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The novel telIs the story of Antoinette Mason, the daughter of a once dstingushed Creole family on the island of Jamaica. The family are caught between the hatred ofthe black slaves who were emancipated in 1833 and the white Europeans who view them as inferior and reject them. In part one, her widowed mother, Annette Cosway, marries a certain Mr Mason, but she has a breakdown after losing her son and dies, while her daughter, Antoinette, is away at convent school. When school ends, Antoinette, now of marriageable age, is forced into an arranged marriage with an Englishman, who has accepted her for her dowry. In part two, the arrival of a letter from Daniel Cosway, an illegitimate son of Alexander Cosway's, warns her husband about a strain of madness in the Cosway family, which makes him Ieelthe victim of a conspiracy. Antoinette asks her old 'rrurse Christophine to prepare a potion to make him love her, but it has the effect of a poison. The husband now becomes set in his hatred of his wife, who sinks into madness and despair. In the first section of part three, narrated by Grace Poole, we suddenly realise the identity of Antoinette's husband: Rochester, the apparently enlightened, Byronc hero of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. We learn from Grace that Rochester inherited his father's estate because both his father and older brother died while he was in Jamaica. We also learn that during the voyage to 'England Antoinette had attempted to seduce one of the ship's crew into helping her escape. Now she is guarded day and night, though Antoinette manages to get a knife and uses it to attack her half-brother, Richard Mason, when he comes to see her. She also manages to take Grace's keys while the servant is sleeping under the influence of drink. At the end of the novel, Antoinette has a dream in which the house catches fire, a premonition of what actualIy happens in Bronte 's novel, hinting at the self-destructive end awaiting her.

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In this episode Antoinette describes a conversation between Grace Poole and herself, after a visit from her half-brother, Richard Mason, an inddent referred to, thouqh not directly described, in Jane Eyre (chapter XIX).

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I said, 'I can't remember what happened. I can't remember.' 'When he carne in,' said Grace Poole, 'he didn't recognize you.' 'Will you light the fire,' I sad, 'because l'm so cold.' "I'his gentleman arrived suddenly and insisted on seeing you and that was ali the thanks he got. You rushed at him with a knife and when he got the knife away you bit his armo You won't see him again. And where did you get that knife? I told them you stole it from me but l'm much too careful. l'm used to your sorto You got no knife from me. You must h~ve bought it that day when I took you out. I told Mrs Effl you ought to be taken out.' 'When we went to England,' I said. 'You fool,' she said, 'this is England.' 'I don't believe it,' I said, 'and I never will believe it.' (That afternoon we went to England. There was grass and olive-green water and tall trees looking into the water. This, I thought, is England. li I could be there I could be well again and the sound in my head would stop. Let me stay a little longer, I said, and she sat down under a tree and went to sleep. A little way off there was a cart and horse - a woman was driving it. It was she who sold me -, the knife. I gave her the locket'' round my neck for it.) _ Grace Poole said, 'So you don't remember that you attacked this gentleman with a knife?' I said that you would be quieto 'I must speak to her,' he said. Oh he was warned but he wouldn't listen. I was in the room but I didn't hear all except 'I cannot interfere legally between yourself and your husband. It was when he said 'legally' that you flew at him and when he twisted the knife out of your hand you bit him. Do you mean to say that you don't remember any of this?' 'Iremember now that he did not recognize me. I saw him look at me and his eyes went first to one corner and then to another, not finding what they

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expected. He looked at me and spoke to me as though l were a stranger. What do you do when something happens to you like that? Why are you laughing at me? Have you hidden my red dress to? lf l'd been wearing that he'd have known 30 me.' 'Nobody's hidden your red dress,' she said. 'It's hangng in the press".' She looked at me and said, 'l don't believe you know how long you've been here, you poor creature.' 'On the contrary,' l said, 'only l know how long l've been here. Nights and days 35 and days and nights, hundreds of them slipping through my fingers, But that does not matter, Time has no meaning. But something you can touch and hold like my red dress, that has a meaning.Where is it?' She jerked her head" towards the press and the corners of her mouth turned down. As soon as she turned the key l saw it hanging, the colour of fire and 40 sunset. The colour of flamboyant flowers. 'If you are buried under a flamboyant tree', l said 'your soul is lifted up when it flowers, Everyone wants that.' She shook her head but she did not move or touch me. The scent that carne from the dress was very faint5 at first, then it grew stronger. The smeli of vetiver and frangipan, of cnamon'' and dust and lime 45 trees 7 when they are flowering. 'l'he smeli of sun and the smeli of rain.
(From Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys, Pengun, 1966.)

