A Study On Charlotte Bront(?)’’s Cinderella Complex In Her Novels

Charlotte Bront?(1816-1855)is one of the most famous and outstanding British female writers in the nineteenth century.As a notable women writer,Bront? has left us four masterpieces in her 39 years life: Jane Eyre,Shirley,Villette and Professor.In these novels the author creates a series of “Cinderella” images.These images are different from traditional ones and they are given the peculiar historical content and characteristics of social transformation.This thesis attempts to use the psychoanalytic approach and the method of close reading to interpret“Cinderella complex” lingering in Bront?’s novels,and to analyze the origin and embodiment of her complex in novels.This thesis mainly consists of three parts: the introduction,the body and the conclusion.The introduction firstly gives brief information about Bront? and her works.Then it summarizes respectively the studies on Bront? and her works from different angles with different theories.But previous scholars and critics usually study Bront? and her works from the perspective of feminism,Gothic factors,post-colonialism,and creative skills,etc..There are very few people analyze the “Cinderella” archetype recurring in Bront?’s works and the reasons systematically.At last,it makes a detailed introduction to the theoretical basis of this dissertation:psychoanalytic theory which includes the Freud’s theory of literary creation and Jung’s theory of archetypes and the collective unconscious.The body includes four chapters.And the first chapter consists of three sections.The first and second sections respectively expound the “Cinderella” archetype and the main meaning of Bront?’s “Cinderella complex” in this paper.And the third section discusses the author’s motivation of “Cinderella complex” from two aspects: the author’s living social background and the author’s personal experiences.Bront? repeatedly applies “Cinderella” mode in her writings,because the deep connotation of “Cinderella” model reflects the “shortage” in people’s life and the collective unconscious of overcoming shortage and the pursuit of happiness in life.The“Cinderella” model fulfilled Bront?’s unsatisfied desires in life.The second to the fourth chapters explore Bront?’s “Cinderella complex” separately from three aspects: Cinderella characters,narrative structure and main theme reflected in her novels.In particular,every aspect analyzes Bront?’s application of Cinderella archetype from two dimensions i.e.inheritance and breakthrough.The conclusion summarizes the subject and significance of the thesis,and expresses Bront?’s ideas of the male-female relationship and the female situation in reality.In a word,this thesis wants to make a detailed analysis of the embodiment in CharlotteBront?’s novels and the origin of her “Cinderella complex” by reading her works carefully.Through the interpretation of Bront?’s works,the readers can achieve a deeper understanding of the author and her novels,and obtain as well some reference to understand the status of the Victorian women better.