Jean Rhys also gives Rochester his own voice, another significant departure from Jane Eyre. The pace of the storytelling slows at this point and so provides a strong dramatic contrast to the violent events to come. We see her thoughts move from Pierre's current happiness asleep, to thoughts of the future, to his need to sleep, then the sound of the creaking bamboos. As she watches him asleep, she muses on Mr Mason's plans to cure the little boy. In part one, section 7 for example, Antoinette remembers feeling a very ominous atmosphere at Coulibri and goes into her brother's room. Jean Rhys uses this technique to represent the mingling of a child's perceptions with an older narrator's memories. There are gaps in what she knows and understands but, importantly, there are gaps in what she chooses to disclose.
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Readers are left confused and with a sense that Rochester's suspicions had a foundation after all.Įvidently, Antoinette's story is as full of gaps, silences and secrets as others on these islands. However, it is not until part three that, in a fragment of dialogue, Antoinette discloses that she and Sandi met frequently and were in love. At this stage readers may discount this, since both have vested interests of their own in discrediting Antoinette. Both Amélie and Daniel Cosway later hint at a sexual relationship between Antoinette and Sandi. For example, as her tale develops, she mentions her cousin Sandi occasionally. Jean Rhys makes use of narrative irony in Antoinette's narrative. One of the effects of this kind of narration is to make us less critical of the narrator, to be blind to their faults. Fragments of dialogue and gossip overheard and repeated by Antoinetteįirst person narration makes readers feel very close to the storyteller because we can share their inner thoughts and feelings, as well as follow what they say and do.
However, the missing information can be inferred through: This is a way of showing gaps in a child's understanding. What other information beyond a child's understanding is given?Īlthough the language is quite simple, the people, situations and events are presented without explanation.What clues are given that this is a child's perspective on the action?.Re-read the opening section of part one.The first person narration is manipulated to show Antoinette growing up and developing in understanding. In part one of Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette remembers her childhood and adolescence up to the moment when her marriage to Rochester is arranged by Mr Mason. Within this first person narration there are particular features: Change through time - from child to adolescent Antoinette is allowed to voice her own experience and so to restore the balance. Through Antoinette's first person narration readers can be brought closer to this character, to share her thoughts and emotions and to take the journey from Jamaica to imprisonment in Rochester's house alongside her. Jean Rhys, in giving ‘Bertha' her own voice, effects a major change, away from the dominance of Brontë's novel. It is told for her by Jane Eyre, the narrator who provides her version of the ‘madwoman's' story from the information she is given by others and her observations at Thornfield Hall. In Charlotte Brontë's novel Bertha Mason does not tell her own story. The three parts of Wide Sargasso Sea have different narrators. Websites on Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea.Critical approaches to Wide Sargasso Sea.Biblical, mythological and literary references.Imagery, metaphor and symbolism in Wide Sargasso Sea.Themes and significant ideas in Wide Sargasso Sea.Narrative genres in Wide Sargasso Sea - realism and Gothic.Character, structure and theme in Wide Sargasso Sea.Character presentation in Wide Sargasso Sea.The role and significance of characters in Wide Sargasso Sea.Part two: Rochester's narrative resumes.
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