Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea - Literature review Example

Jean Rhyss Wide Sargasso Sea influence by Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Jean Rhys, the of Wide Sargasso Sea, was born Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams in Roseau, Dominica, West Indies to a father who was a Welsh doctor and a third-generation Dominican Creole mother. Rhyss Creole legacy, her experiences as a white Creole woman, both in the Caribbean and in England, influenced deeply her life and writing. She lived amid Dominicas people who were primarily of African descent. Being a white girl in a predominantly black community, Rhys felt socially and intellectually cut off (Books and Writers). In 1907 she left the island and went to school in England, returning only once in 1936. The Caribbean fashioned Rhys’s sensibility and she remained nostalgic for the emotional vigor of its black people. But the conflict between its beauty and its cruel history became internalized within her own self destructive personality. In the 1960’s Rhys gained international recognition with the publication of her most admired novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. The novel had its origins early in life. As a young girl when Rhys read Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre, she began to imagine the Caribbean upbringing of the character Rochesters infamous Creole wife, Bertha Mason. The result is one of literatures most famous prequels, an aesthetic experiment in modernist techniques and a powerful example of feminist rewriting Wide Sargasso Sea gives voice to a peripheral character and transforms her tragic demise into a kind of victorious heroine. But this is un-typical of the feminist writers of the by-gone era where literature writing and reading by women was quite to the contrary where heroines were depicted in a more positive light. Feminist writing has had a long development. Nineteenth-century English women writers sought and created the sense of literary community by reading one another’s books (Shattock p.8). They studied closely books written by their own gender and developed a sense of comfortable familiarity with the women who wrote them. There were very intelligent women reading other intelligent women who were also perceptive critics of each other’s work and conveyed their views sometimes in personal correspondence and other times in published reviews. Those reading the books felt they knew the authors. There was a sense of community with women readers of fiction and the emergence of female heroines as role models. Even so, there was a certain fascination in searching for the women behind the books since very few people knew them personally and the professional writers did not live in the public domain. They were not university members and did not visit social clubs and societies, gave no lectures, their association with politics were minimal, travel opportunities were limited and their personal lives were the subject of gossip mainly derived from the work they produced. In the nineteenth century although their contribution to journalism was increasing, they conducted the work from home. The twentieth century female writer was much more emancipated, free to characterize her heroines in any way she chose. They portrayal of male characters had no restrictions. Rhys does not hesitate to depict her protagonist and her husband in extreme ways. Returning to the theme of dominance and dependence, ruling and being ruled, Rhys narrates the relationship between a self-assured European man and a powerless woman. The character of Antoinette Bertha Cosway, a West Indian, provides a vehicle for Rhys to examine the conflicting cultures. Her black playmate called her a "white nigger" during her childhood. She marries Edward Rochester a domineering Englishman and follows him to his native country. In the same way Bertha in Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre ends up confined in the attic of a her husbands country house Antoinette too finds herself in similar circumstances. Many reviewers have examined the “feminine” and “masculine” aspects of Jane Eyre. The novel has been found to evoke ‘charm’ and ‘power’ (Boumelha p.2). Some consider its strengths come from its masculine power, breadth and shrewdness and among its faults, masculine hardness, coarseness and freedom of expression. Rhys said in an interview that the mad woman in the attic always interested her. Edward is also deposited as a tormented character. The setting of the novel is the West Indies. By the end of the story Antoinette, in her madness and misery burns up the house and herself. Ultimately Wide Sargasso Sea is a modern day revision of Jane Eyre. In both novels the female protagonists share quite a few traits of circumstance and character. In Jane Eyre, society upholds Christian values, justice and fairness and because of this the heroine Jane, can assert her female individuality and self-respect. