Creole Identities and
Racial/Gender Relations in
Jean Rhys's Wide
Sargasso Sea
NY: Norton, 1966 (Norton edition 1982)
Jean Rhys’s Life: (1890 -1979)
• creole identity and a drifting life
• born in Dominica in 1890, the daughter of a
Welsh doctor and a white Creole mother.
• She came to England when she was sixteen
and then drifted into a series of jobs chorus girl, mannequin, artist's model - after
her father died. She also drifted in several
cities, mostly in Vienna and Paris.
• Three marriages.
Jean Rhys’s Work
• Start to write in her thirties;
• Discovered by Ford Madox Ford
• Her first four novels are said to portray the
same woman (with different names and
minor details) at different stages of life, all
drifting, unhappy, unstable, but with clear
self-knowledge and understanding of others.
• -- a self-reflection of Rhys?
Rhys’s Work (2)
• A break after Good Morning, Midnight,
• 1966: made a sensational reappearance with
Wide Sargasso Sea
Rhys’s Self-Identity
“Do you consider yourself a West Indian?
She shrugged. ‘It was such a long time
ago when I left.’
“So you don’t think of yourself as a West
Indian writer?”
Again she shrugged, but said nothing.
“What about English? Do you consider
yourself an English writer?”
“No! I’m not, I’m not! I’m not even English.”
Rhys’s Self-Identity (2)
“What about a French writer?” I asked.
Again she shrugged and said nothing.
“You have no desire to go back to Dominca?”
“Sometimes,” she said.
David Plante “Jean Rhys: A Remembrance.” 275-76 Qut in Gregg.p. 1
Rhys’s Self-Identity (3)
• “I don’t belong anywhere but I get very
worked up about the West Indies. I still
care. . . .”
• After reading a critique of Wide Sargarso
Sea. . ., Rhys complains. . . :” Again I am in
danger of really becoming a recruit. . .I
think being born in the West Indies is an
influence very strong but . . . “ (Gregg 2 underline
added)
Rhys on Jane Erye
“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)
Rhys on Antoinette’s historical
background
I. Shift of dates:
• Jane Eyre -- towards the end of the novel
reads a book published in 1808
• Bertha confined in the attic in the first
decade of the 19th century.
• WSS’s time frame shifted to 1830’s onwards:
• Emancipation Act 1833
• Antoinette -- a child in the 1840’s
II. “more than one Antoinette” then.
Jean Rhys: Major Themes
• Post-Emancipation Racial
relationships -- among the black
Caribbean, the Creoles, and the English.
• Gender relationships -- “halfway
house”(p. 96); marriage and inheritance
• Their influence on
–
–
–
–
Annette and then Antoinette,
Antoinette relationship with Tia,
Antoinette and Rochester
The madness?
WSS: Settings
• Part I: (Martinique),
Jamaica:
Coulibri estate, near Spanish
Town Part II: Granbois, Dominica,
Part III: “Great House” England;
Wide Sargasso Sea: Major
Characters
• Characers: Christophine, Tia, Amelie,
• Antoinette, later Bertha Cosway Mason
Rochester.
The Cosways
Father
Mr. Cosway, The Masons
Pierre
Richard E. Rochester
Daniel
Aunt Cora
• Annette
Antoinette
Creole Identities and Racial/Gender
Relations in Wide Sargasso Sea
Backgrounds on Race: I. white masters,
New & Old:
• Mr. Luttrells p. 17; death of Mr. Lutrell
• p. 26 (New masters after the Emancipation
of slaves)
• [Mr. Mason -- p. 32; p. 35]
II. White against creole: e.g. p. 17; Aunt
Cora’s husband 30
III. Black against creole: poor “white
cockcroaches” p. 23
Backgrounds (II)
Background on Gender revealed through
letters and conversation:
• about the Cosways: p. 28-29; Daniel
Cosway’s letter pp. 96-99
• about Mason’s marriage: 29-30
• Gender: Rochester’s Marriage and
Inheritance: p. 70; 114
• Questions:
How do these racial problems influence
Annette and Antoinette?
1. Annette--What does she want? P. 18
Why is she aloof from Antoinette? pp. 20; 22;
26-27;
2. Antoinette -- How is she different from her
mother? How does she survive? What do
her dreams mean?
Creole Identities and Race Relations
Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
Female Creole Identities
• Annette
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
the horse; p. 18/10
her son; p. 19/11
her views of Godfry and Sass p. 22/12
gay and a good dancer 29;
Annette vs. Mr. Mason -- p. 32/19; p. 35/20
Coco p. 41/22
What happened to her afterwards? P. 130- 134/78
in
Creole Identities and Race Relations
in
Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
• Antoinette
– the garden 19/ 10
– reaction to the death of the horse
– need of her mother p. 22/; rejection by her p. 26;
27
– refuge in nature p. 23/13; solitude 28 /16
– her dreams p. 26/15; pp. 59-60
– the second refuge in the convent p. 53; 55; 57
– death impulse p. 92
• Questions II:
Relationships Antoinette and
Christophine?
And Conflicts between Antoinette and
Tia?
• Antoinette with the other Jamaicans
– the way to the convent pp. 48
– Sandi
• Antoinette and Christophine pp. 20-21; 31
Creole Identities and Race Relations
Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
• Antoinette and Tia
– p. 23
– their betting p. 24
– the black’s invasion p. 45
in
Part II: Causes for the conflicts
between Rochester and Antoinette:
• 1. Race: different cultural backgrounds:
--her limited understanding of the world --- p. 55; ”Is it true,' she said, `that England is
like a dream?” p. 89; blanks in his mind 76
• 2. Gender: Rochester's motivation for
getting married “not yet” p. 77; p. 89, 90;
not love her, 93
• 3. Race+ Gender: the letter from Daniel
Rochester's suspicion of Antoinette’s
madness
Part II: Causes for the conflicts
between Rochester and Antoinette (2)
• Gender: 5. Rochester's self-centeredness
and possessiveness: p. 94; the priest's
ruined house--Pere Lilievre--Pere Labat -self-centered 103
• Race+ Gender: 6. Antoinette's
temperament--sense of doom and insecurity
• Race+ Gender: 7. Antoinette’s seeking for
help from Christophine