LITERARY CONTEXT:
- Prequel to Jane Eyre
- Unsatisfied with how Charlotte Brontë presented Mr. Rochester's Jamaican wife in
Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) to humanise the stereotypical
madwoman in the attic.
- Combats the novel’s limited worldview
- Wide Sargasso Sea repositions Rochester's first wife as a victim of patriarchy,
colonialism, and lifelong isolation
- postcolonial and feminist viewpoint.
- Jane Eyre is often considered a formative feminist text because of the protagonist's
autonomy, independence, and courage. → For Rhys and many others, however, Jane
Eyre is still too entrenched and compliant in her patriarchal society for her to truly
embody feminism.
- won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award for that year
Jane Eyre:
- Told from the point of view of Rochester's love interest and eventual second wife,
Jane Eyre, Bertha is depicted as wild, savage, and insane. She is a dangerous woman
who Rochester was tricked into marrying.
- Bertha was born in Jamaica and is known for her beauty and family fortune. Her
family pressures Rochester into marrying her. Unbeknownst to him, mental disorders
and insanity run in the family. Upon marriage, Bertha's mental health deteriorates. She
begins running on all fours and acting demonic. He brings her to England and locks
her on the third floor with a hired nurse.
- Rochester is unable to divorce Bertha because she cannot consent in her mental state.
This eventually becomes a problem for him when he decides to marry Jane.
Eventually, Bertha sets a fire inside the house and jumps out of the window, killing
herself.
- Jane actually feels relief when Bertha dies because now she can marry Rochester.
- positions the Caribbean and the people who live there as wild and uncultured
compared to English society.
- Prequel to Jane Eyre
- Unsatisfied with how Charlotte Brontë presented Mr. Rochester's Jamaican wife in
Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) to humanise the stereotypical
madwoman in the attic.
- Combats the novel’s limited worldview
- Wide Sargasso Sea repositions Rochester's first wife as a victim of patriarchy,
colonialism, and lifelong isolation
- postcolonial and feminist viewpoint.
- Jane Eyre is often considered a formative feminist text because of the protagonist's
autonomy, independence, and courage. → For Rhys and many others, however, Jane
Eyre is still too entrenched and compliant in her patriarchal society for her to truly
embody feminism.
- won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W. H. Smith Award for that year
Jane Eyre:
- Told from the point of view of Rochester's love interest and eventual second wife,
Jane Eyre, Bertha is depicted as wild, savage, and insane. She is a dangerous woman
who Rochester was tricked into marrying.
- Bertha was born in Jamaica and is known for her beauty and family fortune. Her
family pressures Rochester into marrying her. Unbeknownst to him, mental disorders
and insanity run in the family. Upon marriage, Bertha's mental health deteriorates. She
begins running on all fours and acting demonic. He brings her to England and locks
her on the third floor with a hired nurse.
- Rochester is unable to divorce Bertha because she cannot consent in her mental state.
This eventually becomes a problem for him when he decides to marry Jane.
Eventually, Bertha sets a fire inside the house and jumps out of the window, killing
herself.
- Jane actually feels relief when Bertha dies because now she can marry Rochester.
- positions the Caribbean and the people who live there as wild and uncultured
compared to English society.
