Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

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Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
Norton Critical Ediction. NY Norton, 1999.

• Blacks vs.
• Creole Women vs.
• White Men

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Outline

• Wide Sargasso Sea General Introduction
  Questions
• Jean Rhys and Social Background
• Part I Antoinettes Relations to Annette,
  Christophine and Tia ? Her Personality
• Annette a) The Creole Identities of Annette b)
  Annette as a Woman c) madness ? GenderRace
• Antoinette a) loss of mother b) as a creole 3)
  convent
• Antoinettes personality
• FYR Part II
• Main Questions
• 1) Mad Woman
• 2) Fatalism?
• Abeng and Wide Sargasso Sea

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WSS Settings

• Part I (Martinique), Jamaica Coulibri estate,
  near Spanish TownPart II Granbois, Dominica,
• Part III Great House England

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Plot and Structure

• Part I Antoinette's Childhood
• Isolation after Mr. Cosways death and the
  Emancipation
• The mothers re-marriage to Mr. Mason
• The riot
• Antoinette in the convent.
• Part II Rochester and Antoinette
• Upon arrival, R tries to adjust, writes letters
  to his father relations between A R.
• Daniels letter and the letter from England.
• Antoinettes taking action
• Leaving for England.
• Part III Antoinette in England

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Characters

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Genealogy

• CoswayAnnette
• Alexander Daniel Pierre
• Sandi ----Antoinettehusband----Amèlie
• (Bertha) (Rochester)
• Christophine Tia

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Central Questions Whence comes the Mad Woman in
the Attic?

• Part I How does Rhys characterize Antoinette?
  What are the causes for her personalities?
• Creole identity and Mother-daughter relationship
  
• childhood experience
• Convent education
• (Part II How does Rhys explain the problems
  between Antoinette and Rochester?
• their socio-historical context19th Century
  Victorian/Colonial world? ? Race Gender)

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1. Review What does creole mean?

• A. language mixture of languages, esp. in
  Southern US and the Caribbean area.
• B. People
• 1). Orignal meaning Native, local,pure
• 2). Native-born whites (e.g. Antoinette in WSS
  film 15410)
• 3). Hybrid (mixed-blood)

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2. Pre-View Why Is Bertha Mad?

• Oris she really mad?

But when I looked over the edge I saw the pool
at Coulibri. Tia was there. She beckoned to me
and when I hesitated, she laughed. I heard her
say, You frightened? And I heard the man's voice,
Bertha! Bertha! All this I saw and heard in a
fraction of a second. And the sky so red. Someone
screamed and I thought, Why did I scream? I
called 'Tia!' and jumped and woke. Now at last
I know why I was brought here and what I have to
do. There must have been a draught for the flame
flickered and I thought it was out. But I
shielded it with my hand and it burned up again
to light me along the dark passage.
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3. Book I What Roles do Annette, Christophine
and Tia play?

• Pool, scream, Tia, fire?

-- Do you know the meanings of double? -- Have
you had a maid or housekeeper whose cultural
background differ from yours? -- What influences
does Annette have on Antoinette? And
Christophine?
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Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch

• 8/24/1890 the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a
  white Creole mother
• 1907-8 Attends the Perse School, Cambridge.
• 1909-10 Tours as a chorus girl. Abandoned by her
  lover.
• 1919 Marries Jean Lenglet and moves to Paris. 29
  Dec., birth of a son who dies three weeks later.
  (altogether 3 marriages, 2 children.)

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Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch

• 1923-24 Meets Ford Madox Ford. Husband in jail,
  affair with Ford. (ménage a trois--Ford, Stella
  Bowen, Jean))
• 1933 Divorce.
• 1934 Marries Leslie Tilden-Smith.
• 1945 TS dead. Begins work on Wide Sargasso Sea.
• 1947 Marriage to Max Hamer. Disappears from the
  public scene.
• 1966 WSS published.

