Wide Sargasso Sea
1. Setting and characterization are inextricably linked throughout the text of this novel. Discuss and analyze how setting is a dominant factor in this text. Additionally, discuss the paradoxical perception that is Rochester(white, British lens) has of the West Indies and the concept of the "exotic" or "the Other."
2. Madness is a powerful motif throughout this text. Dissect the madness of Annette(Antoinette's mother) and of Antoinette(Bertha). Is madness inherent, or is it acquired through events and circumstances?
1. As the novel progresses the reader becomes familiar with many different settings. The novel, 'Wide Sargasso Sea', opens in the Coulibri estate where the main character, Antoinette, grows up. At first life there is grand and everything is going very well, Antoinette describes the estate as beautiful with the largest and most beautiful garden. Eventually the family runs in to trouble and becomes poor, the house begins to degrade and so does Antoinette. She becomes shy and aloof. It isn't until her mother remarries that the estate is restored. Although the house is restored Antoinette is not and she begins to feel like a stranger in her own home. The restoration changed more than the appearance of the house, it also changed who was within it and the kind of talk that occured throughout the house. Antoinette was uncomfortable with the new servants and she became very unsure of the whole situation. I believe Antoinette sensed that something bad was going to happen. She could tell that the new improvements would draw attention to the house and ultimately cause their eviction. After living at Coulibri Antoinette is moved to her aunt Cora's house where she continues to develope in to an independent women. She then gets married and goes off to another property where she lives out her dream of being a wealthy woman who doesn't have to lift a hand. This is where we begin to see the comparison of the british to the exotic lense. Both Mr. Rochester and Antoinette descibe the others home as a dream. For Mr. Rochester the island is a dream because it is unlike anything he has seen before, a paradise. For Antoinette England is a dream because she thinks that that many people should not live in so close a quarters and that the large buildings ruin the natural world. She much prefers her island to the busy big city. Thus, her perception of England makes her think that she isn't in England when she actually is. She thinks it should be loud like a big city but she it staying within Mr. Rochester's estate which is far off from any city. My question is, what gave her the impression that every part of England is a city? and if the west indies are so beautiful why would Rochester ever want to return to England? (other than the fact that everyone there hates him and that he thinks it's making his wife crazy) and if that were true why would he lock her up in England if England is supposed to cure her? Which brings me to the last part of the story and Antoinette's final change. In England Antoinette becomes the 'monster in the attic' she is a confused, estranged woman who is afraid of being seen by anyone. She becomes more and more ill until her untimely demise.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Rochester veiws the west indians as a lazy race of people. He thinks that just because of their skin color and how they do things, they are lazy. He calls Christophine lazy because she moves slowly, but Antoinette challenges his statement by saying that christophine moves slowly because every movement is precise and meaningful.
DeleteI agree and think that perhaps the fact that Antoinette tended to see a lot of the future, whether it be in her dreams or in her thoughts, might have increased her insanity since she was always paranoid of what she thought she saw or what she thought was going to happen.
Delete1. The setting of the novel significantly affects the characters and the relationships they have with others. Historically, the book takes place right after the Emancipation Act of 1833 set slaves of Jamaica free; this allows for high tensions and a dangerous place for ex slave owners. This is seen when Annette begs Mr Mason to let them move away, as she foresaw a violent clash. She is later proved correct when her house is burned down, ultimately killing Pierre and, as consequence, any sanity left in Annette. This time allows the relationship between Annette and Mr. Mason to be destroyed as Annette can not trust him any longer. Mr. Mason's folly in not listening to Annette, who lived in Coulibri all her life, paints him to be an arrogant, egotistical man; Annette, through her correct understanding of the tensions and relations of the time, is painted to be an observant and careful woman.
ReplyDeleteThe location of the novel is important after that as well; Mr. Rochester, a foreigner to the West Indies, finds the place lonely and mysterious. He associates the feelings that he has for the West Indies with the population inhabiting it- his wife included. He often remarks how he misses England and prefers it to the West Indies, demonstrated when he questions Antionette: "So this place is as lonely as it feels?" (Rhys 89). He frequently reminisces to his life in England, as seen when he draws out a house, and notes that the trees that surround it are English trees, and the house itself is an English house. It is the loneliness that pushes him to Spanish Town, and then later back to England. This feeling is compounded by the fact that he is considered a minority as a British man, and therefore feels less welcomed. In England, he is not exotic or a foreigner; he is just a wealthy man. In England, he and Antoinette flip: Antoinette is now a stranger to the land when she did not choose to be, and Mr. Rochester flourishes in his homeland while he locks Antoinette away in a new land far removed from anything familiar to her.
2. Throughout her life, Annette faced brutal ups and downs, being thrown down into poverty and then jerked back up into a high class society; begin absolutely isolated, then gaining elegant company, then again diving into a world consisting of only two or so other people; having a husband, to feeling brutally mistrusted and deceived by him. The path that Annette follows surely has the ability to drive the right kind of person mad, but not necessarily everyone; it seems as if she was predisposed to being an emotional individual, and then her dismal life did not help her much.
With that said, it seems that Antoinette could have gotten the same genes that predisposed her to going mad, considering madness was apparent in both parents. Antoinette lived a life of being disappointed in others: first Tia, who stole her good dress and money; then her mother, who lashed out upon seeing her; then Rochester, who cheated on her with Amelie; then to some extent Christophine, who could not make Rochester love her. As a result, she grew to distrust everyone, marking everyone who surrounds her as a cheat. However, this does not give her the grounds to bite her brother when he comes to visit her or burn Mr. Rochester's bed; to that end, it seems as if she inherited madness from either of her parents.
