Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

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

• Creole Identities,
• and Racial/Gender Relations

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Outline

• Jean Rhys
• Wide Sargasso Sea General Introduction
• Part I Antoinettes personality and the causes
  for it
• 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
• Part II The problems in Rochester and
  Antoinettes marriage
• Race Gender marriage
• Good moments
• Causes a) cultural difference 2) Rs racial
  prejudice 3) Rs self-centeredness 4) the
  letter 5) As sense of doom 6) Cs role

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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, ery 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, a
  year after the full emancipation a child in the
  1840's  (Mark MaWatt qut in Gregg 83)

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Backgrounds (1) on Race

• I. white masters, New Old
• Christophines comment 15
• Mr. Luttrells p. 17 death of Mr. Lutrell   p.
  26
• New masters after the Emancipation of slaves
  Mr. Mason -- p. 32 p. 35
• II. White against creole
• e.g. the town peoples gossip p. 17 Aunt Cora's
  husband 30
• III. Black against creole
• poor "white cockcroaches" p. 23 black
  Englishman, white niggers p. 25
• IV. The position of obeah woman p. 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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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

• 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
• Anything we can related to?

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FYI Important Symbols and Scenes

• Antoinette and Tia-- friendship (13-14), divided
  by racial differences (27)
• the garden imagery in Part I
• The fire scene and the burning of the parrot (25)
• The two dreams (15, 35-36)

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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
• 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 Antoinette

• 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

• 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
• 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
• 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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Good Moments in their relationship

• Rochesters sense of peace in nature P. 41
• Arrival at Granbois p. 42
• The first night 49-50

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Gender/Race Relations Women

• Unequal Relationships in Marriage
• (about Masons marriage p. 17)
• Gender Rochesters Marriage and Inheritance p.
  41 69
• Dear Father letters p. 39
• But there are other factors . . .

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What causes the problems between Antoinette
Rochester

• 1. (Race) Cultural differences
• A. her limited understanding of the world --
• -- p. 42 Oh England, England, 56, 66-67
• -- p. 47 her Paris Is it true,' she said,
  that England is like a dream?
• B. his illness and discomfort p. 40, 41, blanks
  in his mind 45 p. 55 insecure

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Part II Causes for the conflicts between
Rochester and Antoinette

• 2. (Race) Rochesters prejudice and racial
  superiority p. 39 p. 43
• ? Rochesters connection with the priest
• the priest's ruined house--Pere Lilievre--Pere
  Labat pp. 62-63 83
• 3. Gender Rochester's self-centeredness,
  possessiveness and pretentiousness
• Agreed to everything 39 not yet
• not love her perform and hide things p. 45, 61
• P. 55 watch her die many times
• Turning Antoinette into Bertha pp. 68, 81

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Part II Causes for the conflicts between
Rochester and Antoinette (2)

• Race Gender --or feminine madness as fate?
• the letter from Daniel ? Rochester's suspicion
  of Antoinettes madness (pp. 56 - )
• Antoinette's temperament--sense of doom and
  insecurity
• ? Antoinettes seeking for help from Christophine

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For next time The Turning Point

• Are Christophines suggestions practical? pp. 65
  -
• What stops her from being helpful?
• Would their marriage have been saved without the
  voodoo?
• Antoinette and her place the crab, 52 53
• The Ending possibilities of return?