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Rhys her characters and her self-identity

• Her characters , all drifting, unhappy,
  unstable, but with clear self-knowledge and
  understanding of others.
• I have no prideno name, no face, no country. I
  dont belong anywhere. (Good Morning, Midnight.)
  
• Rhys Only returned to Dominica once in 56 years
  
• Rhys . "I don't belong anywhere but I get very
  worked up about the West Indies.  I still care. 
  . .  ."

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Rhys her self-identity

• "Do you consider yourself a West Indian?"  She
  shrugged.  "It was such a long time ago when I
  left." "So you don't think of yourself as a West
  Indian writer?" Again she shrugged, but said
  nothing.  "What about English?  Do you consider
  yourself an English writer?" "No!  I'm not, I'm
  not!  I'm not even English." "What about a
  French writer?"  I asked.  Again she shrugged
  and said nothing.  "You have no desire to go
  back to Dominica?" "Sometimes," she said. 

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Wide Sargasso Sea General Introduction (1) the
Title

• Sargasso Sea The heart of the Bermuda Triangle
  is covered by the strangest and most notorious
  sea on the planet the Sargasso Sea so named
  because there is a kind of seaweed which lazily
  floats over its entire expanse called sargassum.
  (source)
• signaling the wide division between Antoinette
  and Rochester and the race and gender entangled
  relationships in the Caribbean area.

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FYI Sargasso Sea

• An oval-shaped area of the North Atlantic Sea,
  bordered by the Gulf Stream and encompassing
  Bermuda Islands. It is characterized by weak
  currents, very little wind, and a free-floating
  mass of seaweed called Sargassum .(textbook 1)

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Rhys on Jane Eyre

• "The creole in Charlotte Bronte's novel is a lay
  figure -- repulsive which does not matter, and
  not once alive which does.  .  . . For me . .  .
  she must be right on stage.  She must be at least
  plausible with a past, the reason why Mr.
  Rochester treats her so abominably and feels
  justified, and the reason why he thinks she is
  mad and why of course she goes mad, even the
  reason why she tries to set everything on fire,
  and eventually succeeds.  . . " (Gregg 82
  emphases added)
• Q Is Anntoinette then doomed to be mad?
  Couldnt there be different endings? Is the
  novel too sad?

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Rhys's Revision of Jane Eyre  Shift of Dates 

• Jane Eyre -- towards the end of the novel reads
  a book published in 1808  Bertha confined in the
  attic in the first decade of the 19th century.
• WSS's time frame shifted to 1830's onwards 
  Emancipation Act 1833 Antoinette born 1839
  (p. 31), a year after the full emancipation a
  child in the 1840's  (Mark MaWatt qut in Gregg
  83)

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Rhys's Revision of Jane Eyre  Antoinettes
Fathers

• Jane Eyre Berthathe child of Mason
• Wide Sargasso Sea
• two fathers (Mason and Cosway), the old slave
  master and the new one.
• more relatives (Sandi, Daniel, etc.) and
  connections with the Caribbean blacks (Tia and
  Christophine)

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Backgrounds (1) on Race

• I. white masters, New Old
• Mr. Luttrell and his death p. 9 old Cosway p. 17
  
• Christophines comment and the new Lutrell 15
• New masters after the Emancipation of slaves Mr.
  Mason purpose p. 17 changes brought to
  Coulibri 18 about the blacks p. 19
• II. White against creole
• e.g. the town peoples gossip p. 17 Aunt Cora's
  husband 18
• III. Black against creole
• poor "white cockcroaches" p. 13 white niggers
  p.14 black Englishman and white burned like
  black 26
• IV. The position of obeah woman p. 12, 17

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Background (2) Before and after the Emancipation

• Pre-Emancipation racial and sexual exploitation.
  (e.g. Daniel)
• Post-Emancipation Problems
• Belated Compensation,
• Importation of contract laborers
• Annettes distrust of Christophine, Godfry, and
  Sass leaving p. 12
• Riot The presentation of the black mob
• Myra hell (21) animal howling (p. 23), parrot
  killed bad luck 25 the final confrontation,
  women crying 26.

