On the imitation and subversion of the fairy tale archetype of Cinderella in Jane Eyre

This paper discusses Charlotte Bronte's famous novel Jane Eyre's imitation and subversion of the Cinderella fairy tale archetype from the perspective of archetypal criticism. Apart from imitating the plot structure, the author breaks the traditional model of the fairy tale in which the man acts as the redeemer and the woman is redeemed, and the relationship between the two sexes, in which the man takes the initiative and the woman is passive, to fully reflect her feminism advocacy and the idea of women's active pursuit of equal rights in a relationship. The correspondence between the surface structure of the novel and the archetypal fairy tale and the subversion of the deep structure create a great tension, which renders Jane Eyre a unique personality and a dazzling female image in the literature circle.