1. Setting is a huge aspect of this novel. Characters such as Antoinette and Christophine illustrate that, to them, the West Indies and the surrounding islands dominate their life. Christophine even remarks that she does not know if England is a real place, because she has never seen a place such as it with her eyes (101). All they know are the bright colors and mountains of the islands. Both Antoinette and Rochester remark that each other's home countries seem "unreal." When Antoinette recalled a letter from a friend who moved to England when she was married that depicted London as a "cold dark dream" that one wanted to wake up from, Rochester retorted back that the rivers and mountains of the island seemed unreal to him (73). This illustrates a fundamental difference between the two cultures, where they are not only incompatible with each other, but are also so different from each other that they do not feel like they belong to the same reality. More than just geographically, however, Rochester has a deep distrust of the islands' people as well. While the reader has seen that the residents of Jamaica and other islands can be cruel to Antoinette, we have also seen some people help and be kind to her as well, such as Sandi and Christophine. Antoinette has a deep trust and kinship with these kind characters, yet Rochester, a stranger and ignorant of life in the West Indies, disregards Antoinette's feelings of others and immediately dislikes and distrusts everyone on the island. He does not understand the culture of those in the West Indies and is openly distainful of it. He says of Christophine, "Her coffee is delicious but her language is horrible and she might hold her dress up" (78). When Antoinette attempts to explain to him that her actions hold cultural significance, such as illustrating societal status on special days, he scoffs as her and only remarks "Whatever the reason it is not a clean habit" (78). He also is unable to understand how Antoinette could be so close to Christophine, how she could hug and kiss her. He says, with implicit disgust, "I wouldn't hug and kiss them. I couldn't" (83).
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, Rochester sees Antoinette as the "Other" as well. He describes her eyes as "long, sad, dark alien eyes," "too large," and "disconcerting" (61). She is a Creole, but "not English or European either" (61). She does not fit cleanly into any both, she is not black, she is not English -- she is something altogether different; she is seen as alien both to Englishmen and black people alike.
2. Because the reader has likely read Jane Eyre before reading Wide Sargasso Sea, they know that the madness of Bertha Mason nee Antoinette Cosway is inevitable. We all know that she will one day be locked in the attic with Grace Poole, crazy and homicidal. However, despite the fact that we know she WILL be crazy, the question of why or how she becomes so was left unanswered. In my opinion, both Annette and Antoinette were pushed to madness. They may have had a predisposition to some type of dementia, but I do not believe that they would have become violent people without external forces (i.e. trauma) pushing them to the brink. Firstly, Annette, Antoinette's mother, was always cold toward Antoinette, which could have been a red flag for her future violent tendencies. However, Annette only ever became violent after the night a mob burned down their estate. This likely triggered her downward spiral to insanity because she was repeated scoffed at for her concern about the dangers in Coulibri until it was too late. She was gaslighted (manipulated by psychological means to question her own sanity/logic) by her new husband, who consistently disregarded her worries based on her life experiences and instead, naively and ignorantly, believed there were no underlying tensions between them and the former slaves who lived around them. This mix of psychological trauma suffered from being gaslighted and then experiencing the mob attack and subsequent death of her son resulted in her madness. As for Antoinette, her madness can be directly linked to Rochester's treatment of her. Although in the past she attributes her oddness to "sleeping too long in the moonlight" which is reminiscent of her mother's latent insanity, she never truly loses control of herself or becomes violent until Rochester rejects her and claims that he never loved her. It is likely that her extreme emotional response to the loss of love and lack of opportunities to her (ex. she could not leave Rochester, she could not make him love her) and his betrayal pushed her over the brink and into insanity.
DeleteI agree that the west indies mean alot to Annette and Antoinette. They obviously would never want to leave, and who would? The place seems like a paradise and i have to say that I found Rochester odd for not completely enjoying his time there. I think he should have been more accepting of his wife's culture.
Delete1. “Wide Sargasso Sea” was set in the Caribbean islands. The setting itself is representative of the disconnect between Antoinette and Rochester. For Antoinette, the islands were her home. The warmth and the nature attracted Antoinette, and she equated the islands with some of the happier times in her life. This was especially prevalent when she visited the Granbois estate in Dominica for her honeymoon. She would often comment on how elated she felt to be there once again. The West Indies were beautiful and wild, just like Antoinette herself. Rochester, however, felt alienated from the islands. He respected the beauty of it, but he perceived the quietness of the islands as a sense of loneliness rather than tranquility. Rochester found himself missing England and the hustle and bustle of city life. Not to mention, Rochester was not fond of the people who inhabited the islands, the people who embody the island lifestyle and all that he would grow to detest. To him, the islands were uncivilized in comparison to his home. Rochester could not understand their lifestyle, so he rejected it. Rochester was a stranger to the Caribbean and that constantly put him at a disadvantage in terms of his relationship with Antoinette. The change of setting to England in Part Three marks the point at which he gained control of the relationship. The roles were reversed, and it is Antoinette who became a stranger as she was ripped from the warmth of the Caribbean into the coldness and darkness of England.
ReplyDelete2. Throughout the novel, it is implied that both Antoinette, and more so her mother, Annette, have a proclivity for emotional displays, but it is likely that there was a greater level of mental instability running through the family as opposed to just being “very moody.” However, I believe that the unfortunate circumstance faced by both women pushed them deeper into insanity. Annette, for instance, was forced into poverty after the death of her husband; during that difficult time, she faced the malicious, cruel islanders who showed no acceptance or kindness to her or her family. At last, Annette was able to find some stability in Mr. Mason, who gave her wealth and love (sort of), but it certainly was not perfect. Annette feared the islanders and suspected they would retaliate in some form, and unfortunately, she was right. In one night, she lost her home and her son. After that, she was unable to see her family; her husband left for months at a time; and the man who took care of her would sexually abuse her while his wife looked on and laughed. Annette was never given proper time and circumstances to heal and recovery after a traumatic event; she was just left all alone. Antoinette was also pushed to her doom. Rochester manipulated her. He used her for love and money, and then once he got bored of her, he rejected her. Rochester had sex with another woman, fully aware that he was within earshot of Antoinette! He tried to turn Antoinette into someone she was not, this “Bertha” character. And for his final blow, Rochester removed Antoinette from her home and threw her into an attic of a great big house somewhere in England. The entire process was extremely dehumanizing, and Antoinette had no power to change her circumstances. It was not until the end, when she killed herself, that she actually had a say in her own fate. I think that both of these women were redeemable and could have been treated with the proper care, but unfortunately they were surrounded by people who had no intentions of helping them. They were left to live the same sad fate.