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Important Symbols

• the garden imagery in Part I
• The fire scene and the burning of the parrot (25)
• The dreams

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Creole Womens Positions Annette

• Annette 1) multiple alienations of the creole
• from the white people in the Spanish town (9
  17)because she is Creole, from Martinique and
  poor
• -- from the blacks (they) because she is
  former slave-owner and poor pp. 10, 11
• -- both Annette and Antoinetteseen as white
  cockroaches (13)/white nigger (14)

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Creole Womens Positions Annette

• Annette -- 2) As a woman
• Cosway a womanizer calls Daniels mother sly
  boots pp. 73-74 halfway house p.57 drinks
  himself to death
• Widowed can only survive by marrying again.
• Antoinette (solitary life) ?? Antoinette (planned
  and hoped) p. 10
• -- marooned her son 11
• -- borrow a horse from the new Lutrelles? gay
  and a good dancer
• 2nd Marriage Worse, since Mason does not
  understand the racial relationship (19, 21)

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Creole Womens Positions Annette

• Annette -- 3) as a creole woman
• Why does she care so much about the parorot CoCo?
  25
• Antoinettes account of what happened to Annette
  78 (also her sensual memories of the past 79)
  80-81

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Creole Womens Positions Antoinette

• Antoinette (1) loss of motherly love
• Her love rejected by Annette (11, 13, 15, 28-29,)
• The mother cares more about Pierre 16
• Annette ashamed of her 15  
• Being pushed away after her madness pp. 28-29
• missing her mother in the convent 34
• The mothers death 36

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Creole Womens Positions Antoinetteto
Christophine

• Antoinette (2) Race Relations
• Christophine helpful but fearful
• like a substitute mother
• feared by Antoinette 18 -- Combination of
  Catholicism and voodoo
• (Part II1. Antoinettes seeking for help p. 67,
  68, 70
• 2. Put in jail once and may still be. P. 86)

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Creole Womens Positions Antoinette Tia as
Friend?

• Antoinette and Tia
• friendship (13-14),
• divided by racial differences (27)
• The boy and the girl 29-30

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Creole Womens Positions Antoinette

• the second refuge in the convent dissociated
  from reality
• Stories of the saint
• no looking glass ?? care taken in maintaining
  beautiful mages of femininity p. 32-33
• images of the nations vs. the mother to be
  forgotten 33
• A place of sunshine and of death. Pp. 33-34

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Creole Womens Positions Antoinette ( Annette)

• Imagery Garden
• the biblical myth of the garden--(11)
• ? associated with snake and forest
• Imagery Mirror and Double
• Annette 10 p. Antoinette Tia the convent

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Antoinettes personality 5 examples

• Self-protection in Childhood e.g. the horse p.
  10 garden 13 16
• Sense of danger in the recurrent dreams pp. 15,
  27, 36
• Insecurity -- Attempt to turn down the marriage
  p. 46
• the two rats the moon p. 49
• death impulse p. 54
• ?Insecure in lack of a firm sense of identity
  (lack of love, fear of others and societys
  criticism, feeling excluded.)
• ? Fatalistic (fear of madness as a hereditary
  trait) ? childhood as a creole woman

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Part II What causes the problems between
Antoinette Rochester? Is Rochester completely
to blame?
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Sargasso Sea Race and Gender

• Why is the marriage between Rochester and Bertha
  unhappy?
• Why is Bertha mad? Beast, madness in the family,
  driven mad, or not really mad?
• 
  Man Women Man
• Women
• 
  Obeah woman

Race White Creole --Black
Gender Marriage Inheritance system
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Gender/Race Relationships among the Character
Spanish Town Whites p. 17
Father E. Rochester
Mr. Cosway
The Masons Richard
Pierre Daniel
Godfry Sass Myra
Aunt Cora
p. 18, 68-69

• Antoinette

Annette
Christophine
Amelia
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Is Antoinette Mad? feminine madness as fate?

