Wide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys - 1604 Words

â€Å"Wide Sargasso Sea†, a novel by Jean Rhys, grants a voice to the other side of the story, the side that people believe to be madness. Generally, what the majority agrees upon is considered the truth. Hence, people who disagree or offer another opinion are instantly labeled as mad and end up secluded from society. Antoinette Mason Cosway, the protagonist of Wide Sargasso Sea, is considered a mad woman. Her absurd actions and thoughts are what leads to her demise. However, this novel casts a light on the insanity of its characters; madness is not so insane once we are able to fathom how it came to be; on the other hand, what ends up being madness is what we blindly believe to be the truth. Madness is a repeated theme in the novel†¦show more content†¦Antoinette s days were never calm and trouble free. She was hated by the outside world but she was also ignored and neglected from her family. Antoinette never had a place to rest and someone to trust or depend on. She had experienced rejection at a very young age from the person she cared about most, her mother. This incident lingered with her till she was a grown married woman. Indicating that Antoinette s deep wounds never healed, instead, they only grew deeper and stronger. This drove Antoinette to fall into a routine of asking herself who she is, where she belongs and if she ever mattered to anyone at all. As a result, Antoinette gave up on receiving tenderness from those around her and resorted to claiming that nature was better than people. She was raised by black people, yet she never considered herself black. However, she says, â€Å"We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking-glass. (I.1.8.29)† Antoinette conveys her feelings of wanting to be a black woman like Tia, her only friend. She says this quote while her house was burning because of angry former slaves that felt profound contempt towards her family. When Antionet te saw Tia that day, the feelings of envy and bitterness rose to the surface. While Antoinette was rejected by everyone around her, Tia belonged to a community that fully accepted her for who she is.Show MoreRelatedWide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys731 Words   |  3 Pagesâ€Å"write [her] name in fire red† (53) by the end of the novel. Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys magnifies the themes of madness and power by analyzing Rochester’s and Antoinette’s interactions with one another to ultimately teach a lesson that can be interpreted in many different ways. Their downfalls are created by the catastrophic conflicts with each other and the environment around them. It becomes more clear what Jean Rhys intends; she relates the text to present-day social issues that a readerRead MoreWide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys1400 Words   |  6 Pages Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel written by Jean Rhys, discussing the life of Antoinette Cosway. Antoinette and her family are Creole and they live on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Due to Antoinette’s Creole background, she and her family face a lot of problems and discrimination during their lives. However, when Antoinette grew older she had one friend named Tia. They played and talked together despite their obvious differences. On the night that Coulibri is set on fire, Antoinette flees with herRead MoreJean Rhys s Wide Sargasso Sea1708 Words   |  7 Pages Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea attempts to prove just how closely intertwined dreams and reality are. Rhys meticulously weaves dreams into real life, ultimately creating a novel that conjures a very ethereal truth. Trying to draw the line between what is real and what is fake is nearly impossible and, by the end of the novel, the reader is left in a state of lucid uncertainty. Rhys’s clever use of slumber in Wide Sargasso Sea reveals an enhanced sense of character progression, the inevitabilityRead MoreJean Rhys s Wide Sargasso Sea1226 Words   |  5 PagesJean Rhys, born in 1890 on the Island of Dominica to a Welsh father and a creole (West Indian) mother experienced the difficulty of integrating into British culture due to her Caribbean origin struggling to create an identity for herself. In her novel ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ (1996) Rhys depicts how she was deeply influenced by this creole heritage, exploring the struggle of finding ones place and identity in relations to race. She contrasts the European discourse with the creole discourse, focusingRead MoreJean Rhys s Wide Sargasso Sea Essay2012 Words   |  9 PagesIn Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea, Edward Rochester can be considered as an embodiment of patriarchal and colonial oppression. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, patriarchal means, â€Å"relating to, characteristic of, or designating a society or culture in which men tend to be in positions of authority and cultural values and norms are seen as favouring men†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Patriarchal†) moreover colonial means â€Å"of, belonging to, or relating to a colony†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"Colonial†). In addition, oppression meansRead MoreBook Review: Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea543 Words   |  2 PagesIdeas like slavery and post-colonial aftermath on former British colonies are dominant ideas in Jean Rhys 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. The writer focused on providing a realistic display con cerning feelings in former British colonies as individuals struggle to reclaim their cultural identity in environments destroyed as a consequence of oppression occurring during British influence. The first part of the novel focuses extensively on people who were formerly slaves working on plantations ownedRead MoreEssay on The Tragedy of Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea1057 Words   |  5 PagesThe Tragedy of Wide Sargasso Sea  Ã‚   In Jean Rhys novel Wide Sargasso Sea, whether Antoinette Cosway really goes mad in the end is debatable. Nevertheless, it is clear that her life is tragic. The tragedy comes from her numerous pursuits for love and a sense of belonging, and her failure at each and every one of these attempts. As a child Antoinette, is deprived of parental love. Her father is a drunkard and has many mistresses and illegitimate children. According to Daniel Cosways accountRead More Themes in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Essay examples792 Words   |  4 PagesThemes in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys The main themes in Wide Sargasso Sea are slavery and entrapment, the complexity of racial identity and womanhood or feminism. In all of these themes the main character who projects them are Antoinette and Christophine. The theme slavery and entrapment is based on the ex- slaves who worked on the sugar plantations of wealthy Creoles figure prominently in Part One of the novel, which is set in the West Indies in the early nineteenth century. AlthoughRead More The Importance of Truth in Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea Essay1225 Words   |  5 PagesThe Importance of Truth in Wide Sargasso Sea In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys presents a white Creole family living in a Caribbean Island (Jamaica), which is a lush and insecure world for them, after the liberation of the slaves. The husband had once been a slaveholder, the mother is a confused and crazy lady and Antoinette, the daughter, is a child in an atmosphere of fear, recrimination and bitter anger. She becomes increasingly isolated-this isolation is broken by her scheming stepbrother, whoRead MoreReview of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys830 Words   |  3 Pages I would say that doomed would be the correct adjective to use. Antoinette did not stand a chance at a happy marriage with Rochester. There are lots of different things that happen to undermine the success of their marriage. To begin with their marriage is based on money. The only reason that Rochester is marrying Antoinette was due to the large dowry placed on her by Mr Mason. A marriage without love will never work but all Antoinette wanted was to be loved as her mother had not loved her. Mr Rochester