...spread physically on the map, they bring their culture and values abroad. While two different cultures coincide, a lot of problems are revealed. Alienation and feminism are two prominent themes during the colonial period. Both problems are revealed through novels Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Bronte’s Jane Eyre with Rhys’s focus on the cultural and racial difference whereas Bronte’s focus on economic power and moral strength of female. Fanon in the “Wretched of the Earth” says that the only solution for the colonized people is through violence. This radical idea underlies premises which draws from the social norms during the time period. Fanon says “The colonial world is a world cut in two” (38, Fanon). When colonizers come to the colony, they deem their culture better than the indigenous one and their goal is to put their values above the local ones. Hence it draws a clear line between the colonizer and colonized people. Because of the stark dichotomy, there is always tension in the colonies. It is only through the eyes of characters who stand in between the dichotomy and the through the different reaction as they maneuver between different classes that shows the problem during colonization. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Ryes rewrites Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. Instead of describing her through other people’s eyes, she gives Bertha her own voice; she has a history and goes through different emotions. It is a text which represents the issue of alienation, feminism and the representation...
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...Patriarchal Oppression and Cultural Discrimination in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different” (Coco Chanel) “We may have all come in different ships but we’re in the same boat now” (Martin Luther King, Jr.) “Share our similarities, celebrate our differences” (Morgan Scott Peck) These quotations, which were uttered in the 20th century, have in common that to be different is regarded not only as tolerable but also as something that should be pursued. Also, they reflect the process of increasing tolerance towards females and foreigners, which in many countries has taken place during the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century, with the result that, today, these two groups are widely, although by far not entirely, regarded as equal. However, only two centuries ago, people who were different or ‘other’ were considered subordinate or even frightening, and in the 19th century, this was true for both females and people from the orient or colonized people (Barry 134, 193). In Jane Eyre (JE), published in 1847, and in Wide Sargasso Sea (WSS), the prequel or paraquel of JE that was written about one hundred years later and published in 1966, the two female protagonists, Jane, a female orphan, and Antoinette, a female Creole, struggle against displacement and patriarchal oppression and, in Antoinette’s case, also against imperialistic domination. In JE, the reader learns that Jane can handle this pressure whereas Antoinette/Bertha1...
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...PdF: AJ2BP_CRRECritical Reading 19th December 2014 Antoinette as a Victim of Black Racism The aim of this paper is to present evidence that Wide Sargasso Sea is a reproduction of reality by showing examples of black racism taken from the book. It shows the reality of Antoinette as a fiction character perceived as a victim of black racism. Although most readers of Wide Sargasso Sea have considered racism as one of the topics closer examination shows that the book gives examples of a specific kind called black racism (Nibras Jawad, 591). This paper uses elements from the book, and aspects from the reality that support the idea that the book includes black racism as one of the topics. For example, exclusion of Antoinette caused by black community because she is the daughter of a white Creole woman and a former slave-owner of English descent in Jamaica. This is showed in the book when black people use disparaging words like white cockroaches to call her. The phrase "white cockroach" was applied in a song saying that nobody wants her (Jean Rhys, 20). According to a research from Eastern University of Philadelphia phenomenon of racism is a result of the combination of discrimination, prejudices and ignorance. (Caleb Rosado). Racism has been a topic of inspiration for many writers. This is the case of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The writer tells aspects that she could have experienced since Jean Rhys was born in 1890 on the island of Dominica in the West Indies to a Welsh...
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...Beteckning: Humanities and Social Sciences Double Oppression in the Color Purple and Wide Sargasso Sea. A Comparison between the main characters Celie and Antoinette/Bertha. Ingela Lundin 2008 C-essay English Literature Supervisor: Dr Maria Mårdberg Examinator: Dr Helena Wahlström Table of Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose and main questions ............................................................................................. 1 1.2 Method and material......................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Theoretical approach ........................................................................................................ 2 1.4 Previous research – an overview ...................................................................................... 3 1.5 Introducing the novels ...................................................................................................... 4 2. A comparison of the double oppression in the two protagonists’ marriages.................. 6 2.1 The diminishing and isolation of Celie and Antoinette/Bertha........................................ 6 2.2 The upholding of the white man’s norm ........................................................................ 14 Conclusion..........................................................
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...literary personalities have suffered from mental breakdowns. Very often writers themselves have written through their own “madness” and produced mad characters as a result. This is particularly true of many of the leading figures in Modernism, who all seem to have had some odd character traits. But even before Modernism the madman/woman was a very popular figure in literature. Just think of Shakespeare’s famous plays, where we encounter lunatics en masse. One of the most famous madwomen in English literature is Bertha, the locked up wife of Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. In this paper I will look at Victorian madness in general and at the figure Bertha more closely. Furthermore I will also look, from a somewhat feminist perspective, at Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel in which Jean Rhys takes up the figure of Bertha again. I shall try to explain this rewriting of a canonical text in a postcolonial context. Historical Madness Early in the Victorian period the madness seems to be lurking in the shadows – especially in gothic fiction, but then madness was very much on everybody’s mind in those days. The Lunatics Act of 1845 required that all counties should have mental asylums, and this led to an enormous increase of mental patients admitted to public care.[1] Before that it was not unusual for husbands to “shut up” their madwomen behind locked doors[2], and confining them to the attic or the madhouse might indeed have been a convenient way to dispose of unwanted wives and daughters...
