After finishing Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, I couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed. The story of the mysterious "madwoman in the attic" is revealed in these 100 or so pages. Her name is not Bertha, but Antoinette, like her mother. Antoinette (jr)'s story is told in three parts. The first is of her upbringing, how she grew up in a home of slave owners falling into disarray because the Emancipation law had been passed. Her time was spent isolated but filled with the beauty of her surroundings. The second part of her story is told mostly in (who we assume to be) Mr. Rochester's voice. His story fills in the details of how the two came to be met in matrimony. But more importantly, it tells the story of their rapid decline as companions and the complete deterioration of any remnants of naiveté either of them had. Then, the third part of the story, which is only a handful of pages, is the only portion of the novella which takes place in England. It chooses a couple of important characters to place in the story (Grace, Richard, Jane, Rochester) to give the reader a sense of timeline in terms of Jane Eyre itself.
What I found most interesting throughout the novella, was the theme of insanity. Bertha in Jane Eyre is normally the character most associated with insanity--the madwoman in the attic. However, Wide Sargasso Sea, provides the opportunity to take a closer look at what it means to be insane--and whether our eye has been too carefully locked on Antoinette. While Antoinette's narrative in the first portion of the novella is disjointed and unreliable, it is the unnamed Mr. Rochester who's narrative we call even further into question. This happens because his narrative demands that we believe he is the sane one--that he is the victim. However, as the story progresses, he is the one who starts falling apart in a much more visible way. He begins hearing the thoughts of Christophine during a lengthy conversation at the end.
But what is most interesting about this look into the 'insanity' of any character, I think, is the environmental impact that led up to such a claim. Antoinette's mother was believed to have always been insane, however, from the story Antoinette tells, we are led to believe that it could have been the events happening around her which caused it--or at least exacerbated it. Antoinette seems to be following down the same path.
While this story precedes the 20th century, I think it's interesting to compare it to the massive popularity eugenics policy had during that time. Most scientists, Robert Yerkes for example, did not believe that the environment had any impact on a person's intelligence. That has since been disproved. But the implications of ignoring people's experiences are massive. They have led to the dehumanization of characters such as Bertha, because she is written off immediately as the insane one. It takes a closer examination (albeit even a fictitious one) to understand that things are never as simple as they may seem.
You raise an interesting perspective here Talya. I do agree that when Rochester's narrative begins he is clearly sane, at least as sanity is commonly defined. His narrative is logical, focused and temporally progressive. Yet, as his narrative approaches its end, he features much of the disjointment that Antoinette displays. His thoughts jump around, often in a random manner and he experiences odd mood swings. I believe that just as the environmental shift may have ruined Antoinette's psyche after she was transferred to England, so too did Jamaica have a similar effect of Rochester. I am left wondering if Rhys wrote the entire book just confuse our idea of what insanity was.
ReplyDeleteI am really intrigued by this sentence " But more importantly, it tells the story of their rapid decline as companions and the complete deterioration of any remnants of naiveté either of them had." The part about the deterioration of naiveté is very powerful. I think it is also an interesting way to read the novel. If we read it to portray both Antoinette and our Rochester character as being naive, it puts a new spin on them. I think it was very easy to try and mash up the Rochester from Rhys' novel, and the one from Bronte's. But in doing so, we would be taking the much older, more experienced and (somewhat) more mature Rochester from Jane Eyre and pushing him upon the young Rochester from WSS. Neither he nor Antoinette had had any sort of a committed relationship before, and based upon what we know of their parents, they did not have good role models for how a marriage should go. So they were left as two strangers forced to try and find love/happiness in one another. Instead they end up using childish means to hurt each other, which shows their youth and immaturity.
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