Wide Sargasso Sea Q’s

The burning of Coulibri foreshadows the fire at the end of the novel, both Antoinette’s dream of burning the house, and the fire that destroys Thornfield in Jane Eyre. However, we could also argue that the burning of Coulibri symbolises the ‘burning passion’ that inherits Antoinette’s character, Antoinette holds a passion inside her that captivity cannot extinguish; she is both fiery in temperament but also in her overt sexuality. The ‘red dress’ that she adores later in the novel is a symbol of her sexual nature ‘I looked at the red dress on the floor and is was as if the fire had spread across the room’; Rochester detests and finds Antoinette ugly when wearing the red dress as it emphases her sexual nature, something that Rochester Is afraid of. Yet, Rochester is sexually aroused when he sees Antoinette in her white dress, because white traditionally symbolises the purity and chastity in a woman, the ‘virginal bride’. Rochester is attracted to her here because, unlike the overt sexuality presented in the white dress, the virginal bride is a symbol Rochester is able to relate to, coming from an upper class, English, family. The burning of Coulibri is also a physical portrait of the ‘fire’ destroying the workings of Antoinette’s mind, driving her to lunacy, insanity.

‘We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself’. Antoinette is searching for an Identity because her family, particularly her mother, has rejected her. Psychoanalytically, we can argue that Antoinette has begun projecting her perception of herself onto the faces of others in an attempt to see if she will become accepted by them. We could also argue that, in Antoinette seeing herself in Tia, she is actually idolizing Tia, and the black community as a generalization; Antoinette realises that, although the Black people are in poverty, they are living a life free of patriarchal oppression ‘there is never a wedding’. Antoinette recognizes the destruction caused through marriage; Mason, metaphorically, ‘clipped’ the wings of Annette and refused her right to freedom, which caused her lunacy.   

 

On waking up, from the burning of Coulibri, we learn that Antoinette has been unconscious for the majority of six weeks after becoming sick; presumably the house burning down has caused her to break down physically. It is notable that after this the narration becomes particularly fragmented; Antoinette repeatedly skips large fragments of time and key information begins to be given to the reader in a casual form: ‘she died last year, no one told me how’; the informal delivery of this information symbolises how Antoinette has become numb emotionally, foreshadowing her  lunacy. Also, the cold delivery of this information rejects any form of empathy from Antoinette, it is clear that the emotional bond between Mother and Daughter has been severed. This kind of fragmented, reported narrations reflects on Antoinette’s diminishing mind; as he mental capacity weakens, as does her ability to tell the story; this is why Rochester is given the narrative voice in the second part of the novel.

On leaving Aunt Cora’s house Antoinette becomes subject to bullying from a young black girl and an albino black boy; this again reflects on how Antoinette has become marginalised by not only the upper class whites, but the black community also. She is seen as the ‘other’ even by an albino black (we would assume he would be marginalised to some extent from the superstitious black community). Furthermore, this event symbolises the danger that lies outside for Antoinette; the outside world, for Antoinette, is filled with hate and prejudice.

The act of the nun washing Antoinette’s wounds is symbolic of cleansing; the cleansing of her wounds is a biblical reference to Jesus washing the feet, and the act of cleansing the subject itself is supposed to rid the subject of their sins, or wounds suffered through acts of hatred and prejudice. In this instance the Nun cleanses Antoinette’s wounds in an attempt to heal some of the psychological wounds created through the rejection of Antoinette’s mother, by taking up a motherly role.  It is important that the role that Jesus played has been replaced by a Nun; it represents how Antoinette feels safe within the confines of a matriarchal environment, the convent. The outside world represents danger, as it is a male dominated patriarchal society, Antoinette is susceptible to the dangers of the patriarchal world; being poor, the only way she can achieve financial comfort is through marriage. The convent represents an escape from this, a relief, ‘the convent is my refuge’.

At the end of part one, Antoinette has the recurring dream of being chased through the forest by ‘someone who hates’ her; it is significant that Rhys structures the dream at this point in the novel, as it represents the dangers Antoinette faces in leaving the safety of the convent, the matriarchal society that protected her for a short while will be replaced by the dangers of the outside world, the patriarchal world. Furthermore, the dream foreshadows the imminent arrival of Rochester; we would assume that the person with her in the dream is Rochester.

If we were to give a psychoanalytical reading of the dream, we can see, in comparison to the first dream, that here Antoinette is following the mysterious figure instead of being chased by him; we could argue that this is a physical demonstration of how Antoinette begins to become submissive to Rochester later in the novel. Instead of embracing the passion that Antoinette embodies, eventually Antoinette becomes subverted to Rochester in an attempt to reconcile his love for her. The idea that she is ‘following him’ could be seen as an attempt for her to win him back. Alternatively, we could read it as Rochester leading the relationship, embracing the dominant male role and leading her towards entrapment. The dress that Antoinette wears is obviously a wedding gown ‘white and beautiful’; this foreshadows the wedding to Rochester later in the novel and, again, shows Antoinette becoming submissive and abandoning her liberates female state.  Furthermore, within Antoinette’s dream it states how ‘the tree threw’ her; this contrasts to how Antoinette previously found protection in nature, however, nature is now rejecting Antoinette. She is a complete outsider, isolated by nature and humanity.