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...In this case, the text would then be considered an exposition of the character’s experience from their position in society rather than the author’s attempt of trying to integrate their character into society through their work. Furthermore, the author themselves may be considered an Outsider through their own status in society; they command their readers to be Outsiders themselves within the novel. As well as to read and observe the narrative in order to emulate the same feeling within themselves, within the reader or to have a specific impact on the issues surrounding humanity at the time. The contrast in the ways in which the portrayal of an Outsider can develop arose within the study of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea as the novels highlighted the different facets of characters that are regarded to as outsiders. Throughout my exploration of this subject, I was exposed to a number of different works in literature in a variety of genres and forms, as well as looking at the critical...
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...Violence is a core part of the attraction of the narrative, examine the ways in which the writers explore the theme of violence. Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys uses violence in several scenes throughout the novel. The violence in the novel is not fatal to everyone, it is just used to catch the reader’s eye, it creates suspense and strong curiosity. This novel consists of many emotional aspects. In both ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ a number of characters undergo various acts of violence. This violence is presented in a number of different ways, these being mental, physical and social violence. Throughout the first four chapters Jane is both emotionally and physically tormented by Ms Reed, John Reed and Bessie. ‘you are a dependent’ Jane is mad to feel belittled and an outcast, she does not only take emotional abuse from John Reed but John is known to take frequent blows at Jane without a moment’s thought and takes somewhat pleasure in doing so. For Jane’s response to John she was punished ‘four hands were immediately laid upon me’ showing the harsh brutality Jane undergoes under the command of Ms Reed as she is places in the ‘red room’. ‘Penetrating rain’ symbolises Ms Reed and how piecing of a character she is. The neglect Jane faces is very similar to that Antoinette faces with her own mother. Emotionally her mother is absent she is merely there physically ‘flung me from her’ her mother was not at all emotionally attached to her but was very much so to her brother...
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...presentation of romantic love in “Jane Eyre” making wider reference to “Wide Sargasso Sea” “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, published in 1847, has one key theme which is love. However it also contains Gothic conventions throughout which prevents the novel from being merely an archetypal romance. The novel is about a young woman who is isolated from people. However, when she gets a job working for Mr Rochester she falls in love with him. Later it is revealed that he's married to a woman, who is portrayed as being mad. In contrast, the romantic love in "Wide Sargasso Sea" written in 1966 is presented in a different way. Although Antoinette initially has a hopeful attitude to romantic love in Wide Sargasso Sea, the attitude of the man, especially in section two reveals that he only marries her for her money. Ellen Michetetii says “the heart and soul of ‘Jane Eyre’ is the passionate love between Jane and her employer.” "Romance" is defined in the Chambers dictionary as "expressive and pleasurable feeling from an emotional attraction towards another person associated with love". Leslie Gelbman says a romance must make the “romantic relationship between the hero and heroine… the core of the book”. This is what “Jane Eyre” does. Similarly “Wide Sargasso Sea” focuses on a single relationship the one between “the man” and Antoinette; however, although the relationship in “Jane Eyre” is reciprocal, in “Wide Sargasso Sea” Antoinette’s love is not returned. Rhys based Antoinette on the character...
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...When flying to Miami Beach, the flight to the beach would usually take seventy-five minutes, however, it only took them thirty-four minutes traveling through the grey sky. (Wagner). In January, 1971, Bruce Gernon came across another mysterious encounter. Where he exited the tunnel vortex before, him and his girlfriend flew in that area. He all of a sudden noticed a bright orange star coming towards them. At first a planet came to his mind; it kept getting bigger and bigger. It ended up getting right in front of them in a time span of ten seconds. He describe it as three hundred feet wide and ninety feet thick. Trying to get away from this bright amber, metallic object, Gernon thought a hard collision was approaching. But when he looked behind, the object perished; it ended up being the last time he saw it (Gernon and Macgregor 142). Furthermore, after Gernon wrote about his experiences during the night flight incident, he received a message about a UFO. The man said, “When the UFO was in front of you, it disappeared behind you, that was the point at which you were taken. Tests were run and then you were released. They try hard to put people back where they found them” (Gernon and Macgregor...
