to be regarded as an experimental model to verify miscellaneous theories of literary criticism in Chinese circle of literature. However, a brief review of studies on this novel manifests a singular theme and weak ground of socio-cultural insight.A Dream of Red Mansions and Jane Eyre stand as two literary classics contributed by two literary giants of two different nations at different times and places. And Lin Daiyu and Jane Eyre are two female literary images carefully portrayed with extremely penetrative implications. Distinctively culture-marked, the two female literary characters share a vigorous sense of life and an up-going humanistic value in their respective pursuit of individual personality at a certain stage of life. In A Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin exhausted almost all his heart, gifts and literary craftsmanship to cut the image of Lin Daiyu, his ideal heroine, whose tragic and pain-stricken story has moved every reader into tears. Over there in England Jane Eyre was portrayed as one of the most energetic Victorian female literary characters by Charlotte Bronte. Always focal concerns of literary critics and broad readers, the different ends of the two literary female characters continue to be differently viewed and hotly disputed over. For instance, Lin Daiyu's death, is either thought as "the final result of beauty", or as "an absolute result of one who takes love as the most important thing". Some critics go even so far as insisting that Lin's tragic end is a necessary tragedy which is bound to fail both in terms of history and in terms of social reality. In contrast, Jane Eyre's sudden turn from a parentless bully-stricken poor girl to a noble and honorable lady is often regarded as "a combination of truth and goodness". All the above-mentioned comments on A Dream of Red Mansions and Jane Eyre , although containing some social considerations on literature on the part of literary critics, fail to reveal the cultural character of human, especially female, survival in society.The most important problem that Foucault concerns with is the issue of power. His distinctive view of "power" and insightful statements of its construction and work in modern society thoroughly subvert the traditional concepts and theories of power in politics. Totally contrary to the traditional view of power as the mandatory force to prevent people from doing something unfavorable to the interests of the ruling class, Foucault thinks the power as a network of disciplining, which influences and dominates the whole society both physically and mentally. As Foucault illustrates in his works, power is everywhere, and has infiltrated into every inch of the body of society. Power has no main body or object. Instead, it is a network of all resources and forces of modern society. In a word, Foucault's unique view of power has caused great sensations in Western academic world and greatly influenced current theories of humanistic studies.Therefore, based on the viewpoints of power and discourse, this paper will compare Jane Eyre and Lin Daiyu from different angles so as to explore the underlying social mechanism and cultural destiny in the different fates of the two figures and reveal the deep-embedded cultural reasons which lead to such fates.