Wide Sargasso Sea Essay examples -- English Literature Jean Rhys Locat

Wide Sargasso Sea Places take on a symbolic significance in Wide Sargasso Sea. Discuss the way in which Jean Rhys uses different locations in the narrative. Place in 'Wide Sargasso Sea' seems to be used to convey Antoinette's frame of mind at different times in her life. Wally Look Lai believes that "The West Indian setting...is central to the novel...(and) the theme of rejected womanhood is utilized symbolically in order to make an artistic statement about West Indian society and about an aspect of the West Indian experience". In Part One of 'Wide Sargasso Sea', Coulibri and the convent in Spanish Town are presented as contrasts in that they represent danger and safety respectively. Antoinette's mother describes how she feels 'marooned' in Coulibri, which could refer to both their geographical position and the fact that they live on an island, and also their position in society, and the racial tension which exists therein. This racial tension between the white Creoles and the black people stems from the fact that Creoles such as the Cosways' ancestors had been slave-owners, and the emancipation had left these families virtually penniless and lacking in respect. Jane Miller argues that "a woman on her own..is always alone if she depends on men...and vulnerable and weakened as the..foreigner is vulnerable and weakened". She therefore believes that Annette and Antoinette's isolation is due not only to the fact that they are foreigners, but also because they are women who are forced to be dependent upon men, and I agree that this is partly what adds to their isolation from society. Antoinette always pays careful attention to her natural surroundings. They almost seem perfect as she uses simile to com... ...ntoinette, but Anna Morgan, the heroine of "Voyage in the Dark", who comes from England to the Caribbean and recounts her attempts to come to terms with her new life. A feminist would say that Antoinette struggles primarily against the dictates of patriarchy. For example, it is Rochester who declares that Antoinette is "not English or European either" and also he who takes her away from her home in the West Indies and locks her up in the attic in his house in England. However, Selma James believes that the feminism and race issues run parallel to each other. She thinks that "the female dilemma and female vulnerability with men and in society generally is inseparable from the West Indian preoccupations about race..", and I am inclined to agree with her, and think that Jean Rhys uses location in the novel extremely effectively in order to convey this idea.