SHORT PLOT/CHAPTER SUMMARY (Synopsis)

Part One

Antoinette Cosway is a beautiful young Creole heiress growing up in Jamaica just after the
Emancipation Act of 1833. Her parents are ex-slave owners whose plantation, Coulibri Estate, is
now in disrepair. She lives with her widowed mother Annette and her handicapped brother
Pierre. The servants gossip cruelly about the Cosway’s discreditable reputation. The one
exception is the servant Cristophine, a Martinique woman who has been overseeing and
protecting the Cosways.

Annette does not spend much time with her daughter. This leaves Antoinette to her only
childhood friend, Tia. Once, however, when Antoinette and Tia go swimming together, Tia
betrays Antoinette and steals her pennies and her dress. Antoinette returns home in Tia’s dress,
which Annette sees as a disgrace.

Rather abruptly, Annette marries a man from England named Mr. Mason. He has Coulibri
renovated and believes he can live there in control of the servants. The racial tension is high,
however, and one night the freed blacks stage a protest outside the house. They are carrying
torches and end up setting the house on fire. Pierre is fatally injured, Antoinette takes ill for
several weeks, and Annette’s smoldering insanity fully manifests itself as a result of the
traumatic event. Mr. Mason abandons them, traveling away from Jamaica for months at a time.

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Antoinette’s Aunt Cora enrolls her in a convent school. There she is educated alongside other
Creole girls. When she is seventeen Mr. Mason visits more frequently and plans to present
Antoinette to his English friends.

Part Two

Antoinette is now married to an Englishman. He and Antoinette go to a honeymoon home called

Granbois, which had belonged to Antoinette’s mother. The Englishman married Antoinette for
money. He did not know her or her family. Mr. Mason’s son, Richard had arranged the marriage.

At Granbois, the man is uncomfortable with the exotic surroundings and the gossiping servants.
Christophine is there and he sees her as a threat to his authority over Antoinette. His relationship
with Antoinette is unstable. It becomes worse after he receives a letter from Daniel Cosway
stating that Antoinette and her family are insane. He then begins to see what he thinks are signs
of her madness.

Antoinette wants her husband to love her again. She asks Christophine for help. Christophine
practices obeah and reluctantly gives Antoinette a drug to make the man desirous. That evening
Antoinette tries to explain her side of the story behind Daniel Cosway’s letter. They argue and he
begins calling her Bertha because it is a name he likes. Finally, they go to Antoinette’s room.
There he drinks drugged wine and becomes ill. The servant Amelie who has often flirted with
him comforts him. They sleep together right next to Antoinette’s room.

Antoinette has heard everything and leaves the next morning. She goes to Christophine. When
she returns to Granbois, she goes to her room and gets drunk. She and her husband fight and she
bites his arm. Christophine then gives Antoinette’s feelings a voice as she reproaches the man for
causing Antoinette to break down. She tells him to leave Antoinette with her and to go back to
England. He decides to leave for England with Antoinette.

Part Three

Antoinette is locked in the attic of the man’s home in England. Grace Poole is the woman hired
to watch her. Antoinette goes from violent to melancholy. She doesn’t realize she is in England
and has nostalgic memories of Jamaica. She dreams of sneaking downstairs and setting the house
on fire. Finally, she takes a candle descends the stairs.

THEMES

There are two major themes that surface repeatedly. The first is how the bondage of
dependency becomes like slavery.

This is illustrated in race relations and even more so in gender relations. The second shows the
conflict of values between the colonials and the West Indians that stems from the meeting of
European and African-Caribbean culture - and how these values can be corrupted by money.

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A minor theme is the social stratification resulting from racial identity. This goes beyond black
and white, into parentage and geography.

MOOD

There is a physical as well as a psychological mood in Wide Sargasso Sea. The physical mood is
sensual and exotic with sweet and intense descriptions of tropical beauty. Nature overgrows all
that is untended. The psychological mood is nightmarish. There is a feeling of foreboding until
the very end along with moments of emotional anguish and madness. This combination of moods
creates an unusual, scary kind of beauty in this simultaneous romance and tragedy.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION - BIOGRAPHY

Jean Rhys was born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams in 1890 on the island of Dominica. Her
father was a doctor from Wales, her mother a white Creole of Scottish descent whose family had
lived in Dominica for generations and had owned slaves.
When she was sixteen Rhys moved to England to study at the Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Wanting a stage career, she traveled as a chorus member with “Our Miss Gibbs” for three
seasons. During this time she changed her name repeatedly. After World War I she went to Paris
and was married in 1919. When her husband was jailed Rhys had an affair that ended the
marriage. During these difficult times, Rhys was most productive with her writing. She remarried
and continued to write. Her husband died in 1945. She married a third time in 1947.

Rhys’ feelings of bitterness, insecurity and revenge, and her life outside of the conventional
society of the time were reflected in her short stories, The Left Bank (1927) and novels. Postures
(1928 - later retitled Quartet, After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the Dark (1934),
and Good Morning, Midnight (1939) have female main characters who are passionate,
despairing, and lead drifting lives much like Rhys herself.

Rhys disappeared from the public eye for twenty-seven years, reemerging with the publication of
Wide Sargasso Sea (1966). As is typical of Rhys’ heroines, Antoinette, the main character of this
novel, shares certain autobiographical details with the author. Wide Sargasso Sea largely follows
Rhys’ childhood in Dominica and the characters are described much like Rhys’ own family. This
last novel received critical acclaim. Rhys won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W.
H. Smith Award.

She says of herself in her autobiography Smile Please, which was unfinished and published
posthumously, “Writing took me over. It was all I thought of.” Jean Rhys died in 1979, at the age
of 87, in England.

LITERARY/HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Wide Sargasso Sea takes us into the past of one of fiction’s famous characters: the mad wife in
the attic of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Rhys turns this classic novel inside out and explains the
story of the character that had no real voice in Bronte’s book. As she deconstructs Jane Eyre,
Rhys also gives us a condemning history of colonialism in the Caribbean.

Antoinette Mason is the prequel character to Bertha of Jane Eyre. Rhys has created a history for
Rochester’s infamous Creole wife that attempts to civilize the disparaging characterization of the
madwoman. Through Rhys’ words we understand what may have brought Bertha to her plight.
In Jane Eyre we are sympathetic to Bertha’s husband Rochester who was wronged by his father
and brother.

In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette’s unnamed husband, who later becomes the character from
Jane Eyre, is a betrayer whose willingness to believe the worst about his wife is part cause for
her insanity. Antoinette’s (Bertha’s) confusion and inability to convince him otherwise, and
Rochester’s self pity foster a cold hatred between them. The thin, beautiful Antoinette then
evolves into the demonic, corpulent Bertha.