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1. Look at Bront's text. Rochester compares his wife with Jane. Use what you know about the characters from the novel or this scene to fill in the chart to bring out the differences between them. Bertha is ali
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OVERVIEW
Jane Eyre was an important step in voicing the feelings, frustrations and ambitions of women in Victorian England. Nevertheless, the portrait of Mrs Rochester would seem to reveal certain Victorian prejudices. lt is suggested that Creole women lacked the moral integrity of English women and that they were 'predisposed' to vice and madness. Jean Rhys takes this stereotype and builds up a character who reflects the personal, social, racial, and cultural causes that could drive such a woman to rnadness and desperate violence. In her novel, she reverses the situation described in Jane Eyre. Rochester is no longer seen as the victim, but as the aggressor and the oppressor, while his wife's madness is seen as the logical consequence of a life in which she has been exiled from her home, her family, her culture and deprived of respect for what she is and of her rights as an individual and a woman.

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Jean Rhys was born on the island of Dominica in the West Indies in 1894, the daughter of a doctor of Welsh descent, and moved to Britain when she was sixteen. After briefly attending the Perse School in Cambridge and the Academy of Dramatic Art, she had a series of different jobs, working as a chorus girl or as an extra in a film. In 1919 she moved to Paris where she lived for many years and married the first of her three husbands. In Paris she met the writer Ford Madox Ford who wrote an enthusiastic review of her first book, published in 1927, a collection of short stories called The Left Bank. This was followed by Quartet (1928), Afte; Leaving Mr Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the Dark (1934) and Good Moming, Midnight (1939). None of these were particularly successful, probably because they were so far ahead of their time in theme and tone. A long silence followed, during which Rhys lived in England. With the outbreak of war she vanished from the public eye until twenty years later when she was rediscovered thanks to Wide Sargasso Sea (1966). It was her frst novel in over 25 years and was a great successo After its publication, some of her early books were reprinted, and were followed bytwo late .( collections ofshort stories and by her unfinished autobiography Smile Please (1979). [ean Rhys died in 1979.

