There is always another side, always(TM) How does Jean Rhys demonstrate her understanding of this idea in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea Essay Example

There is always another side, always(TM) How does Jean Rhys demonstrate her understanding of this idea in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea? Essay The main intention of Rhys write-back was to give Brontà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s mad woman in the attic a voice. On the behalf of all voices from the margins, Rhys, she felt a personal injustice was made in the creating of a figure in Jane Eyre that would be seen as mad and repulsive, and would represent to the nineteenth Century English reader a stereotype of the West Indies and the people who lived there. In a letter to Francis Wyndham that she explained that she was vexed at her (Brontà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½) portrait of the paper tiger lunatic, the wrong Creole scenes and above all the real cruelty of Mr Rochester she felt that Jane Eyre had only included one side-the English side In an attempt to create the other side Rhys humanises Bertha by dubbing her Antoinette to contrast the heavy and ugly name she is latter given in Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre. Rhys essentially creates the world and the background from which Antoinette is supposed to come, and re-defines Rochester as a young man, vulnerable and less powerful than he is in Jane Eyre. From the outset of the novel there is an unsettling atmosphere and both characters, of Rochester and Antoinette, are considered outsiders in the exotic and intoxicating Caribbean landscape. Set after the Emancipation Act and in an area where there is great racial hostility, Rhys incorporates many interpretations of the other side in her novel; vast cultural gaps, post-Freudian ideas of nature versus nurture, and loss of identity which influences a characters behaviour. Rhys is a writer who would provide commentary from an unobtrusive point on the edge of writing, she would write about instances and experiences that happ ened in her own life to provide the new revised characters of her write-back. She seemed such a poor ghost I thought Id like to write about her life completely re-thinks Bertha Masons character in Jane Eyre from being a two-dimensional ghost or vampyre who ultimately has to be sacrificed, in order for such a famous nineteenth Century heroine to claim her just and happy conclusion. We will write a custom essay sample on There is always another side, always(TM) How does Jean Rhys demonstrate her understanding of this idea in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on There is always another side, always(TM) How does Jean Rhys demonstrate her understanding of this idea in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on There is always another side, always(TM) How does Jean Rhys demonstrate her understanding of this idea in her novel Wide Sargasso Sea? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The beginning of the Wide Sargasso Sea, which plunges the reader into the hostile landscape of Jamaica after the Emancipation Act, gives an account of a young Creole girl commenting from the outside. They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks these simple yet powerful sentences introduce the reader into the world of the young Antoinette, who is considered an interloper, not only to those considered they, but also to herself. Rhys explains through Antoinette that the Emancipation Act that granted so much freedom to black slaves and was considered so miraculous and wonderful by those who designed also crippled blacks out of work and homes, and condemned slave owners to poverty and has another side not anticipated. This idea of being an outsider is adopted from Jane Eyre, both Jane and Antoinette consider themselves as an interloper and an alien, both are separated from their parents either physically or emotionally which draws a similarity between the lives of nineteenth century women at this time. One of the featured themes and important aspects of Wide Sargasso Sea is the complete misunderstanding of two very different cultures; English and Jamaican. The very characteristic that created Wide Sargasso Sea was the Englishs indifference to acknowledging and expressing emotion passionately the way the other cultures do. This is what Jean Rhys acknowledges as one of Rochesters traits in Jane Eyre, she incorporates this Englishness into her novel Wide Sargasso Sea (shown by Rochesters How old was I when I learned to hide what I felt? suggesting that this became second nature and built into his character). Rhys uses this to explain how Rochester manages to become both repulsed by and to desire Antoinette so deeply - I hated its indifference and the cruelty which was part of its loveliness. Above all I hated her. For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. His hatred for the landscape, the culture and Antoinette stem from his inability to communicate with it and above all not w anting to be drawn into something he truly fears- She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it. This raises connotations of Obeah and witchcraft and the notion that English women were never like this, that they would be quiet and docile and the mere notion that women would ever find sex appealing or enjoyable was completely unfounded in English culture, nevermind Rochesters inexperience with women in general. This idea would have been truly terrifying in nineteenth Century England. Furthermore there is a tangled relationship between dreams and reality. Antoinette feels that England must be a cold dark dream that the West Indies is the only place she knows. This is informative of the other side because Rochester feels very much the same dream-like reality of the West Indies and so far not considered Antoinettes view of England. The arrival of Daniel Cosways letter, does nothing other than make Rochesters anxieties on the island worse, by confirming ideas that Antoinette must be mad or unstable for being able to draw such roughness and rapacious thirst from him. Rochester then uses the letter to fuel his fears of Antoinette and to later draw away from her. Antoinette herself quotes There is always the other side, always but thus ignored by Rochester. However, by doing this Rhys creates the awareness in the reader of marginalised voices experienced not only by her own characters but also by herself who recognises and sympathises with other voices like hers; distant and unrecognised for a very long time, until it was too late. Throughout the novel, there is an underlying murmur of malignant gossip. Thus, Rhys gives us the effects of gossip on the receiving side and shows us how gossip has plagued Antoinettes (and her mothers) life. A lot of the gossip comes from the servants who in a striking contrast to English servants, quite freely say what they want and are considered brash and rude. Amà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½lie represents a lot of the freedom, unrestrained speaking and behaviour of Jamaican servants in a Creole household, quite freely criticising Rochester and Antoinette the white cockroach she marry suggesting that these white cockroaches ought to be gotten rid of. The times of day affect the characters behaviour significantly; during daylight hours Antoinette is happy and content (singing Christophines songs for example) but by night her behaviour is transformed into something darker and more savage-shall I wake her up and listen to the things she says, whispers in the darkness. Not by day., At night there is a certain loss of control, and emotions are set higher and more freely expressed than during daylight hours ( I see you were very rough with her eh?). Both characters acquire a rapacious sexual appetite-she was as eager for whats called loving as I was-more lost and drowned afterwards. This suggests the kind of need that the couple are looking for as a means to release, be distracted with or forget. I watched her die many times suggests that the other side may refer to a half-awakened state, or even death itself and the use of sex as a tool to reach this state of le petit mort-the little death as a temporary state. Overall, Rhyss decision to revive and reform the character of Bertha Mason -a character once so two-dimensional and hard to sympathise with in Jane Eyre, in place creates a deeper and meaningful female character with significant traits and background. Rhys breaks Bertha out of the confines of the attic and develops her character to create a more meaningful and just version of Bertha Masons life so that she can then be a more significant and organic character sacrifice and equally celebrates her, rather than a symbol of dissipation she was depicted in Jane Eyre. Rochester is also revised and depicted as a more vulnerable and naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve younger man than his larger than life romantic hero persona in Jane Eyre; making it easier for readers to believe and understand his character but also easier to sympathise with him; his relations with his father and brother and his position as a younger son and his feelings of betrayal all amount to the cruel yet justified act of containing a loo se Caribbean woman in a secluded English manor house.