This unusual genre of literary re-creation, where most readers know what happens in the novel
before they read it, can however stand on its own. It is the story of a culturally mixed woman
struggling to create a coherent life in a society that rejects her from both sides. It is a critique of
colonialism and capitalism during the waning of the exploitative white Creole culture. The
ending is left open so that the reader may interpret the fate of Antoinette as something different
than Bertha’s.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

Note: The text is not divided into traditional chapters, but into three Parts. The first and second
Parts are divided into Sections by filigree between the paragraphs.

PART ONE - SECTION 1

Summary

Antoinette’s story tells how and why she had come to feel alienated and insecure at her home,
Coulibri Estate after her father’s death. She did not identify with the white people in Jamaica
who were mostly British colonials, not natives of the islands. The Jamaicans did not accept her
family either, her mother being “far too young, they thought, and worse still, a Martinique girl.”
And without her father, Antoinette and her mother had no financial security and few if any
friends.

The Emancipation Act had left them, like other former slave owners, waiting for compensation
from England that would never come. A friend and neighbor, Mr. Luttrell, in a similar financial
situation, grew tired of waiting. He shot his dog and swam out to sea, never to be seen again.
This left Annette, Antoinette’s mother, completely friendless.

Still Annette would ride around the property on her horse every day. She seemed not to care that
the blacks were jeering at her. They could tell by her clothing that she no longer had money.
Then Antoinette found her mother’s horse dead, poisoned. Annette’s only pastime was gone. She
was “marooned.”

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Annette had a doctor from Spanish Town come to visit Antoinette’s handicapped brother, Pierre.
The diagnosis is not described, but after the doctor left, Annette became suddenly withdrawn,
never leaving the house at all. She became cold and frightening to Antoinette. She spent her time
walking the glacis (covered terrace) where she was subject to the ridicule of passers by.

Antoinette then spent her time with the servant Christophine. Christophine was a wedding gift
from Antoinette’s father, Alexander Cosway, to Annette. She, like Annette, was from
Martinique. The other blacks were afraid of Christophine because she practiced obeah, West
Indian voodoo. She “had her own very good reasons” for staying on at Coulibri, according to
Annette.
One day, a black child chased and taunted Antoinette, calling her “white cockroach”. When
Antoinette got home, she took refuge in the soft moss of the overgrown garden. Christophine
found her there, and the next day arranged for a young Martinique girl, Tia, to visit. Tia and
Antoinette became friends and would spend entire days together at the bathing pool. Antoinette’s
mother never asked where she had been. The young girls’ friendship was broken, however, when
Tia cheated on a bet and stole three pennies that Antoinette had gotten from Christophine. Tia,
having heard what other people had said, mocked Antoinette saying that real white people had
gold and that Antoinette was a “white nigger” now. Tia took Antoinette’s dress forcing
Antoinette to return home in Tia’s dirty dress.

At home, Antoinette found wealthy strangers visiting. Her mother was angry that Antoinette was
wearing Tia’s dress. She told Christophine to burn it and find Antoinette another. Christophine
knew that there were no other nice dresses and found only an old muslin one. The strangers were
Luttrells from England. Christophine called them “trouble”. Antoinette felt ashamed and went to
bed. She dreamt of going through a forest, with heavy footsteps following her. She knew that her
life would be changing.

Soon there were yards of pink muslin and new dresses for Antoinette and Annette. Annette got a
horse from the Luttrells and was always gone, socializing. Antoinette began to isolate herself,
scorning people.

At her mother’s wedding, Antoinette was a bridesmaid. She heard what people said about
Annette marrying Mr. Mason. They said that Mr. Mason had come to the West Indies for
financial gain and that he would regret the marriage. They joked and gossiped about
Christophine.

While her mother honeymooned, Antoinette stayed with her Aunt Cora. When she returned to
Coulibri, it had been renovated. There were new servants who also gossiped about Christophine
and obeah. Antoinette was afraid because of what she heard, but being that Christophine was the
only one remotely nurturing, she chose to bury her fears.

Annette wanted to leave Coulibri. She told Mr. Mason that the blacks hated her, worse now that
she had money again. Mr. Mason laughed and said, “They’re too damn lazy to be dangerous.”
Antoinette wished she could tell him that the English do not understand the blacks at all.

One night Antoinette heard noises in the bamboo and waited, frightened in her bedroom for
Christophine to come. When Christophine did not come, Antoinette wished to be “still babyish”
and have the stick that she used to sleep with, believing she could fight off evil with it.

Suddenly Annette woke the household hurriedly and gathered everyone in the drawing room
because a group of angry blacks and servants had gathered outside. Mr. Mason was still denying
any danger when the back of the house was set on fire. Annette ran to save Pierre. When she
emerged, both she and Pierre were burned.

Antoinette, Aunt Cora, and Christophine, carrying Pierre, escaped the burning house while Mr.
Mason tried to restrain Annette from running back into the house to save her parrot, Coco. The
crowd closed in and then all fell silent. Coco was on fire and attempting to fly down from the
glacis. Mr. Mason had clipped his wings however and the bird plunged to a screeching, flaming
death. There was a bad superstition about parrots dying. This made some of the mob cease their
taunting and withdraw.

One man with a machete would not let the family leave, fearing that the police would side with
the “white niggers”. Aunt Cora threatened him with curses and he backed away. Mr. Mason tried
to load everyone into the carriage, but Annette screamed when he touched her and she began to
cry. Coulibri was burning and there would be nothing left. Antoinette tried to run to Tia and
Tia’s mother, thinking she could stay and be like them. Tia threw a rock that hit Antoinette in the
head. The girls stared at each other “like in a looking-glass”, blood on Antoinette’s face, tears on
Tia’s.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART ONE - SECTION TWO

Summary

Antoinette awakened at her Aunt Cora’s house, feeling upset that her hair had been cut, but
comfortable to be in a nice bed. Aunt Cora explained that the Luttrells had helped get the family
to safety, but Pierre had died. Annette had been taken to the country to recover. Antoinette
remembered having heard her mother’s hysterical screams, but did not mention it to her aunt.

She went to visit her mother, bringing Christophine along. Annette was barely recognizable.
When Antoinette hugged her mother, Annette tightly returned the embrace, then suddenly flung
Antoinette away, violently. The caretakers, a black couple, scolded Christophine for bringing
“the child to make trouble, trouble, trouble.”

