Thesis: The work of Jean Rhys aims to depict the evident struggle of the dominated to make their voices heard in a hostile context against which they find themselves in a position where they are portrayed as powerless. Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys' use of varied voices, historical and cultural context is used to confront her readers with a painted picture of insanity and madness that is a product of patriarchal and societal oppression.
Body Paragraph 1
Topic Sentence 1: Jean Rhys uses the setting and historical context in which the characters face their inner and outer conflicts to strengthen the sense of entrapment and the path towards insanity that Antoinette experiences due to patriarchal oppression.
Evidence:
- Edward is paradoxically presented presented in this novel as simultaneously a victimizer and a victim of the patriarchal order.
- The change in narration provides the readers with an alternate perspective on how Antoinette is driven to madness, through a constant shift in setting.
-When Antoinette tries to tell him of the destruction at Coulibri, his reaction is mistrust. "I began to wonder how much of all this was true, how much imagined, distorted. Certainly many of the old estate houses were burned. You saw ruins all over the place."
- “My mother hated Mr. Mason. She would not let him go near her or touch her. She said she would kill him, she tried to, I think. So he bought her a house and hired a colored man and woman to look after her.” - Antoinette, page 121
Her behavior is legitimized by the historical context of the Emancipation act and the personal context of having experienced cruelty at the hands of her husband.
Sailing to England...she then finds herself to be locked up in an attic. --> Relation to the sea?
Evidence:
- Edward is paradoxically presented presented in this novel as simultaneously a victimizer and a victim of the patriarchal order.
- The change in narration provides the readers with an alternate perspective on how Antoinette is driven to madness, through a constant shift in setting.
-When Antoinette tries to tell him of the destruction at Coulibri, his reaction is mistrust. "I began to wonder how much of all this was true, how much imagined, distorted. Certainly many of the old estate houses were burned. You saw ruins all over the place."
- “My mother hated Mr. Mason. She would not let him go near her or touch her. She said she would kill him, she tried to, I think. So he bought her a house and hired a colored man and woman to look after her.” - Antoinette, page 121
“What am I doing in this place and who am I?” - Speaker: Antoinette Cosway (Part 3)
“What was the use of telling her I’d been awake before and heard my mother screaming ‘Qui est la? Qui est la?’ Then ‘Don’t touch me. I’ll kill you if you touch me. Coward. Hypocrite. I’ll kill you.’ I’d put my hands over my ears ,her screams so loud and terrible. I slept and when I woke up everything was quiet.” - Antoinette speaking about her nightmare concerning her mother.
“What was the use of telling her I’d been awake before and heard my mother screaming ‘Qui est la? Qui est la?’ Then ‘Don’t touch me. I’ll kill you if you touch me. Coward. Hypocrite. I’ll kill you.’ I’d put my hands over my ears ,her screams so loud and terrible. I slept and when I woke up everything was quiet.” - Antoinette speaking about her mother.
Her behavior is legitimized by the historical context of the Emancipation act and the personal context of having experienced cruelty at the hands of her husband.
Sailing to England...she then finds herself to be locked up in an attic. --> Relation to the sea?
Body Paragraph 2
Topic Sentence 2: Throughout the novel, Rhys suggests that Antoinette's vulnerability towards patriarchal oppression and the words that are spoken about her leads her to insanity and marginalizes her as the "madwoman" in the attic as the story unfolds.
Evidence:
On her way to the convent on the first day, she is bullied by two children who mock her and say “Look the crazy girl, you crazy like your mother. Your aunt frightened to have in you in the house. She send you for the nuns to lock up. Your mother walk about with no shoes and stockings on her feet, she sans culottes. She try to kill her husband and she try to kill you too that day you go to see her. She have eyes like zombi too. Why you won’t look at me” the boys said, “One day I catch you alone, you wait, one day I catch you alone.’ The boy goes on to annoy her even more “You don’t want to look at me, eh, I make you look at me.’ She pushed me and the books I was carrying fell to the ground. → Notice how she is antagonized by them.
“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 husband’ he go off, he leave her…” - Christophine
Body Paragraph 3
Topic Sentence 3: The significance of narrating the novel from two different perspectives creates a foundation of multi-vocality through the characters of Antoinette and by shifting the reader's attention from "Bertha" the madwoman in the attic, Rhys aims to expose the problems of women being viewed as basically mad ad the need for male dominance and stability in their lives in order to remain sane.
Evidence:
- Patriarchal oppression and was vexed by the cruelty of Mr. Rochester. She is a woman who is suffering from the constraints placed upon by Victorian male who seeks to control her behavior, ultimately being viewed as the patriarchal oppressor. --> the choice of words use to describe and refer to Antoinette throughout the novel.
Women's attempt to create an alternative logical mode to define and give expression to reality can only be experiences as a threat by the patriarchal order.
De-personalization of his wife through his abusive power. "Certainly I will Bertha. Not Bertha tonight.' she said. 'Of course, on this of all nights, you must be Bertha' 'As you wish'
"So it was all over (...) everything was finished". Note of hopelessness. Allows us to define the main traits of the narrator's mental picture of reality, the way in which he makes sense of what happens. -> relate back to the truth...does this mean he is a reliable source as a narrator?
- upbringing: feeling rejected and misplaced with no one to love. Thus is becomes rather evident that Antoinette and her mother are the most susceptible to madness --> feminine docility.
- Patriarchal oppression and was vexed by the cruelty of Mr. Rochester. She is a woman who is suffering from the constraints placed upon by Victorian male who seeks to control her behavior, ultimately being viewed as the patriarchal oppressor. --> the choice of words use to describe and refer to Antoinette throughout the novel.
Women's attempt to create an alternative logical mode to define and give expression to reality can only be experiences as a threat by the patriarchal order.
De-personalization of his wife through his abusive power. "Certainly I will Bertha. Not Bertha tonight.' she said. 'Of course, on this of all nights, you must be Bertha' 'As you wish'
"So it was all over (...) everything was finished". Note of hopelessness. Allows us to define the main traits of the narrator's mental picture of reality, the way in which he makes sense of what happens. -> relate back to the truth...does this mean he is a reliable source as a narrator?
“My mother hated Mr. Mason. She would not let him go near her or touch her. She said she would kill him, she tried to, I think. So he bought her a house and hired a coloured man and woman to look after her.” - Antoinette, page 121
- upbringing: feeling rejected and misplaced with no one to love. Thus is becomes rather evident that Antoinette and her mother are the most susceptible to madness --> feminine docility.
emphasized by the narration of Rochester.
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