ABSTRACT
Some of Jane Eyre's most prominent Anglo-European literary progeny, including Kavanagh's Nathalie, Brontë's Villette, and Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh, replace the Bildungsroman of the changeling heroine with the more ambiguous search for the new Eve. These Eves emerge from a mythic primordial chaos of female archetypes and expectations. Kavanagh introduces this archetype to Jane Eyre's Anglo-American progeny with a hot-tempered Eve who functions to challenge the fairy tale "Patient Griselda". Although the heroic first man is counterposed to an array of divine characters, from God to Lucifer, he is primarily defined in contrast with his wife Eve. Brontë and Barrett Browning both return to Milton's myth in their novels by writing alternative Eve's. In Jane Eyre, the changeling heroine represents a female ideal. This heroic female character challenged gender norms and the typical domestic narrative for women. In Villette, the Victorian fairy figure Pauline Mary Home becomes a foil for the fallible human protagonist, Lucy Snowe.
