The character of Antoinette derives from Charlotte Brontë’s poignant and powerful depiction of a deranged Creole outcast in her gothic novel Jane Eyre. Where is Antoinette from Wide Sargasso Sea? As the book celebrates its 50th anniversary, Hephzibah Anderson explains its enduring power. Wide Sargasso Sea turned Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel inside out. Bidisha describes how Jean Rhys’s novel portrays the racial and sexual exploitation at the heart of western civilisation and literature. Wide Sargasso Sea is both a response and a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, set in the West Indies and imagining the lives of Bertha Mason and her family. Does Jane Eyre appear in Wide Sargasso Sea? They live together in an old house in the woods called Ferndean Manor. Rochester proposes again, and they are married. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, Mr. … Rochester suggests that Bertha’s parents wanted her to marry him, because he was of “good race“, implying that she was not pure white, while he was. Rochester’s marriage to Bertha eventually stands in the way of his marrying Jane Eyre, who is unaware of Bertha’s existence and whom he truly loves. She wakes to find herself in Aunt Cora’s care. The events of the night leave Antoinette dangerously ill for six weeks. Tia throws a jagged rock at Antoinette, cutting her forehead and drawing blood. These are just two from an archipelago of islands grouped together as the ‘West Indies’ or ‘Caribbean’. This is not named but is very like Dominica, where Jean Rhys was born. Wide Sargasso Sea is set on two Caribbean islands, Jamaica and a ‘honeymoon island’. Her “madness” is a consequence of Mr Rochester’s oppression in a diseased patriarchal society, a society that allows and accepts cruelties towards women. In Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette’s “madness” can be interpreted as a social phenomenon she is driven “mad” by her patriarchal husband. Antoinette agrees and thinks things are worse because now they have money. Why Does Annette want to leave Jamaica?Ī year after they are married, Annette wants to leave Coulibri because she believes the people hate them. Rochester refers to Antoinette as “Bertha” as a way of ensuring that she surrenders into his idea of a woman, as opposed to who she truly is.
Romantic love in the novel is constantly thwarted by all the baggage the characters bring into their relationship, including their past histories and their ideas about race, gender, and class.
Wide Sargasso Sea explores the power of relationships between men and women and discusses the themes of race, Caribbean history, and assimilation. Wide Sargasso Sea: An Autobiography of Jean Rhys by Rachel Creely.
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