Wide Sargasso Sea

By Jean Rhys

Part One

The Opening: Tensions become immediately apparent as the disapproval towards Antoinette's mother is made explicit and she is excluded from both whites' and Jamaicans' sympathy. The family's isolation in terms of company, society and finance is pressing due to the threat presented by the Emancipation act and the absence of a male figure to run the estate. The desertion of Mr Luttrell adds to the sense of mystery and tragedy as the town gossips and views Nelson's Rest suspiciously as an "unlucky place" (p.15). We see Antoinette's family "marooned" (p.16). The death of their horse is discovered by the young Antoinette who rather than tell anybody hopes her denial of the sight will make it unreal: "I thought that if I told no one it might not be true" (p.15). The mother, a flighty and beautiful lady, who still yearns for the grand life and admirers "perhaps she had to hope every time she passed a looking glass" (p.15), feels irritated and takes out her feelings of frustration and persecution against their employee Godfrey; "The old hypocrite... He knew what they were going to do".

Family Relations: We learn about the idiot son Pierre and the further mental stress his condition places on Antoinette's mother; "she grew thin and silent, and at last refused to leave the house at all" (p.16). The sad position is highlighted by Antoinette's description of the garden and its former beauty and Edenic glory which is contrasted by the short stark sentence "But it had gone wild" (p.16). The Orchids are out of reach, beautiful but not to be touched. We see an imperfect paradise as mystery and sadness lies beneath the tropical and verdant exotic landscape. Thus beauty and sinister power is equated, especially with the echoes of biblical temptation suggested in the "snaky looking" description; "I never went near it" (p.17). Beauty is perhaps equated with her mother, she who rejects her and calmly pushes her caring daughter away preferring to sit with Pierre and to talk to herself; "Oh, let me alone" she says to Antoinette, who is accordingly afraid of her mother as she is of the unapproachable and forbidden beauty of the orchids. We see constant rebuffs that the young Antoinette must cope with as her caring attentions and love for her mother as she tries to fan her (p.19) is similarly rejected. Her mother's beautiful black hair which is initially perceived s a protective cloak by Antoinette; "keep me safe" (p.19) is soon realised as nothing like that as she narrates "But not any longer. Not any more"(p.19). Her simple short phrase evokes our pity as the childlike simplicity and distress is coupled with adult resignation and menacing apprehension.

Location: The novel is successfully located in the West Indies by Rhys within the first couple of pages through the place and plant names that differentiate the locale; "Coulibri" "Martinique", "frangipani tree" "glacis" and the dialect "pretty like pretty self". Local songs also place the novel in a specific context and social mindset as Christophene's patois songs infer social anxieties and enhances the theme of desertion that we have already encountered; "The little one's grow old, the children leave us, will they come back?"(p.18). The songs are also a significant prophesy of the course of events of Wide Sargasso Sea "The loving man was lonely, the girl was deserted, the children never came back. Adieu" (p.18).

Outsiders: Christophine is another woman suffering isolation, whilst she is black, it is a different type of black "much blacker - blue-black" and her manner and fashion is from Martinique which estranges her from the Jamaicans. We can see her struggle to be accepted as she does not speak the good English or French she is capable of and "takes care to talk as they talked" but they are still terrified by her. So whilst she is distanced from other black workers she is also distanced from her mistress in that she is seen as a commodity; Christophine was a wedding present. Here we can see the axis of race, social attitudes and economic power cross and effect the individual as fear, prejudice and resentment are triggered rendering her solitary.

Even between children racial and financial issues trouble relationships as Antoinette is taunted by another girl singing, "Go away white cockroach" (p.20). She is an outsider even within her own family, her class and colour distance her from both the blacks and the colonials "white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger" (p.21) Accepted by nobody she turns to Christophine and Tia for a desirable identity model because her mother "never asked me where I had been or what I had done" (p.20). She admires Tia "fires always lit for her... . I never saw her cry" (p.20) and embraces her Jamaican ways such as eating green bananas and attempting somersaults. But that itself becomes a site of contention and Tia unleashes the local derision against Antoinette and her family "that old house so leaky, you run with calabash to catch water when it rain". Tia's speech is a mimicry of the local gossips, which is in turn reported by Antoinette, yet we still get a distinctive sense of the dialect and local tales and ridicule. Tia steals Antoinette's dress, who then walks home alone in Tia's more scruffy dress.

