To be honest, I did not really like the ending of Wide Sargasso Sea. Having read Jane Eyre I already have an opinion on Bertha and Mr. Rochester, and those opinions are completely opposite of what this book tries to instill on the reader. Mr. Rochester is a very likable character who is doomed by being wedded to a lunatic without being informed of Antoinette's mental condition beforehand. Bertha Mason is presented as an animalistic, crazy, possessed woman that tries to kill Rochester and attacks her brother. Although I understand that Wide Sargasso Sea is supposed to present Bertha's story, I personally am already swayed toward Jane Eyre's perspective, and I see everything in that light. If I hadn't read that book first, I may not have seen Antoinette so crazy as her actions in reality are not that of a mentally unstable being. But already having that preconception, I see things in a different light, even in Wide Sargasso Sea.
Also, I do not really like how we do not see Rochester or Jane at the end. Everything happens in such an alienated way that I feel no connection between her and the world, and that's what I would expect from her, once again, due to having read Jane Eyre prior. In the end I do see Antoinette as crazy, the way she sees things and imagines things. However, I do pity her. The way she describes the red room with the candles and how she was desperate to light all the candles and to find the altar just seemed so childlike and hopeless. But no matter, she still came off crazy to me. And I really would like to see Antoinette's perception of Jane, and her shock and despair when she sees the veil. I think that addition would have lightened up my view on Bertha. But on the other hand, maybe that is the suspense. Maybe that is the mystery that we will never find out and what makes us think, what really happened between the two books?
Friday, November 11, 2011
Similarity
While reading part three of Wide Sargasso Sea, I realized that there is a tiny similarity between Jane and Antoinette in this section. Both are forced to be in the shadows while life goes on. Although I do not remember every detail of Jane Eyre, I remember how, her being the governess of the house, she had to stay low around other people, in other words, be invisible like the servants. Antoinette is the same, except for different reasons. When she sneaks out while there is a party going on downstairs, she encounters a girl on the stairs. That girl describes Antoinette as a ghost to yet another girl. At this moment, I wanted to reread Jane Eyre to see whether there was a possibility that one of those girls could have been Jane herself.
Interestingly enough, Antoinette does not recount anything that happens at Rochester's manor in reference to other people. She does not consciously go into Jane's room and rip up the veil, she doesn't set Rochester's room on fire. To her, all of the people are nonexistent, and besides Grace Pool, everyone is described at a distance. Antoinette definitely seems out of this world by the way she thinks and seems to be alienating herself more and more. In Jane Eyre, it is presented as though Bertha is a animalistic person that has a complete sense of thought, and it is thought that she knew what she was doing when she wandered the house. Jane felt as though she were followed, or that there was this monster that wanted to attack her. Curiously, Antoinette felt the same way. She recalls hearing voices and footsteps, people laughing at her. In the shadows of the house she seems to be remembering her childhood and her fears.
Of course Antoinette and Jane are very different, but sometimes we can get just a glimpse of parallels between the two stories. In fact, if there were a third book to come out, for everything to be inline it would have to have Jane and how her fantasies and "love" with Rochester turns foul as he grows old and becomes self centered, and she realizes that she is stuck with a man that is more afraid of his own death than interested in spending his days with her, leading her to trying to leave him, he feels the same rage and sense of possession and locks her up in his castle, thus leaving two doomed souls with Bertha being the warning and Jane not following it. With this ending the picture would be complete to a three part tragedy where love is the cause of all misery.
Interestingly enough, Antoinette does not recount anything that happens at Rochester's manor in reference to other people. She does not consciously go into Jane's room and rip up the veil, she doesn't set Rochester's room on fire. To her, all of the people are nonexistent, and besides Grace Pool, everyone is described at a distance. Antoinette definitely seems out of this world by the way she thinks and seems to be alienating herself more and more. In Jane Eyre, it is presented as though Bertha is a animalistic person that has a complete sense of thought, and it is thought that she knew what she was doing when she wandered the house. Jane felt as though she were followed, or that there was this monster that wanted to attack her. Curiously, Antoinette felt the same way. She recalls hearing voices and footsteps, people laughing at her. In the shadows of the house she seems to be remembering her childhood and her fears.
