Wide Sargasso Sea
Encyclopedia
Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966
postcolonial parallel novel
by Dominica
-born author Jean Rhys
. Since her previous work, Good Morning, Midnight
, was published in 1939, Rhys had lived in obscurity. Wide Sargasso Sea put Rhys into the limelight once more, and became her most successful novel.
The novel acts as a prequel
to Charlotte Brontë's
famous 1847 novel Jane Eyre
. It is the story of the first Mrs. Rochester
, Antoinette Cosway (known as Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre), a white Creole
heiress, from the time of her youth in the Caribbean
to her unhappy marriage and relocation to England
. Caught in an oppressive patriarchal society in which she belongs neither to the white Europeans nor the black Jamaica
ns, Rhys's novel re-imagines Brontë's devilish madwoman in the attic. As with many postcolonial works, the novel deals largely with the themes of racial inequality and the harshness of displacement and assimilation
.
of the slaves in British
-owned Jamaica
. The protagonist Antoinette conveys the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre). As the novel and their relationship progress, Antoinette, whom he renames Bertha, descends into madness.
The novel is split into three parts. Part One takes place in Coulibri, Jamaica and is narrated by Antoinette. Describing her childhood experience, she includes several facets of her life, such as her mother's mental instability
and her mentally disabled brother's tragic death.
Part Two alternates between the points of view of her husband and of Antoinette following their marriage and is set in Granbois, Dominica
. One of the likely catalysts for Antoinette's downfall is the suspicion with which they both begin to view each other, fuelled by the machinations of a supposed relative of Antoinette's, Daniel Cosway (Boyd). Antoinette's old nurse Christophine's constant mistrust of the husband and Rochester's unwavering belief in Boyd further aggravates the situation. This increased sense of paranoia tinged with the disappointment of their failing marriage unbalances Antoinette's already precarious mental state.
The shortest part, Part Three, is once again from the perspective of Antoinette, now known as Bertha, as she lives in the Rochester mansion, which she calls the "Great House". It traces her relationship with Grace, the servant who is tasked with 'guarding' her in England. Narrating in a stream of consciousness, Bertha decides to take her own life as she believes it to be her destiny.
," to the lively yet vulnerable Antoinette Cosway. She is no longer a cliché or a "foreign," possibly "half-caste" lunatic, but a real woman with her own hopes, fears, and desires. Wide Sargasso Sea tells her side of the story as well as Rochester's, detailing how she ended up alone and raving in the attic of Thornfield Hall. It gives a voice not only to her, but to the black people in the West Indies whom Rochester regards with such loathing. In Rhys' version of events, Antoinette's insanity, infidelity, and drunkenness are the result of Rochester's misguided belief that madness is in her blood and that she was part of the scheme to have him married blindly.
The characters of Jane Eyre and Antoinette are very similar. They are both independent, vivacious, imaginative young women with troubled childhoods, educated in religious establishments and looked down on by the upper class
es — and, of course, they both marry Mr Rochester. However, Antoinette is more rebellious than Jane and less mentally stable, possibly because she has had to live through even more distressing circumstances. She displays a deep vein of morbidity verging on a death wish
(making her more similar perhaps to the character of Helen from Jane Eyre) and, in contrast with Jane's overt Christianity
, holds a cynical viewpoint of both God and religion in general.
and postcolonial response to Jane Eyre. Rhys uses multiple voices (Antoinette's, her husband's and Grace Poole's) to tell the story, and deeply intertwines her novel's plot with that of Jane Eyre. In addition, Rhys makes a postcolonial argument when she ties Antoinette's husband's eventual rejection of Antoinette to her Creole
heritage (a large factor in Antoinette's descent into madness). As postmodern and postcolonial literature have taken a greater place in university curricula, the novel has been taught to literature students more often in recent years.
1966 in literature
The year 1966 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 14 - Dissident writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to hard labour for "anti-Soviet activity"....
postcolonial parallel novel
Parallel novel
This is a partial list of works of fiction that are written within, or derived from, the framework of another work of fiction by another author. This list does not include franchised book series, which are typically works licensed by the publisher of the original work to use its settings and...
by Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
-born author Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys , born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, was a mid 20th-century novelist from Dominica. Educated from the age of 16 in Great Britain, she is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea , written as a "prequel" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.-Early life:Rhys was born in Roseau, Dominica...
