Free Essays on Wide Sargasso Sea

Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys composed their novels in different centuries and came from very different backgrounds. However despite these disparities the use of symbolism in their narratives can be compared. Jean Rhys's 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea is a creative response to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, a nineteenth century classic, which has always been one of English Literature's greatest and most popular love stories. She seemed such a poor ghost, I thought I'd like to write her a life. [Jean Rhys] Jane Eyre is a story of true love that encounters many obstacles and problems, but surmounts these troubles to fulfil destiny. The main source of trouble is Rochester's insane first wife, Bertha Mason, a lunatic Creole who is locked in the attic of his country house, Thornfield Hall. The problem is eventually solved, tragically, when Bertha escapes and burns Thornfield to the ground, killing herself and seriously maiming Rochester in the process. The social and moral imbalances between Jane and Rochester are then equalled by his punishment for his previous actions, and Jane's rise in status due to an inheritance. This ending, however, did not satisfy the Dominican-born Jean Rhys. She disagreed with Bronte's presentation of Bertha Mason and set out to write 'a colonial story that is absent from Bronte's text'. Rhys's story tells the story of Bertha, and relates Bertha and Rochester's meeting, and their doomed marriage. In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys shifts the perspective on Jane Eyre by expressing the viewpoints of the different characters in the source material, so taking a different structural approach to the first-person narrative technique employed by Bronte. She wrote her version as a multiple narrative, giving Bertha a previously-unheard voice. Rochester, even though un-named in Wide Sargasso Sea, takes over the narration in part two, and Grace Poole enlightens us at the opening of part three. Rhys can be seen as repaying Bron... Free Essays on Wide Sargasso Sea Free Essays on Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys wrote â€Å"Wide Sargasso Sea† in 1966. It tells the story of a young woman, Antoinette Conway. When her family is ruined, as many plantation owners were, by the abolition of slavery, she is left to grow up entirely neglected, unacceptable both to the white community and to the former slaves living around the plantation. It is only when the family fortunes are restored after her mother makes a second marriage that she attends school. This upbringing and her disastrous relationship with her stepfather sow the seeds of Antoinette’s strangeness, but it is not until her own marriage to deeply conventional Englishman that his attempts to force her to live more like a young society woman begin to turn eccentricity into madness. She is completely trapped, for the law of the time meant that she would have no right to any property if she should leave him – it all passed absolutely to him on their marriage. Antoinette’s narrative in Part Three works to humanize our conception of her. Given the emptiness of Antoinette’s days and her isolation from the outside world, she necessarily loses track of time and place. Otherwise, Antoinette seems to be lucid, as she questions the reasons for her captivity and abuse. The reader is able to see firsthand the horror of her entrapment, which calls to mind the slavery in her native land. Two of the major themes in the book are slavery and British colonialism. The emancipation of slavery had already taken effect. Slaves were now free, however, they still labored for a wage. This stipend, unfortunately, was not being given to the slaves. Because of this, the now freed slaves were very angry with the white people, and some were uprising against this injustice. Slaveryalthough a thing of the recent past in Antoinette's experiencetaints everything. Entire estates are in decay, and the creole landowners are suspicious and live in fear. The specter of slavery and entrapme... Free Essays on Wide Sargasso Sea Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys composed their novels in different centuries and came from very different backgrounds. However despite these disparities the use of symbolism in their narratives can be compared. Jean Rhys's 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea is a creative response to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, a nineteenth century classic, which has always been one of English Literature's greatest and most popular love stories. She seemed such a poor ghost, I thought I'd like to write her a life. [Jean Rhys] Jane Eyre is a story of true love that encounters many obstacles and problems, but surmounts these troubles to fulfil destiny. The main source of trouble is Rochester's insane first wife, Bertha Mason, a lunatic Creole who is locked in the attic of his country house, Thornfield Hall. The problem is eventually solved, tragically, when Bertha escapes and burns Thornfield to the ground, killing herself and seriously maiming Rochester in the process. The social and moral imbalances between Jane and Rochester are then equalled by his punishment for his previous actions, and Jane's rise in status due to an inheritance. This ending, however, did not satisfy the Dominican-born Jean Rhys. She disagreed with Bronte's presentation of Bertha Mason and set out to write 'a colonial story that is absent from Bronte's text'. Rhys's story tells the story of Bertha, and relates Bertha and Rochester's meeting, and their doomed marriage. In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys shifts the perspective on Jane Eyre by expressing the viewpoints of the different characters in the source material, so taking a different structural approach to the first-person narrative technique employed by Bronte. She wrote her version as a multiple narrative, giving Bertha a previously-unheard voice. Rochester, even though un-named in Wide Sargasso Sea, takes over the narration in part two, and Grace Poole enlightens us at the opening of part three. Rhys can be seen as repaying Bron... Free Essays on Wide Sargasso Sea Wide Sargasso Sea Set in Jamaica during the 1930’s, Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette Bertha Cosway, a beautiful Creole heiress living on a decaying plantation. Her father had many children by Negro women. She can be accepted neither by the Negro community nor by the representatives of the colonial center. As a white Creole she is nothing. The ratial hate she goes through and the suspicion that she is mentally imbalanced brings about her down fall. Antoinette grows from a frightened, unwanted child, to a hated, unwanted wife. Although the Creole has inherited some aspects from both cultures, but were rejected by both societies. The English women did not trust Antoinette or her mother. According to Annette, Antoinette’s beautiful mother, a lot of visitors use to come. However, she lost them wither her English husband’s death. Negro’s called Antoinette â€Å"white cockroach† and hated her deeply. From childhood, Antoinette has known little of happiness. Lost, lonely, shunned by her insane mother, hated by her stepfather, and friendless at her convent school. Antoinette’s only joy came from the tropical island she inhabits and the native people who nurse her from birth. When Antoinette came of age she was married to a strange English man who needs her for her fortune. After Antoinette’s father and brother’s death, and her mother who became insane, this was the only way she figured to save herself. Being the second son Antoinette’s husband (whose name is not mentioned) does not obtain the right to his family wealth and thus considers marrying Antoinette. Antoinette falls wildly in love with her husband who never returns her feelings. Her husband despises Jamaica and wants to return to England. His distrust of her and hatred towards the home and people Antoinette loves soon results in an insurmountable barrier between them. Even when it is obvious to outsiders that the marriage is doomed, Antoinette does...