Jean Rhys's 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea rewrites Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre from a modern, postcolonial perspective. Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of Brontë's "Madwoman in the Attic" from the point of view of Bertha Mason. In Jane Eyre, Bertha is "hidden", both in terms of her physical place in the attic but also in terms of her own story and voice. Rhys, however, develops Bertha into a complex character: in Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Cosway is a strong woman who rebels and overcomes the colonial and patriarchal oppressions she faces due to her West Indian identity. Rhys's novel depicts Antoinette's ultimate revenge on Rochester at the end of Jane Eyre as a valid response to this oppression. By changing points of view and rewriting certain events in Brontë's text, Rhys overturns the colonialist framework from which Jane Eyre and Brontë herself came. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Get the original essayIn writing Jane Eyre and the character of Bertha Mason, Charlotte Brontë seems to have relied on several colonialist pretexts. Ellen Friedman writes that Jean Rhys “exposes the assumptions of… English imperialism, Christianity, and 19th-century English patriarchy that provided the context for Charlotte Brontë’s text” (1175). The first of these assumptions is that Bertha, as a Caribbean woman, is inherently different from English women like Jane. Rochester's initial portrayal of Bertha in his dialogue with Jane characterizes her as, in the words of Edward Said, "sensual…more or less stupid and…willful" (145). Rochester first meets Bertha at a party, and “she flattered him and generously displayed for [his] pleasure her charms and accomplishments” (Brontë 260); the diction of “manifest” and “pleasure” specifically evokes Bertha’s sensuality and her role as an exotic other. Brontë may also be alluding to syphilis when Rochester tells Jane, "[Bertha's] excesses had prematurely developed the seeds of madness," again indicating Bertha's supposed sexual excesses (261). Similarly, Said's idea of ​​the native woman as sensual and strong-willed is that in Jane Eyre she has almost all the power to act in convincing Rochester to marry her: Rochester states: "Her family wished make sure… and so does she. » and “those close to me encouraged me; the competitors stung me; she seduced me” (260). By giving Bertha a lot of sexual drive in Rochester's first impressions of her, Brontë characterizes her as an exotic "other" without considering other aspects of her character. In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, Rhys directly contrasts Brontë's sexually motivated portrayal of Bertha in her portrayal of Rochester's early interactions with Antoinette. Unlike Jane Eyre's Rochester, who attributes his love for Bertha to his own "attractiveness", Rhys's Rochester tells the opposite: When at last I met her, I bowed, I smiled, I kissed her hand, I danced with her. I played the role that was expected of me. She never had anything to do with me… I had to give a flawless performance. (45) In Rhys's novel, it is Rochester, rather than Antoinette, who has power during their courtship period. The idea that "[Antoinette] never had anything to do with [Rochester]" completely overturns Brontë's notions that the native woman is sexually charged and, in Said's words, too "willful » (145). Rhys continues to challenge Brontë's characterization of Bertha assexually motivated and voluntary to the extent that Rhys' Antoinette initially decides that "she will not marry [Rochester]" because "[he knows] nothing about [her]" (46). Once again, Rochester must ultimately convince and coerce her into marriage: “I will trust you if you trust me. Is this a good deal? (47). Antoinette's decision not to marry Rochester due to their unfamiliarity reveals that she is a character concerned with more than sexuality in her relationship with her husband, once again undermining Brontë's initial characterizations. In addition to relying on colonialist assumptions to characterize the first Bertha, Brontë also describes Bertha as an “other” after she goes mad and Rochester takes her to England. Rather than characterizing her as an exotic other, Brontë describes her as a demonic other, who blurs the line between human and animal; Brontë's Rochester specifically refers to Bertha as "a demon" comparing her to Jane, and to her home, the attic of Thornfield Manor, as "the mouth of hell", "the lair of a beast wild” and “a goblin’s cell” (251). , 265). In Brontë's depictions of her, Bertha is animalistic and inhuman: In the deep shadows, at the other end of the room, a figure ran back and forth. What it was, beast or human being, one could not tell at first glance: it crawled, apparently, on all fours; he seized and growled like a strange wild animal: but he was covered with clothes; and a quantity of black and graying hair, wild as a mane, hid his head and face. (250) In characterizing Bertha, Brontë strips her of her humanity: she refers to her simply as "a figure" and as "she", and compares her to "a strange wild animal" with a "mane" (250). The idea that Brontë's Bertha never speaks, she just "screams," also robs her of her humanity and depicts her as a demonic other (262). In Jane Eyre, it doesn't take long for Bertha to go from