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Aunt Cora sent Antoinette to a convent school. Though reluctant to leave her Aunt Cora’s
friendly house, Antoinette forced herself to walk to the school. On the way she was followed by
two children who bullied her and taunted her about being crazy like her mother. Sandi Cosway,
one of Antoinette’s father’s illegitimate children ran over and scared the bullies away. He helped
Antoinette with her books, and then chased after the bullies. Upon arriving at school, Antoinette
collapsed into tears and was comforted by the nuns. She was assigned to another student, Louise
de Plana, who the nuns seemed to consider impeccable.

While at the convent, Antoinette thought about her mother, but received no word of her. Her
days were spent on lessons about the saints and personal virtues. She felt the convent was a place
of refuge, but not happiness.
During this time Christophine had gone to live with her own son, Aunt Cora had moved to
England, and Mr. Mason traveled abroad for months at a time. When in town, Mr. Mason visited
the convent and brought Antoinette gifts. On his last visit he explained that Antoinette would
leave the convent and he would present her to society.

Antoinette was afraid to leave the safety of the convent. She had another dream about a forest,
but this time she followed the man in the dream rather than running from him. When she saw his
face it was “black with hatred” and he forced her to go with him through an unfamiliar garden
and up some steps to what Antoinette thought was hell. Antoinette was so disturbed she awoke
crying out and shivering. A nun comforted her with some hot chocolate. The hot chocolate
reminded her of her mother’s funeral, attended only by Mr. Mason, Christophine and Antoinette.
Thoughts of her mother mixed with the thoughts of her dream.

Notes

In this part, Antoinette’s narrative is disjointed and does not follow a linear time frame. She
makes word associations that bring her to thoughts of her mother (see Quotes). The reader sees
that Antoinette is battling her inner loneliness and gloom.

Aunt Cora briefly mothers Antoinette, then sends her away to school and leaves the country.
Christophine has gone to her own son. The only security Antoinette has is at the convent. Here
she is safe from her past, from racial hatred, and from the social and economic control of men. In
this world of women, she forgoes happiness and settles for refuge.

Her peace is disrupted when Mr. Mason has the opportunity to use Antoinette to further his
transactions with other white men. She senses the evil and has another forest dream, which
foreshadows her unhappiness at Granbois (translation: great forest) and her captivity in
unfamiliar England.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART TWO - SECTION ONE

Summary

In Part Two, the narrative is taken over by Antoinette’s new husband. He and Antoinette were
married and en route to honeymoon at Granbois, an estate that had belonged to Annette, just past
a village called Massacre. He presents himself as a victim. He was ill at ease in Jamaica where he
had spent weeks with a fever, and he was uncomfortable with his new wife who, though
beautiful, was unfamiliar to him. He was paid 30,000 pounds to agree to this marriage, and this
arrangement enabled him to become independent of his father and brother in England.

On the way to Granbois, he was overwhelmed by his surroundings. He was as uneasy as his
Creole wife was comfortable with the people and environment. The servant, Amelie, who
traveled with them, noted this and flirted maliciously with him.
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When they arrived at Granbois, Antoinette felt at home. Christophine was there and Antoinette’s
husband felt her suspicion. The newlyweds were welcomed with rum punch and crowns of
frangipani. He crushed the flowers with his feet and retired to his dressing room. There he wrote
a letter of reassurance to his father.

Notes

Antoinette’s husband is never actually called by name in Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys denies him
this identity referring to him as “the man” or “husband”. We know his name, Rochester, from of
the character in Jane Eyre. In Part Two we get his perspective on the events that led up to him
locking Antoinette (Bertha) in the attic. In his eyes, his Creole bride is strange. That fact that she
is so comfortable with the black servants and the uncivilized, tropical surroundings makes him
hesitant to accept her.

At remote Granbois, the white male is now the outsider. He feels alienated just as Antoinette did
in Part One. His feelings of distrust surface at the very beginning when he is told that it was not
slaves, but others that were killed at Massacre. These feelings, however, do not prevent him from
behaving condescendingly in the house that Antoinette perceives as her own.

The letter he writes to his father alludes to the fact that the Masons had arranged this marriage.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART TWO - SECTION TWO

Summary

Here the man remembered how well he acted his part while courting Antoinette. During this
brief time he felt he was able to fool everyone except the black servants. After the wedding,
which he barely remembered, he felt that perhaps he had fooled no one and wondered why
people seemed to either pity or ridicule him.

He also recalled that the day before the wedding Antoinette had refused to marry him, saying she
was afraid of what might happen. Richard Mason, Antoinette’s stepbrother, was quite upset. Not
wishing to be made a fool, the man reassured Antoinette that she should trust him.

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Notes
In this short section, the reader’s suspicion that the marriage is the result of a business deal rather
than a romance is validated. It is also confirmed that Richard Mason is the one who exerted the
financial pressure that made the man go through with the wedding. Antoinette merely yielded to
the wishes of the men, hiding behind silence and expecting that she would never have happiness.

PART TWO - SECTION THREE

Summary

Antoinette’s husband awakened to dine with Antoinette. The dining room was lit with candles
and Antoinette was dressed beautifully. Her beauty intoxicated him. As they dined, moths and
beetles flew into the candle flames and burned. They talked about England and the West Indies,
each thinking that the other’s world was not reality. Antoinette told him a story about when she
was a little girl and she woke to find rats staring at her. She had gone outside to sleep in the
moonlight, but was scolded for this by the superstitious Christophine. She asks her husband if he,
too, thinks that she has “slept too long in the moonlight”.

The next morning they woke together. Christophine brought them breakfast in bed. The man
complained to Antoinette about Christophine’s manner, but Antoinette explained that it was the
island way. Watching the petals fall from a rose on the breakfast tray prompted him to comment
that beautiful things have short lives.

He became taken with the beauty of Granbois and the beauty of his wife. He noticed the
servant’s quick, sideways glances, but they disturbed him only momentarily. He and Antoinette
spent happy weeks together, making love on the long afternoons. Soon Antoinette was as eager
for sex as he and “more lost and drowned afterwards.” At night, however, Antoinette spoke of
death. She told him that she was not used to happiness and that he could kill her simply by telling
her to die. They were both experiencing a physical and emotional freedom; however he still
thought of her as a stranger and felt no love, only lust. She fed into his lust.

Notes

Several of the man’s descriptions in this section begin to refer indirectly to Antoinette’s mental
instability. The moths and beetles in flames repeat Coco’s fate and foreshadow, once again,
Bertha’s demise. Being “too long in the moonlight” implies Antoinette’s craziness. The short life
of the beautiful rose parallels her fragile state. Even Antoinette’s eagerness toward sex would
have been considered crazy in the 1800’s.

