Race is a major factor in the identification of a character in a literary piece, as well as reality. Race ties into who one’s family is, where they come from, and how their culture is constructed. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antionette is confused by her racial identity causing her to question where she belongs and where she stands as a person. Antoinette explains her thoughts when stating, “’It was a song about a white cockroach. That's me. That's what they call all of us who were here before their own people in Africa sold them to the slave traders. And I've heard English women call us white niggers. So, between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all’” (Rhys 77). Rhys is showing …show more content…
When Rochester changes her name to a white cultured name, Bertha, Antoinette addresses him about the fact by asking, “’My name is not Bertha; why do you call me Bertha?’” (Rhys 103). By calling Antoinette Bertha, Rochester is trying to ignore the black half of her and pull out the white culture. Rhys has Rochester call her this to show that he has complete control of her identity and life. Rochester can see how Antoinette is losing her identity when stating, “’I scarcely recognized her voice. No warmth, no sweetness. The doll had a doll's voice, a breathless but curiously indifferent voice’” (Rhys 140). To Rochester, Antoinette has become like an inanimate object; a doll. Rhys displays here how Rochester objectifies her and has taken complete domination over Antoinette. Rochester takes away her ability to see herself and Rhys explains this from Antoinette's point of view stating, “’There is no looking-glass here and I don't know what I am like now […] The girl I saw was myself not quite myself’” (Rhys 145). Rhys is displaying that Rochester is depriving her of her identity by not giving her access to a looking-glass. Rhys makes the looking-glass symbolize Antoinette’s identity and by Rochester not giving her one, she is showing how he is also taking away her ability to see herself for who she is. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette is being stripped of her identity by Rochester because he is taking away her black culture and trying to make her follow his white
Tod Clifton's dancing Sambo dolls are the most striking example of doll imagery. This small tissue paper doll has the capability to completely change the Invisible Man. When he sees that the powerful and enigmatic Clifton is the one hawking the abominable dolls, the narrator is so filled with humiliation and rage that he spits upon the dancing figure. But what is it that has caused this surging of fury? It is Tod Clifton and not the narrator who has degraded himself to such a base level. However, it is our narrator's sudden comprehension of his own situation that causes his wrath. The line "For a second our eyes met and he gave me a contemptuous smile" (433) illustrates this moment of realization for our narrator. It shows the reader that Tod Clifton was aware of his position as a puppet all along and chooses to enlighten the narrator at this particular point in the novel.
Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys does not ever call The Man, Mr. Rochester. Also, in Jane Eyre, Rochester’s wife is only referred to as Bertha; obviously, Wide Sargasso Sea was not written before Jane Eyre was, so Bertha could not have had any other name. Rhys’ interpretation of Rochester and Bertha’s past is exactly that, her interpretation. She wrote the novel purely from her imagination of what Rochester and Bertha’s lives were like when they did reside in the Caribbean. Both novels give insight to the other; not only in character development, but in plot development. The two men are so strikingly similar that the reader cannot help but decipher that Rhys directly connected to Jane Eyre.
Often, Rochester tricks her into answering questions in a way he deems unsuitable, simply to chastise her. He does this when he questions her about her mother’s death and again when he calls her dressing habits into question (Rhys). Rochester adds to his horrible treatment of Antoinette when he has sex with Amèlie. According to Rajeev Patke, “[h]er husband’s deliberately casual adultery with a coloured servant in Antoinette’s house distastes and dispossesses her of the only place she had learned to identify herself with as her natural habitat and patrimony” (192). Serving as the ultimate betrayal and reinforcing the bitterness and trust issues that Annette drilled into her head, Antoinette becomes more unstable. Edward Said expresses that “the exile experience constitutes an “unhealable rift between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home”” (137). As the couple’s relationship becomes more and more precarious Rochester taunts Antoinette’s already fragile state. Rochester’s feelings of entrapment or rather his feelings of self-pity, pressed further by his question, “[p]ity. Is there none for me? Tied to a lunatic for life-A drunken lying lunatic-gone her mother 's way (Rhys
Despite this, Antoinette does have a degree of power over Rochester as his loss of words exemplify this “When I saw her I was shocked to speak.” he belittles her by diminishing her physical features to try and explain her lack of control over her appearance. “Her hair uncombed and dull into her eyes which were inflamed and star-ring” Jean Rhys ensures that the theme of control is presented through using different narratives. In the first part of the novel, we see Antoinette through first person narrative. In the second part of the novel, Jean Rhys allows Rochester to have his own voice; “She laughed at that. A crazy laugh” it allows the reader to acknowledge Rochester’s viewpoint instead of having the same nar-rative throughout the novel giving the reader a biased interpretation. The readers therefore have the ability to connect with both characters leaving it up to their judgment as to who has the power. The constant battle for power by both Rochester and Antoinette is exemplified in the tone of sen-tences “I rang the bell because I was thirsty. Didn’t anybody hear?” it sets an aggravated tone and the constant battle for power by both Rochester and Antoinette foreshadows the downfall of their