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the modernist viewpoint describes the world as a rotting paradise where values that existed in Jane’s time, cease to be relevant. The fated heroine of Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Cosway, is culturally split between worlds of hating races. Racial tension, not only demoralize her feelings of security but gravely smears Antoinette as a character unable to survive in an immoral world. When the races mix, good and evil become impossible to tell apart; misfortune becomes noticeable as a society based on slavery attempts to correct itself. Even though the blacks in Jamaica have been emancipated, the female hero finds no justice. Jane Eyre tells the account of a womans persistent struggle for emotional and spiritual fulfillment; Wide Sargasso Sea portrays a woman unable to find security because of the burdens of her society. Antoinette attempts to endure various struggles such as an incompatible marriage and a family history of madness. As a woman she is banished to a world where she has little control and has to endure pain and frustration. Colonialism is the seat of Antoinettes problems. The history of violence of both her family and country, have stalled her ability to live a happy fulfilled life. With Antoinette’s obsession with security and protection she finds herself seeking comfort with the victims of slavery. Existing in postcolonial times Antoinette is sandwiched between the cruelly divided worlds of blacks and whites, between former slaves and former slave owners. As a Creole woman, Antoinettes relationship to the black population merges hatred and pity, wanting of approval and wishes for separation. With these ebbs and flows of emotions Antoinette forms a relationship with a black girl named Tia, of roughly the same age. When the blacks set fire to Coulibri, the family escapes from their burning mansion, and Antoinette runs toward Tia. Despite the black’sr violent reactions to her presence she is incapable of hating them: "As I ran I thought, I will live with Tia and I will be like her. Not to leave Coulibri. Not to go. Not" (Rhys, p. 45). At the time she flees from violent actions of the backs, Antoinette connects with them but is unable to come to terms with her own guilt. Antoinette lives life in a constant struggle to find a peaceful environment that will make her happy. The society she exists in considers actions as having no redemptive value. After her interaction with Tia, Antoinettes belief that she could possibly live and flourish among a different race dissipates when Tia throws a rock that cuts Antoinettes face, causing her to bleed: "When I was close I saw the jagged stone in her hand but did not see her throw it. I did not feel it either, only something wet, running down my face. I looked at her and I saw her face crumple up as she began to cry. We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was if I saw myself. Like in a looking glass" (Rhys, p. 45). Antoinette comes to the horrifying realization that she is not wanted by the black community and must remain separate and isolated from them, despite her intense craving to gain safety and security among them. Her reference to a looking glass is the key to understanding the nature of her fate. When Tia cries, Antoinette finds a connection to a shared pain and suffering between the two of them. The physical pain is demonstrated with Antoinettes bleeding face. But she internalizes Tias tears and makes them her own upon realizing that her identity that overlaps opposing worlds can no longer cause her comfort. Her emotional breakdown later on can be attributed to this rift. Even thought the issues of justice and social fairness are dealt with in both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, these novels take place in entirely different settings. The environment used by the two authors link to a larger picture; their beliefs of whether or not good and evil are separate things and whether fairness exists in the universe. Wide Sargasso Sea is set in Jamaica which is described as a lost Eden - full of social injustice and cultural tension. Despite her rift from of her homes populace, Antoinette is deeply connected with the land. Its exoticism and wildness captivates her, yet she anticipates a forbidding future that is both harsh and gloomy. Sometimes it appears as though the lush wildness of her home has become too ripe and is beginning to rot: "Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible -- the tree of life grew here. But it had grown wild. The paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with that fresh living smell." Biblical references to the lost paradise continue: "Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched. One was snaky looking, another like an octopus with long thin brown tentacles bare of leaves hanging from a twisted root" (Rhys p. 19). Whatever that had previously existed in a serene harmony had slowly changed and become