I agree when you said that Antoinette was ripped from her birthplace; in this instance, Antoinette definitely has the bad end of the deal. Mr. Rochester came over to marry her for her money (and this is his choice to go to her), and then he takes her away from her home without even consulting her to see what she wants. In this way I they more than flipped, as Antoinette comes off much worse than Mr. Rochester ever really was.
DeleteI never thought about how both of their homelands themselves represent the divide between Antoinette and Rochester, but it's true. Antoinette come from two vastly different worlds, and this is part of the problem with their relationship. The only are able to connect through the context of sex, but a lasting marriage is not based off of sex. It's based of respect, communication, and commonalities, but, as England and the West Indies are immensely different, both Rochester and Antoinette are immensely different. It is hard for them to find common ground because of this in the very beginning of their marriage, and it certainly does not become easier with time. Ultimately, it is Rochester who is unable to compromise and look for the good inside of Antoinette, as opposed to just the good outside of her, which leads to her fall into madness. If there were signs that their marriage was never going to work though, the very origin of their births should have been indication enough. Two places so separated and contrasting would never be able to mesh well together, especially if one or neither place is willing to look past the faults of the other.
Delete1. Setting is a dominant factor throughout the whole novel. Oftentimes, it is the setting that reflects the state of the characters at the time. For example, in the beginning of the novel, the Coulibri house is described in such a way that is reflective of Antoinette's mother: falling apart; lonely; desperate for company, but finding no one. "All Coulibri Estate had gone wild like the garden, gone to bush. No more slavery- why should anybody work?" (Rhys 17). Likewise, Antoinette's mother finds herself in perpetual depression, with no people around her who want to befriend her, to tame the garden growing wild within her. The village people often laugh at her, isolating her, even killing her horse, in order to keep her in ruins like the home she lives in. Only when others begin to arrive, among them Mr. Mason, does Antoinette's mother find herself able to break her cycle of depression; with her newfound company, things around the house begin to get better for Antoinette, but still, her mother knows that it cannot last at the Coulibri Estate. She knows that the villagers around them would rather see them dead than happy. With the destruction of the home goes the destruction of her mother's sanity. Though the place was her prison for so many years, its destruction was not her liberation; the death of Pierre throws her mother into a frenzy that lasts for the rest of her life. The fire that burns him and the house down is the physical manifestation of the torment that forever claims her from then on. Thus, Antoinette's mother, and later Antoinette herself, come to embody what many of those living in Britain view as the West Indies: untamed and uncivilized; crazy, with no base in reality. Rochester himself, though living on the islands, sees the West Indies in this way too. He looks down on it and on its people; he finds the honeymoon home constrictive and unbearable; he cannot seem to figure out why anyone would choose to live there. He rejects all notions of the "exotic" or "the Other," as so clearly exemplified in his immediate distaste for Christophine and her obeah practices as well as his animosity towards Antoinette and the black islanders. Yet, despite all of this, Rochester finds solace on the islands. He allows his mind to escape in the beautiful nature around him and he takes pleasure in the food, gifts, and women that he is offered. He makes suggestions to go back to Britain, keeping with his white ideals, but these are all halfhearted, for he never really makes any serious attempt to go back to Britain until after he has taken advantage of all that the island has to offer, as well as of all that Antoinette has to offer. Thereby indicating that, though Rochester might insist his views and opinions are one way, his actions betray the hypocrisy within him.
ReplyDelete2. With Annette and Antoinette as examples, madness is something that is acquired through events and circumstances. Though there may be some predisposition to it, the insanity of both of them only becomes apparent when it is triggered by its surrounding. For Annette, particularly, this is easily evident, for the reader was never given any indication that she showed any signs of madness before her time in Coulibri. All that the reader knows is that she was married to a rich drunkard because of her beauty, abandoned after his death in a hostile and lonely environment, left to raise two children, the most beloved of which was killed in a fire, and eventually abandoned again by the new man who was supposed to love and care for her, citing her madness as the reason. It only makes sense that, under these conditions, she would not act as a stable woman. Like Annette, Antoinette comes to be mad; however, unlike with Annette, the reader gets to see what Antoinette was like before meeting Rochester. She is portrayed as a sensible and smart girl. There is nothing which points to madness in her. Only after she is essentially given away by her brother to a man who only lusts after her does she begin to mentally unhinge. This man goes from wanting her all the time, to not wanting her at all, to even having sex with another woman in the room right next to hers so that she can hear. Rochester plays with her mind so much that it only makes sense that she descends into madness. Anyone under these circumstances would have behaved similarly. Both Annette and Antoinette, as shown in the book, were driven to madness by the events and circumstances surrounding their lives. The reader does not receive any kind of report regarding the full background of the psychological history of their family, so it cannot be ruled out for certain whether it is hereditary. However, it cannot be cited as only hereditary simply because both mother and daughter succumbed to insanity; they both led tragic lives; the only madness surely inherent there is that both were victim to such terrible events. Other than that, their madness is clearly the result of circumstances beyond their control.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that even if they did have some form of madness in both their minds. It most likely would not have been triggered, or at least not as bad, had it been for the very tragic events that they both went through.