Within Rhys’s novel, he incorporates the normality of the West Indies during the nineteenth and mid- twentieth centuries. Antoinette, the main character, who happens to be a white Creole, is mistreated and discriminated because of her identity. Throughout the text, characters are victimized by prejudices. For example, Antoinette and Annette become victims of traumatic experience as they face numerous kinds of mistreatment. Antoinette had to deal with an arranged marriage, which results her becoming distressed. Throughout this marriage, she was treated irrationally by her husband, Rochester and servants. She was unable to relate to Rochester because their upbringings were incompatible. She had to stomach the trauma of being shunned because of her appearance and identity. She was called names, mainly “white cockroach”, and was treated as an
her is inferior to Rochester and others of high class. She is forced into this social
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys gives new life and identity to Bronte’s Bertha Mason as the protagonist Antoinette Cosway. The novel opens to Antoinette’s narration, “They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks. The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother, ‘because she pretty like pretty self’ Christophine said”. In those first sentences, Antoinette faces issues of identity within two cultures. She distinguishes herself from the white people, referencing that in that society there is a hierarchy of power among the white creoles. Her rank limits her ability to claim whiteness, for she is the daughter of a now impoverished family. However, in noting Christophine, who serves as the only mother-like figure hints that Antoinette’s beliefs are shaped by those of the black society she...
Of Wide Sargasso Sea it has been said that the portrayal of the persons of color within the novel are flat and one dimensional. This assessment would be accurate in its claim unless we look at how their characters are seen through the eyes of the White and Creole character Bertha Cosway (Mason) and Mr. Rochester. We see this racial veneer (though not so thin or decorative in any sense) first early in Antoinette’s childhood with a little girl named Tia. Ironically, the two became friends after Tia began to follow her and sing “Go away white cockroach, go away, go away” (Wide Sargasso Sea, Part 1 Pg 13).
Racial tension is a major theme in “Wide Sargasso Sea”, with the mix of whites and blacks and white/blacks in the novel creating a cut-throat atmosphere which creates a hazardous place for Jamaica’s denizens. Many racial situations occur between whites and blacks, which Americans are use to due to the dangerous troubles between blacks and whites in the 1950s with a clear enemy: the whites. But Rhys tackles a more important point: an overall racial hostility between everybody living in Jamaica during the novels time period with no one to blame. Instead of using only racism, Rhys uses situations her readers could easily relate to such as: betrayal, adultery, and feeling of not belonging. Through her use of alternating points of views, Rhys uses racism shared by both characters and their actions/faults and thoughts to meld and to show the blame cannot be placed onto one person.
Rhys divides the speaking voice between Rochester and Antoinette, thus avoiding the suppression of alternative voices which she recognises in Bronte's text. Rochester, who is never named in the novel, is not portrayed as an evil tyrant, but as a proud and bigoted younger brother betrayed by his family into a loveless marriage. His double standards with regards to the former slaves and Antoinette's family involvement with them are exposed when he chooses to sleep with the maid, Amelie, thus displaying the promiscuous behaviour and attraction to the ...
For the rioters, Coco the parrot, and Antoinette, fire offers an instrument of escape from and rebellion against the oppressive actions of their respective captors. Wide Sargasso Sea takes place shortly after the emancipation of Jamaican slaves. Annette's husbands, first Alexander Cosway and then Mr. Mason, have both profited immorally off of the exploitation of black Jamaicans. Unsurprisingly, the former slaves feel great hatred towards the Cosways--- hatred that boils over when the ex-slaves set fire to Annette's house (35). The significance of th...
Despite Rochester’s stern manner and unhandsome appearance, Jane still finds herself falling in love with him. During her first encounter with Rochester Jane describes him
The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys were produced at different times in history. Indeed, they were created in different centuries and depicted extensively divergent political, social and cultural settings. Despite their differences, the two novels can be compared in the presentation of female otherness, childhood, and the elements that concern adulthood. Indeed, these aspects have been depicted as threatening the female other in the society. The female other has been perceived as an unfathomable force that is demonic in nature but respects these enigmatic threatening characters.
The realistic novel places greater emphasis on its characters, rather than its plot, and explores the relationships between these characters. The selected passage shows both the servant-master aspect of Jane and Mr. Rochester’s relationship, as well as its romantic nature. At the beginning of the selected passage, Jane affectionately describes Mr. Rochester as a “kind master,” which is indicative that even after his proposal, she is unable to separate herself from her position as a servant. This is further emphasized when Jane states that “he would send for [her] in the morning,” whic...
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