The powerful sensuousness of the tropical setting overtakes the man. The home and comfort of
Granbois allow Antoinette to feel free. This combination confuses reality for both characters.
They are experiencing savage desire. For him, words and actions express emotion but his true
feelings are only physical. For Antoinette, words and actions are sensual but her true needs are
emotional, expressed only in the cover of night. He finally realizes this as he says, “Desire,
Hatred, Life, Death came very close in the darkness.” The word “die” is used in this section as a
metaphor for orgasm, and also to foreshadow Antoinette’s impending spiritual death.
SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART TWO - SECTION FOUR

Summary

Amelie brought the man a letter from Daniel Cosway, another of Antoinette’s father’s
illegitimate children. In the letter, Daniel described Alexander Cosway as “wicked and
detestable” and claimed that Old Cosway was a drunk who “died raving like his father before
him.” He described Annette as “worthless and spoilt...a raging lunatic and worse besides”. He
told of Antoinette’s “idiot” brother and how Antoinette behaved anti-socially as a child. Daniel’s
intent was to warn the man about Antoinette and the madness in her family and to point out that
everyone knew she was “going the same way as her mother”. He urges Antoinette’s husband to
visit and learn more.

Disturbed by the letter, the man returned to the house and eavesdropped on a fight between
Antoinette and Amelie. When he entered, Amelie pretended to cry but then left singing about a
white cockroach. Antoinette was so angry she tore up her bed sheet.

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Christophine came into the room and told Antoinette that she was leaving to work with her son.
She and Antoinette’s husband didn’t get along and she did not want to cause any problems.
Amelie reentered the room and smiled flirtatiously at the man. Christophine scolded her and
threatened her. When the black women left, Antoinette tried to explain to her husband how
alienated she felt not being accepted by the whites or the blacks. He did not respond.

He went for a walk in the forest all the while thinking that the people who arranged this
marriage, his father, his brother and Richard Mason, knew of Antoinette’s madness. He was
upset and became lost. He found a calm, beautiful place where there appeared to be the remains
of a paved road. A girl passed by and screamed at the sight of him. He was found by Baptiste, a
servant, and as they walked back to the house he questioned Baptist about the place and the road
he had found in the woods. There had been bundles of flowers and the frightened girl, which lead
the man to suspect ghosts or zombies. Baptiste claimed to know nothing.

Back at the house the man tried to go to Antoinette but her door was bolted. He requested a
decanter of rum and read a book, The Glittering Coronet of Isles, turning to the chapter on obeah.
He learned that a zombie can be a person or the spirit of a place and that blacks usually refused
to speak of the black magic in which they believed.

Notes

The characters are all feeling the pain of rejection in this section. Daniel is racially split and
though he presents his letter as his “Christian duty”, we see through his words that he is spiteful
and alone. He grew up rejected by whites, blacks, and his own father. Antoinette is culturally
split and grew up rejected by whites, blacks, and her own mother.

Now, Antoinette’s husband feels rejected and alone because no one has told him the truth. He
left the mistreatment from his father and favored older brother in England only to find himself
among enemies (Antoinette and Christophine) once again. Feeling that no one is on his side, he
embraces Daniel’s information as validation that he has been manipulated and deceived.

His walk in the forest reminds us of Antoinette’s dreams. He feels as though he is being watched.
Lost and alone, he feels the presence of the supernatural, the fear that something will harm him.
Finding Antoinette’s door bolted when he returns to the house finally cements his isolation.

The introduction of the concept that a zombie can be not only a person whose spirit has been
taken, but also the spirit of a place gives yet another explanation for Annette and Antoinette
going mad. The last straw for Annette was the loss of Coulibri, which was her “place”. For
Antoinette, who related more to nature than to people, it would be going to England, removing
her from her island “place”. Antoinette’s husband on the other hand will be saved from
becoming zombie-like when he is able to reinstate his inheritance and return to England, his
“place”.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART TWO - SECTION FIVE

Summary

Antoinette narrates this section of Part Two. She feels that her husband does not love her any
more and she has ridden her horse to Christophine’s house looking for advice. Christophine felt
the solution was easy, “pack up and go.” Antoinette explained that she had nowhere to go and no
money since her inheritance now belonged to her husband according to English law. So,
Christophine suggested that Antoinette borrow money from her husband and visit a “cousin” in
Martinique and stay there until the man came wanting Antoinette back. Antoinette replied that
Martinique was not far enough; she should go to England. Christophine did not believe that
England existed.

Antoinette then confessed the real reason for her visit. She wanted Christophine to use obeah to
make her husband come to her room once more and love her. The old servant explained how
dangerous obeah was for white people and that she could only make the man want to make love
to Antoinette (physically), not actually love her. She knew of the gossip and told Antoinette to
talk to her husband so that he would again feel comfortable with her. She also warned Antoinette
not to trust anyone.

Antoinette recalled the last time she had seen her Aunt Cora, someone she felt she could trust.
Cora was arguing on Antoinette’s behalf with Richard, trying to secure some of Antoinette’s
inheritance. She knew that Antoinette’s future husband was entering into the marriage for
financial gain and that Antoinette would have no legal protection but Richard would not change
the arrangements. It was then that Aunt Cora gave Antoinette her rings. Antoinette now
considered selling another of the rings, but could not think of a buyer.

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Christophine agreed to give Antoinette the magic only if Antoinette would talk to her husband
first. Antoinette was ecstatic that Christophine had agreed, but became frightened when
Christophine took her inside the house where there was a heap of chicken feathers in the corner.
She paid Christophine, but Christophine did not agree to do this because of money. Upon
leaving, Antoinette heard a cock crowing and knew that it was a sign of betrayal, but could not
say for sure who had betrayed whom. She rode home carrying the potion wrapped in leaves.

Notes

With Antoinette narrating, Christophine is once again a central character. In Antoinette’s eyes,
Christophine is the one with power, not the white colonials. Antoinette is the beggar and the
servant woman is the sage. These two women do not subscribe to the boundaries of race and
class. The conflict of values illustrated by their differing ideas about the role of women,
however, shows that Antoinette is indeed bound by English law. Christophine boasts of her own
independence from men and advises Antoinette to be the same. But both women know that
Antoinette is completely dependent on her husband - like her mother and Coco before her, her
wings had been clipped by an Englishman. Christophine knows that Antoinette’s only chance is
to escape. That is why she urges her to leave and is reluctant to help her reunite with her
husband.