Delete1. Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea, the setting of Jamaica and England play a large role in the lives and actions of the characters. As a child, Antoinette grew up as a Creole at the Coulibri estate near Spanish Town. Initially, this is her home and she admires it’s beauty, especially the garden. However, after it is discovered that Antoinette’s brother, Pierre, is sick, Antoinette’s mother breaks down. On top of this, following the liberty of slaves, ex-slave owners were condemned. Therefore, Antoinette’s family was accepted by neither the black servants nor the white population. Antoinette is very much split in various aspects of her life and the setting mimics that. Coulibri is a place that Antoinette admires and loathes. She is cared for by Christophine, but is rejected by a majority of the other servants. Later, Rochester makes a comment on his surroundings. He is not a fan of the excess of everything in nature and he feels isolated by it while Antoinette finds comfort in it. He is also not a believer in the “exotic” or the “other”, which many islanders sacredly believe. This marks one of the first major differences that the reader can see between Antoinette and Rochester. When Antoinette is moved to England, she is locked away in the attic of Thornfield Hall. She does not truly believe that they are in England yet and thinks that they are at sea on a voyage. Rochester is much more at ease because he is familiar with England. There is a switch between the two of them as to who is isolated based on the setting.
ReplyDelete2. It is difficult to say definitively if madness is inherited, circumstantial, or a mixture of both. Annette was doing well until there was sudden and tragic news about Pierre. She went off the deep end and could barely function as a human, let alone a mother. When Mr. Mason sent Annette away with caregivers, her situation was only exacerbated because they taunted and mocked her condition. When Antoinette visited her mother, she was literally and figuratively pushed away and never saw her again. The Cosway family was also rejected by society because of racial tensions of the time and therefore, considering that her father was an alcoholic, Antoinette did not have great parental guidance or role models. She did not have many constants in her life, besides Christophine, that she could depend on to always be around. Antoinette began having wild dreams and seemed to be paranoid of the supernatural. When Rochester came into the picture, Antoinette believed that she had there was finally someone that would be there for her in good and bad times. However, on occasion she had violent episodes. At one point, Amelie made a comment about Rochester and she slapped her in pure rage. When it became evident that Rochester did not love her, Antoinette began going crazy, trying to find a way to change his mind. Other characters, like Christophine suggested that she was only lusting because he had made her a sex addict, but Antoinette was blind to it. Everything in Antoinette’s life fell apart when she was taken from her home country and locked in a foreign attic. One can speculate that any person would lose their mind locked in an attic without a mirror or even a view of the outside world. Her dreams became more intense and eventually she would act on them. She was, again, figuratively and literally pushed off the edge by Rochester and her life ended. Based on all of this, it seems that Annette’s madness was inherited but triggered by devastating news about her son and Antoinette’s was inherited but sparked by rejection and aggravated by Rochester’s actions.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, I think that her being ripped away from the home she always knew is an important part of where her madness came from. I think that Rochester prodded her towards madness before he ripped her from her home by basically ripping her from her own name; he refuses to call her Antoinette. In fact he calls her anything but Antoinette- Bertha, Marionette, Antoinetta, you name it.
Delete1. Setting is a factor that dominates Wide Sargasso Sea and its characters. Jamaica and England are juxtaposed in their appearances, conditions, and ways of life. In many ways the countries of Jamaica and England can be directly representative of the characters Antoinette and Rochester. These are the places that the two of them were raised, respectively, and this has had a strong influence on who they are as adults. Antoinette is very familiar with elements of nature and natural resources, while Rochester is more familiar with the climate and nature of England. There are various instances in the novel where Rochester wishes he were in England when he is in Jamaica or when Antoinette wishes she were in Jamaica when she is in England. Rochester treats Jamaica like a foreign and exotic place, “the Other”, which shows the paradoxical perception of the West Indies from the point of view of a British man during this time. His perspective is rooted in the belief that people from England are better, more intelligent, and should be regarded more highly than the people of Jamaica. He much rather prefers England, and often longs to be there when he is not. Antoinette speaks of England as a dream-like place, not really existing to her. She acknowledges that she has heard of it and recognizes that many people know it is real, but claims it is not real for her since she has never seen it. What she imagines England being like is not what she is presented with, for when she is living in the room on the third floor of Rochester’s house, she refuses to believe that she is really there, believing they must have gotten lost on the way. Jamaica is home to Antoinette and England is home to Rochester, which is a fundamental difference in the two characters and their values that makes their relationship difficult. Like the countries, Antoinette and Rochester are foreign to each other. Antoinette sees Rochester as being dream-like and not real, like she views England, while Rochester sees Antoinette as inferior and exotic, like he views Jamaica.
ReplyDeleteI cannot agree more. I definitely see the juxtaposition between the two countries. However, I would like to know what do you think makes Jamaica "exotic"? In my post I mentioned how Jamaica and the Jamaican culture is not as popular in Western education so maybe for some readers Jamaica does not seem "exotic" but familiar. So the terms "exotic" and "plain" are relative in terms of audience (in my opinion). In the novel, we see the "exotic" view predominately because we see Rochester's first reaction to Jamaica so it is "exotic" for him.
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ReplyDelete2. Some mental illnesses can be passed down from parent to child, but “madness” is a result of outside influences and circumstances, not something that is automatically present in a person. For Antoinette and her mother Annette, the madness was acquired. At the beginning of the novel, readers get a peek into Annette’s life and what she had to go through. She faced prejudices daily, with people gossiping about her and overall racism. As a result of these prejudices, people went as far as to burn her house down. Antoinette went through similar struggles in her life, like when she was harassed by the other kids and called names, and when she was present at the time of the fire. Annette married Alexander Cosway, an alcoholic, which brought more hardship into her life because of the stress he caused and the money that was wasted to fund his drinking habit. Antoinette married Rochester, a man who hardly knew her, and therefore could not possibly truly love her or appreciate her value. Instead, for the most part he saw her as an inferior, exotic savage, and didn’t treat her as well as she deserved. His actions towards her were never natural, but instead rigid and false, as if rehearsed. Her marriage to a man that didn’t truly love her combined with her childhood struggles and traumatic incidents such as the fire are what caused to become “mad”. Similarly, her mother Annette’s hardships are what pushed her over the edge as well. The two were very much alike fundamentally, as mother and daughter pairs often are. Who they were as people allowed their circumstances to greatly impact their emotions and actions. Neither of them was inherently “mad”, but “madness” was brought upon them by their surroundings and responses to them.