Focus on the text: Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea is set in Dominica, Jamaica and England during the 1830s. It tells the story of Bertha Mason, here called Antoinette Cosway, the "mad' wife of Mr Rochester, the principal male character of Charlotte Bront's Jane Eyre. From Bront's text we know very little about Bertha, apart from the fact that she is considered md and she lives locked up in the attic of Thornfield. Jean Rhys, fascinated by ths character, decided to give her a 'Iife" and construct a story around hr, Commenting on her idea, and on the possibility of giving a voice toa character from an already exsting novel, Rhys once wrote:
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When I read lane Eyre as a child, I thought, why should she think Creole women are lunatics and ali that? What a shame to make Rochester's first wife, Bertha, the awful madwoman, and I immediately thought l'd write the story as it might realiy have been. She seemed such a poor ghost. l'd try to write her a life.
Jane Eyre provided the initial inspiration for an imaginative work which is a great work of literature in its own right, independent of . its model.
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The plot The novel is divided into three parts. The first section is told in Antoinette's word;" telling of her childhood and family and her education in a convento By contrast, th second part is narrated by the young Mr Rochester and describes his arrivaI in t The 'mad West Indies, his marriage to Antoinette and its disastrous consequences. At the end wornan' this section Antoinette is again given the opportunity to speak. The third section" --=s'-"p""e=-=a::.:k=s once more narrated by Antoinette, but the scene has now changed to England, and particular the attic of Thornfield Hall, the house where most of Jane Eyre is set, whe Antoinette/Bertha has been imprisoned because she is considered dangerously mad .... the end of Wide Sargasso Sea, as in Jane Eqre, Antoinette/Bertha sets fire to the hou But in Rhys' novel wecan understand much more about her because she has been giv the chance to express the solitude, the suffering she experienced, the sense of alienati she felt with a man who never understood her and never really tried to do so. This exasperated further by her childhood, when she was often left alone because of mother's 'madness'.
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Features Although alI Rhys' novels are extremely autohiographical, the most orignal aspect Wide Sargasso Sea is its intertextual aspect. Giving voice to a secondary character another' novel means filling the silences in that novel, constructing a point of view whi' can widen its horizons and its 'Ife'. As in all her other books, thepoint of view that Rh chooses to explore is that of the oppressed woman in a male-dominated society VI has very little chance to speak. This difficulty, or sometimes impossibility, for women' speak is perfectly expressed in Voyage in the Dark (see VoI. l, p. 62) through the phr 'speaking from under water'. In this case the woman emerges from her suffoca liquid prison and narrates her story herself. ' Another interesting aspect of the novel is the alternation of voices. The fact that story is narrated both by Antoinette and Rochester allows the reader to see the eve from two different points of view and to understand how two characters see eaeh other. Antoinette's first-person narra. , is extremely signifieant, espeeially beeause Bront's book tell so little about her. However, Rochester's voice is also importaf In fact, we diseover that after all he is a weak man, afraido everything and espeeially of his wfe's sensuality, equated wi that of her eountry whch is always referred to as 'too much'. The language used by Rhys is often highly symholi especially in the description of nature and the use of colou The Caribbean islands are deseribed as a paradse, full intoxieating but menacing flowers, whose scent is too much Rochester, and the environment is often associated Antoinette herself.
Petunia and Colours (1924) by Georgia Q'Keeffe. Private collection. The Caribbean islands are described as a paradise, full of intoxicating but menacing flowers.

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This is taken [rom the secand pari aj the navel, where Rachester tells us abaut his honeymoon with Antoinette and haw problems and incomprehensians began.

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1 How do you think you would feel in an 'exotic' country where everything looks so different? Discusswith other students.
View from Fern-Tree Wa/k, Jamaica (c. 1870), detail, by Martin Johnson Heade. Private collection.

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o it was all over, the advance and retreat, the doubts and hesitations. Everything finished, for better or far worse. There we w_~r~,sheltering l from the heavy rain under a large mango tree, myself, my wife Antoinette and a little half-caste 2 servant who was called Amlie. Under a neighbouring tree 1 could see our luggage covered with sacking, 3 the two porters and a boy holding fresh horses, hired to carry us up 2,000 feet to the waiting honeymoon house. The girl Amlie said this morning, 'I hope you will be very happy, sir, in your sweet honeymoon house.' She was laughing at me I could see. A lovely little creature but sly, 4 spiteful, 5 malignant perhaps, like much else in this place. 'It's only a shower,' 6 Antoinette said anxiously. 'It will soon stop.' 1 looked at the sad leaning 7 coconut palms, the fishing boats drawn 8 up on the shingly beach, 9 the uneven row of whitewashed la huts, and asked the name of the village. 'Massacre.' LI 'And who was massacred here? Slaves?' 'Oh no.' She sounded shocked. 'Not slaves. Something must have happened a long time ago. Nobody remembers now.' The rain fell more heavily, huge drops sounded like hail l- on the leaves of the tree, and the sea crept stealthily l3 forwards and backwards. So this is Massacre. Not the end of the world, only the last stage of our

l sheltering: taking cover. 2 half-caste : person whose parents are of different races. 3 sackng : coarse materia l used for making sacks. 4 sly: astute. 5 spiteful: malicious. 6 7 8 9 shower: Iight rain. leaning: inclining. drawn: pulled. shingly beach : beach made of small round pebbles. whitewashed : painted in white. Massacre: name of the village with an obvious symbolic meaning. hail : frozen rain. stealthily [stelrli] : furtively.

