Wide Sargasso Sea written by Jean Rhys is a novel that was written in response to “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte was the most sensational novel of the Victorian era. Jane Eyre which left the entire Victorian society shocked by its strong female character and deep mysteries was not that impressive to Jean Rhys.
She felt that the character of Mr. Rochester’s wife's depiction did not do her justice so she brought the side character to life, the monstrous mad which was neither an animal nor a human, and showed her side of the story which was neglected in the novel “Jane Eyre”.
The novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” is a response to “Jane Eyre”
but we see that both the female protagonists want or rather desire the same
thing and that is freedom on their own terms. Jane refuses to marry Mr.
Rochester when she feels like she is not on equal footing and eventually
marries him when she thinks of herself as his equal. Antoinette on the other
hand does not have that privilege even though she wants freedom her
circumstances do not allow her to have the kind of freedom she wants.
Antoinette and Jane have very similar backgrounds from being nurtured and
finding solace in a convent and the aspects of their personality where they
find isolating themselves as a form of safety.
According to Jean Rhys Antoinette or Bertha needed a stage to tell her story because she had been wronged by Rochester in so many ways. We see in Wide Sargasso Sea that “the husband” always feels detached from Antoinette and feels the form of otherness from her. He is never able to connect with Antoinette to the point of being husband and wife and we see that he is very influenced by his surroundings; the husband only turns to Antoinette when he feels lonely in the strange Caribbean land.
There is no marital love in their story rather the husband is so influenced by rumors that he detaches himself from Antoinette as if he was waiting for a reason to do that. Antoinette in the whole story has been isolated and treated like a slave, putting it in post-colonial perspective the husband went to a foreign land married a Creole wife, and wanted her to fit in his typical English standards he was so set in his ways that he starts calling her by the name of “Bertha” which Antoinette herself doesn’t understand why he does that.
It feels as if the husband wanted
to erase her roots and kill her background and the only thing Antoinette was
attached to in the land of Dominica was the nature that the husband found so
threatening. We see that the husband also indulges in adultery because he
doesn’t feel the spiritual connection that Antoinette always wanted to feel in
their marriage rather he is fulfilling his needs physically.
Jean Rhys from the start of the novel shows that Antoinette has a problem settling in after the freedom of black slaves because now she and her family were the subjects of the resentment that followed when the colonizers left. Antoinette has a problem because of her hybridity she is a white person living in the majority of the black population where she is not accepted but she resonates with the culture and landscapes so when she meets “the husband” she tries to find a home in him cause she is constantly looking for a place that she can call her own but instead of finding a place to call home her husband resents her for her roots which he considers dangerous and starts to see her as baggage and takes her back home to England lock her up in the fear of her turning mad. The husband does all the things that a colonizer would do he roots her up from the one place where she somewhat feels like home takes away her right to freedom and locks her up like she is some animal.
In this novel, we
are shown the picture of “Rochester” that Charlotte Bronte had failed to show
the typical Victorian man who prides on women and looks at them as some sort of
property to hold. We see that the character of the husband has had many affairs
and even Rochester has had many affairs but not once has that been shown as an
issue when morality or reputation was a stake The women were sacrifices, and Antoinette was made the shell of what she was in order to survive and even took
on the name of “Bertha” which was a clear intention of removing her identity.
Rochester has two sides the sinister man who ruined Antoinette’s life and that
is the story that Rhys wanted to show.
In Jane Eyre the character of Rochester seems to be influenced by some of the cultures of the Caribbean, when he presents himself in front of Jane as a Gypsy to understand what she feels for him that is an act that no Victorian gentleman would do, so we can assume that he is being influenced by “Berthas” heritage which he so vehemently rejected.
Another similarity in both
these stories is that Bertha has been locked up in the attic and forgotten
while the same thing happens to Antoinette and she does not understand why he
looks him up and makes her live in such miserable conditions eventually leading
her to madness which was bought upon by her husband and not innate or running
in her family. Grief and change of surroundings can bring anyone to the brink
of madness and the way Victorian society worked it was perfectly okay to lock
their wife up in the attic if they showed signs of madness.
Another aspect that a lot of critics have talked about is how similar Antoinette and Jane are. Both of these characters seem to have a similar background with respect to suffering and family Jane who lived with her aunt and eventually left for a convent and Antoinette who also lived at a convert where she felt like she belonged. Both of these characters encountered two types of women the married evil women and the unmarried comforting women which shows why they were scared of marriage. Women in both of these characters' lives had shaped them into who they were the madness and the sincere love they both received not from their family but from people who had no connection to them.
Furthermore, it seems as if Bertha is an alter ego for Jane because whenever Jane feels unsafe or in some sort of conviction it's Bertha who acts up She arrives in Jane’s dream tearing up her veil when Jane feels like something is not right with the house and Rochester. We see that Bertha is almost a mirror for Jane’s subconsciousness Jane is indeed a very attractive character but just as one of the critics said the journey of Jane from an unruly child who speaks up her mind to an average Victorian lady is unsettling. Jane has to kill a part of herself to fit into Victorian society and the same way Antoinette couldn’t kill it hence she was locked up.
Bertha being the alter
ego of Jane shows that she had to die for Jane to not follow the same fate that
she was subjected to which all brings us to the point was Berth or Antoinette
the same fallen woman that Rochester makes her out to be if she was the lustful
bertha then what about Rochester’s many affairs despite being married what
about his affair and act of marriage despite knowing that he does not live in a
polyamory society.
In conclusion, the novel Wide Sargasso Sea brings us the perspective that there is always another side and we as readers get to know not only how men colonize women’s individuality and identity they also force their way in and make rules for them to follow. Antoinette a woman who is in between two cultures and two races faces so much backlash that she is never happy neither in her childhood nor in her married life the only time we see her “safe” is when she is at a convent surrounded by women.
Wide Sargasso Sea shows us that the mad woman whom Rochester so easily condemned was the product of his own actions towards her and that Jane would have had the same fate had she not killed the part of her that wanted control and passion instead she chose to love Rochester and live like a typical Victorian woman and survive.
A novel like Wide Sargasso Sea forces the reader to get out of their comfort zone and look at a different perspective which might change their views forever, it shows that not everything is well if it end well; something or someone might be sacrificing for that happiness ending that we all love to read.
