Postcolonial Discourse in Wide Sargasso Sea
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.
The story is set just after the emancipation of the slaves, in that uneasy time when racial relations in the Caribbean were at their most strained. Antoinette (Rhys renames her and has Rochester impose the name of Bertha on her when their relationship dissolves) is descended from the plantation owners, and her father has had many children by negro women. She can be accepted neither by the negro community nor by the representatives of the colonial centre. As a white creole she is nothing. The taint of racial impurity, coupled with the suspicion that she is mentally imbalanced bring about her inevitable downfall.
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 ...
Have you ever heard of “Early Jamestown?” The year was 1607, roughly, 110 English men arrived on the coast of Virginia, to search for gold, which the Spaniards also had begun a search for and found an abundance of gold. It is the first permanent English colony in what is now the United States. ‘Early’ Jamestown entails the first five years of settlement in the Americas. The question is ‘Why did so many colonist die?’ Colonist died in early Jamestown because of three problems. These problems were the environmental issues, the relationships with the Native Americans, and the lack of skills the colonist brought with them to Jamestown.
The colonists of Jamestown were hardworking, faithful and never gave up. They stayed hopeful, and kept moving along. In 1607 the original ship of colonists arrived at Jamestown. Then on October 8th Newport arrived with 70 men. After that there were 200 men at Jamestown. Then in 1610 250 men come and by may only 90 remain. Without the food or resources to live they perished. The freedom seekers, the land seekers, so many died. Many colonists died because of three main reasons Starvation, Native American attacks, and lack of skills.
In 1607 colonists first settled in Jamestown. In May of 1610, only 90 people were still alive. So why did so many colonists die at Jamestown? People were dying frequently, with many different causes, like drought, disease, and indian attacks.
Death at a young age was a very common for the original settlers of Jamestown. In 1607, three English ships carried 110 passengers to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. They had many supporters including the current king of England. Even after the failure of the previous English colony called Roanoke, the people aboard these ships were quite hopeful. But, by the end of the year, only forty survived. A resupply ship carried over 120 people at the beginning of 1608. From 1609-1610, ⅔ of the total colonists had died all of which were 17-35 years of age. 1611, of the over 500 settlers under 20% survived. Although Jamestown became a success, why did so many of the colonists die?
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
Hay, Eloise Knapp. The Political Novels of Joseph Conrad: a Critical Study. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1972. 120. Print.
Mr. Rochester, St. John Rivers, and Jane Eyre are all marked by their internal struggle between succumbing to feelings and relying on sound judgment. Each character approaches the issue differently, as Mr. Rochester follows his feelings, St. John acts only on judgment, and Jane tries to find a healthy and harmonious blend. In this way the struggle between feelings and judgment is contrasted and highlighted by each character's differences.
Antoinette’s relationship with Tia represents several values for her. Their relationship embodies several racial metaphors. Tia is the symbol of the person Antoinette greatly desires to be but never could. She embodies the black character that is free from alienation that is accepted by her community, unlike Antoinette who is neither black nor white. She struggles to decipher her own identity. The novel opens with the portrayal of the Cosways’ ruin after the emancipation, due to the fact that they formerly owned black slaves. They call them white cockroaches ‘I never looked at any strange negro. They hated us. They called us white cockroaches’ (Pt1 Pg 9). They do however find security with some of the blacks, namely the ones that are not from Jamaican decent, such as Christophine and Tia. Antoinette not only finds herself in the hatred of the black community but also the new English Colonists reject them due to their long intimacy with blacks and due to the fact that they are ‘Creole’ and not English labeling them ‘white niggers’. Therefore Tia represent a girl of approximately Antoinette’s age, someone she can relate to, that is black and therefore has the privilege of being accepted into society. She was strong unlike Antoinette ‘sharp stones did not hurt her feet, I never saw her cry’ (Pt1 Pg9), therefore she looked for strength, comfort and a sense of belonging with her.
Mitchell, Sally. "Jane Eyre." Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Vol. 3. Ed. Frank N. Magill. Englewood Cliffs: Salem Press, 1983: 297-302.
Few people are willing to stand up to the overwhelming power of authority, especially during a time like the Red scare. Hardly any authors are able to recognize meaningful similarities between the present times and an event that happened many years ago—and write about it effectively. Only one has had the courage and intelligence to do both. Arthur Miller was an American author who wrote plays, essays, and stories and has published works dating from to 1936 through 2004. The Crucible, one of his most famous plays, premiered in New York on January 22, 1953 (InfoTrac). It is a historical-fiction story set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The witch hunt described in this play is similar to the Red Scare, an anti-communist movement led by Senator Joseph McCarthy that lasted from the late 1940s to the late 1950s (Broudin). During both time periods, most people respected high authority while a few dissenters challenged conformist views. The public was censored in what they could say because of the fear of being accused of witchcraft or communism. The hysteria of the times triggered a mob-mentality to emerge among the citizens, which influenced nearly everyone to join the terrible movements. Miller presents all of these ideas in The Crucible using his own experiences as influences. He incorporated many of his own traits into the characters’ dispositions. He also described many situations in the play that were similar to the ones he was in, including how he was censored by the Red Scare. Many people will often conform while only a few will challenge authority, will use censorship to prevent others from expressing their views, and are easily affected by hysteria; these characteristics influenced Miller’s life and are reflected by him in Th...
This novel was set in the early 1900’s. During this time, the black people were oppressed by white people. They were abused and taken advantage of. Not only were the black people were oppressed but also women were oppressed. They had little freedom and were unable to be self-sufficient.
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...
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.
Literature is an essential part of society in the present day and enables the communication between multiple parties in a written form. Texts can provide a vast knowledge on subjects dependent on content whereas novels are often seen as being purely for leisure and enjoyment. However it can often be seen that prose
Literature is a very powerful tool that is used to make a huge impact on society or in someone’s perspective. Literature comes in different forms and each literature form fits in a certain category or role to help understand the true meaning of it. From playwrights to short stories, each one has moral lesson, a message or a reflection of the author. I have witnessed the power of literature several times. Literature has moved teens to better being; it has motivated unfortunate people to fame, used as an educational process of teaching and most of all, entertainment. Back in the day, plays were on of the most famous forms of entertainment. Without television and radio present, plays served as a substitute to entertain certain groups of people like the royal family or just for the whole public. This was one way of making money by the actors and the authors that wrote the play. Also present during those times were the poem recitals. This is similar to a play but fewer people are present in the stage or sometimes solo performance. Today, Literature is still being used as a form of entertainment and educational intentions. Hollywood made a lot of money by revising the great masterpieces of famous authors such as “Rome and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. Also, they made movies out of hundreds of literary works for educational purposes and better understanding of the literature piece. Each form of literature has its own style. The style determines how it influences the audience to absorb the true meaning and moral of the story or poem. William Shakespeare and Benjamin Franklin were truly persuasive while Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe mixed mystery and adventure to their works. The style touches the readers which really makes a good relationship from the reader to the author’s literary masterpieces.