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14 Spanish Town : large town in Jamaica. 15 estate: area of land or property. 16 dimness: darkness, obscurity. 17 stare: look intensely. 18 brim : projecting edge around the bottom of a hat. 19 howling : screaming. 20 gaudy: vulgarly colourful. 21 soaked: very wet. 22 riding habit : a wornan's riding .dress. 23 which which good. 24 blinks closes became her : made her look : opens and her eyes.

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. . . . . intermma bl e journey f rom J amaica, t h e start o f our sweet h oneymoon. And it will J alllook very different in the sun: .j It had been arranged that we would leave Spanish Town 14 immediately after the ceremony and spend some weeks in one of the Windward Islands, at a small estate 15 which had belonged to Antoinette's mother. I agreed. As I had agreed to 25J everything else. The windows of the huts were shut, the doors opened into silence and dimness. 16 Then three little boys carne to stare 17 at uso The smallest wore nothing but a religious medal round his neck and the brim 18 of a large fisherman's hat. When I srniled at him, he began to cry. A woman called from one of the huts and he ran 30; away, still howling. 19 ~ The other two followed slowly, looking back several times. As if this was a signal a second woman appeared at her door, then a third. 'It's Caro,' Antoinette said. 'l'm sure it's Caro. Caroline,' she called, waving, and the woman waved back. A gaudy 20 old creature in a 'brightly flowered dress, a 3 striped head handkerchief and gold ear-rings. ! 'You'll get soaked, 21 Antoinette,' I said. . J 'No, the rain is stopping.' She held up the skirt of her riding habit-? and ran across the street, I watched her critically. She wore a tricorne hat which became her. 23 At least it shadowed her eyes which aretoo large and can be disconcerting. Shenever 4(] blinks 24 at. all it seems to me. Long, sad, dark alien eyes. Creole' of pure English descent she may be, but they are not, English or European ither, And when did I . begin to notice all this about my wife Antoinette? After we left Spanish Town I . suppose. Or did I notice it before and refuse to adrnit what I saw?

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Overview
1 Look at the first paragraph. Who is sheltering under the tree? Why? 2 Why are they there? 3 Who is Amlie? In what way is she like the piace where Rochester and Antoinette are staying?

Zoom in
1 What type of narrator does Rhys use in this passage? Whse point of view is represented? 2 3 How does the narrator feel about this journey? Now focus on the setting. What kind of atmosphere does this passage evoke? Choose frorn among the following: frightening pleasant depressing menacing . lifeless sensuilj
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4 How does Rochester perceive and then describe Amlie? 5 What is the name of the village? 6 Describe their journey. Where are they travelling frorn. and to? 7 Who do they see near the house? 8 Describe Caroline. 9 What is Antoinette wearing? 4

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Give reasons for your choice and underline the parts of the text that help to convey this atmosphere. ' have upor

What effect do the weather conditions the scene?

10 What is Rochester's impression of Antoinette?

What aspect in particular does he notice about her? Why?

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'strong' a man as he appears to be in Jane Eyre? . Why?Mlhy not? Why do you think Rhys uses Rochester's voice to recount their honeymoon? the following. a Choose from among More than one answer is possible.

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Rochester that this is because something strange must have happened there. In a way, the name of the village is b a sort of c of the relationship
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Contrast the clothing of the smallest boy, Caro and Antoinette.