The magic that Christophine practices, obeah, is reserved for blacks. Christophine tries to warn
Antoinette of the “bad trouble” that will come. Antoinette is white, and worse, pays for the
magic with colonial money. It is not until after she leaves that Antoinette realizes that the
transaction was wrong. She hears the cock crow and wonders about the motivation of traitors.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART TWO - SECTION SIX

Summary

(Antoinette’s husband is again the narrator.) A second letter from Daniel Cosway had arrived
threatening that if Antoinette’s husband did not come to see him, Daniel would come to
Granbois. The man questioned Amelie about Daniel. At first, Amelie said Daniel was a good
man, but then contradicted herself saying he was too bad to be allowed to come to Granbois. In
her description she alluded to something that had gone on between Antoinette and Sandi,
Daniel’s half brother, another bastard child of Alexander Cosway.
The man visited Daniel’s house. Daniel described his life at length to him, including his pride in
his independence of women and bitter stories of his “damn devil” father, who denied paternity.
Daniel also went on about how Antoinette’s husband had been deceived about Antoinette and her
family. He warned the man to trust no one, especially not Christophine. Then, like Amelie, he
indicated that Antoinette and Sandi had been intimate when Antoinette was a girl. He threatened
to go public with his accusations if the man did not pay him 500 pounds. Antoinette’s husband
was overwhelmed and angry, and left.

At home, he was confronted by Antoinette who begged him to stop hating her. He told her he did
not hate her, but admits to the reader that he is lying. They discussed Daniel’s accusations.
Antoinette attempted to explain the “true story”. She described all of the events from Part One
and went into more detail about her mother’s hatred toward Mr. Mason who was responsible for
the burning of Coulibri and the death of Pierre. She ended with the story of her mother’s cruel
caretakers and how they hurt and abused Annette.

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Antoinette’s demeanor at this point disturbed her husband. He had taken to calling her “Bertha”
which she did not like. He asked her what happened at Christophine’s and said that the old
woman may be right about the couple spending some time apart. Antoinette was not pleased with
this idea, but gave in to her husband and offered him a glass of wine.

The wine contained the potion from Christophine. Eventually he lost consciousness and woke the
next morning vomiting, thinking he had been poisoned. He looked at Antoinette seeing her
incredible beauty, but feeling hatred. He noted the “frown between her thick eyebrows, deep as if
it had been cut with a knife.” Then she seemed young again. Afraid she would awaken, he
covered her as if covering a dead girl.

He dressed and ran out of the house delirious. He slept outside, then woke and found his way
back to the house. He shut himself inside his dressing room. Amelie came to care for him. She
brought food and wine and fed him like a child. They laughed together and he pulled her into bed
with him. He did not consider until the next morning the fact that Antoinette could hear the
sexual activity across the thin partition between their rooms. Amelie dressed to leave and he paid
her generously. She took the “present” without any giving thanks as she left.

He had previously written a letter to a friend in Spanish Town. His friend’s reply came and he
learned that Christophine had once been in jail and could be arrested again if the man felt she
was causing trouble. Soon after he read the letter, Antoinette returned. She went directly inside
without speaking to him.

He went to her room and found her in shocking condition. Her hair was uncombed and her eyes
were swollen and staring. She was shrieking for Christophine to come. She shouted accusingly at
her husband, who called her “Bertha” in response. He had ruined the comfort she felt at Granbois
and she hated him for it. He grabbed Antoinette’s wrist and she bit him ferociously. Then
Christophine came in and comforted Antoinette while the man stepped outside.

He and Christophine discussed what had happened to Antoinette. Christophine had been caring
for her and spoke knowingly about the man’s physical roughness during sex. He accused
Christophine of changing his wife. Christophine scolded him for calling Antoinette his “wife”.
She knew the marriage had been a financial arrangement and that he used sex to control
Antoinette. She further charged him with deliberately trying to “break” Antoinette by calling her
“Bertha” and having sex with Amelie within earshot of Antoinette.

The man then blamed Christophine for drugging Antoinette and addicting her to rum. In
response Christophine told him to try loving Antoinette again or at least return some of
Antoinette’s money so she could go on in Christophine’s care. He ordered Christophine out of
the house threatening to call the police. He said he would take Antoinette to see doctors.
Angered, Christophine spat on the floor and told the man that she knew he would have the
doctors and Richard Mason say that Antoinette was mad, and then keep all of her money.
Christophine had given Antoinette something to help her sleep and she left without saying
goodbye.

Antoinette’s husband wrote a letter to his father saying he was returning to Jamaica for
“unforeseen circumstances”. He then wrote to his lawyer to make the arrangements. As he wrote
he heard a cock crow and threw a rock at it, but the cock persisted. He took a drink of rum and
drew a picture of a house surrounded by “English trees” with a stick figure of a woman in the
third floor window.

Notes

This section is full of cultural and gender role reversals. The first reversal comes as Antoinette’s
husband seeks help from Daniel Cosway. The “powerful” white colonial, under threat, goes to
the home of a man of color for information and assistance. Then, after touting his own
masculinity and independence, Daniel assumes the female role of having to ask for money.
When we see that the interaction ends up being money driven, we are reminded of Tia’s
relationship with Antoinette and how it was tainted by money.

At home the man regains some control. He notices the line on Antoinette’s forehead, the same as
Antoinette had noticed on her mother, a sign of pain, misery and disturbance. Throughout this
section the oppression that pushes Antoinette closer to madness is felt strongly. As Antoinette
sleeps, he covers her like a corpse, symbolizing Antoinette’s spiritual death. Because of money,
she is trapped by her husband. Conversely, it is his money that sets Amelie free and allows her to
leave.

In the dialog between Antoinette’s husband and Christophine, the powerful position associated
with being male and English again fails him. Christophine, black and female, offers a hard
analysis of his character. She assumes control of the conversation, her words echoing in his head.
She refuses to heed his words just as he has refused Antoinette.
When the man writes to his father, though the letter is proper, it implies that the father knew of
the madness in Antoinette’s family and the situation that the man would end up in. He does not
outwardly express his feelings. He does not recognize (at the end of the section) the cock
crowing again as the biblical example of a warning of betrayal. However his drawing illustrates
his thoughts and has obvious significance with relation to Jane Eyre.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART TWO - SECTION SEVEN

Summary

The man watched the weather change as hurricane season approached. It was misty and cloudy,
more like England. He wondered if anyone pitied him for marrying Antoinette, for being “tied to
a lunatic for life.” He is determined to control her by taking her away from the place she loved.
She would be his mad girl.

Notes

In this brief section the man is visualizing England, removing the tropical elements that he
loathed from the landscape. He is feeling in control of both nature and Antoinette. He will break
her as the hurricane wind breaks a tree.

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PART TWO - SECTION EIGHT

Summary

On the day they left, Antoinette was expressionless. Her husband waited for her to cry, to show
some of her passion or emotion. She stared at the sea. He felt melancholy leaving Granbois and
even asked Antoinette to forgive him. But when he saw the hatred in her eyes his own hatred
returned. He stared at her to force the appearance of hatred and her beauty to disappear.