Of course Antoinette and Jane are very different, but sometimes we can get just a glimpse of parallels between the two stories. In fact, if there were a third book to come out, for everything to be inline it would have to have Jane and how her fantasies and "love" with Rochester turns foul as he grows old and becomes self centered, and she realizes that she is stuck with a man that is more afraid of his own death than interested in spending his days with her, leading her to trying to leave him, he feels the same rage and sense of possession and locks her up in his castle, thus leaving two doomed souls with Bertha being the warning and Jane not following it. With this ending the picture would be complete to a three part tragedy where love is the cause of all misery.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Denial
Working off of the idea of the lie, I feel it so creepy how Rochester is trying to erase all that there is about AntoinetteAt the very beginning, he tells of how he tries to imagine her as a beautiful English girl whenever he sees her after the marriage. Then, later in the book, he changes her name to Bertha, and does it subconsciously implying that everything about him is repelled from acknowledging Antoinette for being who she really is. He is desperate for control and steadily convincing himself out of reality and trying to reestablish a new reality on his life. He is programmed by cultural values to deny his marriage, and he makes no effort to change his attitude.
Rochester compares Antoinette to a doll constantly, taking away her human qualities and making her something established. A doll is a doll, it has no secrets, no surprises, and no free will. You can do whatever with a doll and not be affected by its feelings as it has none. Rochester feels very out of place in Jamaica, and feels as though he is always surrounded by lies and fiction, therefore he grasps Antoinette as something that he can control and have so stability with. The more he dehumanizes her, the more power he has, leading to the end where he looses all feeling for her and throws her, like an unwanted toy, into imprisonment for life.
Rochester's dreamlike perception of his surroundings accent his denial and justify his willingness to see Antoinette as a lie. He sees a lie as a secret that can be held, a doll that can be hid. He sees all of this in dreamlike form where such transformations and comparisons could easily form. Rochester wants to understand Antoinette completely, he is desperate to know of all her secrets, and therefore in his mind he tries to ignore what he doesn't know, and slowly convinces himself more and more of how nothing is true. Maybe it is something from his past, from mal-upbringing or from never feeling any control over anything before that leads him to feel the need to exert power here over the only thing he actually can do it with. Subconsciously, he is a coward, and a wimp, and in a place where he has no stabilizing points, he acts without the presence of respectability.
Overall, there is a sense of dehumanization from both parties. While Rochester takes it into his own hands to dehumanize Antoinette, his actions of doing so dehumanize him. He becomes cold and heartless as he gets angry about his situation, and the more he tries to repress Antoinette, the more he represses himself. There is yet another part in the book that may change all of this, but to me, I feel that this book is definitely headed for disaster where two heartless souls deal with their confined emotions to clash together in chaos.
Rochester compares Antoinette to a doll constantly, taking away her human qualities and making her something established. A doll is a doll, it has no secrets, no surprises, and no free will. You can do whatever with a doll and not be affected by its feelings as it has none. Rochester feels very out of place in Jamaica, and feels as though he is always surrounded by lies and fiction, therefore he grasps Antoinette as something that he can control and have so stability with. The more he dehumanizes her, the more power he has, leading to the end where he looses all feeling for her and throws her, like an unwanted toy, into imprisonment for life.
Rochester's dreamlike perception of his surroundings accent his denial and justify his willingness to see Antoinette as a lie. He sees a lie as a secret that can be held, a doll that can be hid. He sees all of this in dreamlike form where such transformations and comparisons could easily form. Rochester wants to understand Antoinette completely, he is desperate to know of all her secrets, and therefore in his mind he tries to ignore what he doesn't know, and slowly convinces himself more and more of how nothing is true. Maybe it is something from his past, from mal-upbringing or from never feeling any control over anything before that leads him to feel the need to exert power here over the only thing he actually can do it with. Subconsciously, he is a coward, and a wimp, and in a place where he has no stabilizing points, he acts without the presence of respectability.
