The start of Wide Sargasso sea describes the childhood of Bertha Mason, more commonly known as the mad woman from Jane Eyre. The start of Jane Eyre is quite similar to the start of this book, Bertha is a small and slightly odd child, quite calm and seemingly unloved, as Jane Eyre was. Antoinette is rejected by her mother over her brother Pierre a number of times, as JAne was by her Aunt Reed due to her children. This creates sympathy for Antionette. The main themes and motifs are introduced in this part, including isolation, red, fire, and racism,
Part one starts off being set in Coulibri Estate, but when this is burnt down the focus moves to to the convent where Antionette is sent to stay, as JAne was sent to Lowood, although Antionette seems to do better here. Coulibri is described as a beautiful place, but underneath the description is an underlying sinister feeling, the place seems to be slighly evil, especially with the forest almost swallowing it up. The convent, in contrast is described as all black and white, with no colour, but Antionette seems to feel safe here.
A few main characters are introduced, including Antionette and her mother, Annette. Annette seems slighly disturbed, we later find out she is mad, which is a parrelel to Jane Eyre, as Berthas madness is suppoisedly hereditary. Pierre, Janes brother, is also considered to be mad, and Antionette gives the impression that there is definatly something wrong with him, as he never speaks, and he eventually dies in the fire. However, Antionette says that he died before this. Antionette herself seems quite odd, to say the least, everything she says is stated coldly and calmly, for exapmle when she describes Mr Lutrells suicide and the horse being poisoned. The only emotive sentance used is when Coco the parrot dies, i found his bit distrubing, most likely because its the only part that shows true emotion on Antionnettes part. She also seems to struggle with trusting people, the only person she truely seems to trust is Christophine, but even then she is suspected of being an Obeah woman, and Antionette seems scared of her.
5 comments:
Yes I think you're right about her not being able to trust people- you never really get any dialogue in part one, which makes it seem like she's separated from everyone else, she can't trust them enough to get close to them.
You said that Annette was mad and that Anttoinette inherited it- don't you think that they both had triggers and it may not have been a heridtory thing. Triggers: Annette- Pierre Dying and being run out of her house.
Bertha- Rochester's harsh treatment of her and her gaoling.
It almost seems like Rochester has gone mad at some points and that the way this causes him to act pushes Antoinette over the edge of sanity and so in fact it is not her fault that she goes mad in the end.
Taking up Megan's point I think we get an unsettling picture of A because her 'distance' is reflected in her inability to meet our expectatations over what she finds important to describe. Some things seem matter of fact. Is this because she lacks the language to describe it? She is alienated? She is unaware of it's importance? This, I feel, is the strength of the novel, that we see it through the mind of a character and not through an omniscient author.
I'm not sure if Anntoinette actually inheited madness or if its just inheriting overly sensitive characteristics. Not that I'm saying that she wouldn't have gone mad if she was a different person, I agree that Rochester sent her quite mad.
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