For discussion
on the 'intertextua!' aspect of 1 Rochester feels threatened by the luxuriant nature of the island and at the same time by his wife. Can you think of any reasons for this? Discuss with other students.
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Do you think madness is an objective state or do you think it is determined other students. cultural context in which one lives? Discuss with

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hen night comes, and she l has had severa1 drinks and sleeps, it is easy to take the keys. l know now where she keeps them. Then l open the door and wa1k into their world. lt is, as l a1ways knew, made of cardboard. l have seen it before somewhere, this cardboard world where everything is coloured brown or dark red or yellow that has no 1ightin it. As l walk along the passages l wish l cou1d see what is behind the cardboard. They tell me l am in Eng1and but l don't believe them. We lost our way to Eng1and. When? Where? l don't remember, but we lost it. Was it that evening in the cabin when he 2
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found me ta1king to the young man who brought me my food? I put my arms round his neck and asked him tohelp me. He said, 'I didu't kIlOWwhat to do, sir.' I smashed 3 the glass and p1ates against the portho1e. 4 I hoped it wou1d break and the sea come in. A woman carne and then an older man who cleared up the broken things on the floor. Re did not 100k at me whi1e he was doing it. The third man 5 said drink this and you will sleep. I drank it and I said, 'It isn't 1ike it seems to be.' - 'I know. It never is,' he said. And then I slept. When I woke it was a different sea. Co1der. It was that night, I think, that we changed course and lost our way to Eng1and. This cardboard house where I wa1k at night is not Eng1and.
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1 What does Antoinette after Grace Pool has a few drinks? 2 How does she describe the house. she wanders ar,ound? Antoinette is convinced she is not in England and

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it makes the passage more monotonous it gives suspense to the passage

For discussion
1 Have you ever visited a piace that was too 'intense' for you? Or a piace that gave you the impression it was 'made of cardboard'? your experience to the class. Recount

that they must have lost their way during the sea journey. What does she remember about the journeyexactly?

Zoom in
1 Focus on the narrator of this passage. Who is speaking this time? 2 Why do you think she refers to the house as 'their world'? 3 Now concentrate think Antoinette on the setting. What do you means when she says that their

world is 'made of cardboard'? 4 Let us now compare the two settings from the two passages you have read. In what ways are they different? Here is a list of adj"ectives. Which tcons of Constructivism (2002) by Valery Koshlyakov'
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ones would you say refer to Massacre and which ones to Thornfield?

Reread the passages from Jane Eyre. What are th' similarities and differences you notice about Bertha/Antoinette? In what way do you think yo, attitude towards the character Bertha/Antoinette . might be changed after reading about her childhood and her past through her own voice? .

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In this passage Rhys makes considerable use of repetition. repeated. What effect does this have? Choose from among the following:

Remakes of films or books in cinema are very common. Some of them are faithful to the .. originai, others are quite similar to the idea of Rhys. Can you think of an example? Did you prefer the originai or the remake? .

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it gives intensity to the passage it underlines the madness of the narrator

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Not ali the women in Charlotte Bronte's novel are as adrnirable as Jane Eyre. Mr Rochester's wife, Bertha, for example, is seen as a woman who is mad partly because of drink and partly for hereditary reasons. This weakness is also connected with the fact that she is a Creole, that

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Rochester and Jane's wedding has been interrupted by Richard Mason. He reveals that Rochester's wife is imprisoned in Thornfield Hall. Enraged, Rochester takes Mr Woods the clergyman, Mr Briggs the lawyer, Mason and lane to the roorns where his wife is guarded by Grace Poole.
1. beLlowed: shouted loudly; 2. shaggy locks: untidy hair; 3. gazed: looked; 4. bloated features: coarse features; 5. thrusting her aside: pushing her out of the way; 6. it is ... craft: norma l intelligence is unable to imaging what she is capable of doing;

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"Only a few moments, Grace: you must allow me a few moments." "Take care then, sir! For God's sake, take care!" The maniac bellowed-: she parted her shaggy locks- from her visage, and gazed" wildly at her visitors, I recognized weli that purple face - those bloated features". Mrs Poole advanced, "Keep out ofthe way," said Mr Rochester, thrusting her asde": "she has no knife, now, I suppose? And l'm on my guard." "Ons never knows what she has, sir: she is so cunning: it is not in mortal discretion to fathom her craft"." "We'd better leave her," whispered Mason, "Go to the devil!" was his brother in-law's recommendation.

