Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre: Read Together or Alone

While doing a presentation comparing the symbolism in Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre, there was one quote from the article that became a strong discussion point for the majority of the students: “The novels must be read together in order to fully appreciate how they complement each other, and how each is also a novel in its own right, with distinct character and plot.” A lot of people disagreed about whether or not you would necessarily need to read one in order to read the other. Some people thought that Wide Sargasso Sea works well on its own, while others thought that you need to read Jane Eyre before in order to get a deeper understanding for other characters such as Rochester. 

Personally, since I read Jane Eyre before Wide Sargasso Sea, I think that it if you are only reading Wide Sargasso Sea, you wouldn’t need to read Jane Eyre because it easily stands alone as a good book. However, when reading Jane Eyre, the reader doesn’t meet Bertha Mason/Antoinette Cosway almost until the end of the novel. She is such a mysterious character, and we hardly get to meet her, that it makes the reader want to know more about her and know what made her become the way she did.

Rochester

Since I know the story of Jane Eyre very well, and now having read Wide Sargasso Sea, I have two very different views of Edward Rochester. In Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë, Rochester plays a very crucial role. Although it is hard to like him at first, as the story goes on and we learn more about his story, Rochester becomes more and more likeable to the reader. However, in Wide Sargasso Sea, the reader gets a very different view of his personality. He is a very difficult person to admire. He is self-centered and arrogant. Eventually he is unfaithful to Bertha (known as Antoinette at the time).

In class, we discussed who we felt more sympathetic for in Wide Sargasso Sea and, not surprisingly, most people definitely feel much more for Antoinette because they know her story and how much she has been through. Although I am sympathetic towards Antoinette, I also feel a lot of sorrow for Rochester. He is basically being forced into a marriage that he doesn’t completely want to be a part of, although he eventually comes to appreciate Antoinette. In Jane Eyre, the reader can’t help but feel sorry for him. He is such an unhappy and lonely person and it is clear that his heart is full of the pain of his past, but it is understandable why it would be hard for people who have only known him from Wide Sargasso Sea to feel this sympathy towards him.

The Intricacies of Racial Interaction

Subtleties of race and the intricacies of Jamaica’s social hierarchy play an important role in the development of the novel’s main themes. Whites born in England are distinguished from the white Creoles, descendants of Europeans who have lived in the West Indies for one or more generations. Further complicating the social structure is the population of black ex-slaves who maintain their own kinds of social rank. Christophine, for instance, stands apart from the Jamaican servants because she is originally from the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Furthermore, there is a large mixed-race population, as white slave owners throughout the Caribbean and the Americas were notorious for raping and impregnating female slaves. Sandi and Daniel Cosway, two of Alexander Cosway’s illegitimate children, both occupy this middle ground between black and white society.

Interaction between these racial groups is often negative. Antoinette and her mother, however, do not share the purely racist views of other whites on the island. Both women recognize their dependence on the black servants who care for them, feeling a respect that often borders on fear and resentment. In this manner, power structures based on race always seem to be turning in the other direction.

Wide Sargasso Sea vs. Jane Eyre

The most impressive difference between Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea is that the latter transforms Rochester's first wife from Bertha Mason, the infamous "madwoman in the attic," to the lively yet vulnerable Antoinette Cosway. She is no longer a cliche or a "foreign," possibly lunatic, but a real woman with her own hopes, fears, and desires. Wide Sargasso Sea tells her side of the story as well as Rochester's, detailing how she ended up alone and raving in the attic of Thornfield Hall. It gives a voice not only to her, but to the black people in the West Indies whom Rochester regards with such hatred. In Rhys' version of events, Antoinette's insanity, infidelity, and drunkenness are the result of Rochester's misguided belief that madness is in her blood and that she was part of the scheme to have him married blindly.

The characters of Jane Eyre and Antoinette are very similar. They are both independent, vivacious, imaginative young women with troubled childhoods, educated in religious establishments and looked down on by the upper classes — and, of course, they both marry Mr. Rochester. However, Antoinette is more rebellious than Jane and less mentally stable, possibly because she has had to live through even more distressing circumstances. She displays a deep vein of morbidity verging on a death wish  and, in contrast with Jane's overt Christianity, holds a cynical viewpoint of both God and religion in general.

