단독자로서의 제인 에어 (Jane Eyre as the Single Individual)

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· 저자명 : 오정화

초록

As contemporaries, Søren Kierkegaard and Charlotte Brontë never met, but they shared a similar Christian theology, facing and diagnosing problems of their time. Kierkegaard developed his core concepts of existentialism through the “single individual.” Fear and Trembling deals with faith, focusing on the story of Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s orders to sacrifice Isaac. When Abraham gave up his son, he became a knight of faith, performing a teleological suspension of ethical and absolute duty to God. The leap of faith as the single individual is related to three stages of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. The religious is further divided into Religiousness A (the ethical-religious) and Religiousness B (the paradoxical-religious). The latter is considered the highest state, rendering belief in the irrationality and absurdity of Christian doctrines. The single individual is required to go outside to love the neighbor, for this love is crucial for both the self-relationship and the God-relationship.
In the Victorian age, women were not recognized as individual human beings. Though spiritual equality of both men and women is a basic Christian doctrine, the ideology of separate spheres was accepted as a universal truth even in the church. Evangelicalism asserted an individual relationship and direct communication with God, but required women to practice this through men (ministers or husbands). Against this background, Brontë developed Jane Eyre as the single individual through the three stages of existence. The leaps of faith are excellently depicted when Jane is challenged to overcome both Rochester’s and St. John’s temptation. In both cases, Jane’s attempts to stay true to herself are crucial because the individual is higher than the universal as Kierkegaard claims. As soon as she stands in absolute relation to the absolute, she goes to Rochester and practices the love for the neighbor. Sharing a similar theology, Kierkegaard’s existentialist vision of the single individual and Brontë’s feminist vision of women meet in the fictional portrayal of Jane Eyre.

영어초록

As contemporaries, Søren Kierkegaard and Charlotte Brontë never met, but they shared a similar Christian theology, facing and diagnosing problems of their time. Kierkegaard developed his core concepts of existentialism through the “single individual.” Fear and Trembling deals with faith, focusing on the story of Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s orders to sacrifice Isaac. When Abraham gave up his son, he became a knight of faith, performing a teleological suspension of ethical and absolute duty to God. The leap of faith as the single individual is related to three stages of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. The religious is further divided into Religiousness A (the ethical-religious) and Religiousness B (the paradoxical-religious). The latter is considered the highest state, rendering belief in the irrationality and absurdity of Christian doctrines. The single individual is required to go outside to love the neighbor, for this love is crucial for both the self-relationship and the God-relationship.
In the Victorian age, women were not recognized as individual human beings. Though spiritual equality of both men and women is a basic Christian doctrine, the ideology of separate spheres was accepted as a universal truth even in the church. Evangelicalism asserted an individual relationship and direct communication with God, but required women to practice this through men (ministers or husbands). Against this background, Brontë developed Jane Eyre as the single individual through the three stages of existence. The leaps of faith are excellently depicted when Jane is challenged to overcome both Rochester’s and St. John’s temptation. In both cases, Jane’s attempts to stay true to herself are crucial because the individual is higher than the universal as Kierkegaard claims. As soon as she stands in absolute relation to the absolute, she goes to Rochester and practices the love for the neighbor. Sharing a similar theology, Kierkegaard’s existentialist vision of the single individual and Brontë’s feminist vision of women meet in the fictional portrayal of Jane Eyre.

참고자료

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