Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
Norton Critical Ediction. NY: Norton, 1999.
Creole Identities,
and Racial/Gender Relations
between Antoinette & Rochester
Outline
1. Antoinette’s personality and the causes for it
1) Antoinette’s personality
2) Annette: a) The Creole Identities of Annette; b) Annette
as a Woman; c) madness  Gender+Race
3) Antoinette: a) loss of mother; b) as a creole; 3) convent
2. The problems in Rochester and Antoinette’s
marriage
1) Race & Gender & marriage
2) Good moments;
3) Causes: a) cultural difference; 2) R’s racial prejudice; 3)
R’s self-centeredness; 4) the letter; 5) A’s sense of
doom; 6) C’s role
WSS: Settings
• Part I: (Martinique), Jamaica: Coulibri estate,
near Spanish Town
Part II: Granbois, Dominica,
Part III: “Great House” England
Rhys on Jane Eyre
• "The creole in Charlotte Bronte's novel is a lay figure
-- repulsive which does not matter, and not once
alive which does. . . . For me . . . she must be right
on stage. She must be at least plausible with a
past, the reason why Mr. Rochester treats her so
abominably and feels justified, and the reason why
he thinks she is mad and why of course she goes
mad, even the reason why she tries to set
everything on fire, and eventually succeeds. . . "
(Gregg 82; emphases added)
Central Questions
• How does Rhys characterize Antoinette?
What are the causes for her personalities?
– Mother-daughter relationship;
– Her identity as a Creole and her childhood
experience;
– Convent education
• How does she explain the problems between
Antoinette and Rochester?
– their socio-historical context—19th Century
Victorian/Colonial world?  Race + Gender
– Anything we can related to?
Background:
Before and after the Emancipation
Backgrounds on Race: I. white masters,
New & Old:
• Old Masters: death of Mr. Lutrell and Mr.
Cosway
• New masters after the Emancipation of
slaves p. 15
• [Mr. Mason – 19, 21]
Background (2):
Before and after the Emancipation
Post-Emancipation Problems:
1. Recompensation,
2. Importation of contract laborers
3. Annette’s distrust of Christophine, Godfry,
and Sass’ leaving p. 12
4. Riot: The presentation of the black mob p.
23, 25
Antoinette’s personality: 5 examples
•
•
•
•
Childhood: e.g. the horse p. 10; garden 13; 16
recurrent dreams pp. 15, 27, 36
Attempt to turn down the marriage p. 46;
the two rats & the moon p. 49
– death impulse p. 54
Insecure; in lack of a firm sense of identity;
(lack of love, fear of others’ and society’s
criticism, feeling excluded.)
 Fatalistic (fear of “madness” as a hereditary
trait)  childhood as a creole woman
Creole Women’s Positions:
Annette
Annette: 1) multiple alienations of the creole
—from the white people in the Spanish town (9;
17)—because she is Creole, from Martinique and
poor;
-- from the blacks (“they”) because she is former
slave-owner and poor: pp. 10, 11
-- both Annette and Antoinette—seen as “white
cockroaches” (13)/”white nigger” (14)
Creole Women’s Positions:
Annette
Annette: -- 2) As a woman –
a. Cosway: a womanizer; calls Daniel’s mother “sly
boots” p. 74; halfway house p.57
b. widowed
Antoinette (solitary life)  Antoinette (planned and hoped)
p. 10
-- marooned & her son 11
-- borrow a horse from the new
Lutrelles gay and a good dancer
c.
Mason does not understand the racial relationship
(19, 21)
Creole Women’s Positions:
Annette
Annette: -- 3) as a creole woman
a. Why does she care so much about the
parorot CoCo? 25
b. The climax in Part I: are the black people
just a violent and insensible mob? (p. 26)
c. Antoinette’s account of what happened to
Annette: 78; 80-81
Creole Women’s Positions:
Antoinette
Antoinette: (1) loss of motherly love
• Her love rejected by Annette p. 11; 13,
• The mother cares more about Pierre 16;
• Annette ashamed of her 15;
• Being pushed away after her madness pp. 2829
• missing her mother in the convent 34;
• The mother’s death 36
Creole Women’s Positions:
Antoinette
Antoinette: (2) Race Relations –
a. Christophine: helpful but fearful
–
–
like a substitute mother;
feared by Antoinette 18 -- Combination of Catholicism
and voodoo
(1. Antoinette’s seeking for help: p. 67, 68, 70
2. Put in jail once and may still be. P. 86)
Creole Women’s Positions:
Antoinette
a. Antoinette and Tia –
• friendship (13-14),
• divided by racial differences (27)
b. The boy and the girl 29-30
Creole Women’s Positions:
Antoinette
Antoinette (3): Gender and the Convent
• the second refuge in the convent p. 32;
33; 34
Creole Women’s Positions:
Antoinette (& Annette)
a.
•
•
b.
•
Imagery: Garden
the biblical myth of the garden--(11)
 associated with snake and forest
Imagery: Mirror
Annette 10; p. Antoinette & Tia; the convent
Part II:
What causes the problems
between Antoinette & Rochester?
Is Rochester completely to blame?
Sargasso Sea: Race and Gender
• Why is the marriage between Rochester and Bertha
unhappy?
• Why is Bertha mad? Beast, madness in the family, driven
mad, or not really mad?
Gender –
Marriage &
Inheritance system
Race
White – Creole --Black
Man
Women
Man
Women
Obeah woman
Gender/Race Relationships
among the Character
Mr. Cosway,
Pierre
Daniel
Godfry
Sass
Myra
Spanish Town
Whites
p. 17
Father
The Masons
E. Rochester
Richard
Aunt Cora
p. 18, 68-69
•Antoinette
Annette
Christophine
Amelia
Good Moments in their
relationship
• Rochester’s sense of peace in nature P. 41
• Arrival at Granbois p. 42;
• The first night 49-50
Gender/Race Relations
Women
Unequal Relationships in Marriage
• (about Mason’s marriage: p. 17)
• Gender: Rochester’s Marriage and
Inheritance: p. 41; 69
• “Dear Father” letters p. 39;
But there are other factors . . .
What causes the problems
between Antoinette & Rochester
• 1. (Race) Cultural differences
A. her limited understanding of the world --- p. 42 “Oh England, England,” 66-67
-- p. 47 her “Paris”; ”Is it true,' she said, `that
England is like a dream?”
B. his illness and discomfort: p. 40, 41,
blanks in his mind 45; p. 55 insecure
Part II: Causes for the conflicts
between Rochester and Antoinette:
2. (Race) Rochester’s prejudice and racial
superiority p. 39; p. 43
 Rochester’s connection with the priest
• the priest's ruined house--Pere Lilievre--Pere
Labat pp. 62-63; 83
3. Gender: Rochester's self-centeredness,
possessiveness and pretentiousness
• Agreed to everything 39; “not yet”;
• not love her; perform and hide things p. 45, 61
• P. 55 watch her die many times
• Turning Antoinette into Bertha pp. 68, 81
Part II: Causes for the conflicts
between Rochester and Antoinette (2)
4. Race+ Gender: the letter from Daniel
Rochester's suspicion of Antoinette’s
madness (pp. 56 - )
• 5. Race+ Gender: Antoinette's
temperament--sense of doom and insecurity
• (6. Race+ Gender: 7. Antoinette’s seeking
for help from Christophine)
For next time: The Turning Point
• Are Christophine’s suggestions practical?
pp. 65 -; What stops her from being helpful?
• Would their marriage have been saved
without the voodoo?