a dying place. Rhys sees its gradual decline as an outcome of a society racked with human suffering. People still inhabiting this dying place seem victim to a life of vague moral balance and indistinct principles. Rhys’s view of an immoral world is further exemplified by Antoinette and Rochesters marriage and its ultimate unraveling. Early on during the honeymoon Antoinette revels in physical pleasure, only equaled by her ecstasy of isolated happiness. But Rochester remains emotionally and morally detached and fails to offer the protection which his new bride craves. Although Antoinette gives her all to Rochester, he refuses to reciprocate, offering little or nothing of himself. He is a cold distant Englishman, unable to assist his Creole bride in finding safety in his arms. "You are safe, Id say. Shed like that -- to be told you are safe. Or Id touch her face gently and touch tears. Tears -- nothing! Words -- less than nothing. I did not love her. I was thirsty for her, but that is not love. I felt very little tenderness for her, she was a stranger to me, a stranger who did not think or feel as I did," (Rhys, p. 93). Rochester finds Antoinettes affinity to the land and its people very incompatible with his personal feelings. He is aware of and intellectually understands her desires but unable to act to satisfy her wishes. In contrast to the Rochester in Brontës novel, Rhyss Rochester does not develop morally or spiritually. He considers Jamaican life comprising of different rules and requirements than those of Victorian English society. Rochester does not consider his marriage, his wife, or the land he temporarily occupies to be legitimate. Rochester, like Rhys, observes no moral hierarchy to influence his actions. During their honeymoon, their sensuality mirrors not only isolated episodes of sexual gratification but also a premonition of the unraveling of his marriage. Initially, her erotic sensuality hypnotizes him, and comments, "one afternoon the sight of a dress which shed left lying on her bedroom floor made me breathless and savage with desire," (Rhys, p. 93). After awakening from love making, fatigued from physical passion he is able to set aside true consideration of his actions because he lives in a world that is not real to him. His use of the word "savage" reflects feelings embedded not in his emotions but rather the environment. He constantly uses lunar images when describing his bride, as in reality he considers her important only during the night. Rochester gives her no consideration during daytime and Antoinette has no opportunity of being emotionally attached or act as a moral compass to him. Antoinette’s worries continue when a letter arrives from Daniel Cosway, indicating an intrusion from the outside world. The result is that at bedtime she cannot even occupy her husbands interests. When Rochester realizes that his actions are being judged outside Granbois, he starts to consider things with caution. He acts with neither emotion nor love, and avoids any morally ambiguous situation because he is deficient of the capacity to make informed decisions with regards to his actions. Along with a corrupt colonial government, no overall force exists to differentiate good from evil. The land has neither legal nor spiritual laws, and Rochester feels right and wrong don’t make a difference. There is a correlation between Rochesters reactions to the natural beauty of Jamaica to his feelings for his wife to whom he is unable to offer any security. He finds it difficult to enjoy the natural beauty he sees. Constantly wishing to dominate, he is in conflict with real feelings that he cannot define: "It was a beautiful place -- wild, untouched, above all untouched, with an alien, disturbing secret loveliness. And it kept its secret. Id find myself thinking, "what I see is nothing -- I want what it hides -- that is not nothing" (Rhys, p. 87). Due to Rochester’s strict controlling character, he is unable to enjoy the simple natural splendor of the islands. As he is morally deficient to appreciate the vagueness of his surroundings, he gradually comes to despise them: "I hated the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the rain. I hated the sunsets of whatever colour, I hated its beauty and its magic and the secret I would never know. I hated its indifference and the cruelty which was part of its loveliness." He relates the natural world to his wife, "Above all I hated her. For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it" (Rhys, p. 172). Rochester looks for answers and solve his problems but finds that struggling to define this world is a fruitless endeavor since it is intrinsically unfathomable and illogical. The world of Wide Sargasso Sea is not the righteous and ethical domain of Jane Eyre from which Brontës Rochester comes from. Instead, it is a perplexing sphere lacking truths. The letter from Daniel Cosways to Rochester cements Antoinette’s fate as a heroine powerless to decide her own