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7. Ware: Be careful; 8. spranq, .. throat visciously: jumped and tried to strangle him; 9. laid ... cheek: tried to bite him; 10. throttled him: strangled him; 11. athletic as he was: even though he was athletic; 12. He could ... blow: He could have beaten her with punch; 13. mastered her arms: gained control of her arms; 14. pinioned them: tied her arms; 15. bound: tied; 16. yells: loud shouts; 17. plunges: sudden violent movements; 18. acrid: bitter; 19. endearments: affectionate words; 20. solace: console; 21. collectedly: in a composed manner; 22. the gambols of the demon: the violent jumps of the woman; 23. fierce ragout: he compares Bertha to a dish too hot or spicy; 24. red balls: the red eyeballs; 25. bulk: size.

"Ware7!" cried Grace. The three gentlemen retreated simultaneously. Mr Rochester flung me behind him: the lunatic sprang and grappled his throat visciously'' and laid her teeth to his cheek": they struggled. She was a big 15 woman, in stature almost equallng her husband, and corpulent besides: she showed virile force in the contest - more than once she almost throttled hm-", athletic as he was!". He could have settled her with a blow12; but he would not strike: he would only wrestle, At last he mastered her arms13; Grace Poole gave him a cord, and he pinioned them-" behind her: with more rope, which was at 20 hand, he bound-" her to a char. The operation was performed amidst the fiercest yells16 and the most convulsive plunges!". Mr Rochester then turned to the spectators: he looked at them with a smile both acrid18 and desolate. "That is my unfe,' said he. "Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know - such are the endearments-f which are to solace2o my leisure hours! And 25 this is what I wished to have" (layng his hand on my shoulder): "ths young giri, who stands so grave and quiet at the mouth of hell, looking collectedly! at the gambols of the demon22. I wanted her just as a change after that fierce ragout23, Wood and Briggs, look at the difference! Compare these clear eyes with the red balls24! - this face with that mask - this form with that bulk25; then judge me, 30 priest of the gospel and man of the law, and remember, with what judgement ye judge ye shall be judged! Off with you now, I must shut up my prize."
(From Jane Eyre, Ch. XXVI, bid.)

Jean Rhys

(1890-1979)

Jean Rhys was born on the island of Dominica (West Indies), the daughter f a Welsh doctor and a

white Creale mother. She left the West Indies for England and France, were she wrote rnost of her novels. Unsurprisingly, her work often deals with the themes of identity, exile and alienation. The author was largely negletted until Wide Sargasso Sea brought her to the publit's attention in 1966, . marking the beginning of a. relatively successful period, in which she alsopublished two important . shrt story collections, Tigers are Better iookinq (1968) and Sleep it fj, Lady (1976), before ~her death in 1979~ .

A preque1 to Jane Eyre

The germ of Wide Sargasso Sea would appear to be the following words uttered by Rochester shortly before the episode of Jane Eyre you have just read: 'Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a madfamily; idiots and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creo le, was both a.mad woman and a drunkard! I found that out ofter I had wed the daughter: for they were silent onfamily secrets before. Bertha like a beautiful child, copied her parent in both poinis.' (chapter XXVI) Rhys's novel can be considered a prequel to Jane Eyre, taking the reader back to the infancy, girlhood and maturity of Rochester's wife, showng the forces and influences that lead to her 'insanity'. Rochester's prejudices seem to have inspired Jean Rhys, herself from the Caribbean and of mixed European and Creole background, to write Wide Sargasso Sea, a landmark in intertextualliterature, in the feminist novel and in post-colonialliterature. Her novel is narrated largely from Mrs Rochester's point of view. Bertha Rochester is transformed into Antoinette Mason, a beautiful Creole heiress who becomes a symbol of various forms of nsecurity, oppression and cultural prejudice. As a Creole she is caught between the recently freed black slavesof Jamaica and the Europeans, both of whom despise her ethnic group; as a woman she is in the legal power of her husband; as a Creo le from the West Indies she experiences the impossibility of meaningful communication with her Anglo-Saxon Victorian husband, whose prejudices inexorably lead him to feel he has lowered himself in marrying her.