The Cinderella Angle Of Vision

As one of the most talented English novelists whose imagination is seriously engaged in the condition of women in Victorian England, Charlotte Bronte has brought us two ingenious works: Jane Eyre and Villette. They are both imaginative and passionate, oppose the traditional matrimony and appeal for true love. These two novels immediately attracted the world's attention and won high praise when first published. For decades, studies on their social and critical values have appeared to be diversified and many critics have been inclined to believe that in Villette Charlotte Bronte corrects what she feels misunderstood in Jane Eyre, depending on what she wrote to her editor W. S. Williams. Only some critics have ever attempted to read the two novels by relating them to Charlotte's unique Cinderella complex. However, they have not done enough research to explore the hidden relevance between the two novels from this angle. The present paper, based on the pilgrimage of Charlotte's mind, tries to scrutinize these two famous novels from the perspective of Cinderella, thus analyzing how and why Charlotte's Cinderella dream has been totally broken and what it means for women. This question is particularly interesting with regard to the subversive spirit of Charlotte's women images.The theoretical framework of this thesis involves some insight borrowed from Myth-archetypal criticism. Archetypal critics contend that literary greatness depends on themes and images shared with other literary works rather than on the author's originality. The thesis is divided into five parts. Chapter One summarizes critical judgements on Charlotte and demonstrates the purpose of this thesis. Chapter Two traces back to the origin of Charlotte's unique Cinderella complex. Chapter Three provides a detailed analysis of the similarities between Jane Eyre and Villette in the context of Cinderella, based on the discussion about their theme, structure and characters. Thus, Charlotte interprets the love pilgrimage of Victorian women under the guise of Cinderella story so as to propagate her traditional concept of love — women should be angels at home. Charlotte enthusiastically sings the praises oftraditional morality and values, which proves she is a traditional Victorian novelist. Chapter Four illustrates how Charlotte transcends the archetype of Cinderella story and reveals the differences between Jane Eyre and Villette in theme, structure and characters. Abandoning the myth of rewarded merits, the heroine in Jane Eyre calls for women's self-identity and refuses to be subordinate to her husband in order to propagate her concept of ideal love — true love, meaning love is pairing of equals. Villette goes further. On half way a Cinderella story has been turned into a romance between gifted scholars and beautiful ladies. In this novel, Charlotte not only poses the question of women's condition, but also offers a powerful answer, setting her heroine as a great example. Lucy Snowe develops herself to the full without any outwardly forces. The heroine's love pilgrimage reflects Charlotte's intellective and mature opinion about love — Marriage is not the only way for women to be socialized. Women should orient more towards productive life in the public sphere rather than towards the reproductive life in the home. Only in this way can Charlotte eulogize the independent self of women in Victorian England. The conclusion reached is that by transcending over tradition, Charlotte Bronte succeeds in depicting the female social, psychological and sexual reality in Victorian England and warrants her dominated position in early feminist writers.The present paper tries to use a comparative approach to illustrate the similarities and differences between the two love stories, with the emphasis on their differences, dealing with the causal elements, so as to further probe into the relevance between these two novels. The author of this thesis hopes that the thesis is not written only to satisfy an interest in literary women of the past but will also help women have a better understanding of their own position in modern world.