. Since her previous work, Good Morning, Midnight
Good Morning, Midnight
Good Morning, Midnight is a 1939 modernist novel by author Jean Rhys. Often considered a continuation of Rhys' three other early novels, Quartet , After Leaving Mr Mackenzie and Voyage in the Dark , it is experimental in design and deals with a woman's feelings of vulnerability, depression,...
, was published in 1939, Rhys had lived in obscurity. Wide Sargasso Sea put Rhys into the limelight once more, and became her most successful novel.
The novel acts as a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to Charlotte Brontë's
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
famous 1847 novel Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
. It is the story of the first Mrs. Rochester
The Madwoman in the Attic
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, published in 1979, examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective...
, Antoinette Cosway (known as Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre), a white Creole
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
heiress, from the time of her youth in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
to her unhappy marriage and relocation to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Caught in an oppressive patriarchal society in which she belongs neither to the white Europeans nor the black Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
ns, Rhys's novel re-imagines Brontë's devilish madwoman in the attic. As with many postcolonial works, the novel deals largely with the themes of racial inequality and the harshness of displacement and assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
.
Plot introduction
The opening of the novel is set a short while after the 1834 emancipationAbolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
of the slaves in British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-owned Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. The protagonist Antoinette conveys the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre). As the novel and their relationship progress, Antoinette, whom he renames Bertha, descends into madness.
The novel is split into three parts. Part One takes place in Coulibri, Jamaica and is narrated by Antoinette. Describing her childhood experience, she includes several facets of her life, such as her mother's mental instability
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
and her mentally disabled brother's tragic death.
Part Two alternates between the points of view of her husband and of Antoinette following their marriage and is set in Granbois, Dominica
Dominica
Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...
. One of the likely catalysts for Antoinette's downfall is the suspicion with which they both begin to view each other, fuelled by the machinations of a supposed relative of Antoinette's, Daniel Cosway (Boyd). Antoinette's old nurse Christophine's constant mistrust of the husband and Rochester's unwavering belief in Boyd further aggravates the situation. This increased sense of paranoia tinged with the disappointment of their failing marriage unbalances Antoinette's already precarious mental state.
The shortest part, Part Three, is once again from the perspective of Antoinette, now known as Bertha, as she lives in the Rochester mansion, which she calls the "Great House". It traces her relationship with Grace, the servant who is tasked with 'guarding' her in England. Narrating in a stream of consciousness, Bertha decides to take her own life as she believes it to be her destiny.
Comparison to Jane Eyre
The most striking difference between the two novels is that Wide Sargasso Sea transforms Rochester's first wife from Bertha Mason, the infamous "madwoman in the atticThe Madwoman in the Attic
The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, published in 1979, examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective...
," to the lively yet vulnerable Antoinette Cosway. She is no longer a cliché or a "foreign," possibly "half-caste" lunatic, but a real woman with her own hopes, fears, and desires. Wide Sargasso Sea tells her side of the story as well as Rochester's, detailing how she ended up alone and raving in the attic of Thornfield Hall. It gives a voice not only to her, but to the black people in the West Indies whom Rochester regards with such loathing. In Rhys' version of events, Antoinette's insanity, infidelity, and drunkenness are the result of Rochester's misguided belief that madness is in her blood and that she was part of the scheme to have him married blindly.
The characters of Jane Eyre and Antoinette are very similar. They are both independent, vivacious, imaginative young women with troubled childhoods, educated in religious establishments and looked down on by the upper class
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...
es — and, of course, they both marry Mr Rochester. However, Antoinette is more rebellious than Jane and less mentally stable, possibly because she has had to live through even more distressing circumstances. She displays a deep vein of morbidity verging on a death wish
Death Wish
Death Wish is a 1972 novel by Brian Garfield.-Plot:Paul Benjamin is a CPA in New York and lifelong liberal. However, his staid life is overturned when his daughter, Carol, and spouse, Esther, are attacked by muggers. His wife does not survive the attack, and his traumatized daughter is left in a...
