![]() Even the black children boldly state the fate of the white people with sharp obviousness that the Englishman finds unnerving. The Rochester character often tells the island people, both white and black that they don’t know how to hide their feelings, but he’s often surprised when they apparently can read his mind or predict his future. Sex is always at the periphery of this novel, but it comes to the forefront at a hallucinatory peak in the story, where passion, madness, and maybe Voodoo all come together. ![]() ![]() Christophine always tells people they are foolish to think such thoughts, but we are given one powerful scene to believe otherwise. She sides with the whites, and the blacks fear her, because they believe she has special powers. Christophine is an old black woman that cares for Antoinette her whole life before she goes to England. He’s a tragic hero in Jane Eyre, but a tragic villain in Wide Sargasso Sea.Īnother theme in Wide Sargasso Sea is Voodoo. Rochester is unnamed in Wide Sargasso Sea, but he’s shown with varying levels of sympathy, but ultimately he’s seen as cruel and self-serving. And I can’t wonder if Rhys felt contempt for Brontë when she gave Jane a happy ending with Edward Rochester. In both books, women lives are contrasted with those of slaves and servants. I also feel Brontë used Jane Eyre to express her gender repression and desires. Rhys wasn’t locked in a room for years, but she did live in isolated exile for years. That’s why I felt her novel is autobiographical to a degree. I have not read Rhys other novels and stories, but from the introduction to my edition of Wide Sargasso Sea, she had lot of affairs that ended badly, and often lived at the bottom of society depended on the generosity of men that weren’t always good to her. In this steamy jungle locale there is a lot of sex, repression and sexual oppression going on. All the characters suffer from a languid disposition because of the atmosphere and biosphere. Nature is oppressive in both weather and the emotional moods it inspires in the people. The novel explores many themes, the prominent one deals with sex and madness, but it also deals with the confrontation of the races in the 1830s West Indies, and the lush tropical life there. The black people of the story vary greatly in personality, ethnicity and ethicality. Antoinette grows up with black servants whose charity saves these poor whites, who the ex-slaves refer to as white cockroaches. First we follow Antoinette as a child so we can see her mother, a woman who has lost her husband, and must care for two children with no income. In a way, Rhys attacks Brontë for copping out, because she uses the tragedy of Bertha Antoinetta Mason/Antoinette Cosway to undermine Brontë’s happy ending.Ī good part of Wide Sargasso Sea is it’s setting, and the history of life in the West Indies just after slavery was abolished. Both authors use their story to express views on the role of women in society, and to show how they are oppressed on many levels. Even though Rhys makes Wide Sargasso Sea completely self-contained as a story, it does cleverly use Bertha Antoinetta Mason from Jane Eyre as a starting point for her story. ![]() Both books closely follow their characters, with Brontë anticipating stream-of-conscious and Rhys using multiple first person stream-of-conscious. Both Rhys and her character started out life in the West Indies and ended up living in England, both dying there.Īlthough Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea are novels, I wonder if we can read the minds of their authors in their stories. Jean Rhys gives a 20th century explanation to a mystery in a 19th century novel, and I can’t help believe that is to a certain degree psychologically, and maybe sexually, autobiographical. Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) can be read without any knowledge of Jane Eyre (1847), and is a completely stand-alone novel. Rhys wrote many stories and novels before becoming famous late in life with Wide Sargasso Sea, a literary prequel to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Jean Rhys explored the depths of the feminine mind living in a masculine dominated society. ![]()
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