Resistance, Awakening and Construction —An Analysis of Female Subjectivity in Jane Eyre from the Perspective of Feminist Literary Theory

This study clarifies the formative logic and developmental trajectory of the female subjectivity of the protagonist in Jane Eyre, and explores the feminist ideological core of the work. Based on three core critical dimensions in Western feminist literary theory, combined with the gender context of the Victorian era in Britain, this study adopts close reading. It takes the protagonist’s life trajectory in Gateshead Hall, Lowood School, Thornfield Hall and Marsh End as the analysis clue for systematic analysis. The study reconstructs the protagonist’s full awakening path—from instinctive resistance for dignity, to rational pursuit of economic independence, and finally to the establishment of equal subject status in intimate relationships—and verifies the breakthrough value of the work to the rigid dual narrative paradigm of women in 19th-century British literature. The core classical value of Jane Eyre lies in the systematic construction of female subjectivity through the protagonist’s complete character arc, which provides a classic text model for later feminist literary creation and criticism.