Change and Anxiety: When she arrives home there are visitors, who are so beautiful and impressively dressed that they cause excitement in Annette and Antoinette looks down in shame. Clothing becomes intensely important as her mother struggles to keep up the pretence of wealth and desirability and Antoinette is conscious of disappointing and embarrassing her mother as she pitifully says without resentment "She is ashamed of me" (p.23). The arrival of the English influence in her life causes yet more conflicts for her to deal with and attempt to reconcile "I was glad to be an English girl but I missed the taste of Christophine's cooking" (p.30) and whilst she can appreciate the beauty of the English girl in the Miller's daughter and be grateful for Mason's presence she can also never fully identify with English customs and mores either.

Her feelings of insecurity and fears of the changes that these strangers bring are reflected in her bad dream; her mother gives her little consolation and it is only her vision of nature and the sea which comforts her and allows her to believe "I am safe" (p.23). The word 'safe', we may begin to notice is one of Antoinette's preoccupations, thus highlighting her insecurity and search for protection which her mother fails to provide (she later reminisces about her stick with nails in it which she kept with her for defence p.31). Even the razor grass which cuts her legs is considered as favourable as she becomes inextricably linked with her environment; "Better. Better, better than people" (p.24). The simple repetition marks her unease and her recurring attempts to convince herself of its comforting power. She uses nature to will herself into an escape and she seeps into her scenery:

"Watching the red and yellow flowers in the sun thinking of nothing, it was as if a door opened and I was somewhere else, something else. Not myself any longer" (WSS p.24)

Colonialist Conceit: At her mother's wedding, Antoinette overhears the smiling guests and their reports about her family and sexual scandals. We are given a vignette of life at the estate before the book opens and also a flash of a portrayal of the younger and happier Annette and her dancing which enchants her adoring daughter. With the improvements of the estate with Mr Mason's arrival tensions rise and both Antoinette and Annette fear and are frustrated by Mason's naivety and lack of comprehension. Antoinette is perturbed by Mason's take on Aunt Cora, and appears wiser than the adult. "None of you understand about us" (p.26) she thinks and understands the dangerous situation their new-found wealth puts them in:

"The black people did not hate us so much when we were poor ... my mother knows but she can't make him believe it.." (p.29).

In the character of Mason we can see the relaxed assumption of supremacy and arrogant ignorance of the colonial rule as he says, "they're too damn lazy to be dangerous" (p.28) and foolishly talks about importing labourers instead of using locals in front of the servant Myra. Thus Mason displays a blundering and ineffectual understanding of the political situation on the island.

The Fire: Mason's lack of knowledge and casual attitude provides a catalyst for long term tensions and conflicts to finally explode in the form of the attack on the house. What he derisively calls "a handful of drunken Negroes" turns out to be a large angry crowd and the mob mentality is elucidated in terms of swelling and animals howling (p.32); showing up both the size, noise and aggression of the crowd, "they roared as we came out" (p34). Pierre is left in a burning room by Myra and Annette has to save him. The attack sparks off Annette's hatred for Mr Mason who she blames and abuses for his stupidity "You would not listen, you sneered at me, you grinning hypocrite" (p.34) she screams. She later resists him when she tries to rescue her parrot and is aggressive and frenzied "twisting like a cat and showing her teeth" (p.35) they escape the house and are faced with further threats and the laughter of the crowd but are rescued by the sight of the burning parrot. Such a spectacle frightens the superstitious crowd and they leave silently "They were not laughing anymore" (p.36). Mason's prayer and the crowd's superstitious beliefs highlight the clash of faiths and religious customs between the islanders.