ReplyDeleteI agree that their madness was brought on by events and i hadn't thought about the abuse they had gone through in the beginning of the book. I believe this was a good addition because the build up of events is what makes someone mad, the kind of "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" attitude.
Delete2. Annette's madness is the first to be shown to the reader. She becomes mad after her son, Pierre, dies. She begins to try and harm her husband and is taken in to the country where she lives out the rest of her life. Antoinette tries to visit her and when she does she sees her mom drunk with another man and runs away. Annette's madness was completely brought on by an event and only escalated after she became estranged. Why was she taken away from her family? How could this have possibly helped her? I have no clue why Mr. Mason took her away to the country, it doesn't make sense to me. I believe that was the worst decision he could have made.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, Antoinette's madness was brought on by much less traumatic events. First she is married off to a stranger. Then, that stranger begins to lose interest in her. Finally, said stranger takes an interest in their housemaid and begins complimenting her more than Antoinette. After these events take place Antoinette goes mad with jealousy and begins to drink profusely. This does not help her and makes her quite unpredictable. The action that sealed her fate was when she cut Mr. Rochester with a broken bottle. This lead her to her confinement where her madness worsened. I believe it was her underlying hatred for Mr. Rochester and her half-brother that began to brood within her until she burst. This 'burst' was her stabbing her brother or lighting the house on fire. Her madness overcame her so completely that she never remembered what she had done. Thus, Antoinette's madness was also brought on by events. Why did Mr. Rochester think it was bet for her to be confined to the attic? Why didn't he seek out a cure for her? He surely cared about her, why else would he take her away from the west indies and Christophine?
1. The setting of the hot and humid West Indies can be tied to the toxic, heated relationship between the characters in the novel and generally between the whites and blacks. This racial barrier conflict is seen evidently when a little girl followed Antoniette home from school singing, “Go away white cockroach, go away, go away.” (Rhys 20) Therefore, there is already tension between characters creating not only a socially heated atmosphere but further emphasizing the heat that already on the island. Also, as the humidity traps more heat and unwanted moisture it symbolizes the more the characters feel trapped in their situations. For example, Rochester cannot simply run away from Antoniette because he is trapped in their unhappy marriage and Antoniette cannot run away from him because she is trapped in her confused feelings of love and hate. Furthermore, Rochester’s relationship with Antoniette describes the relationship between the plain and exotic. Rochester is indeed a plain, white British man and he comes to the West Indies and is uneasy about the people, especially Antoniette. He feels that he is constantly being watched, due to the servants walking around and Christophine always keeping an eye for Antoniette. Moreover, Rochester believes in God and Christian morals whereas Antoniette does believes in obeah (voodoo folk magic) which emphasizes the difference between cultures and people. Antoinette and her culture for most readers are seen as mysterious and “exotic” because this part of the world and this lifestyle is not as familiar to the ordinary Western-raised people (who know more about European ideals and Christianity). Furthermore, the West Indies seems as a strange place with even stranger people because of the way it is described in the novel. For instance, Rhys shows Rochester the strangeness of the West Indies with Daniel Cosway’s letter that reveals the madness in the Cosway/Mason family, Amelie’s “white cockroach” song, and ultimately Antoinette's love potion and feisty attack. These occurrences separate the two hemispheres between “whites” and “the Other”. The whites suddenly seem more sane and the others are demonstrated as strange and unsettling.
ReplyDelete1. Setting is most definetly one of the biggest dominating factors of the book. When reading, one can notice how the change of setting can affect how the different characters acted. For example with the two main characters, Antoinette and Rochester, their change of location definitely changed how they act and ultimately chnaged their relationship. Antoinette was rather uneasy in terms of her feelings to beign with and she had to move location after her house had been burnt down. she started to think differently and became more afraid of things. Then, as Rochester began to prepare to leave for his country of England, Antoinette was arriving at the pinnacle of her insanity until eventually due to her actions she was locked up on the top floor of the house when they got to England. Rochester changed in the way he saw both Jamaica and England. At first, he saw Jamaica as a truly beautiful country that he never wanted to leave and in the end, the connotation he had with Jamaica was no longer as nice as what he had thought and therefore he moved back to England, where even still, things did not necessarily get better.
ReplyDeleteMadness is absolutely a strong motif that was prevalent throughout the book. It was mostly demonstrated through Antoinette and her mother Annette. In terms of the origin of both their madnesses, I do not think that it was something that was genetic. Therefore, I believe that the events that they went through in their lives triggered their insanity. For example, the death of Mr. Cosway, greatly impacted Annette, and for the time that followed, she began to act more strange. She would wander around the house and would talk to herself and would spend very little time with Antoinette. After she marries Mr. Mason, she beigns to feel more paranoid about whether or not the people of the town are going to turn on them. Then, she reaches the peak of her insanity after the death of Pierre as her house burnt down. All of the following were incredibly tragic events that are hard to forget about in general and in Annette's case, it drove her to insanity. Roughly the same thing occurred with Antoinette. Losing her mother put Antoinette in avery uncomfortable position and it made her feel like she had noone left in her life and was very unhappy. Like her mother, she was also very afraid and paranoid of everything and eventually it got the best of her when she poisoned Rochester and in retaliation he slept with her maid. this event also brought Antoinette near the top of her madness and after she bit Rochester, her fate in England in the top floor was almost certain. Therefore I strongly believe that madness was not something that was passed down in terms of Antoinette and her mother, but something that ignited from an extremely tragic event or series of events.