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...Though Gaddis first came up with the phrase, a much more famous name propelled in into international popularity a decade later. Charles Berlitz also had a strong interest in the paranormal. He believed not only that Atlantis was real, but also that it was connected to the triangle in some way, a theory he proposed in his bestselling 1974 book “The Bermuda Triangle”. The mystery has since been promoted in thousands of books, magazines, television shows, and websites. Also known as the Devil’s Triangle, the Bermuda Triangle consists of a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is defined by points in Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico. It stretches across less than a thousand miles on any one side.The abnormalities on the sea were first noted in 1950 by Edward Jones in the...
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...research done to solve the ongoing mystery of the "black hole". The Bermuda Triangle is a triangle-shaped area that covers about 1,140,000 sq. km. between Bermuda, the coast of southern Florida, and Puerto Rico. The sinister reputation of the Bermuda Triangle may be traceable to reports beginning in the late fifteenth-century by navigator, Christopher Columbus concerning the Sargasso Sea (Myth or Reality). The Sargasso Sea is an oval shaped patch of the North Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles across, stretching well into the Bermuda Triangle. In the Sargasso Sea, the water is normally calm, with little wind and current (Oxdale). The Sargasso Sea, being very calm, is ironic because of the numerous storms that the Bermuda Triangle encounters. The Caribbean islands are within the Triangle's area as well, making a destination hot spot for majority of travelers. "The Devil's Triangle" is claimed to be one of the two places on this earth where a magnetic compass points true north. There have been reports of hundreds of missing people including ships that were lost at sea near the Bermuda Triangle. Some people venture out without knowing the complete danger of the Triangle. For example, a...
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...divine, magical, or ghostly being.” As well as William Shakespeare, Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys utilize the supernatural in their books Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, respectively, to affect the amount of power each character has the ability to attain. No matter the gain or loss of power, the supernatural...
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...Edward Rochester is her employer. Throughout the novel, Jane learns that Rochester’s wife, Bertha, is a “mad woman” who is imprisoned in the attic of the house. Bertha, a white creole from Jamaica, is only perceived as evil, vicious and crazy in Jane Eyre. However, her past is never mentioned so the readers only feel pity for Rochester. This lead to Jean Rhys writing Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys wanted to defend Rochester’s wife and share her story to the world. Her novel sparked new perceptions of feminism. Rhys was born in 1890 on the Caribbean Island of the Dominica to a Welsh father and “white Creole” mother. Although, she lived in England for a large amount of time, she never considered herself to be English and was a major critic of their culture. These aspects of Rhys’s life also motivated her to write the...
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...Fanon—Black Skin, White Masks (1952), The Wretched of the Earth (1961) Edward Said—Orientalism (1978) Notable Theorist: Homi Bhabha—The Location of Culture (1994) Gayatri Spivak—“Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988) Writing Back—Some Examples of Postcolonial Literature: Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin in The Empire Writes Back: Theory, and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (1989) express that the“…crucial function of language as a medium of power demands that post-colonial writing define itself by seizing the language of the centre and replacing it in a discourse fully adapted to the colonized place” (38). Naguib Mahfouz—Palace Walk (1956) Chinua Achebe—Things Fall Apart (1958) V.S. Naipaul—Mystic Masseur (1959) Jean Rhys—Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) Gabriel García Márquez—One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) Salman Rushdie—Midnight’s Children (1981) Isabel Allende—The House of the Spirits (1982) J.M Coetzee—Foe (1986) Arundhati Roy—The God of Small Things (1997) Peter Carey—Jack Maggs (1997) Further Reading: Peter Childs—Post-Colonial Theory and English Literature: A Reader (1999) Edward Said—Culture and Imperialism (1993) Gayatri Spivak—“Three Women’s Texts...
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...Ben May Film 1006: Post-War World Cinema 15/5/09 Critical Essay: Jamaican Cinema (focus – The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1971) ‘Representing Jamaican culture on the screen, how The Harder They Come triggered the development of Jamaican cinema.’ The Harder They Come was the first movie made in Jamaica, directed by a Jamaican and with a Jamaican theme. The film opened the country’s eyes to the creation of film and the industry that surrounds it. It also gave the world (particularly the West) its first filmic taste of the cultural, social and historical issues of 20th century Jamaica. It was not only successful in the eyes of its audience but also in the eyes of film critics worldwide. Geoff Parker writes “Indisputably the greatest Jamaican film ever made, The Harder They Come is also one of the finest films yet made about the third world.” (2001). At first glance Perry Henzell appears to be using a narrative to document Jamaican roots Reggae music (especially that of Jimmy Cliff); but although The Harder They Come went a long way towards creating a huge global Reggae following the film had many other underlying issues. Even though most critics (Cham, Parker, Yearwood and others) discuss the film as the one that popularised Reggae music in the West it is the task here to illustrate that The Harder They Come brought Jamaican society and its culture into cinematic visibility. Cinema in Jamaica had only a western...
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