Jane Eyre, the quintessential Victorian novel, was written at a time when England’s reaches left no continent untouched. This novel embodies this period of England’s power, as it is marked by Victorian themes of imperialism, gender, race and class. While Jane Eyre reinforces these Victorian ideals, Wide Sargasso Sea uses the history of the powerless Bertha and the images of emancipated Jamaica to reinterpret the impact of British colonialism.
Though Bronte has thoughtful moments of critique for the Victorian lifestyle herself, her portrayal of colonialism enhances the racial and socio-economic relationships that plague Victorian England and its colonies. Jane herself dances on the marginal line between her identities as a woman and a British
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Bertha, Rochester’s crazy first wife is turned into a monster. “What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell: it groveled, seemingly on all fours; it snatched and growled like some strange wile animal” (Bronte 338). This description mimics colonial literature that dehumanizes the uncivilized natives creating a justification for their conquering. She is a savage, voiceless, and dangerous. Rochester relinquishes all personal responsibility when he claims, “Bertha Mason is mad…you shall see what sort of being I was cheated in espousing” (Bronte 337). Rochester even argues that his treatment of Bertha is not only justified, but generous, that she is unfit to live on her own, and he is simply providing care for her as a dutiful husband. This argument mirrors the Victorian notion that native people of the British colonies were savage, mad, and subhuman, and they required the religious and social assimilation to western customs. This argument has been used historically to reinforce the exploitation that defines …show more content…
The time period was selected carefully for its historical implications, as Jane Eyre takes place in the early 1800s, making it unlikely for the 15 year prequel to Jane and Rochester’s romance to have occurred so many years later. Wide Sargasso Sea isolates Antoinette as the daughter of a former slave owner just after the emancipation of slaves in Jamaica. Immediately, we notice that the power has transferred from the white man to the black man, or at least in the case of Antoinette’s family, who is no longer a part of the affluent white community. Their position has deteriorated to the point that their home is conquered and destroyed by former slaves, Pierre is killed, and they are tormented by judgment: “’Look the black Englishman!’ ‘Look the white niggers!’” (Rhys 42). This reversal of power provides a strong contrast to the more traditional white, male, Eurocentric positions of power that Bronte depicts and functions as a reimagining of
According to Jane’s point of view, her foil, Bertha, is mirrored as an insane and unstable woman to the reader and herself who is an obstacle in her way of her unity with Mr. Edward Rochester. Jane doesn...
Firstly, the theme of control can be observed from a psychological aspect, by presenting the idea of an inferiority complex. Rochester’s lack of control can be associated with the early stages of his life; he was deserted by his family and was perceived as an outcast, this heightens his desire
This opinion is a representation of the husbands who felt burdened by their wives who became inconvenient. They felt that they had been cheated out of a devoted spouse because when she is hysterical, she cannot be successful in completing her social responsibilities as a woman and a wife. After an examination by medical doctors, Mr Rochester decides to hide her in the attic and pretend she does not exist. Feeling that she tarnishes his name by being his “mad wife”, he believes locking her away is the only solution. The separation between Mr Rochester and Bertha Mason is evident in the fact that Brontë never refers to her as Bertha Rochester. She is stripped of her married name to extinguish any connection to her
Lutchmee and Dilloo: A Story of West Indian Life by Edward Jenkins was the first attempt to influence public opinion against the indenture servitude system by making the victims into characters that the reader could empathize with. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys explores the one-dimensional character, Bertha Mason of Bronte’s Jane Eyre. In her version Rhys attempts to develop Antoinette into an individual and portray her not as the Madwoman from the attic, but as a victim of the external forces of a patriarchal society. Both texts plead for the humanity of their female protagonist, with the intent of having the reader see them as full human beings. Where in one text the writer successfully portrays the protagonist as a human being deserving of sympathy, the other has aspects of form and literary elements that threaten and ultimately fails to provide the objective stated by the writer himself.
In Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë clearly demonstrates the relationship between sexuality and morality in Victorian society through the character of Bertha Mason, the daughter of a West Indian planter and Rochester's first wife. Rochester recklessly married Bertha in his youth, and when it was discovered shortly after the marriage that Bertha was sexually promiscuous, Rochester locked her away. Bertha is called a "maniac" and is characterized as insane. Confining Bertha for her display of excess passion reinforces a prevalent theme in Jane Eyre, that of oppressive sexual Victorian values. Bertha's captivity metaphorically speaks on the male-dominated Victorian society in which women are inferior and scorned for acts of nonconformism.
In conclusion, the novel of Wide Sargasso Sea paints a unique vision of the inherent racism within 19th century British culture. While the criticism that the portrayal character who are people of color is often one-sided and flat; they are painted through the eyes of the White and Creole characters that hold power and influence. This method of writing sets it apart vastly from that of Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park.
