Name : Latta J. Baraiya
Roll no : 11
Paper : The Postcolonial studies
Semester : M.A sem 3
Topic : The Story of The Madwoman in the Attic : Wide Sargasso Sea
Submitted to : Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
Introduction
When we think of females in the past, they really had the worst situation at that time. The situation has not changed yet, but in some places it is improving a lot. Because of education women started understanding about themselves. If we look back, "Wide Sargasso Sea" is the best example to study feminism and the situation of female characters. How they were safereing and how they were treated.
When I read Jane Eyre as a child, I thought why should [Bronte] think Creole woman are lunatics and all that? What a shame to make Rochester’s first wife, Bertha, the awful madwoman, and I immediately thought I’d write the story as it might have readily been. She seemed such a poor ghost. I thought I’d write her life.
(Vreeland, 1979: 235)
The study thoroughly analyzes how the female character in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea is given a voice in the novel during the post-colonial era and also how much of the voice she is able to use independently and powerfully. Although Wide Sargasso Sea is a re-writing of Jane Eyre, Rhys explores several issues which were left untouched by Bronte, such as patriarchal oppression and racial complexities leading to an individual’s loss of self and identity, as the circumstances demanded during that time. But what connects both the novels is the idea of the ‘other’. In Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason is a symbol of the racial other and as such she is isolated and rejected. The re-writing of Bertha Mason in the form of Antoinette is an attempt by Jean Rhys to give Bertha a voice and enable her to speak for the other side from the perspective of being caught between her English colonial identity and that of the Jamaican native as Gilman explains:
“the anxiety present in the self-concerning its control over the world engenders a need for a clear and a hard line of difference between the self and the other.”
(Gilman, 1985:27)
She further explains,
“the hard line is skin colour, but stereotypes, like commonplaces, carry entire realms of associations that form a subtext within the world of fiction.”
(Gilman, 1985:27).
To analyze this one may argue that the other is a threat to what is considered as the original as the other has the potential of destroying the original. When a society is faced with this threat of the other, their strong mode of defense is attacking or alienating them from the society. In this case, Antoinette becomes a mode of alienation as she is unable to fit in the society and the society fears that being the other she has the potential of destroying the whole notion of identity that a society is based on.
The “Two Extremes”
Antoinette’s description of the two binary opposites sheds light on Antoinette’s dual thoughts and confusion. The narration of the atmosphere by Antoinette makes clear her struggles with being stuck between two things and not being able to belong to either. It felt as if the silent atmosphere is a reflection of Antoinette’s mind as she could perfectly read through the gaps and fill it with her own analysis.
The reader can also see Antoinette’s struggle to fill the gaps in the madness and silence of her mother in her childhood days. By showing Annette’s madness and coldness towards her daughter Antoinette, Rhys in a way tries to exemplify how the absence of a mother’s love and affection contributes greatly to Antoinette’s fractured identity and how she later inherits her mother’s madness in the novel. Antoinette craves her mother’s love and care, which she is deprived of, as her brother, Pierre, gets his share of the attention.
“I hated this frown and once I touched her forehead trying to smooth it. But she pushed me away, roughly but calmly, coldly, without a word, as if she had decided once and for all that I was useless to her. She wanted me to sit with Pierre and walk where she pleased without being pestered, she wanted peace and quiet. I was old enough to look after myself. ‘Oh let me alone’ she would say, ‘let me alone,’ and after I knew that she talked to herself and I was a little afraid of her.”
(Rhys, 1966:17)
Thus, it seems that Antoinette’s narration, her voice in the first part of the novel, is also full of silences, gaps and undisclosed emotions.
The Struggle
Antoinette’s long-time struggle to find her own voice takes a turn after her marriage to Rochester as she begins to doubt her whole sense of individuality and existence. In the beginning of their marriage, Antoinette’s beauty attracted Rochester as he is seldom used to seeing such kind of beauty. While riding together he remarks:
“Looking up smiling, she might have been any pretty English girl.”
(Rhys, 1966:60)
This remark of Rochester shows how he perceives his wife, Antoinette, to be like any other perfect English girl, which is to be a girl with subtle and soft lady-like manners unlike the Creole personality that Antoinette engendered as she has a more direct and careless way of expressing herself. On the other hand, when insanity takes over Antoinette’s mind and she starts acting crazy, Rochester’s whole perception about her changes and instead of coming across as a beautiful swan, that same Antoinette comes across as a madwoman in Rochester’s eyes. When he sees her in that state for the first time he says -
“Her hair hung uncombed and dull into her eyes which were inflamed and staring, her face was very flushed and looked swollen.”
(Rhys, 1966:120).
By describing Antoinette’s appearance in a negative way, Rochester in a way puts down Antoinette as a whole since his attraction to Antoinette is based on her appearance. Although, it is obvious from his words that Rochester feels a certain attraction towards this Creole girl because of her appearance, he disregards her emotions in his narration.
Use of Colours – Self Expression
Antoinette herself becomes aware of Rochester’s fascination with her physicality and for that reason Antoinette chooses to use it as a method of expressing herself and reaching out to Rochester. Colors’ play an important part to become a medium of expression for Antoinette and she is seen to be fascinated by the color Red. Red can be linked to female sensuality, passion, and emotion and it may showcase courage, danger and a sense of power within women. Antoinette has an obsession for the colour red as she thinks that it attracts the eyes of her husband Rochester,
“I took the red dress down and put it against myself: ‘Does it make me look intemperate and unchaste?’ I said.”