exotic to demonic. other: Rochester states: "in the very first letter I wrote to inform [his father and brothers] of the union – having already begun to feel extreme disgust at its consequences...I added an urgent demand to keep the secret” (263). In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, Rhys consistently describes Antoinette as beautiful and feminine. Furthermore, Rhys's portrayal of Antoinette often contrasts directly with that of Brontë, point for point. Contrary to Brontë's description of Bertha's "dark, graying hair", Rhys describes "[Antoinette's] hair" as "combed away from her face and [falling] gently well below her waist" and as having " red and golden lights in them.” », a much more feminine description (47). Similarly, while Brontë simply states that Bertha wore "clothes" of some sort, Rhys describes her as wearing a dress "made in Saint-Pierre, in Martinique", and in the style "à la Joséphine" (47). Since Joséphine Bonaparte is associated with Europe through her role as Empress of France, Rhys's reference to her emphasizes Antoinette's "whiteness" as opposed to the "dark" and "violet" madness of Brontë (250). Even after Antoinette is transported to England, Rhys continues to disassociate her from Brontë's Bertha: although the mad Antoinette ultimately has "floating" hair consistent with Brontë's descriptions of her, Rhys never acknowledges that he is It’s about Antoinette. The woman fitting Brontë's description is always referred to as "this ghost of a woman" and appears only "surrounded by a golden frame" – a mirror; she is only implicitly linked to Antoinette (11, 112). By creatinga distinct identity for her, Rhys creates a character who “is not at all the madman from Jane Eyre” (Rody 223). Although in Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette never fulfills the role of another demonic, towards the end of the novel she becomes the role described by Said as "sensual" and "strong-willed" due to her interactions with Rochester. Rhys subverts yet another of Brontë's colonialist pretensions: while Brontë depicts Rochester as a victim of his "hellish union" with Bertha, Rhys characterizes Antoinette as the oppressed party (259). Rhys suggests that Antoinette's madness and her evolution towards the European idea of ​​a "native woman" is a consequence of her marriage to Rochester. Indeed, Rochester changes and creates Antoinette's identity in several ways. The most obvious way is that he changes her name from Antoinette to Bertha, "a name he particularly likes", despite the fact that she insists that her "name is not Bertha" (Rhys 81 ). He also forbids Antoinette from speaking patois with Christophine in order to further distance her from her Creole roots. Rochester's attempts to differentiate her from her mother by changing her name and making her more European ironically backfire, as Antoinette grows up to fit Said's model. an indigenous woman because of her estrangement from her husband (which comes from the fact that “he doesn’t call [her] Antoinette anymore”) (68). Laura Ciolkowski notes: "[Rochester] is determined to resolve Antoinette's ambivalence [about her heritage] first in the singular tones of English womanhood, and then, once his failure to present Antoinette as the chaste mother of her English sons is quite clear, in the equally singular tones of a savage otherness” (343). After their marriage begins to crumble, Antoinette is desperate for her husband to "come see her one night," indicating that his sexual drive is beginning to govern his actions (68). Furthermore, in order to satisfy her desires, Antoinette wishes to resort to obeah, an institution considered by Europe to be a superstition; in this way, Antoinette becomes not only "sensual" and "strong-willed", but also "stupid" and superstitious from a European point of view. Similarly, after being brought to England, Antoinette states, "Does [my red dress] make me look intemperate and immodest... This man told me so", indicating that Rochester considers Antoinette to be a " indigenous woman” corresponding to the 19th century. European colonialist views of the 17th century (110). By detailing Rochester's manipulations of Antoinette, Rhys undermines Brontë's assumption that Bertha's eventual revenge on Rochester is the result of her descent from "idiots and maniacs" (Brontë 249); Rather, Rhys shows that Antoinette's final act of burning down Thornfield Manor was a significant act of rebellion by which Antoinette, and Rhys herself, in the words of Aijaz Ahmad, "altered, challenged, overthrew, [and] rewrites “Western representations”. of the colonial (McLeod 48). At the end of Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette describes her final act as "why I was brought here and what I must do" (112); Antoinette's resolve and determination contrast with Brontë's Bertha, whose burning of Thornfield was just one of her many inexplicable acts of "savage mischief" (364). Even though Antoinette went mad at the end of the Great Sargasso Sea, she is still capable of revenge; Rhys expresses Antoinette's capacity for revenge despite her madness through the symbol of the candle at the end of the novel. Even though "the flame flickered and I thought it was extinguished", which expresses Antoinette's discouragement (and perhaps the reader's disbelief in her ability to rebel against her, 1994, 132-49.