Themes in The Stranger

In the first half of The Stranger, by Albert Camus, Meursault, the protagonist, is clearly an unreflecting, unapologetic person. He is moved only by sensory experiences. Thus, Meursault kills the Arab because of his response to the glaring sun, which beats down upon him as he moves toward the Arab on the beach. The Arab’s death isn't particularly meaningful in itself, it's merely something else that happens to Meursault. The significance of this episode is that it forces his life and its meaning as he contemplates his impending execution. Only by being tried and sentenced to death is Meursault forced to acknowledge his own mortality and the responsibility he has for his own life.

Truth is another motif in the book. Meursault, despite being judged as amoral, is consistently honest and direct. In his unyielding candor, he never displays emotions that he does not feel. Neither does he participate in social conventions calling for dishonesty. Although grief is considered the socially acceptable or "normal" response, Meursault does not exhibit grief at his mother's funeral. This incorruptible honesty takes on a naïve dimension when he goes through the trial process; he questions the need for a lawyer, claiming that the truth should speak for itself. Much of the second half of the book involves this theme of the arbitrariness of "justice". A public official compiling the details of the case tells Meursault he will be saved if he repents and turns to Christianity, but Meursault refuses to pretend he has found religion. More generally, Meursault's honesty overrides his self-preservation instinct; he ultimately accepts punishment for his actions, and refuses to try put off justice.

       A main theme in the novel is the absurd, and it is a theme that at times throughout the book seems to override the responsibility aspect of the powerful ending. The ending seems to reflect that Meursault is in fact satisfied with his demise, to the extent that one can be satisfied with death, while also of course being terrified. It seems that, in facing death, he's found revelation and happiness. But even that revelation was in the "gentle indifference of the world". A central contributor to this theme was that of the pause after he shot the Arab for the first time. In one key moment, while being interviewed by the magistrate, he mentions how it did not matter that he waited and shot four more times. In this incident, Meursault thinks completely objectively, and truly there is no difference in tangible results: the Arab died in one shot, and four more shots did not make him any "more" dead.

Connected to the Lost Generation

When I was in sixth grade my sister, Emily, was studying in Switzerland for the year.  During Christmas break we met her in Paris.  Of all the places we went, my mom’s favorite place was a very crowded bookstore called Shakespeare and Company.  This bookstore was opened many years ago on a different street in Paris by an American woman named Sylvia Beach.  It was an English language bookstore, and it became very popular.  Many of the writers and other people who were part of the “lost generation” hung out there, including Ernest Hemingway.  After WWII a man named George Whitman opened a new Shakespeare and Company right across from Notre Dame Cathedral.  We have a book called Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation which includes pictures of him at the old store. He and Sylvia were great friends.   There were many Americans living in Paris at that time.  There were many other famous writers there such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.   When I read The Sun Also Rises I could picture the characters at the cafes and bars there.  We have a photo taken in front of Les Deux Magots which is a café Hemingway liked to go to.  It’s on a corner with many tables and chairs outside.  This is the type of place where Jake, Robert Cohn, Brett and the others would have sat and ordered drinks.  Hemingway experienced many of the things he wrote about in The Sun Also Rises.  I can imagine why the “lost generation” Americans would want to live in such a beautiful city as Paris

A Love-Hate Relationship with Brett

I noticed during class discussion about Brett that with most people, you either love her or you hate her. I would have to say that I’m pretty in between, because there were a lot of things that I really liked about her character, while other things that she did drove me crazy.

When she wanted to, Brett could be a very kind and caring person. There is one scene where Jake is clearly in a state of depression and Brett is very gentle and understanding towards him. She even hugs him to give physical comfort, an act which I found surprising considering her personality.

When Brett has had a lot to drink she can be either very out of it or confused, and sometimes even mean, although that is rare. There is a scene towards the beginning of the novel where Brett is completely drunk to the point where she is standing in the street and shouting things up to Jake’s window.

There was also a lot of discussion on how Brett is taking advantage of Jake’s unending love for her in unfair ways. For example, towards the end of the book, when Brett is in San Sebastian with and runs out of money, but knows that Jake is at her beck and call and will come to comfort her and take her back home. It is also frustrating to many people that Jake lets himself be treated this way just because he is in love with her. He acts like he has no pride.

Although there is a lot of hatred towards Brett, I think that almost all of her acts have reason, though they may not always be good. She obviously has had some hardships in her life, before we, the readers, meet her, which could explain a lot and cause more understanding from people.