(Rhys, 1966:152)
But unlike her misconception the red dress has an adverse effect on Rochester’s mind as to him it makes her look like a desperate woman who is apprehensive of the dangerous warning that comes with red as it is a sign of rebellion. On the other hand, the colour white has a desirable effect in Rochester’s mind as it makes Antoinette look chaste and pure as white is thought to symbolize virginity and chastity. The colour white arouses desire in Rochester. However, Antoinette has a different personality than that of what Rochester wants her to be and so she sticks to the colour red, which she believes makes her presence felt in a stronger way,
“Antoinette changes from the virginal bride wearing a white dress into the ‘rejected scarlet woman’ in a red dress.”
(Olaussen, 1992,:67)
It can be said that colours work as metaphor for Antoinette’s identity and individuality and it also works as a form of expression for Antoinette as it exemplifies the fact that Antoinette is independent as a woman and chooses to express herself in the way that is comfortable for her and suits her.
Individuality
Antoinette manages to express herself in parts despite Rochester’s constant attempts to not give her a space to voice her opinions. The essence of Antoinette’s personality comes to light when she ends up voicing her story to Rochester in order to defend her troubled childhood, which turns out to be a futile attempt. This clearly reflects Antoinette’s life-long struggle to find her individual place in a society. As Spivak explains, Antoinette
“is caught between the English imperialist and the black native.”
(Spivak, 1985:.243-261)
Antoinette’s description of her childhood portrays Antoinette’s struggle to find a separate identity, being caught up between the English and the black communities. There is a pain in Antoinette’s voice as she describes her childhood when she was a shy, lonely girl, filled with the fear of rejection.
Use of Sex
As verbal communication is decreasing between Antoinette and Rochester, sex becomes a form of communication and bonding between them - “men rob love with sex.” (Angier, 1990:543). As they lack mental connection, words fail and the only thing that attracts Rochester towards Antoinette is her physicality and physical communion plays an important part in his mind in this relationship. On the other hand, Antoinette’s way of communicating and feeling important and loved is through lovemaking. It feels as if, sex is the only form of love that exists with them. Rochester responds to her sexually like he never did before, as for some men, sex is the best form of communal bond between husband and wife.
Antoinette starts to use her physical attributes to lure Rochester and fulfill her desire for affection. Antoinette’s cry for sex is her cry for attention. Sex becomes a mode of expression in Antoinette’s life. Even though it gives Rochester the idea that she is not a proper lady, lacking the ladylike qualities and being influenced by her West-Indian mad manners as he once commented how he felt sick and disgusted by Antoinette’s behavior. Silence becomes prominent in Antoinette’s life. As the power of her voice has no effect on Rochester, Antoinette uses the silent power of sex as a way of getting the love that she feels she deserves.
Madness
The feeling of an absence of her own identity, her own voice, drives Antoinette to desperation. As Antoinette begins to lose touch with reality, madness overpowers her mind and body. Madness begins to feel real for her because it makes her feel alive. The attention she receives from madness makes her feel like she still exists. Madness gives her the power to make her voice heard to people who will not listen otherwise; power that she has been craving for since childhood. Madness is not a symptom of her constant feeling of a lack of voice and need to be heard; madness is a cure.
On the other thing the argument is that the madness which takes over Antoinette is significantly caused by her husband Rochester’s opinion regarding her from the beginning of the marriage as he always thinks of Antoinette as this mad, creole girl. Antoinette understands and realizes that her husband Rochester’s intention is to empower her, dominate and change her sense of identity and in order to stop that Antoinette has no other way other than retorting to madness and rejecting his wishes.
Conclusion
To wind up we can say that, Antoinette’s life is defined by a constant struggle between voice and silence. It is a struggle to find her identity and to express it in the most effective way; in a way that can be heard by others. In Jane Eyre Bronte’s essence is just her mad silence. However, Antoinette’s essence can be defined by both voice and silence. Jean Rhys gives this Creole character a new twist by giving her character a constant attraction to the extreme sides of everything. Antoinette believes in extremes and there is nothing mediocre in the manner in which she thinks and perceives things and people and for that reason, when she wants to say something, she uses extreme forms of expression. Antoinette, the Creole lady in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea, spent her entire life trying to be understood. The battles with her environment and her own demons leads to her constant shifting between different forms of expressions in order to make herself heard. And eventually, she succeeds.
As a Creole woman who is caught between the English imperialist and the black Jamaican, Antoinette becomes an outsider and a silent existence throughout her life. The control of English imperialist and tension of racial conflict cause the tragedy of her. As a weaker one in any interactions, she is never able to have a voice of her own. Though Rhys tries to give Antoinette a voice to tell her own story, the ending is the passive acceptance. Her voice is voiceless. The voiceless goes through her whole life from youth to marriage eventually to her madness and results in the tragedy of her life.
References
Angier, Carole. Jean Rhys: Life and Work. London: André
Deutsch Ltd, 1990:543.
Azam, Nushrat. “‘Madwoman in the Post-Colonial Era’ A Study of the Female Voice in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, Oct. 2017.
Gilman, Sander L. Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race, and Madness. New York: Cornell University Press, 1985:27.
Lei, Guo. “Elements Lead to Identity Tragedy: The Voiceless of Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea.” Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (SJHSS), vol. 3, no. 7, July 2018, http://scholarsmepub.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SJHSS-37-811-814-c.pdf.
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Harmondsworth: Penguin
Books, 1966.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism.” “Race, Writing, and Difference” 12, no. 1 (1985): 243-61.
Vreeland, Elizabeth. “Jean Rhys: The Art of Fiction [Inter-view] LXIV.” Paris Review 21.76, 1979: 218-37.
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