ReplyDelete1. The setting of Jamaica is important because it makes Antoinette and her family inferior to the black Jamaicans that live around them. I found this to be ironic since the leaders of the country were white. Christophine was also looked down on by the locals, even though she was colored, but because she wasn’t Jamaican. Since the book took place right after the Emancipation Act which set the slaves free, there was still resentment of the blacks againsts the whites and the blacks were empowered to now do and say what they wanted. They use their freedom right away by calling Antoinette names and forming the mob which set her house on fire. The setting of the Caribbean is a strict contrast to the setting of England. The difference in settings is the representation is the contrast between Rochester and Antoinette. Antoinette does not believe England is a real place, even after she is brought there. Antoinette’s home is full of life and she loves the wild garden. In England Antoinette is no longer wild instead she is locked up and isolated from the rest of the world. Rochester does not like the natural wildness of the Caribbean. Rochester also rejects the idea of the “exotic” which Antoinette firmly believes in. Rochester and Antoinette are foils of each other as represented in the settings of the Caribbean vs England.
ReplyDelete2. I don't think that madness isn’t a genetic trait in this instance but that it was passed down to Antoinette by watching her mother go through it and being in the same surroundings. I think Antoinette and her mother were both put in similar circumstances which caused the madness to arise and Antoinette seeing her mother go through his had learned that his behavior was normal and that her madness isn’t actually insane. Antoinette’s mother went insane because she was so paranoid about the black people trying to hurt her family since they were white. When the mob comes and sets the house on fire she is proved correct in her concerns to Mr.Mason that they were a threat. Losing her son, Pierre, in the fire took its tolls on Antoinette’s mother which was what made her to push Antoinette away and go mad. She knows that she could have prevented his death by disregarding Mr. Mason saying they should stay and not worry about it and leaving with the children. Antoinette’s mother also could have saved Pierre when the mob had just gotten there. She woke Antoinette up but wasn’t sure if she should wake Pierre since he was still sleeping and because he didn’t he ended up suffering severe burns and ultimately died. I think Antoinette’s mother’s guilt is what drove her over the edge and Antoinette lost her mother after that. Antoinette’s madness came from being in a place that made he miserable and unhappy and she knew she wanted to leave but couldn’t. Rochester never loved her and all she wanted was for him to want her. Antoinette hated Rochester and wanted to leave but had no financial means to support herself since all of her inheritance was signed over to Rochester by her stepbrother, Mr. Mason. I think going to England and being locked up and never getting to see Rochester to plead to be set free pushed her into insanity. Rochester could have given her some money and let her go off on her own but he locked her up. I think she would have been able to survive and be fine on her own back in the Jamaican so I don’t understand why Rochester would bring her if he was just going to keep her locked up the entire time. When Rochester first brought her over she had not gone insane yet, being locked up in the attic was what made her go insane. Rochester would not be able to set her free after she was locked up because at that point she was mad and would not have been able to survive on her own. I think the fact that Antoinette and her mother both went insane was not a hereditary gene that was passed down but more of a situational circumstance that made both of them mad.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Antoinette's ultimate insanity could have been driven by the downfall of her mother. Do you think that Antoinette still would have gone mad if her mother had died naturally without reaching that state of mind? Could Antoinette's insanity have resulted purely from the treatment of Mr. Rochester and her life in the West Indies?
DeleteI see that the madness is acquired through events and circumstances more as than simply genetics. Annette was driven mad when her house caught on her fire and her sick son, Pierre, died. Annette spent most of her time before the fire taking care of Pierre but afterwards her mind shifted into an abyss of madness. We will never know how she truly felt when she was mad but we can get an idea of what her relationship with others were taking in the fact that she pushed Antoinette away from Antoinette went to visit her mother after the fire. Antoinette tried to offer her mother her love and comfort in still having family after Pierre died and her mother just replied with denial, “No no no” and flung Antoinette against the hall (Rhys 44). Clearly the mother’s madness manifests as she stays in isolation without any form of professional care and disappears from the story has having a mysterious death (or disappearance). However, although the mother is not physically in the Parts Two or Three her influence on Antoinette changed her forever. Antoinette starts to be driven mad when she is married to Rochester. What I can imagine to be a trapped marriage without real love, I can understand Antoinette’s frustration and dissatisfaction. Furthermore, Antoinette’s relationship with the poor ex-slaves like Amelie demonstrate how isolated Antoinette is in society and how different she is from Rochester and the other characters. Antoinette is alone in her status, mind, and family; Mr. Mason hardly visits Antoinette and her mother and Pierre died, leaving Christophine her one, true guardian. However, even Christophine is sporadic in her time with Antoinette. Furthermore, without Christophine it seems that Antoinette does not know how to act because she relied heavily on guidance with almost every action. The quintessential example is when Antoinette asked Christophine to make a love portion so that Rochester would love Antoinette. Antoinette is relying on voodoo magic and Christophine to make someone love her because she does not know how to love someone truly and how to radiate those feelings to that someone. Antoinette’s lack of emotional and mental development shows her need for constant guidance and comfort; therefore, when things take a wrong turn Antoinette can become a bit savage. For example, when Antoinette knew that Rochester slept with Amelie, she attacked him. Therefore, it is more likely for one to be driven to madness through a series of traumatic events like a fire and bad marriage rather than simple genetics and inheritance factors.