happiness. Rochesters reaction to the letter uncovers his true feelings towards Antoinette, revealing that he no longer recognizes her as alluring but savage and boorish. His changed opinion of his bride is due to this outside correspondence. Antoinettes cultural split makes Rochesters categorization easier to apply. No longer able to ally herself with the black population she remains stained by past association. Unlike Jane Eyres world, hers holds no chance for redemption. After fleeing Thornfield during the night, Jane nearly perishes as she seeks refuge. Finding herself in the cold rain, Jane prepares herself for death but is saved in time by St. John Rivers: "All men must die, said a voice quite close at hand; but all are not condemned to meet a lingering and premature doom, such as yours would be if you perished here of want" (Brontë, p. 286). Jane inhabits a world of constant hope, resulting from her own spirituality and the Christian compassion of others. In Wide Sargasso Sea the world is tainted by the slave trade and colonialism. Antoinette finds it impossible to improve her situation in a place where progressive movement based on moral goodness is non existent. In both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea the heroines rely upon various forms of spirituality during their troubling relationships with their respective Mr. Rochester. In Jane Eyre morality and spirituality merge, they do not in Wide Sargasso Sea. Jane is told to "flee temptation!" and a begging Rochester by the visage of her mother in a dream (Brontë, p. 272). She obliges and after escaping into the night, her faith allows Jane to persist through severe conditions until she arrives at a ministers door. Wide Sargasso Sea reverses the idea of spirituality. Antoinette seeks guidance from the mother-figure of Christophine, but she wants to submit to temptation, not escape it. She turns to black magic, to lure her husband, pleading, "Christophine, if he, my husband, could come to me one night. Once more. I would make him love me" (Rhys, p. 113). She yearns to return to those nights that marked the start of her honeymoon, to the times when she could make Rochester drunk with pleasure. On the one hand, Jane, moral and dignified throughout, must reproach Rochester enticements; Antoinette resorts to simple measures to charm her husband. These contrasting actions are as a result of the two characters existing in different environments. The marriage between Antoinette and Rochester cannot be meaningful and fulfilling because they live in a world where a gross social injustice created the transitory paradise. Wide Sargasso Sea’s setting does not allow a successful marriage between persons with conflicting emotional needs. Brontës world is a virtuous place, highlighted by the manner in which Rochester proposes to Jane. In contrast to the arranged marriage for profit as in Wide Sargasso Sea it is a union of two people who want each other for emotional and spiritual satisfaction. Rochesters proposal to Jane is associated to a worship service: "He put me off his knee, rose and reverently lifting his hat from his brow, and bending his sightless eyes to the earth, he stood in mute devotion. Only the last words of the worship were audible" (Brontë, p. 382). Rochesters disability represents a moral resurrection. Physically blind, he can see his love for Jane clearly. With higher power as a guide, Rochester corrects his previously objectionable behavior: "I thank my Maker that in the midst of judgment He has remembered mercy. I humbly entreat my Redeemer to give me strength to lead henceforth a purer life than I have done hitherto" (Brontë, p. 382). Janes happy ending, "Reader, I married him," is a result of the spiritual and social forces created in Jane Eyre’s world. On the other hand, Antoinette and Rochesters marriage in Jamaica, instead of representing the optimistic conclusion of a moral journey, marks the beginning of the end for Antoinette. The union with Rochester drives her to the brink, also physically and emotionally distances her from her homeland. She eventually ends up hating the lost paradise of the islands before her departure. The failure in her relationship shows the complete lack of redemption open to her. With her name robbed together with her spirit, and money, Antoinette surrenders upon realizing the non-existence of hope: “If my father, my real father was alive you wouldnt come back here in a hurry after hed finished with you. If he was alive. Do you know what youve done to me? Its not the girl, not the girl. But I loved this place and you have made it into a place I hate. I used to think that if everything else went out of my life I would still have this, and now you have spoilt it. Its just somewhere else where I have been unhappy, and all the other things are nothing to what has happened here. I hate it now like I hate you and before I die I will show you how much I hate you.” (Rhys, p. 147) She refers to the temporary paradise of