One of the boys that was helping to carry the baskets began to cry suddenly. The man was angry
and asked what was wrong. No one would respond. Antoinette followed him and told him, in an
emotionless voice he barely recognized, that when they had first arrived at Granbois she had
promised the boy that her husband would take him along when they left. The man was inflamed
that Antoinette spoke in his name. Antoinette apologized and returned the indifferent look to her
face. He was convinced by her expression that she was mad. He was eager to get to England and
lock her away.

Notes
Antoinette has become zombie-like, as alluded to in Section Four. Her husband’s thoughts and
actions have taken her spirit away. Taking her away from her home breaks the last of her being.

The man’s coldness is underscored by his reaction to the crying boy. He refuses to bring him
along or to communicate with him. He looks with disdain on the boy’s show of emotion.

SUMMARIES WITH NOTES

PART THREE

Summary

This last Part opens with the voice of Grace Poole, a servant who was paid double to look after
Antoinette in the attic of Antoinette’s husband’s home in England. She assumed that the other
servants were let go because of the gossip about the man and his wife. Feeling safe inside the
thick walls of the English house, she did not participate in the rumors. Though she knew
Antoinette could be fierce, Grace perceived her position as “a shelter from the world outside
which...can be a black and cruel world to a woman.”

Antoinette’s narrative voice takes over for the remainder of the novel.

When she awoke she wondered why she was in the cold, sparse room. She thought it was a
temporary arrangement, but her husband had never visited to give Antoinette the opportunity to
speak with him. The room had no mirror and only one window that was too high to see through.
In the next room there was a tapestry that Antoinette believed had a picture of her mother. At
night, she would take the keys and sneak out after Grace had drunk herself to sleep. She would
often hear other people whispering and she hid from them. Antoinette believed that their ship had
lost its way en route to England and that she was now in a cardboard world.

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One morning Grace tells Antoinette that her brother had been there the night before and that
Antoinette had behaved savagely. Antoinette did not remember, but then realized that Grace
must have meant her stepbrother, Richard Mason. Grace explained that Richard did not
recognize Antoinette. Antoinette replied that he would have recognized her if she had been
wearing her red dress. Grace felt sorry for Antoinette and asked if Antoinette knew how long she
had been in the attic. Antoinette insisted that time had no meaning, “ But something you can
touch and hold like my red dress, that has a meaning.”

Antoinette pondered her red dress. The smells in it reminded her of Jamaica and she recalled
wearing it the last time she saw her cousin, Sandi. He wanted to take her away with him but she
said she could not go. They kissed what Antoinette later realized was the “life and death” kiss.
The dress also reminded Antoinette of a beautiful fire and she had a dream for the third time. In
the dream she had stolen the keys from Grace and was walking through the house with candles.
She felt that someone was following her and she went into a room that reminded her of a church
without an altar. She lit all the candles in the room. Suddenly she felt as if she was in her Aunt
Cora’s house and she became angry and knocked all the candles down, igniting the drapes. She
ran away from the flames and the shouting, and out on to the battlements where it was cool. She
saw her life in the red sky. She saw the pool at Coulibri and heard Tia calling to her. She jumped
and woke.

Awake, Antoinette felt compelled to act upon her dream. She took the keys and, holding a
candle, went into the passageway.

Notes

Grace Poole’s short introduction shows that Antoinette’s husband’s attempts at discretion are as
useless as they were in Jamaica. Like at Coulibri, authority could not be demanded, but had to be
bought. The reader sympathizes somewhat with Grace’s distasteful position because Grace, like
Antoinette, has experienced how cruelly the world treats women.

Antoinette’s husband’s voice has completely disappeared in Part Three. Though he is responsible
for Antoinette becoming “a memory to be avoided” as he promised in the previous Section, Part
Three focuses on Antoinette’s own experiences. Her room has only one inaccessible window. He
has taken light and color from her, literally and metaphorically, leaving her with a “cardboard”
world. She is a ghost to herself and to the other people in the house. Like in Part One, she
remains on the outside of overheard conversations. No one but the reader hears Antoinette’s
version of the story. Rhys has given a voice to the silenced madwoman.

The scene from Jane Eyre where Richard Mason appears is revisited. We see the event from
Antoinette’s perspective, alternating between rational consciousness and confused madness. The
Creole beauty and the gothic madwoman coexist as the end of the novel nears.

Antoinette’s former passion and her reality are symbolized by the red dress. It is the only color in
her room and in its folds are the smells and memories of all that has meaning to her. The red
symbolizes both the sensuous natural world of her lost self and the infernal disintegration of her
spirit.

Finally, Antoinette accepts the disjunction of her identity and resolves to exult her spirit in
flames. The renewal of her spirit, which had died, is coupled with the physical death of her body,
the “two deaths” that Antoinette had described. Her jump to Tia is her return to her Jamaican
home and the flames are the enraged destruction of her English prison. The novel ends with
Antoinette’s defiant compulsion to act rather than a rehashing of Bronte’s description of her
death.

OVERALL ANALYSES

CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Antoinette

Antoinette’s character comes from Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre. Bronte’s madwoman,
“Bertha”, is given a life history, beginning as a young lonely girl in Jamaica, and ending as the
wild lunatic in the attic. Antoinette is sensitive and sensuous. The vivid descriptions of nature in
Part One reflect her life and her character. She feels the exotic beauty and comfort of the natural
world. She identifies so closely with the sights and sounds of her environment that when
Rochester takes her away she comes undone. When Rochester stamps on the frangipani wreath
and again when he crushes an orchid we see Antoinette’s spirit being crushed.

As a child she is alone. She is an outcast in her family and in society, a “white cockroach”. She
neither seeks nor finds happiness. At best, she takes refuge as in the convent. Instinctively, she
tries to get out of her arranged marriage, sensing trouble. When she relaxes at Granbois, and
feels that she can love Rochester, she fears that the happiness she has found with him will be
taken away. When Antoinette’s past and her family history turn Rochester against her, she is
once again without a comfortable place for herself. She goes to Christophine for help, but obeah
magic does not work well on whites and we watch Antoinette disintegrate into “Bertha”. Finally,
regaining her spirit, Antoinette has a moment of defiant triumph as she acts out her fiery dream.

