Wide Sargasso Sea - Research Paper Example

Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette who is based on the madwoman in Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte, she is brought up inJamaica during the post-emancipation period. She leads a life of solitude because her family was experiencing hard times as a result of the threat from the freed slaves and their rejection from the whites in Jamaica. Her families, creoles, were in their own race because they could not identify with any of the races in Jamaica that were determined by financial muscles. They are forced to flee their home in Coulibri as a result of the attack by the freed slaves who were avenging on the family, this became apparent because Mr. Mason, stepfather, declined Annette’s pleas to move from that place, she is married to Rochester, an Englishman who had accepted to marry her because of his greedy to get her wealthy, her ordeal with Rochester nearly leads to her being mad and referred to as Marionetta and Bertha by Rochester (Drake 199). Rochester, the man who is married by Antoinette, is unnamed in the book but his identity comes clear when we take into consideration the hero in Jane Eyre (Harris 191). His coming to Jamaica is influenced by Mr. Mason and Antoinette’s half brother and the whole situation led to a hasty marriage between the two. He sees the whole wedding as a trick considering the way it was hurriedly done and this is cemented by Daniel’s letter to him informing him of the Cosway family background that is tainted with instances of madness. He could not even thing of quitting the marriage union because he really needed Antoinette’s fortune to rescue himself from being ruined and dependency on the brother. The issue of deception leads him to unleashing cruelty on his wife and this contributes to her mental breakdown while in England. Antoinette seems to be happy and fully fulfilled because of the romantic environment created by Rochester who consummates with her simply to satisfy his sexual desire and not as a result of love. The landscape in Granbois where they had gone for their honeymoon is very beautiful and relaxing according to Antoinette. It created a considerable distance from the people who hated her. After a considerable number of days at Granbois, even Rochester begins to appreciate the place and even forgetting her marriage to Antoinette as a misgiving because the weather was nice and he spent time in the bathing pool (Raiskin 256). Most of the time Antoinette could join him in the pool and they both watch the sun go down from the afternoon till evening. This happiness and enjoyment is brought about by a conducive and humble environment that is welcoming away from the hustle and bustle of life. Rochester notices two different sides of Antoinette that are very distant, and they depend on the time of the day; at night, she could wear a melancholy and somber mood considering how unhappy her past was. She sees Rochester as her own source of happiness away from the doomed past. During the day, she could converse and smile with him openly away from her fateful past. These instances shows that during the day she could view the nice sceneries of Granbois that are complemented by the presence of her husband and she becomes psychologically settled and happy, the opposite is experienced during the night she is forced to come into contact with the harsh reality of her dreadful past and this brings her sadness (Stein 130). Rochester’s inability to offer his wife Antoinette security and his general reaction to the nature of Caribbean exposes his feelings for the place which have a long lasting impact on the wife. The beauty and the natural sceneries in the place do not make any impression on him although he acknowledges that the place is really beautiful, he describes it as an untouched, wild, with an alien place that has a disturbing secret loveliness (Stein 131).Rochester does not want to accept the uniqueness in the landscapes of the Caribbean, he opts to despise them instead. He came to hate the rivers, the mountains, and the rain in that place and even the sunsets in the beaches, he even hated the secret behind these things that he had not understood leave alone the magic and beauty of the place. Even the indifference and the cruelty that existed in this loveliness didn’t miss his hatred. He related all this things to his wife whom he equally hated now because she belonged to this place. The general view of the Caribbean is the source of the hatred he has and he does not give room for anything that is contradicting that. The nature of the area affects his thinking and the way he perceives things. The marriage between Rochester and Antoinette seems impossible from the world go and its even illumined in Antoinette’s dream where she is in a forest with someone who doesn’t like her although she decides to go with him and not return. This is necessitated by the fact that Rochester was from England and was used to a different environment; he was only after money to satisfy his desires. For Antoinette, her upbringing was marred with many injustices that affected her psychologically and she simply wanted a way of making herself happy no matter the cost. This two people cannot find themselves in the same ground psychologically, this evident during their honeymoon where Rochester consummated with Antoinette not as a result of love but due to bodily desires. Christophine advises Antoinette not use a love portion because it does not bring love but just having sex, Antoinette goes ahead to use it and Rochester is really furious