Life is an uncertain journey, you
never know what it's got in store. It can suddenly take us to a level that we
would never imagine and suddenly bring us down, such is its uncertainty. Here
is one beautiful novel written by Jean Rhys showing us what life is all about.
Jean Rhys, was basically born in the Caribbean Islands but was a British. She
was a Creole woman. Jean Rhys's prelude in the novel "Wide Sargasso
Sea" quite wonderfully illustrates how accounts and understandings differ and
creates a sense of the characters past being inescapable.
Wide
Sargasso Sea,
on the surface level, is the story of a creole, Antoinette Cosway, who grows up
in the Caribbean, has a disastrous arranged marriage with an English man, and
goes mad, imprisoned in an English country house. Jean Rhys uses the classic,
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte as an imaginative starting point but changes the
point of view from the first-person narrative of Jane to that of Bertha
Mason(Antoinette Cosway). It can be read as the previously untold story of
Bertha Mason.
The novel is a kind of a prequel to
Jane Eyre, because it describes the life of Bertha Mason,the most marginalized
character. The novel is divided into three parts. The first part is about the
isolated childhood of Antoinette. She is neglected by her mother. She is
verbally and physically abused by her only friend Tia, a native girl. The
indifference shown by the native people towards her family during the time of
poverty and struggle affects her. The trauma that she undergoes in her
childhood due to her family and the environment in which she grew up, leads to
her disastrous adulthood and tragic end.
The second part of the novel is set
after the wedding. There is a sudden shift in the point of view from Antoinette
to a nameless man who is later learned to be Mr. Rochester. He is found to be
confused about the culture and life of the Caribbean. For him, everything in
that island seems strange, including Antoinette and her behavior. The influence
of the Caribbean culture on a woman of mixed ancestry disturbs him.References
to terms such as ‘white nigger’, ‘white cockroach’, indicate the mixed and
confused identity of Antoinette. Towards the end of this part, Antoinette loses
her happiness, her husband’s love, her name, her money and her freedom. This
loss is mainly due to her mixed identity and her gender.
In part three, the action of the
novel shifts to England, into the world of Jane Eyre. Antoinette is imprisoned
in an English country house where she is reduced to nothing. Mr. Rochester
neither accepts her as his wife nor sets her free. He imprisons her to utilize
the fortune he gained through her. Through this Rhys tries to highlight the
reason behind the madness of the first Mrs. Rochester. She states that, it is
the patriarchal society and the colonial system that has driven her to such
tragic state.
Rhys, in one of her letters, calls
Jane Eyre as “only one side-the English side”. Hence she attempts to write back
to the patriarchal English societal views by bringing out the dark or the
untold or the marginalized side of the classic, Jane Eyre. Rhys not only fills
the gapsfound in the classic for better reading of Bronte’s work but changes
one’s reading of a classic novel. She attempts a postcolonial rewriting of the
novel by changing the protagonist and the setting, presenting the classic in a
context larger than that of England in the nineteenth century.
This makes the novel an object for several
post-colonial, subaltern, inter-textualand feminist criticalreading. The
central idea of the novel is to highlight the colonial and patriarchal impact
on the life of the protagonist Antoinette Cosway (Bertha Mason) and to justify
the novel as a voice of the voiceless.
Rhys’s respond to Bronte’s
marginalized figure through the act of writing/inventing an ending that opens
up and lets in the other. Bertha Mason’s death in Jane Eyre signifies closure,
andrace ending of the Wide Sargasso Sea lets Bertha Mason live and so signifies
an opening. By virtue of her marginality, Bertha Mason becomes the focus of
discussion. Wide Sargasso Sea is a supplement that opens up the text for
further questions, examinations, and interpretations.
The novel is an excellent attempt to
bring out the subaltern characters found in the classic Jane Eyre by Charlotte
Bronte. The portrayal of the character is quite stupendous and even the
intricate details of the novel add to the aim of it. Each and every incident,
character and the attitude found in this novel are deeper in meaning and
understanding. They try to convey the agonies and sufferings of the unspoken
characters who are the microcosm of the macrocosm.
Wide Sargasso Sea is about the
history of cruelty and sufferings that lies behind in many western countries.
Its gives voice to the downtrodden, neglected, silenced and unacknowledged
stories and also explores different aspects of marginality like gender, class
and race. Such is the beauty of this novel. The novel is a true inspiration.
Jean Rhys coined the title of the novel "Wide Sargasso Sea" keeping
in mind that there is always another side. Every single
word in the noveltaps to our inner feelings and emotions and make us realize
and understand the cruel practices that prevailed and still prevails in many
parts of the world. I was almost moved to tears reading this novel, such is its
depth. Idon’t really think if I should be rating this wonderful novel because
these kind of novels don’t entertain us, they rather teach us what life is all
about. Wide Sargasso Sea is not just a great novel, it is many wonderful books
in one.
- Abhishek I. Singh