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Antoinette’s husband

Though he narrates the longest part of the novel, Rhys denies this character a name. Having read
Jane Eyre, we know his name based on his Bronte counterpart, Rochester, but in Rhys’ novel he
has no identity outside of his relationship with Antoinette. He becomes Antoinette’s husband and
both the narrator and the orchestrator of her psychological undoing. As much as Antoinette takes
comfort in the tropical landscape, her husband experiences unease. He finds the colors and
fragrances overwhelming. He sees the West Indian landscape as hostile, as his English ideas of
civilization and reason are undermined. Likewise, he views Antoinette’s offer of love as
excessive, “too much”. His rejection of the sensuous landscape parallels his rejection of
Antoinette.

He renames her “Bertha” in effort to distance her from her exotic side and bring her over to her
English side, putting further pressure on her already confused cultural identity. When he sleeps
with a servant, Amelie, a behavior accepted by colonials generations before him, and then is held
responsible for those actions by Christophine, he exerts his final authority and privilege rejecting
his Creole wife and all West Indian customs. He reclaims his own identity, erasing Antoinette’s,
and moves back to England.

Unlike the sympathy evoking character of Jane Eyre, a man rejected by his father in favor of a
brother, the Rochester of Wide Sargasso Sea is selfish, cold and manipulative. Rhys created him
as the anonymous man who fragments Antoinette into the raving madwoman, “Bertha”.
Christophine

As the only semblance of a caregiver in Antoinette’s life, Christophine grooms Antoinette into
the black culture and an appreciation of nature. She is black, but being from Martinique, she is
different from the Jamaicans. Her words carry both magic (obeah) and authority. Unlike the
other servants, she remains loyal to Antoinette and her mother when the Cosway family is no
longer wealthy. At the beginning of the novel Christophine explains why Antoinette is an outcast
in society. Christophine is an outcast herself, but commands respect because of her independent
nature and knowledge of obeah.

She is at odds with Antoinette’s husband from the start because she senses that he is dangerous
and she challenges his white male authority. As Antoinette’s advisor and confidante she urges
Antoinette to leave her husband and become independent like her. In the final dialog with
Antoinette’s husband, Rhys uses Christophine as Antoinette’s advocate and spokeswoman.
Christophine reveals the man’s true, selfish nature and outlines the events that led up to
Antoinette’s unstable condition.

PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

Wide Sargasso Sea is written in the trisect form with Parts One and Three narrated by Antoinette
and Part Two narrated by Antoinette’s husband. This shift in narrative voice, along with forward
and backward movements through time and space, is quite different from the linear
autobiographical Jane Eyre on which the characters are based. In the Parts narrated by
Antoinette, Rhys uses the device of fragmentation and shifts tense from present to past making
Antoinette’s character seem disembodied. Antoinette’s husband’s narration is in past tense
delivered by a nameless character, giving his account authority and credibility.

The shift in narrative voice also gives the reader insight into the cultural and psychological
differences between the two characters. The husband, with his deliberate, educated tone, gives us
a disturbed and disgusted image of Antoinette. Antoinette’s simple language and patois evoke
sympathy and show her as the victim of racial isolation and patriarchal oppression. We are able
to view the developing madness from the outside and the inside.

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THEMES

Dependency becomes Slavery

Even though slavery had been officially abolished, the bondage imposed by dependency became
like slavery to ex-slaves and women alike. The hostility between ex-slave servants and their
white employers escalated as the relationship changed from legal ownership to financial
dependence, a figurative slavery. The fire at Coulibri illustrates this resentment of the black
workers against the exploitative whites dramatically.
Women’s dependence on their husbands and fathers was another form of financial slavery.
Annette’s marriage to Mr. Mason was an attempt to escape her captivity at Coulibri. The men in
the novel married to increase their wealth. Women had no financial rights. This is summed up in
Antoinette’s explanation to Christophine, “And you must understand I am not rich now, I have
no money of my own at all, everything I had belongs to him.”

Conflict of Values

Seldom did Antoinette and her husband, or their West Indian and colonial counterparts, see eye
to eye on their opinions of the landscape or the people. West Indian values were based on living
in harmony with nature. This was where Antoinette got her idea that nature was a comfort,
though she also respected its power. The colonials sought to conquer nature and the people
associated with it for their own purposes. Along with harmony in nature went the West Indian
value placed on spirituality and the belief in signs and omens. The colonials made light of this
savage nonsense yet feared it enough to arrest Christophine for her practice of obeah.

After slavery was abolished, the work ethic of many blacks was corrupted. “No more slavery -
why should anybody work?” Material greed and the power of capitalism took over, obscuring
former values including respect for humanity. Interpersonal relationships were often reduced to
financial arrangements.

Social Stratification

Gender, color, parentage and geographic origin all affected where one stood in society. Women
were a lower class than men. Whites from England felt superior to white Creoles. Black ex-
slaves not from Jamaica were looked down upon by Jamaican blacks. Those of mixed race filled
in the gap between black and white societies occupying whatever niche their parentage or means
allowed. Interactions between the different levels or groups were tainted with the fear that
underlies forced respect.

POINT OF VIEW

The novel is written in first person. The point of view changes depending on which character is
narrating. As we alternately enter the minds of Antoinette and her husband the position shifts
according to each character’s perspective. From the man we hear the English imperialist version
of events, the version clearly not preferred by Rhys. As he recounts what has happened, though
his story is credible, the reader doubts that he is being completely honest, even with himself. As
narrator, even though he is involved in the action, he seems to take the position that it is all
beneath him.

Antoinette’s version comes from the West Indian viewpoint. Her passages evoke sympathy and
clearly underscore the inequities and injustices of the post emancipation experience in the
Caribbean. Her account is more genuine allowing the reader into her heart as well as her mind.
This voice of the underrepresented is the one the reader feels the author prefers.

OTHER ELEMENTS
MEANING OF THE TITLE

The Sargasso Sea is a large difficult to define area in the central North Atlantic, northeast of the
West Indies, variably stretching from east of the Bahamas towards the Azores. It is located in an
area of relative calmness locked in-between the strong currents that flow in a circular clock-wise
direction around the North Atlantic ocean, north of the North Atlantic tropics. The title Wide
Sargasso Sea comes from this geography. However there is more to it than that. The Sargasso
Sea is characterized as an area of eerie calmness and tangled sargassum (a floating seaweed). All
around it are the swirling currents of the Atlantic. Many vessels have become becalmed or lost in
this area of the ocean.

The Sargasso Sea is between Rochester’s home, England and Antoinette’s home, Jamaica.
Similarly, Antoinette is figuratively caught between England and Jamaica. She is neither colonial
nor Jamaican, but a white Creole. The social and racial currents swirl around her as she searches
for stability and identity. When she physically crosses the Sargasso Sea and goes to England she
believes the ship had lost its way and that she is not really in England. She completely loses her
identity, which points out how wide the Sargasso Sea has been for Antoinette.