ReplyDelete1.The opening setting, the West Indies, including the Coulibri Estate, displayed a vast array of diversity. The West Indies had the native inhabitants, people from the East Indies, European colonist, and like Annette, people from Martinique. The diversity, however, only created tension. The time setting was right after the abolishment of slavery, who former slaves were still resentful to previous slave owners, like Antoinette's father. Those that were darker who often tease and bully Antionette, for although she was white, to them she was white and poor. To be poor and white, to the indigenous people was to worst than being colored and poor. This tension would also lead to Pierre’s death. I found it interesting that there were many different kinds of people. Although the colored against whites, was the most prominent disagreement among races, Antoinette also noted tension among the colored people as well, who would believe that their race was superior to the other and would who not associate with each other. I find it interesting how the repression of the white people and slavery has brought them together and made them turn on each at the same time. While they had built up so much resentment towards race, and before were not able to express them towards white people; they expressed them towards each other. But at the same time, feeling of resentment unite them, as seen when all the races teamed up to burn the Coulibri Estate. It is also interesting how a foreigner, like Mr. Mason could not comprehend the feelings of resentment despite Annette’s efforts. While Mr. Mason believed the worker to be innocent, Mr. Rochester is more cautious. He is quite disgusted by the people, and has voiced his concerns about this to Antionette. Rochester discourages Antoinette vibrant relationship with Christophine, claiming Christophine cannot be trusted. Rochester believes himself superior to the inhabitants of the land lazy and uneducated. Rochester leaves the Caribbean, back to England. England is Rochester’s safe haven or an escape since he keeps what happened on the island a secret. England to Antoinette, is not an escape but a permanent imprisonment. Antionette was imprisonment before by marriage and being a woman in society, but not she was physically locked up. Antionette is most vulnerable in England, because she is alone and her story can never be told.
ReplyDeleteDue to setting, Antoinette grew up not feeling accepted; she was a white girl living amongst many darker skinned people. The blacks didn't accept her as a native and the whites didn't accept her because she was poor. They called her a "white n*****". Therefore, Coulibri is a place of mixed emotions for her. The setting exposes the differences between Antoinette and Rochester; they are from two different worlds with two different mindsets. Antoinette is much more genuine than Rochester, just as Coulibri is more wild than England. Coulibri is less developed and refined, like Antoinette. Rochester also does not trust the people of Coulibri; he does not understand their culture and thinks they are all thieves and mischievous. The different places that Antoinette lives represent the different phases of her life. She starts off living in the house with her family, Annette and Pierre. However, when that burned down, her life went downhill and she went to go live with Aunt Cora, followed by the convent. These were her formative years, defined by law and order. Next, when she is living with Rochester in Coulibri, she is half free. She is at peace to be with the people she knows in the place she knows, but she is still trapped within Rochester’s English ideals. Lastly, Antoinette’s life takes a turn for the worst when she is brought back to England. Throughout the story, the further from England she goes, the unhappier she becomes.
ReplyDelete2. I think that both Annette and Antoinette had a proclivity toward madness, that was triggered by certain events. Both Antoinette and her mother seem sane enough in the beginning of the text. For Annette, Pierre's tragic death in the fire triggered her madness. I do no think, though, that is was just caused by the one event. She still had another child that she could love and care for, but when Antionette and Aunt Cora went to visit Annette, she wanted no part of it. For Antionette, it is clear that she started to go mad before she was trapped in the attic. She bit Rochester before they even went to England. Perhaps it was the captivity she felt being married to Rochester that triggered her downward spiral. However, readers see other characters trapped in other bad situations, but do not see any sort of descent into madness. Therefore, Antoinette and her mother must have been prone to madness throughout their lives, only to escalate with certain traumatic events.
I think that is a very hard concept for a young girl to understand. Why is she not accepted by society? Why is she not considered black nor white? This reminds me of MLK Jr. when he said gave scenarios about how parents have to explain to their children that they are seen as lesser because they are black. It is somthkng that is hard to grasp. Also, Antoinette grew up not having any self-worth or self-confidence, which could be a factor to her later developed insanity.
Delete2.Based on the novel, I think it is acquired. Annette has been through many traumatic things. First is the lost of her husband, Antoinette's father. Because he was a former slave owner, much of the town displayed hostility towards her. She was quite aware of the towns feelings towards her. Then she married Mr. Mason and many disapproved of the arrangement. She now had the gossip of not only the townspeople, but of the white european people. Annette was very much alone, especially since Mr. Mason would not listen to her. The most evident incident of this is when Annette urges Mr. Mason to take them somewhere else because she feared their safety. Finally, the moment that broke Annette into madness was the lost of Pierre. I feel though as madness is completely reasonable after the lost of a child. Annette was then deemed mad and sent to country. The first time Antoinette would see her again would to Antoinette confirms all the allegations of Annette being mad. Annette shoves Antoinette and has a mad fit. After watching her mother in than state, I would think the Antoinette would kept that in the back of her mind but still think about it often. What drove Antoinette mad, was the fact the Rochester hated her. Antoinette was extremely doubtful right before, her wedding, but Rochester put her to ease calming she would never be scared again. Antoinette had seen a hope for love in the marriage and proceeded to marry him. But when love did not come, she tried to force it. First she tried reasonable ways, like being honest about her mother to him or wearing that dress he likes. Her efforts were to no avail and she turned to Christophine for magic to make Rochester love her. She then attacks Amelie for sleeping with Rochester. Antionette wanted to leave but did not have the resources to do so. When Antionette tries to justify her actions, Rochester calls her Bertha, which makes me wonder who really is mad. Taking Antionette to England would not improve her condition. Although, she was never really accepted by the indigenous people of the islands or the whites on the island, the island was the only thing she knew. Antoinette will never again experience freedom until the moment right before her death.