her childhood when she mentions her father, was a far better place and time than the present with Rochester. Hopeless in her current life and her past life, circumstances force her to turn into herself. As Antoinettes disintegrates to insanity Rhys contends that justice is not available to any member of any race. Even with the end of the slave trade, its aftermath linger. In Wide Sargasso Sea there is a frequent mention of greed, to explain both Rochesters purpose for marrying Antoinette and the ongoing disorder ensuing from the slave trade. There is an underpinning of social injustice that was the foundation of the paradise that Antoinette searched for in her childhood and tried to possess during her honeymoon. This is similar to Antoinette’s marriage to Rochester which was also based on similarly immoral foundation, thus linking her personal problems to the larger political predicament of her homeland. At Thornfield, Antoinette acts as the mad woman in the attic and states: "Then I heard a clock ticking and it was made of gold. Gold is the idol they worship" (Rhys, p. 188). The religious feature evident in Jane Eyre is not possible in Wide Sargasso Sea because of a spirituality aimed at acquiring earthly possessions and wealth. Some time later Christophine criticizes Rochesters reasons for marrying Antoinette: "Everybody know that you marry her for her money and you take it all. And then you want to break her up, because you jealous of her. She is more better than you, she have better blood in her and she dont care for money -- its nothing for her" (Rhys, p. 152). As greed has besieged many of the characters, in the process, Antoinettes life has been ruined. The people concerned chiefly in financial growth typify a sinful world where actions have no consequences. Since no character can rectify the wrongs of his or her past, true Christian justice does not exist in this modern world. Rhyss modern characters have lesser chance for salvation than Brontës Victorian ones, simply because of the unfairness of the world. Jane Eyre ends with a re-creation of Eden whereas Wide Sargasso Sea begins after its fall. Both novels progress towards different directions -- Wide Sargasso Sea narrates the heroine’s demise in an unreasonable world whereas Jane Eyre portrays a heroine capable of finding satisfaction in the presence of a spiritual justice. While studying Janes story, one notices her immense gratefulness to a compassionate world order and her happy ending is a result of a world where salvation is possible: "I hold myself supremely blest -- blest beyond what language can express; because I am my husbands life as fully as he is mine. No woman was very nearer to her mate than I am; ever more absolutely bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh" (Brontë, p. 384). Janes opinion of her marriage to Rochester shows her true happiness but also makes an important Biblical reference. She relates herself to Eve, created from the "bone" of Adam. Using the image of these characters from Genesis, Brontë believes good and evil are separate. At the end of her novel she has overturned the Biblical tale, returning Adam and Eve to their former paradise. Wide Sargasso Sea concludes with the disguised demise of its heroine. Antoinette submits after discovering that not even human laws can bring order to her chaotic world. Despite this, she believes that she can lawfully alter her position. When her step-brother, Richard Mason, visits her at Thornfield, he reveals that he is powerless to legally arbitrate in her marital problems. The wrongs Antoinette suffered cannot even be righted by government intervention and human law and spiritual remedy is a little late. "I was in the room but I didnt hear all he said except I cannot interfere legally between yourself and your husband. It was when he said legally that you flew at him and when he twisted the knife out of your hand you bit him" (Rhys, p. 184). When this last attempt to correct her situation fails, she takes action into her own hands, hurting her brother and eventually trying to kill Rochester. Her ultimate death suggests that even a womans personal strength and resolve are not to set right a wicked world. Rhys states that the injustice Antoinette suffers is not limited to the West Indies. Antoinette loses her life in England, in this "cold cardboard house where I walk at night" (Rhys, p. 181). Rhyss modernist England is unlike Brontës. Justice has little meaning here. England is mentioned in a worldly context, calling to mind its far-reaching influences. Rhys is a postcolonial author and she disputes the idea of England as a citadel of justice: "England, rosy pink in the geography book map, but on the page opposite the words are closely crowded, heavy looking. Exports coal, iron, wool" (Rhys, p. 111). Fearing cultural change, Antoinette knows that Europe might have its own problems. Antoinettes description of the place symbolizes a voice from the colony. She resolutely declares