WIDE SARGASSO SEA

'''Wide Sargasso Sea''' is a 1966 postcolonial parallel novel by Caribbean-born author Jean Rhys. After many years of living in obscurity since her last work, ''Good Morning, Midnight'', was published in 1939, ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' put Rhys into the limelight once more and became her most successful novel.
The novel acts as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's famous 1847 novel ''Jane Eyre''. It is the story of the first Mrs Rochester, Antoinette (Bertha) Mason, a white Creole heiress, from the time of her youth in the Caribbean to her unhappy marriage and relocation to England. Caught in an oppressive patriarchal society in which she belongs neither to the white Europeans or the black Jamaicans, Rhys' novel re-imagines Brontë's devilish madwoman in the attic. As with many postcolonial works, the novel deals largely with the themes of racial inequality and the harshness of displacement and assimilation.

Contents

Plot introduction

Comparison to ''Jane Eyre''

Major themes

Awards and nominations

Adaptations

References

External links

Plot introduction

The opening of the novel is set a short while after the emancipation of the slaves in British-owned Jamaica. The protagonist Antoinette conveys the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr Rochester from ''Jane Eyre''). As the novel and their relationship progresses, Antoinette, whom he renames Bertha, descends into madness.
The novel is split into three parts. Part One takes place in Martinique, Jamaica and is narrated by Antoinette. Describing her childhood experience, she includes several facets of her life, such as her mother being in a madhouse. Part Two is from the point of view of her husband following their marriage and is set in Granbois, Dominica. One of the likely catalysts for Antoinette's downfall is the suspicion with which they both begin to view each other, fueled by the machinations of a relative of Antoinette's, Daniel Cosway (Boyd). Antoinette's old nurse Christophine's constant mistrust of the husband and Rochester's unwavering belief in Boyd further aggravates the situation. This increased sense of paranoia tinged with the disappointment of their failing marriage triggers what was Antoinette's already precarious mental state. The shortest part, Part Three, is once again from the perspective of Antoinette, now known as Bertha, as she lives in the Rochester mansion, which she calls the "Great House." It traces her relationship with Grace, the servant who is tasked with 'guarding' her in England. Narrating in a stream of consciousness Bertha decides to take her own life as she believes it to be her destiny.

Comparison to ''Jane Eyre''

There are several differences between the chronology of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, most notably Antoinette's age. The "Bertha" Jane sees at Thornfield Hall is middle-aged; Antoinette in Rhys' novel is about five to ten years younger. ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is also set much later than the events of ''Jane Eyre''. In Brontẽ's novel, Jane receives a book published in 1805. ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is set after the abolition of slavery, placing it roughly around 1836 - nearly three decades later.

Major themes

''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is usually taught as a postmodern and postcolonial response to ''Jane Eyre''.^[1][2] One particularly modern innovation is the use of multiple voices (Antoinette's and her husband's to tell the story; another is the novel's dense intertextual relationship to ''Jane Eyre''. In addition, Rhys makes a postcolonial argument when she ties Antoinette's husband's eventual rejection of Antoinette to her Creole heritage (a large factor in Antoinette's descent into madness). As postmodern and postcolonial literature have taken a greater place in university curricula, the novel has been taught to literature students more often in recent years.
The world in which Antoinette lives is a patriarchal society. The convent where she is sent by her Aunt Cora represents a matriarchal bubble within this patriarchal world. Her demise can be seen as her spirit being crushed by the oppressive male world around her as her identity is taken away from her by her husband. Her individuality, i.e. her name Antoinette Mason, nee Cosway, is taken away from her: first her surname is taken—she has to take her stepfather's, then her husband's name—then her given name is taken when he renames her 'Bertha'.

Awards and nominations

It won the WH Smith Literary Award in 1967, which brought Rhys to public attention after decades of obscurity. It was also named by ''Time Magazine'' as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.^[3]

Adaptations

★ 1993: ''Wide Sargasso Sea'', Film adaptation directed by John Duigan and starring Karina Lombard and Nathaniel Parker.

★ 1997: ''Wide Sargasso Sea'', Contemporary Opera adaptation with music by Brian Howard, directed by Douglas Horton, produced by Chamber Made.

★ 2006: ''Wide Sargasso Sea'', TV adaptation directed by Brendan Maher and starring Rebecca Hall and Rafe Spall.

References

1. ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' at The Penguin Readers' Group Website
2. The Empire Writes Back: ''Jane Eyre''
3. ''Time Magazine'' list of All-Time 100 Novels

External links

★ From Antoinette to Bertha: the process of 'colonising' within the marriage in Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea