Summary of Clarke’s “Bronte’s Jane Eyre and the Grimms’ Cinderella

Clarke, Micael M. "Bronte's Jane Eyre and the Grimms' Cinderella. " SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500-1900. 40. 4 (2000): 695-710.

Clarke explores the similarities and importance of Bronte’s use of the Grimms’ version of Cinderella within the story of Jane Eyre. She outlines how the two stories are parallel and then skillfully explores the symbolism that is present in both.Through her analysis of the ways the two stories are similar, Clarke concludes that the combination of the Grimms’ Cinderella within Jane Eyre allowed Bronte to critique and explore societal views and treatment of women as well as question and suggest alternative religious views such as those of a maternalist system. Critics have had much trouble with the ending of Jane Eyre, which as Clarke suggests is open to much interpretation.Chase, one critic that Clarke discusses, suggests that the injuries of Rochester were a form of “symbolic castration” and others such as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar view as an expression of female rage that is compensated by the conclusion that cautiously and to a degree suggests “a world of sexual equality”. Other critics such as Adrienne Rich views the novel as suggesting alternatives to conventional ideals with the most important being the redefinition of marriage that Bronte offers, as “a continuation of this woman’s creation to herself”.

Clarke discusses Bronte’s use of employing multiple genres and suggests that the power of Jane Eyre stems from this technique. In using realism, Clarke claims, Bronte was able to portray the character over time as well as delve more into the social circumstances that molded the character. Bronte’s employment of elements of Christian allegory allowed for examination of moral judgment and free will. Clarke suggests that it is the use of fairy tale elements that is a very important part of the novel and allowed Bronte to include magic, fantasy, and the supernatural as an active force.

The fairy tale genre also enabled her to transcend the constraints that realism as well as Christianity placed on women and to also convey an alternative religious view, one reminiscent of matrilineal societies and religions. Clarke then jumps into the parallels between Cinderella and Jane Eyre. One of the general parallels is that of the lost mothers and cruel mother substitutes, Aunt Reed in the place of the stepmother and Eliza and Georgiana as the stepsister.There is also the fact that both are treated as servants in that they do the cleaning, cooking, and so on. They both are restricted from observing pleasures or never being allowed to participate in them with everyone else, and even being exiled when the prince, or in Jane Eyre’s case Rochester, is entertaining women to find a suitable wife. They both undergo a testing of seemingly demeaning feminine tasks and are present as unattractive for they wear dull and dirty clothing and they, Jane Eyre and Cinderella, both dream of escaping to the gaiety of the ball.

Clarke asserts that the resemblance to the Grimms’ version is significant; not only in these general resemblances but in that it includes religious and mythic elements that are not present in the French version. These religious elements, such as the mother in heaven and the suffering daughter on earth, are infused throughout the entire novel of Jane Eyre. In the Grimms’ version, Cinderella leaves the ball because she wishes to, unlike the French version in which Cinderella must leave by midnight because of the magic wearing off and to avoid public embarrassment.Clarke then continues into a brief but concise overview of the German version of Cinderella, which is quite violent and more gruesome than the French, subtly pointing out the general differences she described before and the more important allusions and symbols of the hearth and moon she is about to analyze below. Clarke analyzes the symbol of the hearth which is a central theme in both stories, and as she suggests points to pre-Christian religious symbolism of the goddess or the divine mother.The hearth in Jane Eyre is associated with homecomings and precious caregiving qualities of the hearthkeepers, as well as family, emotional intimacy, intellectual companionship, and even life.

Clarke suggests more concisely that hearths are symbols of all that is needed, desired, and inspiring. The hearthfire also contains a potential for devastation and destruction as Clarke points to in the examples of Helen Burns dying by fever as well as Rochester’s bed of fire.Also, Clarke emphasizes that the hearth is associated with domesticity which within Jane Eyre is associated with a resistance to the life-denying principles of a tainted social system and with this spirituality that seeks to reintegrate ancient maternalist principals in Christianity. Clarke states the in a world like Jane Eyre’s or Cinderella’s where women become competitive and cruel or are swallowed up because it does not value them the hearth is representative of an alternative or choice for life as well as a sacred space.

The moon is another symbol of religious significance in Jane Eyre in that it is a symbol of the saintly mother, or like in Cinderella, the mother in heaven who is watching and guiding her daughter below. This idea that a loving mother might be able to bless and aid a child, even after death, Clarke asserts is central in both Cinderella and Jane Eyre. The moon also alludes to ancient female deities, or moon goddesses.This use of the moon symbol Clarke argues defied expectations of the novel to be realist and represents the mother in heaven aspect that is taken straight from the Grimms’ Cinderella.

Clarke suggests that the hearth and the moon are used to represent this heavenly mother that both stories convey and that of the virgin moon-goddess which offer a sort of spiritual integrity. Another argument central to Clarke’s analysis is the way in which Cinderella can be interpreted as empowering, or at least not conveying negative stereotypes of women and thus very much like Jane Eyre.Clarke again states the ties back to matrilineal societies that are present within the story and also describes Cinderella not as a passive victim but rather an active, crafty, and scheming girl. She describes two different kinds of female principles that are present within Cinderella, as well as Jane Eyre, that of the mother and the stepmother. The mother signifies the importance and sacredness of women’s roles and work which is symbolized with the associations to the hearth.

Unlike the mother, the stepmother is male centered and always in competition with other women over male approval, and thus societal approval. Clarke also states that while Jane Eyre’s family is fundamentally like Cinderella’s, Bronte uses the realism of the novel to further explore the social and psychological forces that destroy women’s integrity. Also employing the realism of the novel Bronte uses Eliza and Georgiana to represent the dilemma of women that confront either marriage or spinsterhood. Likewise, the social position of Jane Eyre and Cinderella rovide emblems of the unjust limitation placed on women and Clarke emphasizes that Bronte uses Jane Eyre to offer a social critique of women’s subjection and asserts the worth of women’s work by the images of domestic peace and intellectual and spiritual nourishment that are offered by women at their hearthsides. Clarke finally suggests that Jane Eyre is an expression of a maternalist system of values that was being debated in Bronte’s lifetime, and the use of these different symbols of the hearth and moon provide evidence for the well made and convincing argument.While Cinderella’s virtues are those that Victorians held to be peculiarly women’s, Bronte uses the story to represent a merging of the mother-goddess symbols with nineteenth century ideas regarding altruism as a female principle and human evolution.

The merging of the Grimms’ Cinderella within Jane Eyre enabled Bronte to question Christianity and society as well as advance alternative/pre-Christian religious views.