when he wakes in the morning and discovers what has happened (Ramchand 185). The environment in which they are brought up and the stereotypes that their communities have for each other is reflected in them and thus their difference. The place where one is brought up is seen as a reference point on how they view other people and it affects how they relate to them. Tia calls Antoinette a white nigger because that’s what she has been fed up about the white creoles. The hatred that is manifested has been picked as a result of what was already cultivated as a result of slave labor and racial discrimination. Antoinette preffers getting married to Rochester because she is not able to relate to neither the whites in the neighborhood nor the blacks who were their slaves before being liberated by the British Government, Rochester sees the people in Jamaica and the landscapes in Jamaica as important because as a colony the people of England treated it as inferior to them (Drake 201). This is seen where by Rochester does not want to accept that the landscape in Coulibri and Granbois are pleasant and really appealing. Dreams usually come as a result of what sees or believes in or as form of foreshadowing. Even if it’s foreshadowing, there is no way one can foreshadow what he/she has no idea about. The dream will be symbolical using the locally available scenes. In Antoinette’s dream when her stepfather informed her of meeting a suitor, she sees herself following a path to the forest following a man she doesn’t know anything about (Ramchand 187). They enter the forest and she would recognize the trees but as they go deeper in the enclosed place, she does not know the place nor understand it. The dream is a foreshadowing of her relationship with Rochester whom she doesn’t know much about, the beginning of the forest she knows the trees meaning they are still in Jamaica but as they head away from Jamaica she doesn’t understand the place and that represents England. This shows that the way one things and the general character because Antoinette’s dream is based in the forest that she is used to in Coulbri as a common phenomenon. Annette, Antoinette’s mother, is psychologically disturbed and finally runs mad. This is prompted by various misfortunes that befell the family after the emancipation of the slaves by the British colonialists that led to the family losing its form of income because they were slaveholders. This was followed by the death of Alexander Cosways who was her husband, Antoinette’s father, and she was forced to marry Mr. Mason, a wealth white man, who assisted the family financially before it was short-lived by the attack by the freed slaves. Annette is grieved much because his physically and physiologically son called Pierre dies when the house is set on fire. Her parrot, Coco, also dies on the process. She blames Mr. Mason for the whole loss because he had underestimated the slaves and declined to escape from Coulibri terming them as lazy Negroes who can’t do anything harmful. She tries to attack Mr. Mason and this makes him to surrender her to be restrained because she was psychologically traumatized (Drake 195). Annette becomes mad and later dies. This was as a result of the awful events that affected her negatively and later interfering with her inner being. This shows how the events in the external world affected Annette internally. When an individual is free and in an environment that that is conducive where he is comfortable with, he is likely to make informed decisions. A familiar environment is also important although it’s also good to adventure. Somebody might react violently if he/she is a place that very unique to him/her. When Antoinette is taken to England by Rochester, he locks her up at Thornfield Hall found in England and employs Grace to take care of her. She feels tired of the marriage life and even requests her half brother, Richard Mason, to help her but he declines. She stole the key from Grace who was drunk and managed to get out and finally setting the house on fire (Harris 190). This incident was fuelled by the fact that Rochester had curtailed her freedom and the treatment she was getting made her lose hope and behave like somebody who was mad. In Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, it’s evident that an individual’s psychological development and actions generally depend on what he/she is being fed with from the environment. This includes the symbols in one’s dream and everyday life. Works Cited Drake, Sandra. "Race and Caribbean Culture as Thematic of Liberation in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea." Wide Sargasso Sea: Backgrounds, Criticism. By Jean Rhys and Judith L. Raiskin. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. 193-206. Print. Harris, Wilson. "Carnival of Psyche: Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea." Wide Sargasso Sea: Backgrounds, Criticism. By Jean Rhys and Judith L. Raiskin. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.188-93.Print. Raiskin, Judith. "England: Dream and Nightmare." Wide Sargasso Sea: Backgrounds, Criticism. By Jean Rhys and Judith L. Raiskin. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. 250-258. Print. Ramchand, Kenneth. "The Place of Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea." Wide Sargasso Sea: Backgrounds, Criticism. By Jean Rhys and Judith L. Raiskin. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.181-187.Print. Stein, Karen F. "Monsters and Madwomen: Changing Female Gothic." The Female Gothic. By Juliann E. Fleenor. Montreal: Eden, 1983. 123-137. Print. Read More