Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea

Places take on a symbolic significance in Wide Sargasso Sea. Discuss

the way in which Jean Rhys uses different locations in the narrative.

Place in 'Wide Sargasso Sea' seems to be used to convey Antoinette's

frame of mind at different times in her life. Wally Look Lai believes

that "The West Indian setting...is central to the novel...(and) the

theme of rejected womanhood is utilized symbolically in order to make

an artistic statement about West Indian society and about an aspect of

the West Indian experience".

In Part One of 'Wide Sargasso Sea', Coulibri and the convent in

Spanish Town are presented as contrasts in that they represent danger

and safety respectively. Antoinette's mother describes how she feels

'marooned' in Coulibri, which could refer to both their geographical

position and the fact that they live on an island, and also their

position in society, and the racial tension which exists therein. This

racial tension between the white Creoles and the black people stems

from the fact that Creoles such as the Cosways' ancestors had been

slave-owners, and the emancipation had left these families virtually

penniless and lacking in respect. Jane Miller argues that "a woman on

her own..is always alone if she depends on men...and vulnerable and

weakened as the..foreigner is vulnerable and weakened". She therefore

believes that Annette and Antoinette's isolation is due not only to

the fact that they are foreigners, but also because they are women who

are forced to be dependent upon men, and I agree that this is partly

what adds to their isolation from society.

Antoinette always pays careful attention to her natural surroundings.

They almost seem perfect as she uses simile to com...

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...ntoinette, but Anna Morgan, the heroine of "Voyage in the

Dark", who comes from England to the Caribbean and recounts her

attempts to come to terms with her new life. A feminist would say that

Antoinette struggles primarily against the dictates of patriarchy. For

example, it is Rochester who declares that Antoinette is "not English

or European either" and also he who takes her away from her home in

the West Indies and locks her up in the attic in his house in England.

However, Selma James believes that the feminism and race issues run

parallel to each other. She thinks that "the female dilemma and female

vulnerability with men and in society generally is inseparable from

the West Indian preoccupations about race..", and I am inclined to

agree with her, and think that Jean Rhys uses location in the novel

extremely effectively in order to convey this idea.