Overall, there is a sense of dehumanization from both parties. While Rochester takes it into his own hands to dehumanize Antoinette, his actions of doing so dehumanize him. He becomes cold and heartless as he gets angry about his situation, and the more he tries to repress Antoinette, the more he represses himself. There is yet another part in the book that may change all of this, but to me, I feel that this book is definitely headed for disaster where two heartless souls deal with their confined emotions to clash together in chaos.
Imminent Tragedy
So far, Wide Sargasso Sea has not been at all a happy book. Antoinette is followed by anger, fear, and misfortune ever since the beginning of the book. The word "trouble" is the fourth word of the book, signaling to a galore of unhappiness in the next pages. When Antoinette marries Rochester we hear him say:
"Very soon she'll join all the others who know the secret and will not tell it. Or cannot. Or try and fail because they do not know enough. . . . She's one of them. I too can wait--for the day when she is only a memory to be avoided, locked away, and like all memories a legend. Or a lie. . . ."
By saying this, Rochester transforms Antoinette identity to that of a lie and justifies his own misuse of her, causing more misfortune between the couple. Rochester is becoming more and more cold-hearted to Antoinette, and plans on leaving her, but then in the last moment Christophe comes in and spikes in him a rage that will make him decide to take Antoinette and lock her up and make her his secret. But it is the way that he tells us this that made me realize that he too is becoming a little crazy. The way he addresses her as "my lunatic" does not seem affectionate, but rather, desperate and slightly obsessed. It was it this point that I actually felt a little sorry for Rochester. In this moment we can see how weak he is, how feeble and desperate. He never knew what he was getting into by marrying her until it was too late, and now he is desperate to get something out of this. He is desperate for a type of ultimate control with which he can waive away the past. Rochester is like a child, who tries to hide his broken toy under his bed so he will never see it again. He knows what he has done, he sees what he is left with, and he is hopeless and pitiful. Everything just seems so glum.
When Christophene comes in, the conversation seems like it could have an effect on Rochester. As the reader, we get a chance of change. Rochester could be hit in some spot of his heart where he would realize or reconsider his attitude. But then, a different chord is struck, and we see outright that there is no more chance. And those who have read Jane Eyre see that this is the point where imminent tragedy develops. In fact, having read Jane Eyre most likely escalates my sense of pity for Rochester near the end of Part 2. I already know that both will be stuck together in misery for a long time to come.
"Very soon she'll join all the others who know the secret and will not tell it. Or cannot. Or try and fail because they do not know enough. . . . She's one of them. I too can wait--for the day when she is only a memory to be avoided, locked away, and like all memories a legend. Or a lie. . . ."
By saying this, Rochester transforms Antoinette identity to that of a lie and justifies his own misuse of her, causing more misfortune between the couple. Rochester is becoming more and more cold-hearted to Antoinette, and plans on leaving her, but then in the last moment Christophe comes in and spikes in him a rage that will make him decide to take Antoinette and lock her up and make her his secret. But it is the way that he tells us this that made me realize that he too is becoming a little crazy. The way he addresses her as "my lunatic" does not seem affectionate, but rather, desperate and slightly obsessed. It was it this point that I actually felt a little sorry for Rochester. In this moment we can see how weak he is, how feeble and desperate. He never knew what he was getting into by marrying her until it was too late, and now he is desperate to get something out of this. He is desperate for a type of ultimate control with which he can waive away the past. Rochester is like a child, who tries to hide his broken toy under his bed so he will never see it again. He knows what he has done, he sees what he is left with, and he is hopeless and pitiful. Everything just seems so glum.
When Christophene comes in, the conversation seems like it could have an effect on Rochester. As the reader, we get a chance of change. Rochester could be hit in some spot of his heart where he would realize or reconsider his attitude. But then, a different chord is struck, and we see outright that there is no more chance. And those who have read Jane Eyre see that this is the point where imminent tragedy develops. In fact, having read Jane Eyre most likely escalates my sense of pity for Rochester near the end of Part 2. I already know that both will be stuck together in misery for a long time to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)