Wide Sargasso Sea
{{Wide Sargasso Sea}}
Basic Info
- Author: Jean Rhys
- Year: 1966
- Type: #primary1
Summary (brief)
-Prequel to Jane Eyre
Gives a voice to the "madwoman in the attic": Bertha Mason, who is named Antoinette Cosway. She grows up on a decaying Jamaican estate after the abolition of slavery. Her family is white Creole - Europeans born in the Caribbean - experiences rejection from formerly enslaved Black community and English colonists. Her mother Annette marries Mr. Mason. Tensions between the estate owners and local community increase. They set fire to the house and Antoinette's disabled brother dies in the fire and the mom suffers a mental breakdown. Lots of mysticism and intuition. Antoinette marries Rochester (he wants her money). Their relationship deteriorates. He has an affair with a servant and gets letters that madness runs in her family so he distances himself from her. He calls her Bertha instead of Antoinette - attempting to erase her identity and remake her according to his own expectations. Then she is imprisoned in the attic at Thornfield Hall in England. She burns the house down.
Major Themes
Key Passages / Quotes
Quote 1
quote:: “I am no bird.”
page:: 197
themes:: freedom, identity
Genre Notes
Characters / Concepts (if relevant)
Theory Connections
Related Texts
My Argument / Interpretation
Dissertation Relevance
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