英语论文网

do with liberation, but this is a misunderstanding. The most orthodox beliefs, when applied to a class of persons previously excluded from serious moral and political discourse,may take on a new aspect.
Jane Austens novels are the culmination of a line of development in thought and fiction which goes back to the start of the eighteenth century, and which deserves to be called feminist since it was concerned with establishing the moral equality of men and women and the proper status of individual women as accountable beings. ( Kirkham,1997)
In this sense, Austen is progressive compared with most female novelists of her day,such as Fanny Burney, Charlotte Smith, Maria Edgeworth and Anne Radcliffe. Jane Austen ridicules the sentimental and romantic conventions in their fictions. Meantime, Austen differs from them in her rejection of contemporary and traditional conceptions of the heroine or the lady. The woman who is “innocent as an angel and artless as purity itself”(Bradbrook,1967) is satirized by Austen.
In subverting the ideal female image, Jane Austen can be ranked with the famous feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, although Austen is never so radical as Wollstonecraft to demand a complete reorganization of the society.

Ⅲ.The Embodiment of Feminism in Emma
Modem reviewers consider Emma as Austens masterpiece, especially because the novel shows clearly Jane Austens understanding of and feeling about the problems of women in her society. Claudia Johnson, a contemporary scholar, thought:"In its willingness to explore positive versions of female power, Emma itself is an experimental production of authorial independence unlike any of Austens other novels."( Johnson,1988)
A． Emma is a Woman who has Sound Judgment
Traditionally it was held that women were not endowed with powers of mind by nature and they were deprived of the inherent right to think and judge. Thus, any mental exercises were dangerous to women. Wendy Martin noted: “A thinking woman was considered such a breach of nature that a Harvard Doctor reported during his autopsy on a Radcliffe graduate
he discovered that her uterus had shrivelled to the size of a pea.”(Gilbert,1979) Even if this claim does not directly advocate that imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, it does tell us that feminine capacity is not for thinking, judging and reasoning. John Ruskin affirmed even in 1865 that the womans intellect, if she did have, was only for “sweet orderings of domesticity.” (Gilbert,1979)
Female capability consisted in emotion. Therefore, it was a womans first duty in life to cultivate her feminine talents in the emotional realm so as to maximim their usefulness within the domestic orbit. Any woman who indulged her personal ambitions or a selfish desire for intellectual independence or economic independence was betraying what conduct books called her “womanhede’’ (Rowbotham,1989) Jane Austen never agreed with the idea that women were intellectual inferiors to men. Her belief in sound female intelligence leads her to create young women as rational beings rather than elegant ladies without mind. Emma is such a hemine, assertive, intelligent, powerful, and self-conf dent. Since Emmas conduct is “directed chiefly by her own judgment”, her superior intellectual ability is in the first place characterized by her own judgment. Although Emma frequently makes mis本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。