Jane Eyre, the Cinderella Copy

Cinderella is a classic fairytale almost every person knows. Such recognition was earned through time and it's originality. Yet from this well-known tale, many stories have stemmed into their own interesting aspects of virtually the same plot with similar characters. One of the related stories is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Brontë uses the main character Jane as Cinderella who finds her prince charming. Even though Jane Eyre contains more about human nature and less of magic, it still resembles the Cinderella archetype through Jane's early life and her relationship with Rochester. This does not, however, help Jane Eyre, but makes it cliché.

Jane's early life can be defined as the classic Cinderella case beginning with Jane's orphaned state, which resembles that of Cinderella. Mrs. Reed and her children mistreat Jane as the wicked stepmother and stepsisters do in the fairy tale. The personalities of these characters are almost parallel. One of Cinderella's stepsisters is self-indulgent, another is strict and demanding, these match up with Georgiana and Eliza in the book. Even though the characters are similar in Jane's early life to those of Cinderella, she responds to them quite differently. While Cinderella is very obedient, Jane is rebellious. This portrays Bronte's different take on what makes a character unique and not just another Cinderella. Another correspondence between the two stories is the relationship patterns between the hero and heroine.

The typical Cinderella relationship pattern consists of heroine meeting hero, unsuspectingly falling in love, spending time together, separate under unfortunate circumstances, meet again, and live happily ever after. Jane and Mr. Rochester follow this pattern almost precisely. They fall in love somewhat similar to the way Cinderella and her prince: reluctant at first, then extremely passionate. After separating, each sort out his and her desires and reason after being apart then proceed to find each other.