Essay on Responding to Pain in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

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Responding to Pain in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

In both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, the main characters Jane and Antoinette are faced with hardships that affect each of them in different ways. In the passages below, the authors Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys illustrate that Jane and Antoinette grew fond of inanimate objects in response to the hurt that they had suffered in life. Although Jane and Antoinette appear to have come from painful backgrounds, each deals with her pain in a different manner, and therefore each leads a very different life into adulthood. Because of their varying attitudes towards life and hardships, Jane and Antoinette lived very different life styles despite similarities early in life.

"... I then sat with my doll on my knee till the fire got low, glancing round occasionally to make sure that nothing worse than myself haunted the shadowy room; and when the ember sank to a dull red, I undressed hastily, tugging at knots and strings as I might best, and sought for shelter from cold and darkness in my crib. To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow. It puzzles me now to remember with what absurd sincerity I doated on this little toy, half fancying it alive and capable of sensation. I could not sleep unless it was folded in my night-gown; and when it lay there safe and warm, I was comparatively happy, believing it to be happy likewise...."

--from Jane Eyre, chapter 4

"...I left a light on the chair by my bed and waited for Christophine, for I liked to see her last thing. But she di...

... middle of paper ...

..., and Jane Eyre may have had a tragic ending if she had married St. John. However, their approaches to life in response to pain determined the outcomes of their lives. Possibly, if Antoinette had searched for love, be it in a doll or a human being, she may have found it.

Works Cited and Consulted

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1991

Ciolkowski, Laura E.. "Navigating the Wide Sargasso Sea¨ Twentieth Century Literature. Vol 43. 3. 1997:125-140.

Gates, Barbara Timm, ed. Critical Essays on Charlotte Bronte. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1990.

Howells, Coral Ann. Jean Rhys. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf. 1991.

Macpherson, Pat. Reflecting on Jane Eyre. London: Routledge, 1989.

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. London: Penguin, 1968.

Wyndham, F. Introduction. Wide Sargasso Sea. By Jean Rhys. London: Penguin, 1996. 1-15.

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