Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - 731 Words

Rochester and Antoinette are two characters that are both outsiders of their respective communities. Antoinette is excluded from both the white and black communities, and eventually it leads to her instability and uneasiness throughout the novel. While being excluded from the community isn’t dreadful enough, she suffers being called a â€Å"white cockroach† (23) and becoming an aberration through her own husband’s eyes, Rochester. Moreover, Rochester is ignored by his own family. His isolation stems from the letter he sends to his father, stating that â€Å"I will never be a disgrace to you or my dear brother the son you love† (70). His bitterness implies that his father favors his brother much more than he favors Rochester. He is also separated from the black population, as he tells Antoinette that he would never â€Å"hug and kiss [a black person]† (91). His haughty behavior eventually confines him from the population on the island. Ultimately, A ntoinette’s and Rochester’s struggles pushes these characters to a new extreme in which it pushes Rochester to lock his wife in the attic and Antoinette to â€Å"write [her] name in fire red† (53) by the end of the novel. Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys magnifies the themes of madness and power by analyzing Rochester’s and Antoinette’s interactions with one another to ultimately teach a lesson that can be interpreted in many different ways. Their downfalls are created by the catastrophic conflicts with each other and the environment aroundShow MoreRelatedWide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys1604 Words   |  7 Pages â€Å"Wide Sargasso Sea†, a novel by Jean Rhys, grants a voice to the other side of the story, the side that people believe to be madness. Generally, what the majority agrees upon is considered the truth. Hence, people who disagree or offer another opinion are instantly labeled as mad and end up secluded from society. Antoinette Mason Cosway, the protagonist of Wide Sargasso Sea, is considered a mad woman. Her absurd actions and thoughts are what leads to her demise. However, this novel casts aRead MoreWide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys1400 Words   |  6 Pages Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel written by Jean Rhys, discussing the life of Antoinette Cosway. Antoinette and her family are Creole and they live on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Due to Antoinette’s Creole background, she and her family face a lot of problems and discrimination during their lives. However, when Antoinette grew older she had one friend named Tia. They played and talked together despite their obvious differences. On the night that Coulibri is set on fire, Antoinette flees with herRead MoreJean Rhys s Wide Sargasso Sea1708 Words   |  7 Pages Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea attempts to prove just how closely intertwined dreams and reality are. Rhys meticulously weaves dreams into real life, ultimately creating a novel that conjures a very ethereal truth. Trying to draw the line between what is real and what is fake is nearly impossible and, by the end of the novel, the reader is left in a state of lucid uncertainty. Rhys’s clever use of slumber in Wide Sargasso Sea reveals an enhanced sense of character progression, the inevitabilityRead MoreJean Rhys s Wide Sargasso Sea1226 Words   |  5 PagesJean Rhys, born in 1890 on the Island of Dominica to a Welsh father and a creole (West Indian) mother experienced the difficulty of integrating into British culture due to her Caribbean origin struggling to create an identity for herself. In her novel ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ (1996) Rhys depicts how she was deeply influenced by this creole heritage, exploring the struggle of finding ones place and identity in relations to race. She contrasts the European discourse with the creole discourse, focusingRead MoreJean Rhys s Wide Sargasso Sea Essay2012 Words   |  9 PagesIn Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea, Edward Rochester can be considered as an embodiment of patriarchal and colonial oppression. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, patriarchal means, â€Å"relating to, characteristic of, or designating a society or culture in which men tend to be in positions of authority and cultural values and norms are seen as favouring men†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Patriarchal†) moreover colonial means â€Å"of, belonging to, or relating to a colony†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Colonial†). In addition, oppression meansRead MoreBook Review: Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea543 Words   |  2 PagesIdeas like slavery and post-colonial aftermath on former British colonies are dominant ideas in Jean Rhys 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. The writer focused on providing a realistic display con cerning feelings in former British colonies as individuals struggle to reclaim their cultural identity in environments destroyed as a consequence of oppression occurring during British influence. The first part of the novel focuses extensively on people who were formerly slaves working on plantations ownedRead MoreEssay on The Tragedy of Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea1057 Words   |  5 PagesThe Tragedy of Wide Sargasso Sea  Ã‚   In Jean Rhys novel Wide Sargasso Sea, whether Antoinette Cosway really goes mad in the end is debatable. Nevertheless, it is clear that her life is tragic. The tragedy comes from her numerous pursuits for love and a sense of belonging, and her failure at each and every one of these attempts. As a child Antoinette, is deprived of parental love. Her father is a drunkard and has many mistresses and illegitimate children. According to Daniel Cosways accountRead More Themes in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Essay examples792 Words   |  4 PagesThemes in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys The main themes in Wide Sargasso Sea are slavery and entrapment, the complexity of racial identity and womanhood or feminism. In all of these themes the main character who projects them are Antoinette and Christophine. The theme slavery and entrapment is based on the ex- slaves who worked on the sugar plantations of wealthy Creoles figure prominently in Part One of the novel, which is set in the West Indies in the early nineteenth century. AlthoughRead More The Importance of Truth in Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea Essay1225 Words   |  5 PagesThe Importance of Truth in Wide Sargasso Sea In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys presents a white Creole family living in a Caribbean Island (Jamaica), which is a lush and insecure world for them, after the liberation of the slaves. The husband had once been a slaveholder, the mother is a confused and crazy lady and Antoinette, the daughter, is a child in an atmosphere of fear, recrimination and bitter anger. She becomes increasingly isolated-this isolation is broken by her scheming stepbrother, whoRead MoreReview of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys830 Words   |  3 Pages I would say that doomed would be the correct adjective to use. Antoinette did not stand a chance at a happy marriage with Rochester. There are lots of different things that happen to undermine the success of their marriage. To begin with their marriage is based on money. The only reason that Rochester is marrying Antoinette was due to the large dowry placed on her by Mr Mason. A marriage without love will never work but all Antoinette wanted was to be loved as her mother had not loved her. Mr Rochester