Comparison Of Chen Yun And Jane Eyre

Shen Fu’s work doesn’t construe the treatment of women during this time, but provides a glimpse into an exception to the rule. Women were harshly treated and received little attention during the Qing Dynasty. They were regarded as property and not allowed to leave the house without a man to accompany them. It was highly discouraged that they learn to read or write and they were not allowed to lead fulfilling lives, as they were bound to their husbands. Shen Fu does express some of these characteristics, such as being with courtesans and other mistresses, but he truly had a heartfelt love

Once the novel comes to an end, we notice clearly the way Wang Lung changed. In the beginning of the novel we learned many ancient Chinese traditions by observing Wang Lung as a simple peasant, but as he becomes a wealthy landowner his life collapses. This rapid change of social class makes it difficult for anyone who intends to keep their traditional values until their death. This fantastic novel by Pearl S. Buck reminds us that we can never forget our traditional values, because if that happens your life will collapse just the way Wang Lung unfortunately

Another conflict that arises from Confucianism is when Jing-mei was told to go back to China and tell her half-sisters about their mother. She said “‘what will I say? What can I tell them about my mother? I don’t know anything.’” (Tan 31). In Confucianism, very little of tradition is explicitly told from mothers to daughters in the form of text. Ritual actions are supposed to be observed, absorbed and understood in order to be preserved and handed down for posterity. But Jing-mei, who grew up in America, did not have a sense of following the tradition her mother brought to America, or rather considered the Chinese tradition to be eccentric.

She was very pretty when she was a young girl. She was educated like every Chinese woman used to be: To be obedient, to honor one's parents, one's husband and to try to please him and his family. Ying-Ying was not taught to use her own digression and make her own way through life.

Shen Fu and Yün were cousins. (Fu: 25) They met when they were thirteen years old and became engaged soon after meeting. (Fu: 26) After their marriage, Yün played the role of perfect wife: Shen Fu pronounces her “quiet”, “never [. . .] angry”, “respectful to her elders”, and describes her actions as “orderly” and “done properly”. (Fu: 29) These actions were those considered very desirable in Qing China, as women were expected to be quiet and subservient to men. (Scarlett, Daily Life in Imperial China Lecture)

The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan D. Spence, paints a vivid picture of provincial China in the seventeenth century. Manly the life in the northeastern country of T’an-ch’eng. T’an-ch’eng has been through a lot including: an endless cycle of floods, plagues, crop failures, banditry, and heavy taxation. Chinese society in Confucian terms was a patriarchal society with strict rules of conduct. The role at this time of women, however, has historically been one of repression. The traditional ideal woman was a dependent being whose behavior was governed by the "three obedience’s and four virtues". The three obedience’s were obedience to

“I will tell her at eighteen the prettiness drained from my cheeks. That I thought of throwing myself in the lake like the other ladies of shame. And I will tell her of the baby I killed because I came to hate this man so much.” (P.248) After knowing her husband left her, Ying-ying aborts the baby in her own womb due to her hatred and sees the baby as her husband’s leftover in her life, regardless that it’s her own blood and flesh. She turns to her black tiger side, hides her true self and feels nothing toward killing her own baby.

Another aspect of cultural conflict is that humility and obedient are considered as the traditional virtues of the Chinese culture. Children should unconditionally obey their parents because parents have the ability and willingness to teach and control their children. For example, according to Jing-mei’s mother, Jing-mei has to practice piano assiduously. She would not be punished if she devotes all her effort to playing piano. We can clearly see this point in her mother’s word in the quarrel, “Only two kinds of daughters, those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter” (461). But Jing-mei cannot understand this, because she is not familiar to Chinese culture. As a consequence of Jing-mei cannot understand her mother, she does not cooperate and has rebellious attitude against her mother. In the story, Jing-mei decided, “I didn’t have to do what my mother said anymore. I wasn’t her slave. This wasn’t China. I had listened to her before and look what happened. She was the stupid one” (460). As described above, Jing-mei cannot understand the humility and obedient of Chinese culture, even they are recognized as the

Furthermore, instead of arranged marriages that only benefited the patriarchal head, intellectuals pushed for marriages based on love which would create happy and productive citizens . In addition, based on her mother’s experience, Bao Qin rejects arranged marriages and intends to only marry for love . After hearing of two concubines who drug Cousin Hu’s mother to feign adultery and gain the favour of her husband, Bao Qin is enraged by the historic “powerlessness of women, [the] barbarity of age-old customs, cloaked in tradition .” With the broad shift from tradition as well as her own personal experience, Bao Qin rejects traditional gender roles and seeks to create her own. Furthermore, as China became divided into separate spheres of influence and opened to international markets, British and American industrialization brought new ideas of opportunities for women, challenging established gender relations . With new economic opportunities and education, women could become self-reliant, broadening their choices and their role in society. Consequently, after disobeying her parents’ command to attend Mr. Liu’s funeral, Bao Qin was able to support herself by enrolling in a new teacher training department . Reducing patriarchal control, industrialization allowed children to head to schools and factories, no longer needing to rely on their parents for education and work . As a result, while foreign

In this time in China, the role that women and men had were very different from each other. Women were expected to be quite, obedient, and respectful. While men were the provider, the intellectual and the decision maker in the family. In Shen Fu and his wife, Yun marriage it started out like the typical relationship in eightieth century China, each one fulfilling the roles that society had in place for them. But as they became to know each other more, Shen Fu saw Yun real personality and wanted someone to experience life, so he started to encourage her to be herself and told her she didn’t have to live up to this gender stereotypes for women. They both were always

The most common element found within both pieces of literature is that both women seem to be greatly selfish.

His parents were very kind to him. Some people would say they were too kind to Wang. When Wang was seven, he loved to steal, but his parents didn’t care. By the time he was ten, he was stealing from the palace. All his parents would say was “Good job” or “Nice”. They didn’t really care about what he did. Wang wanted to make his parents proud.

They despise her so much that they cannot wait for her to die, so they can bury her. Generations can only be passed on from father to son, which she is unable to deliver. Therefore, while Winnie is pregnant, her husband attempts to have sex with her again, in order to get enough sperm inside of her, through this, he will be assured that she will give birth to a boy. Wen Fu makes her apologize to him for trying to prevent him from employing such actions. In reality, he despises a baby girl because she will have to get married and sent off to their in-laws home to serve them, not her own family due to the fact that it is not the custom to keep your unmarried daughter in your house forever. Females are not considered the breadwinners or a part of the elderly support system, unlike the males. Moving on, at dinner, her husband and father-in-law get to their meals first. Winnie is only allowed to eat after she picks the food out of her father in law’s beard. Winnie blames mother-in-law for tending her son’s desires as if she is his servant because a woman has no right to be angry at her husband. She then thinks that it is wrong of her to blame her mother in law for her miseries, but that is how she is raised, to never criticize men or the society they rule or Confucius, who made the society. According to Confucius, a virtuous woman is one who entirely submits herself to the service of her husband. In regards to this, it is best for a

In order to first understand the connections between the two pieces of literature, it is necessary to know more about the women behind them.

Comparison between the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, and the homologous film from 1996