that the land is responsible for the fall of the paradise. Only the slave owners have benefited from its riches. At the end of Wide Sargasso Sea, the fire Antoinette creates causes the end of her struggle for security and happiness. The fire she sets mirrors the one set by the former slaves at Coulibri. This act towards the oppressors highlights the direct alliance with a group that Antoinette could belong to. Rhys’s conclusion is that redemption is not possible for Antoinette. Coulibri’s destruction by the emancipated blacks symbolizes their desire to exact revenge for the injustices they suffered; this act was their revolt against colonialism’s oppressive forces. Antoinette burns down Thornfield in order to fight the patriarchal powers that have her locked in marriage to a man whom she loathes. But for Antoinette, the fire does not bring about a happy and Rochester is allowed to marry his true love. This unfairness is the central theme of Wide Sargasso Sea: solutions do not exist due to larger, external imbalances. The former slaves received only momentary contentment with Coulibris destruction since they were still forced to live among postcolonial repression. The end of Thornfield, on the one hand meant the death of Antoinette Cosway and the marriage of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. A modern day heroine’s life ends up being a sacrifice and the world at large is too crooked to perceive this. Rhys’s view of the world is demonstrated by the subversive structure of Wide Sargasso Seas narrative. It also displays a basic difference in style from Jane Eyre which shows only Janes viewpoint on the chronologically events. The inherent order is not in evidence in Wide Sargasso Sea which has considerable displacement. The narrative moves along at different paces, and some flashbacks are explained in various ways. Also, not only Antoinette but other characters too have internal monologues. The different voices seems to produce a disordered setting, allowing Rhys to use Antoinette whose spirit is never able to find a relaxed and safe place. The number of characters having an internal voice serves to establish a sense of isolation. These characters speak their own thoughts because there no other character exists suitable enough to convey their inner most sentiments. Conclusion There are political underpinnings in Jean Rhyss attempt to re-examine a Victorian masterpiece such as Jane Eyre. Wide Sargasso Sea should be read with the analytic lenses of feminism, post-colonialism, and modernism. From its narrative structure to the voices of its characters, this novel does not pretend to be Victorian literature, despite its setting in that period. Antoinette Cosway is a character unable ever to find security or happiness. The fallen paradise surrounding her life in the Caribbean was never the ideal Eden. This truth haunts her as she desperately attempts to escape her destiny as a tragic heroine. She is divided between two cultural forces, and not simply between Jamaica’s black and white populations. Antoinette is caught in a Victorian time depicted by a modern writer. Her commitment to Victorian ideals explains why she struggles intensely to keep in tact her relationship with Rochester and her remote life at Granbois. However it is her modern characterization by Rhys that causes her to fail, unable to survive an imagined world where injustice exists lost and actions are not subject to redemption. Jane Eyres individuality and strong resolve are possible because she still lives in a just world. Chaos materializes when that world starts to examine itself, free its slaves, and questions the injustices of its past. Antoinette Cosway is burnt in this chaos. References Books and Writers (2003). Jean Rhys. Available http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rhys.htm 3 Jun 06 [3] Boumelha, Penny (1990). Charlotte Bronte (Key Women Writers). Indiana University Press. Brontë, Charlotte (1847). Jane Eyre. W. W. Norton. Discussing Books (2000). Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea. Available http://discussingbooks.cohprog.com/dbe/English/WideSargassoSea.htm 3 Jun 06 [6] Gaskell, Elizabeth (1998). The Life of Charlotte Bronte. Penguin Classics. Gilbert, Sandra M. (2000). The Madwoman in the Attic : The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press; 2nd edition. Landow, George P. (2004). Literature of the Caribbean. Available http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/caribbean/dominica/rhys/bronte1.html 4 Jun 06 [7] QUB – Queen’s University Belfast (1997). Available http://www.qub.ac.uk/en/imperial/carib/rhysbio.htm 3 Jun 06 [2] Rhys, Jean (1992). Wide Sargasso Sea. W. W. Norton. Shattock, Joanne (2001). Women and Literature in Britain 1800-1900. Cambridge University Press. World Literature in English. (2001). Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. Available http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/caribbean/rhys.htm 2 Jun 06 [1] Read More