• the letter from Daniel ? Rochester's suspicion
  of Antoinettes madness (pp. 56 - 58)
• Wickedness is not the worst. There is madness in
  that family. Old Cosway die raving like his
  father before him.
• The madness gets worse and she has to be shut
  away for she try to kill her husband madness
  not being all either.
• Antoinette's explanation pp. 78Christophines
  explanation p. 94

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Antoinette's explanation pp. 78

• After the fathers death she was lonely And
  very poor,' she said. For five years. She was
  so lonely that she grew away from other people
• Then there was that day when she saw I was
  growing up like a white nigger and she was
  ashamed of me, it was after that day that
  everything changed. Yes, it was my fault, it was
  my fault that she started to plan and work in a
  frenzy, in a fever to change our lives. the
  riot
• I saw the man lift her up out of the chair and
  kiss her. I saw his mouth fasten on hers and she
  went all soft and limp in his arms and he
  laughed. The woman laughed too, but she was
  angry. When I saw that I ran away.

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Christophine's explanation pp. 94

• after the riot'They drive her to it. When she
  lose her son she lose herself for a while and
  they shut her away. They tell her she is mad,
  they act like she is mad. Question, question. But
  no kind word, no friends, and her husban' he go
  off, he leave her. They won't let me see her. I
  try, but no. They won't let Antoinette see her.
  In the end - mad I don't know - she give up, she
  care for nothing. That man who is in charge of
  her he take her whenever he want and his woman
  talk. That man, and others. Then they have her.
  Ah there is no God. (94)

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Fatal Endings?

• 1. Antoinette's temperament--sense of doom and
  insecurity death with (54)
• ? Antoinettes seeking for help from Christophine
  
• 2. Christophines role-
• -- her suggestions -- practical? pp. 65 -
• -- her limitations (1) as an obeah woman (2)
  not understanding Rochesters possessiveness
• Would their marriage have been saved without the
  voodoo?

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Fatal Endings? (2)

• 3. Cultural Conflicts and Gender Inequality --
  Antoinette and her place the crab, 52 53
• 4. Rochesters hypocrisy and selfishness
• e.g. Turning Antoinette into Bertha pp. 68, 81,
  and then to Marionette calling her my lunatic
  99.
• 5. The Ending possibilities of return?

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The Ending For Your Reference

• on the battlement I turned round and saw the
  sky. It was red and all my life was in it. I saw
  the grandfather clock and Aunt Cora's patchwork,
  all coloursI heard the parrot call as he did
  when he saw a stranger, Qui est la? Qui est la?
  and the man who hated me was calling too, Bertha!
  Bertha! But when I looked over the edge I saw
  the pool at Coulibri. Tia was there. She beckoned
  to me and when I hesitated, she laughed. I heard
  her say, You frightened? And I heard the man's
  voice, Bertha! Bertha! . Someone screamed and I
  thought, Why did I scream? I called 'Tia!' and
  jumped and woke.
• was outside holding my candle. Now at last I
  know why I was brought here and what I have to
  do. There must have been a draught for the flame
  flickered and I thought it was out. But I
  shielded it with my hand and it burned up again
  to light me along the dark passage.

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Antoinette/Tia vs. Clare/Zoe One hundred year
in between

• Abeng
• Clare first wants to prove herself and then
  wants to apologize for her selfishness
• Zoe tolerates Clare but scared at the end,
  regretting being too close to Clare
• Ms. Mattie
• blames it on her blood from her fathers side.
• Sends Clare away

• Wide Sargasso Sea
• A-- more passive
• Tia less friendly
• Broken apart first because of money and then
  because of the racial conflict

Clare will come back later, but not Antoinette.
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