The Independent Spirit——about“ Jane Eyer”
This is a story about a special and unreserved woman who has been exposed to a hostile environment but continuously and fearlessly struggling for her ideal life. The story can be interpreted as a symbol of the independent spirit.
It seems to me that many readers’ English reading experience starts with Jane Eyer. I am of no exception. As we refer to the movie “Jane Eyer”, it is not surprising to find some differences because of its being filmized and retold in a new way, but the spirit of the novel remains----to be an independent person, both physically and mentally.
Jane Eyer was a born resister, whose parents went off when she was very young, and her aunt，the only relative she had，treated her as badly as a ragtag. Since Jane’s education in Lowwood Orphanage began, she didn’t get what she had been expecting——simply being regarded as a common person, just the same as any other girl around. The suffers from being humiliated and devastated teach Jane to be persevering and prize dignity over anything else.As a reward of revolting the ruthless oppression, Jane got a chance to be a tutor in Thornfield Garden. There she made the acquaintance of lovely Adele and that garden’s owner, Rochester, a man with warm heart despite a cold face outside. Jane expected to change the life from then on, but fate had decided otherwise: After Jane and Rochester fell in love with each other and got down to get marry, she unfortunately came to know in fact Rochester had got a legal wife, who seemed to be the shadow following Rochester and led to his moodiness all the time ----Rochester was also a despairing person in need of salvation. Jane did want to give him a hand, however, she made up her mind to leave, because she didn’t want to betray her own principles, because she was Jane Eyer. The film has finally got a symbolist end: Jane inherited a large number of legacies and finally returned. After finding Rochester’s misfortune brought by his original mad wife, Jane chose to stay with him forever.
I don’t know what others feel, but frankly speaking, I would rather regard the section that Jane began her teaching job in Thornfield as the film’s end----especially when I heard Jane’s words “Never in my life have I been awaken so happily.” For one thing, this ideal and brand-new beginning of life was what Jane had been imagining for long as a suffering person; for another, this should be what the audiences with my views hoped her to get. But the professional judgment of producing films reminded me to wait for a totally different result: There must be something wrong coming with the excellence----perhaps not only should another section be added to enrich the story, but also we may see from the next transition of Jane’s life that “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you would get.” (By Forrest Gump’s mother, in the film “Forrest Gump”)
What’s more, this film didn’t end when Jane left Thornfield. For Jane Eyer herself, there should always be somewhere to realize her great ideal of being independent considering her fortitude, but for Rochester, how he can get salvation? The film gives the answer tentatively: Jane eventually got back to Rochester. In fact, when Jane met Rochester for the first time, she scared his horse and made his heel strained, to a certain extent, which meant Rochester would get retrieval because of Jane. We can consider Rochester’s experiences as that of religion meaning. The fire by his frantic wife was the punishment for the cynicism early in his life. After it, Rochester got the mercy of the God and the love of the woman whom he loved. Here we can say: human nature and divinity get united perfectly in order to let such a story accord with the requirements of both two sides. The value of this film may be due to its efforts to explore a new way for the development of humanism under the faith of religion.
Life is ceaselessly changing, but our living principles remain. Firmly persisting for the rights of being independent gives us enough confidence and courage, which is like the beacon over the capriccioso sea of life. In the world of the film, we have found the stories of ourselves, which makes us so concerned about the fate of the dramatis personae.
In this era of rapid social and technological change leading to increasing life complexity and psychological displacement, both physical and mental effects on us call for a balance. We are likely to find ourselves bogged down in the Sargasso Sea of information overload and living unconsciousness. It’s our spirit that makes the life meaningful.
Heart is the engine of body, brain is the resource of thought, and great films are the mirrors of life. Indubitably, “Jane Eyer” is one of them.