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QUOTATIONS

(Referenced from the Norton Paperback edition, 1982)

1) “They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not
in their ranks.” (p. 17)

This is the opening of the novel, which sets the tone of impending racial unrest and Antoinette’s
feelings of alienation.

2) “No more slavery! She had to laugh! ‘These new ones have Letter of the Law. Same
thing. They got magistrate. They got fine. They got jail house and chain gang. They got
tread machine to mash up people’s feet. New ones worse than old ones - more cunning,
that’s all.’ (p. 26)

This is Christophine’ s indictment of colonial society. It illustrates the animosity and resentment
festering between the English and the black servants.

3) “None of you understand about us” (p.30)

This comes from Antoinette after she tries to explain to Mr. Mason why her Aunt Cora could not
help Annette. Aunt Cora had no money of her own because females had no financial rights. This
quote shows that Antoinette sees Mr. Mason’s misconceptions about the English male’s
superiority over white Creole females. He did not see it because he did not experience the
oppression, but Antoinette did.

4) “I wish I could tell him that out here is not at all like English people think it is.” (p. 34)

Spoken by Antoinette, this shows that the gap between cultures left Mr. Mason ignorant and
naïve. He did not understand why the blacks would hate them more if they had money. He
underestimated the level of rage brewing in the black community around him. This
misunderstanding set the stage for the tragic fire at Coulibri.

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5) “I will write my name in fire red” (p. 53)

These were Antoinette’s words while doing needlepoint at the convent. They foreshadow the
way she will “leave her mark” at the novel’s end. In addition these words about Antoinette’s self
perception provide a stark contrast to her words about herself in Part Three.

6) “I did not want to see that ghost of a woman who they say haunts this place.” (p.187)

From “fire red” to “ghost” describes the tragedy of the death of Antoinette’s spirit.

7) “Italy is white pillars and green water. Spain is hot sun on stones, France is a lady with
black hair wearing a white dress because Louise was born in France fifteen years ago, and
my mother, whom I must not forget and pray for as though she were dead, though she is
living, liked to dress in white.” (p. 55)

8) “While I am drinking it I remember that after my mother’s funeral, very early in the
morning, almost as early as this, we went home to drink hot chocolate and eat cakes. She
died last year, no one told me how, and I didn’t ask.” (p. 61)

(Notes for quotes 7 & 8) These are Antoinette’s thoughts of her mother while at the convent,
toward the end of Part One. The first came after learning about a saint, the second after dreaming
she was in hell. Her mental associations have become increasingly fragmented. Even before her
husband enters Antoinette’s life Rhys gives the reader some reason to doubt Antoinette’s
stability.

9) “It was a song about a white cockroach. That’s me. That’s what they call all of us who
were here before their own people in Africa sold them to slave traders. And I’ve heard
English women call us white niggers. So between you I often wonder who I am and where is
my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all.” (p. 102)

Antoinette is trying to explain to her husband how she feels, why things are difficult for her and
why she is uncomfortable with Amelie. The man, still trying to apply English views to the West
Indian culture, passes it off as melodrama. This quote comes from Part Two, which is narrated
by him. He remembers and recounts these words, but never understands them.

10) “I hated the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the rain. I hated the sunsets of
whatever colour, I hated its beauty and its magic and the secret I would never know. I
hated its indifference and the cruelty which was part of its loveliness. Above all I hated her.
For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me thirsty and all my life
would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.” (p. 172)

These are Antoinette’s husband’s words toward the end of Part Two. He is trying to regain
control of his surroundings along with controlling Antoinette. His hatred comes from his
inability to understand and find comfort in nature as Antoinette and the other West Indian people
do. He is afraid and refuses to be taken in by the beauty and abundance around him, especially
Antoinette’s beauty. He seeks to punish and dominate Antoinette, longing “--for the day when
she is only a memory to be avoided, locked away, and like all memories a legend.” (p. 172)

DISCUSSION / STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Why is Christophine disliked and feared?

2. Who negotiated the marriage between Antoinette and the Englishman and how did these men
benefit from the marriage?

3. What did Aunt Cora give to Antoinette and why did she feel her niece would need them?

4. Why did Antoinette choose not to take Christophine’s advice?

5. Why did Amelie sleep with Antoinette’s husband?

6. What is the significance of Antoinette’s husband’s drawing?

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7. In what way, if any, did Christophine contribute to Antoinette’s madness?

8. Can Wide Sargasso Sea stand alone as a novel or must it be considered only as the prequel to
Jane Eyre?

9. Whose narrative voice is more believable, Antoinette’s or her husband’s? Why?

10. Describe at least two scenes from Part Three and explain how they are based on events from
Jane Eyre.

ESSAY TOPIC IDEAS

1. Using adjectives that Antoinette’s husband used when referring to the servants, explain how
these words illustrate his attitudes and fears.

2. What animal signified betrayal? Describe the scenes where it appeared and identify the
betrayers and the betrayed.

3. Annette wanted to leave Jamaica. Christophine advised Antoinette to leave Jamaica. Why was
leaving Jamaica a solution to the Cosway women’s problems?

4. Describe the parent/child relationships in Wide Sargasso Sea.

5. In your opinion, did Antoinette’s husband cause Antoinette to go mad or did he merely speed
up the process? Use examples from the novel to support your answer.

6. Contrast Antoinette’s and her husband’s perceptions of nature. How do these differences
account for their actions?

7. What do you think was Rhys’ motivation for giving the madwoman in the attic a voice?

8. Why did Rhys deny Antoinette’s husband a name?

COMMENT ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE

The study of literature is not like the study of math or science, or even history. While those
disciplines are based largely upon fact, the study of literature is based upon interpretation and
analysis. There are no clear-cut answers in literature, outside of the factual information about an
author's life and the basic information about setting and characterization in a piece of literature.
The rest is a highly subjective reading of what an author has written; each person brings a
different set of values and a different background to the reading. As a result, no two people see
the piece of literature in exactly the same light, and few critics agree on everything about a book
or an author.

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In this study guide, we have tried to give an objective literary analysis based upon the
information actually found in the novel, book, or play. In the end, however, it is an individual
interpretation, but one that we feel can be readily supported by the information that is presented
in the guide. In your course of literature study, you or your professor/teacher may come up with
a different interpretation of the mood or the theme or the conflict. Your interpretation, if it can be
logically supported with information contained within the piece of literature, is just as correct as
ours; so is the interpretation of your teacher or professor.
Literature is simply not a black or white situation; instead, there are many gray areas that are
open to varying analyses. Your task is to come up with your own analysis that you can logically
defend. Hopefully, these booknotes will help you to accomplish that goal.

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