(making her more similar perhaps to the character of Helen from Jane Eyre) and, in contrast with Jane's overt Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, holds a cynical viewpoint of both God and religion in general.
Major themes
Wide Sargasso Sea is usually thought of as a postmodernPostmodern literature
The term Postmodern literature is used to describe certain characteristics of post–World War II literature and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature.Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact...
and postcolonial response to Jane Eyre. Rhys uses multiple voices (Antoinette's, her husband's and Grace Poole's) to tell the story, and deeply intertwines her novel's plot with that of Jane Eyre. In addition, Rhys makes a postcolonial argument when she ties Antoinette's husband's eventual rejection of Antoinette to her Creole
Creole peoples
The term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kreol, kriulo, kriol, krio, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
heritage (a large factor in Antoinette's descent into madness). As postmodern and postcolonial literature have taken a greater place in university curricula, the novel has been taught to literature students more often in recent years.
Awards and nominations
- Winner of the WH Smith Literary AwardWH Smith Literary AwardThe WH Smith Literary Award was an award founded in 1959 by British high street retailer W H Smith. Its founding aim was stated to be to "encourage and bring international esteem to authors of the British Commonwealth"; originally open to all residents of the UK, the Commonwealth and the Republic...
in 1967, which brought Rhys to public attention after decades of obscurity. - Named by TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923. - Rated #94 on the list of Modern Library's 100 Best Novels
- Winner of Cheltenham Booker Prize 2006 for year 1966.
Adaptations
- 1993: Wide Sargasso SeaWide Sargasso Sea (1993 film)Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1993 film adaption of Jean Rhys's 1966 novel of the same name, directed by John Duigan.-Plot summary:For a full length summary see: plot summary of Wide Sargasso Sea.-Release:...
, film adaptation directed by John DuiganJohn DuiganJohn Duigan, is an Australian film director.Duigan emigrated to Australia in 1961, having been born to an Australian father...
and starring Karina LombardKarina LombardKarina Lombard is an actress and singer.- Early life :Lombard was born in Tahiti. Her mother, Nupuree Lightfoot, is a medicine woman of the Lakota Nation and was an immigrant living in Tahiti. Her father, Henry Lombard, a banker, is a European aristocrat of Russian, Italian and Swiss descent....
and Nathaniel ParkerNathaniel ParkerNathaniel Parker is an English actor best known for playing Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley in the BBC crime drama series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries.-Personal life:... - 1997: Wide Sargasso Sea, contemporary operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
adaptation with music by Brian Howard, directed by Douglas Horton, produced by Chamber MadeChamber MadeChamber Made Opera is an Australian production house for contemporary opera and music-theatre. Formed in 1988 by theatre director and librettist Douglas Horton... - 2006: Wide Sargasso SeaWide Sargasso Sea (TV)Wide Sargasso Sea is a British television adaptation of Jean Rhys's 1966 novel of the same name.Produced by Kudos Film & Television for BBC Wales, the one-off 90-minute drama was first broadcast on digital television channel BBC Four on October 9, 2006...
, TV adaptation directed by Brendan MaherBrendan MaherBrendan Maher is an Irish sportsperson. He plays hurling with his local club Borris-Ileigh and has been a member of the Tipperary senior inter-county team since 2009.-Career:...
and starring Rebecca HallRebecca HallRebecca Maria Hall is an English actress.In 2003, Hall won the Ian Charleson Award for her debut stage performance in a production of Mrs. Warren's Profession...
and Rafe SpallRafe SpallRafe Joseph Spall is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the Edgar Wright films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz , alongside Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He had previously appeared alongside Pegg and Frost in a 2001 episode of Spaced... - 2011: "Wide Sargasso Sea", song written by rock 'n' roll singer Stevie Nicks about the novel and film. Appears on her 2011 album In Your DreamsIn Your Dreams (album)In Your Dreams is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks, released on May 3, 2011 by Reprise Records...
.
External links
- From Antoinette to Bertha: the process of 'colonising' within the marriage in Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
- Wide Sargasso Sea study guide, themes, quotes, & teacher resources