近段时间一直在拧一些乱乱的文字，看得乱流突袭，开始发觉在生活中讲话都失去语感。于是产生了懒惰情绪，不愿意再在艰涩晦深的问题中继续停留，转而回身读一些小时候所看的东西。第一本看的，便是《简爱》。
《简爱》是这么一本东西。我的英文水平，是可以读原文的，但是看着那令人目眩的动辄三四行的长句，往往就望而却步。手头一个版本是黄源深翻译的。感觉还不错。随看随翻。在午后阳光和一杯乌龙茶的帮助下，我成功的做到了神游物外，逃避现实，重新回到初一时第一次读这本书的记忆中。
我在读初一前，看的大多是古书，或者白话文。所以我现在能用现代语写作和勾引MM，启蒙者是我初一暑假读的那一堆西方文学著作。这一点，我认同王小波的话：真正的现代汉语，是一群伟大的翻译家留下来的。从这个意义上来讲，他们是我语言的老师。
对于《简爱》，早先我是完全被它的语言所打倒。如痴如醉，魂牵梦萦，有段时间张口闭口都在学那种英国式优雅的口吻。小时候图个好玩，没对情节具体参悟，在心目中这就是一部完美华丽的诗歌。是记忆花园中最后的秘藏。但是重新读过一遍之后，语言的流丽依旧，却在情节与构思中发现了一些别的。
听过一个说法，就是《简爱》发表之初，有人认为它和《呼啸山庄》出自同一人手笔。如果现在来看，我得承认的是，《呼啸》的水平，怕是在《简爱》之上多矣。语言方面我没资格去斤斤计较——英文还没到如此水平——仅仅论及结构和流势，如此而已。
我在重读《简爱》的过程中，发现了一些令我不安的东西。那些东西附身于小说的夹缝之中。我之不安是在于：我已对其产生隐约的不满，而我又不想去忤逆我曾经至爱的经典。无论如何，我在行文之中，发现了一些不令我愉快的东西。
《简爱》被万众所热爱的，大约是其作者的自尊与平凡——或者说，是夏洛特的自尊与平凡。那是一个灵魂炽热而外表简单的女子。这一形象无疑是不朽的经典。可是与其夫罗切斯特一样，这个形象始终在用一种类似于自傲的口吻言论——他们对于他人的鄙薄，多多少少，曾经使我快慰，现在却令我不安。夏洛特托身于简爱，
这是我所知道的。但我所感觉到的是：她对于高层贵族的鄙薄与一种近乎敌视的态度，有些刻意了。反过来说，我从中读到了自卑的情绪。
简爱是个敏感而容易受伤的女子。开头用了太长的篇幅来叙述她幼时的情景。但是我感觉到的是，在叙述简爱这个人物时，夏洛特不曾将自己离开这个躯壳，所以她也没有用全知角度叙述。如此一来，她所描述的差不多可以认定是她的意见。那么，我在简爱中，看到的是某种情绪化的自卑，而后是近乎于传奇的爱情——惟其传奇性，昭示了某种不真实与幻想性——和最后一个几乎有点硬凑的结尾。她遇到了JOHN RIVERS。虽然前头有笔，但还不是那么自然。夏洛特对于简爱的处理，开头非常真实，中间段非常精彩，但是隐伏着不安，到了结尾，则几乎归于俗套——一个我料到的俗套。最后无疑是皆大欢喜，带一点感伤。她的铺垫和衔接很完美，几感觉不到瑕疵。但是我隐约间感到的是，这是一个人间女子编造的故事。它已经缺少了令我战栗的小说结构——更多的时候，我读到了简爱离开山庄，就没再读下去。如果我是夏洛特，或许我就会在那里结束。因为之后的一切，在我看来，比之于前，是很拙劣的。
比较于《呼啸》的急风暴雨，《简爱》的安静，其实倒象是装出来的。夏洛特和爱米利一样，其实是内心很TOUGH的人。她们的心必须在疾风中飞扬，因为过于容易受伤。爱米利一飞冲天，写下了真正浩荡的文字。而《简爱》，则在某种内在情绪的矛盾下，写出了一个自己在不断斗争的故事。这一方面，有些象雨果同样自我斗争的《九三年》。

Jane Eyre — A Beautiful Soul
Jane Eyre, is a poor but aspiring, small in body but huge in soul, obscure but self-respecting girl. After we close the covers of the book, after having a long journey of the spirit, Jane Eyre, a marvelous figure, has left us so much to recall and to think:
We remember her goodness: for someone who lost arms and blinded in eyes, for someone who despised her for her ordinariness, and even for someone who had hurt her deeply in the past.
We remember her pursuit of justice. It’s like a companion with the goodness. But still, a virtuous person should promote the goodness on one side and must check the badness on the other side.
We remember her self-respect and the clear situation on equality. In her opinion, everyone is the same at the God’s feet. Though there are differences in status、in property and also in appearance, but all the human being are equal in personality.
We also remember her striving for life, her toughness and her confidence…
When we think of this girl, what she gave us was not a pretty face or a transcendent temperament that make us admire deeply, but a huge charm of her personality.
Actually, she wasn’t pretty, and of course, the ordinary appearance didn’t make others feel good of her, even her own aunt felt disgusted with it. And some others even thought that she was easy to look down on and to tease, so when Miss Ingram met Jane Eyre, she seemed quite contemptuous, for that she was obviously much more prettier than ‘the plain and ugly governess’. But as the little governess had said: ‘Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!’ This is the idea of equality in Jane Eyre’s mind. God hadn’t given her beauty and wealth, but instead, God gave her a kind mind and a thinking brain. Her idea of equality and self-respect impress us so much and let us feel the power inside her body.
In my mind, though a person’s beauty on the face can make others once feel that one is attractive and charming, if his or her mind isn’t the same beautiful as the appearance, such as beauty cannot last for, when others find that the beauty which had charmed them was only a falsity, it’s not true, they will like the person no more. For a long time, only a person’s great virtue, a noble soul, a beautiful heart can be called as AN EVERLASTING BEAUTY, just as Kahill Gibran has said, that ‘Beauty is a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted’. I can feel that how beauty really is, as we are all fleshly men, so we can’t distinguish whether a man is of nobleness or humbleness, but fleshly men, so we can’t distinguish whether a man is of nobleness or humbleness, but as there are great differences in our souls, and from that, we can know that whether a man is noble or ordinary, and even obscure, that is, whether he is beautiful or not.
Her story makes us thinking about life and we learn much from her experience, at least, that is a fresh new recognition of the real beauty.