Archetypes are universal images and patterns of thinking that consciously and unconsciously shape the way we perceive the world and the society in which we live. This article discusses the breaking free of the maiden archetype that we see in two of Margaret Atwood's heroines, Marian McAlpin and Penelope in the novels The Edible Woman and The Penelopiad, and how that indicates the more contemporary and liberal ways of thinking of the author and her readership, as well as how these archetypal transformations in characters potentially shape the perceptions of women in modern day Western society. The maiden archetype represents the naivety, the passivity, the gentleness and the compliance of the female personae, from which the two analyzed heroines start to break free as the narration progresses, transforming themselves into critical and proactive women taking their lives and agendas into their own hands. Specific text passages are analyzed and connected to the archetypal shifts happening throughout the presented novels.
Katja Težak (2025) studied this question.