Faced with the end of life in Coulibri Antoinette runs towards Tia as something of her old life to grab hold of:

"[W]e had eaten the same food, slept side by side, bathed in the same river ... I will be like her... . I saw the jagged stone in her hand ... I looked at her and I saw her face crumple up as she began to cry. We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking- glass" (p.38)

Antoinette as a white Creole child growing up at the time of emancipation is caught between English imperialism which she does not subscribe to and the black native who will never fully accept her. It is a tragic moment of mutual recognition and similarity coupled with the understanding of their irreparable divisions. Tia is an 'Other' that is also part of Antoinette's own identity and self, but they can never be reconciled because of the fractures caused by imperialism.

The End of Coulibri: Antoinette is left with a scar, a physical reminder of the turbulence of imperialism on personal lives. Ironically, her Aunt Cora believes that it will not ruin her wedding day (p.39) but Rhys emphasises throughout Wide Sargasso Sea the destructive effects of money, power and culture on the individual psychology and human relationships. Antoinette retells the period of her sickness and her memory of her mother's insanity, Annette' screams of, "Que est la? Que est la?", and terrible threats at the death of Pierre. On her visit to her mother there is a cruel play of contrasting emotions as her mother holds her close and shows her affection and then throws her away from her at the absence of Pierre. She is left hurt again by her mother's rejection. But again her desolation is left unsaid. However, her feelings that are left inarticulate almost resound behind the nurse's dialogue "Why you bring the child to make trouble, trouble, trouble?" and the significant silence that follows; "All the way back to Aunt Cora's house we didn't speak" (p.40)

The Convent: On her first day of school she is chased by a girl and boy who taunt her with her mother's madness and her own insanity "She have eyes like zombie and you have eyes like a zombie too" (p.42). She is saved by Sandi, who she is shy to acknowledge as part of her family, appropriating Mason's pretensions and attempts to wipe away the past and family scandals. The convent becomes her school and her refuge and finally her home when Aunt Cora moves to England. It is a place of smiling nuns with soft eyes and the pretty and elegant de Plana sisters. It is a convent of a rather odd ethos as Mother St Justine, who Louise notes is not very intelligent, teaches them the romantic side of the martyrs' tales, beauty tips and deportment. Perhaps this infers another example of female frustration and narrowed potential.

It is a place where she finds enough tranquillity and insulated against the world to inscribe her identity: "I will write my name in fire red, Antoinette Mason, nee Cosway". Perhaps here we can see a harbinger of her final act of asserting her identity in the fire at Thornfield and also her admiration for Tia who could always light fires. Fire becomes an important motif in the novel as a source of light and warmth but also destructive. It reflects her passionate nature as it becomes associated with Antoinette and later Christophine says of her burning nature: "She have the sun in her" (p.130)

"Here, in here" (p.50): The novel, built on contrasts is in the convent scenes particularly graphic in its distinct choices; it is an insulated forum for Antoinette to experience and appropriate these polar opposites. Antoinette sees the convent as a place of "sunshine and of death" (p.47), she picks out light and shadows, ponders on Heaven and Hell, plays between the safety of religion and the freedom of not praying (p.48). This enclosed life though comes to a close with the arrival of Mason and he talks to her about leaving the convent, makes suggestions about living in England and mentions a particular visitor which leaves Antoinette with a sinking feeling:

"It may have been the way he smiled, but again a feeling of dismay, sadness, loss, almost choked me ... It was like the morning when I found the dead horse. Say nothing and it may not be true" (p.49)

Her fate, she realises (although she cannot tell what it is the reader can), has begun to close in on her and she feels less safe and has a symbolic and prophetic dream. The man is leading her not to love but is strange and threatening. He "smiles slyly", and we have been taught throughout to distrust smiles and laughter; the girl and boy who taunt her on her first day of the convent smile before their attack. The soothing hot chocolate reminds Antoinette of her mother's funeral and these memories become mixed with the dream, significantly meshing the influence of her mother, her madness and history on Antoinette's own fate as pictured in the dream.