Essay on The Tragedy of Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea

Jeannette Walls tells a very interesting story in The Glass Castle; few people get the chance to experience such a unique childhood. Jeannette’s father and mother are unlike traditional parents. Her father puts his children in harm’s way and justifies it by claiming that it’s a learning experience and her mother fails to provide comfort because she is preoccupied over her own goals. As an innocent child, Jeannette initially does not mind living such a childhood. In fact she admires her parents, especially her father, despite his frequent drunken outbursts. However, as Jeannette ages, she finds herself disapproving of her father’s way of

Larissa Jordan was a peppy young girl, especially for one who grew up on the Black Isles of Doracha. As a child, she had never been told of the island's’ dark history, nor had she been told of the reasons why families were forced to move away from the mainlands and onto the Isles. And what you don’t know can’t hurt you. At least, that’s what Larissa’s parents believed; and for twelve years, twelve blissfully peaceful years, they appeared to be correct.

The text recounts the events leading up to the the disappearance of Miranda, a young British girl who is struggling to deal with her mother’s sudden killing in Haiti, where she was on a work trip. The narration by the house, her twin brother Eliot, and Ore, a Nigerian girl she meets while at Cambridge leads us to find about Miranda’s pica, a desire to eat non-nutritive substances which lapses into more nefarious, vampiric desires. This is a condition that has plagued her family, particularly the

I went to parts of Coulibri that I had not seen, where there was no road, no path, no track. And if the razor grass cut my legs and arms I would think, ‘It’s better than people.’ Black ants or red ones, tall nests swarming with white ants, rain that soaked me to the skin— once I saw a snake. All better than people. Better. Better, better than people (25).

       As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist.  Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be.  She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170).  However, in a time

As the main character in the novel, Antoinette faces threats both internal and external during her childhood. Firstly, Antoinette’s mother shows signs of madness and melancholy in her daughter's childhood. Moreover, her mother shows partiality for her littler disabled brother and didn’t like her even she was fed up with her. “Once I touched her forehead trying to smooth it. But she pushed me away…as if she had decided once and for all that I was useless to her.”(5) Thus, Annette’s illness condition has deep influences on Antoinette, which becomes the most threat from internal household.

She's at school. shes scared because her teacher because she's the wife of the police officer("I tried to sing out, but I just couldn't")page 70. She's becoming more afraid so she won't be latter to stand up later on for others. They needed food so she asked for food for her and her brother. Some people are still nice in the world

In addition, Marie’s braveness comes out the way she deals with Sister Leopolda who is an old grizzled nun with an uncanny sixth sense for the presence of the devil. When Marie arrives and starts taking classes, she faces total opposition from Sister Leopolda. Sister Leopolda sometimes sniffs devil out of the dark corners of her classroom. Marie spends time performing chores for the nun but Sister Leopolda teaches her that she will always struggle to keep the devil out of her heart. Marie’s success at the convent is dependent on her relationship with Sister Leopolda. For Marie, her struggle against the nun is a larger than life; battle of good versus evil. Marie believes that she stands out from the rest of the students. What begins as Marie’s fear of the devil’s influence becomes a more complex understanding of how a fear can coexist with desire. Sister Leopolda soon becomes a stand in for the devil as she and Marie face off with each other. At first, Marie is abused only mentally by Sister Leopolda, but later on she is physically abused. For example, one day Sister Leopolda stabs Marie through the hand and

By defying her father’s wishes and running away, she loses what little societal power she had when she was connected to her father. While running away, she gained a sense of power by rebelling against her father. By going against her father’s wishes she goes against gender norms and solidifies who her identity as a person and not as an object. She is no longer connected to her father and is not seen as a possession by

The thought of the scandal haunts her the most. She fears of losing control of her surroundings, and the fear of her own body being dominated by other people inculcates in her conscious. She gets afraid of losing her higher social rank in the society and the fear of not fulfilling her desires and even her projections surrounds her everywhere.

“’Is it true…that England is like a dream? Because one of my friends who married an Englishman wrote and told me so. She said this place London is like a cold dark dream sometimes. I want to wake up,’” (Rhys, ) says Antoinette to her English husband. For Antoinette, the fathomable world stretches does not stretch beyond the Caribbean, for she was raised in Jamaica and, during the course of the novel, finds herself on honeymoon in Dominica. The homeland of her husband is a distant myth, and the canvas onto which she can paint her most vivid refuge. With a dead and forgotten father, a mother driven to cold insanity, and the slaves-turned-servants as her only companions, haunting memories are the islands’ prime commodity for Antoinette.

In Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea, Edward Rochester can be considered as an embodiment of patriarchal and colonial oppression. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, patriarchal means, “relating to, characteristic of, or designating a society or culture in which men tend to be in positions of authority and cultural values and norms are seen as favouring men…” (“Patriarchal”) moreover colonial means “of, belonging to, or relating to a colony…” (“Colonial”). In addition, oppression means “prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority, control, or power; tyranny; exploitation” (“Oppression”). In order to discuss Edward’s role in patriarchal and colonial forms of oppression, his marriage, and emotional connection to Antoinette, symbolic representation, and cultural differences will be analysed and discussed, focusing on any evidence of both forms of oppression.

She tries to be better than him in doing stupid things. The police hated her because everybody reported problems against her. Thomas, after a while, got affected by his troublous sister. People started to distrust him and started calling him the brother of the kind witch. He got super

A patriarchal society is a world in which men are the sole decision makers and hold positions of power. As a result, women are introduced to a world made by men, and a history refined by a man 's actions. In Jean Rhys 's Wide Sargasso Sea, conceptions of gender are purposefully problematized. Women characters such as Antoinette and Christophine are pitilessly exposed to constraints of an imperial world.Wide Sargasso Sea presents a modern form of feminism which takes into account the intricacy of male-female interactions to find that efforts to surpass gender norms are despairing.

The story begins in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. Back then females are looked upon as a debilitated creature with low social status where they have to be deferential and obedient to the males. Back then slavery was allowed and the author shows how Tituba was an African American slave who was serving her master, Reverend Parris. The only reason why women are important is for giving birth and being a housewife. They end up serving their husband and being obedient by doing what the husband says so. It is set out that the only way for women to obtain or approach power is to be continuously and steadily dishonest. An exception however, would be Rebecca nurse, who was one of the few good Christian woman blessed with many children which held her in high esteem.