ReplyDelete1. Setting is extremely significant to this book. The majority of the novel takes place in Jamaica. In Jamaica it was common to own slaves and at the beginning of the novel the Emancipation Act was just passed, making slavery illegal. However, in Jamaica, not everybody is black, which can cause conflict. There are the blacks and then there are people who they refer to in a negative context as white n******. There is a great deal of animosity towards that type of people, such as the Cosway family. They are hated and at one point their house, Coulibri, was set on fire burning all of their memories with it. Their family was oppressed for being in the middle of white and black, but marrying into a white man's family did not help their case. Annette and Antoinette suffered a great deal from these events. Annette went crazy and never recovered from the horror while Antoinette would have stages of happiness and others of wanting to die. Also, in Jamaica they have different beliefs, traditions, and customs than somewhere such as England. Rochester believes that Christophine is crazy and has a negative impact on Antionette. Christophine's voodoo skills scares Rochester, while it may seem normal to others who are native to Jamaica. It is interesting that Rochester believes this, but in Jane Eyre he pretends to have a sixth sense and impersonate a medium. When Rochester and Antoinette are in Massacre, Dominica for their honeymoon it is described as having large trees and creepy paths throughout. Through Rochester’s eyes the West Indies are portrayed as mysterious and dangerous. Every corner he turns it seems as if something tragic is going to happen to him. Also, it appears as if there is no way to escape if he wanted to. It is a never ending maze of getting out and somebody he knows always ends up finding him. When Antoinette is in England it is the same way for her. Thornfield will be where she resides the rest of her life and she will never be able to get out.
ReplyDelete2. Annette was rather normal at the beginning of the novel. She cared for her children, especially Pierre, but she lived a series of unfortunate events. First her husband died, which left her with no income and the responsibility of caring for her children. Then when she remarried Mr. Mason her life did not improve much. She was moved to Coulibri which ultimately burned down to the ground. She lived through the traumatic event of caring her half dead son out of his room and watching her home whither away to small fragments of dust. She had to leave everything behind as well as her daughter, Antoinette. Mr. Mason was also abusive to Annette. A mixture of all of these instances could and most likely would drive somebody to insanity. She went mad as nothing in her life was going right. Annette had nobody she could trust and as a result pushed everybody away. Antoinette was affected by this. Her mother, the woman who brought her into this world, tried to kill her. How is one supposed to cope with that? Also, Coulibri was a safe haven for Antoinette. She liked living there for the most part. And now it was gone and she had to watch her family struggle to get out. Antoinette was also put in a situation she did not ask to be in. She was arranged to marry Mr. Rochester, a foreign man who she knew nothing about. He always criticized her culture and how she dressed or how her servants acted. Antoinette changed for Mr. Rochester and he did not appreciate that. She tried everything she could to get him to love her, but the constant whisper about her family, specifically her mother, made it difficult for him. As a result, madness would be acquired through circumstances. Each character was not always portrayed as mad. These events switched their personality and drove them to insanity.
1. Mr. Rochester and Antoinette emerge from two separate spheres and converge within “Wide Sargasso Sea.” Throughout the novel, the characters’ perceptions of both Jamaica and England shift and reflect the character’s current state of mind. Although the Coulibri household is described as a beautiful, “exotic” land with endless rivers and mountains, it also represents isolation, loneliness, and destruction. Antoinette’s mother is unable to escape the prison of Coulibri and finds herself in a fitful depression as she faces the dismay of society and false reassurance of Mr. Mason. She is unable to save her ill son, Pierre, essentially driving her to insanity. The death of the Coulibri household parallels the death of Antoinette’s mother, for her long-awaited escape from the house does not salvage her soul from the fire. Her tragic life story represents the role of the West Indies in the novel. Similarly, Mr. Rochester finds himself trapped, betrayed, and desolate throughout the duration of his residence in Jamaica. The land once beautiful in his eyes morphs into an image of hatred and isolation as the lies of the islands overwhelm him. Even Antoinette, herself, is later drowned with contempt for her homeland, claiming that Mr. Rochester destroyed the one place in the world she had been able to love. As the characters struggle with their connection to one another and their inability to truly escape, Britain is frequently contrasted with the wild land of the West Indies. It is evident that Mr. Rochester embodies the English disdain for the exotic land of Jamaica, through his preference for urban culture and civilization. However, he can’t force himself away from Jamaica until he drags Antoinette with him at the end of the novel, essentially forcing her to absorb a sphere of the world that she refuses to accept. In her eyes, the beauty of Coulibri and the landscapes of her homeland were the only beauty she ever needed, and once this happiness is taken away from her, she is left desolate, in the same way her mother was when the fire scorched her remaining love.
ReplyDelete2. I do not believe that Antoinette and her mother are driven to insanity because of an inherited trait. The circumstances of their madness are due to a long-winded, tragic downfall into depression and isolation. All forms of love are removed from their lives until they are only a shell of what they once were, with hopelessness and hatred to keep them company. Antoinette’s mother is ridiculed by society because of her family history. The civilians even murder her horse so that she is left to wander aimlessly in the confines of the Coulibri household. The house is all that she has left, and the little hope that it houses goes up in flames at the hands of her enemies. The hatred of society transforms into Antoinette’s mother’s hatred for Mr. Mason. She holds him responsible for the death of young Pierre, who ultimately gave her a reason to maintain her sanity and fight for a child she loved. The downfall of this character has a powerful impact on Antoinette’s development, for she is forced to bear the assault of her own mother, a figure who is supposed to show her love and kindness. Therefore, the ultimate death of Antoinette is reflective of her mother’s “death” in the old Coulibri household, for Antoinette falls victim to the fire that she ignites as her mother’s spirit is lost to the flames of her home. Antoinette is a character with a loving and selfless nature, but her love is lost within the hatred and cruelty of Mr. Rochester. Doomed by her family’s reputation, Antoinette cannot save herself from the lies Mr. Rochester breathes, and is left loving a man who only takes and never gives. His possessive and desire-driven persona prevents him from releasing Antoinette into a world of potential happiness and love. Instead, he wants the “mad girl” all to himself, and confines her in an attic room for the remainder of her life. These factors make it impossible for Antoinette to escape insanity, for their miserable lives preserve nothing but hatred and wretchedness.
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