Rochester is a mimic of the occident despite being a member of the society. He is ‘almost the same’ but patriarchal structures meant that the younger son would not gain as much as the first born, and so he is victimized by his difference, just as Antoinette is. Sylvie Maurel believes that by ‘marrying Antoinette, Rochester is by no means creating his own story. As a penniless younger son, he is pressurized by his family into an arranged marriage with a presumably wealthy creole.’ Unlike Annette’s second husband, Mr. Mason, Rochester does not travel to Jamaica in order to ‘make money [off old estates] as they all do’ (p. 13), he does so to please his father.
As society is constantly adapting and aligning itself to suit the needs and demands of the individuals present in that civilization, it is unlikely for such change to come forth without some sort of drastic alteration be it in regards to morality or interpretation. While Jane Eyre & Wide Sargasso Sea are fairly similar texts, an insightful analyzation allows certain distinctions between the two texts to come to the fore. Although change in culture can be drastic, it can also be referred to as repositioning of culture which is the reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society. Comparing and contrasting the two respective novels allows for distinctions to be seen in; cultural attitudes and the impact this has on modernization and the
...ing novels of their time. They both revise aspects of their era, that would rarely, if ever, have been touched on. Wide Sargasso Sea having the double revision of challenging Jane Eyre, as well as social beliefs. “The devices that connect the two texts also rupture the boundary between them. Although this rupture completes Rhys’ text, it results in a breakdown of the integrity of Bronte’s.” As much as Bronte’s text was revolutionary of her time, so too was Rhys’. Time changed and what was once revolutionary became simplified and unbelievable. The fact remains, that without Jane Eyre, there would be no Wide Sargasso Sea, the two text’s are mutually exclusive, and just as revolutionary now as when they were written.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys confronts the possibility of another side to Jane Eyre. The story of Bertha, the first Mrs Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea is not only a brilliant deconstruction of Brontë's legacy, but is also a damning history of colonialism in the Caribbean.
Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre depicts the passionate love Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester have for each other, and as Bertha Mason stands in the way of the happiness of Brontë's heroine, the reader sees Mason as little more than a villainous demon and a raving lunatic. Jean Rhys' serves as Mason's defendant, as the author's 1966 novella Wide Sargasso Sea, a prequel to Jane Eyre, seeks to explore and explain Bertha's (or Antoinette Cosway's) descent into madness. Rhys rejects the notion that Antoinette has been born into a family of lunatics and is therefore destined to become one herself. Instead, Rhys suggests that the Cosways are sane people thrown into madness as a result of oppression. Parallels are drawn between Jane and Antoinette in an attempt to win the latter the reader's sympathy and understanding. Just as they did in Jane Eyre, readers of Wide Sargasso Sea bear witness to a young woman's struggle to escape and overcome her repressive surroundings. Brontë makes heavy use of the motif of fire in her novel and Rhys does the same in Wide Sargasso Sea. In Rhys' novella, fire represents defiance in the face of oppression and the destructive nature of this resistance.
It is flawless that it is impossible to interpret some of these 19th-century texts without coming across concepts of imperialism. The English, the social system used widely in England and the entire English community placed the male gender on a social platform that disregarded any advancement of the female sex (Pui-Lan). The ruling class made the authority and were not to be challenged, prompting them to put the woman in her place, considering her as physical property belonging to men and could be possessed. Although women had their ideologies and independent thoughts, they were to be represented by their men. Bronte in Jane Eyre gives a critical evaluation and contributing statements on the facts about female Other in the form of oppression and
Women, in all classes, were still living in a world which was misogynistic and male-dominated. Their purpose in life was to produce male heirs and maintain the home by hiring and overseeing servants. It was also taboo for one to marry significantly below one’s social class. This is one reason that Jane is not a conventional heroine for the society of her time. Although, as a governess, she is not considered to be as low as a housemaid, she is still part of the hired help in the house. This is why it is unconventional for her and Mr Rochester to be in a relationship. Yet this is not as peculiar as how Jane Eyre ends their relationship due to her sense of betrayal. It would have been considered extremely foolish for a working-woman’s sense of betrayal to end and turn down a man of great wealth.
Toronto: Broadview, 1999. http://www.broadview.com/http://www.broadview.com/http://www.broadview.com/http://www.broadview.com/http://www Gill, L. (2007). The 'Standard'. The Princess in the Tower: Gender and Art in Charlotte Bront's "Jane Eyre" and Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott.". Victorian Institute Journal, 35109-136.
... self worth against the material dominance in the society. Characters such as Mr. Rochester and Sarah Reed are what they are because they represent the wealthy class in the society. The postcolonial discourse in Jane Eyre is mainly anchored on the active portrayal of the British culture as essentially superior to the Eastern cultures and the French culture. To bring out the salient features of this discourse, the author has used themes and characterization efficiently.