Creole Identities and Racial/Gender Relations in

1
Creole Identities and Racial/Gender Relations in

• Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea
• NY Norton, 1966 (Norton edition 1982)

2
Jean Rhyss Life (1890 -1979)

• creole identity and a drifting life
• born in Dominica in 1890, the daughter of a Welsh
  doctor and a white Creole mother.
• She came to England when she was sixteen and then
  drifted into a series of jobs - chorus girl,
  mannequin, artist's model - after her father
  died. She also drifted in several cities, mostly
  in Vienna and Paris.
• Three marriages.

3
Jean Rhyss Work

• Start to write in her thirties
• Discovered by Ford Madox Ford
• Her first four novels are said to portray the
  same woman (with different names and minor
  details) at different stages of life, all
  drifting, unhappy, unstable, but with clear
  self-knowledge and understanding of others.
• -- a self-reflection of Rhys?

4
Rhyss Work (2)

• A break after Good Morning, Midnight,
• 1966 made a sensational reappearance with Wide
  Sargasso Sea

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Rhyss Self-Identity

• Do you consider yourself a West Indian?She
  shrugged. It was such a long time ago when I
  left.
• So you dont think of yourself as a West Indian
  writer?
• Again she shrugged, but said nothing.
• What about English? Do you consider yourself an
  English writer?
• No! Im not, Im not! Im not even English.

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Rhyss Self-Identity (2)

• What about a French writer? I asked.
• Again she shrugged and said nothing.
• You have no desire to go back to Dominca?
• Sometimes, she said.
• David Plante Jean Rhys A Remembrance. 275-76
  Qut in Gregg.p. 1

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Rhyss Self-Identity (3)

• I dont belong anywhere but I get very worked up
  about the West Indies. I still care. . . .
• After reading a critique of Wide Sargarso Sea. .
  ., Rhys complains. . . Again I am in danger of
  really becoming a recruit. . .I think being born
  in the West Indies is an influence very strong
  but . . . (Gregg 2 underline added)

8
Rhys on Jane Erye

• The creole in Charlotte Brontes novel is a lay
  figure -- repulsive which does not matter, and
  not once alive which does. . . . For me . . .
  she must be right on stage. She must be at least
  plausible with a past, the reason why Mr.
  Rochester treats her so abominably and feels
  justified, and the reason why he thinks she is
  mad and why of course she goes mad, even the
  reason why she tries to set everything on fire,
  and eventually succeeds. . . (Gregg 82)

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Rhys on Antoinettes historical background

• I. Shift of dates
• Jane Eyre -- towards the end of the novel reads a
  book published in 1808
• Bertha confined in the attic in the first decade
  of the 19th century.
• WSSs time frame shifted to 1830s onwards
• Emancipation Act 1833
• Antoinette -- a child in the 1840s
• II. more than one Antoinette then.

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Jean Rhys Major Themes

• Post-Emancipation Racial relationships -- among
  the black Caribbean, the Creoles, and the
  English.
• Gender relationships -- halfway house(p. 96)
  marriage and inheritance
• Their influence on
• Annette and then Antoinette,
• Antoinette relationship with Tia,
• Antoinette and Rochester
• The madness?

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WSS Settings

• Part I (Martinique), Jamaica Coulibri estate,
  near Spanish Town Part II Granbois, Dominica,
• Part III Great House England

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Wide Sargasso Sea Major Characters

• Characers Christophine, Tia, Amelie,
• Antoinette, later Bertha Cosway Mason Rochester.
  
• Annette
  Antoinette

The Cosways Mr. Cosway, Pierre Daniel
Father E. Rochester
The Masons Richard Aunt Cora
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Creole Identities and Racial/Gender Relations in
Wide Sargasso Sea

• Backgrounds on Race I. white masters, New Old
• Mr. Luttrells p. 17 death of Mr. Lutrell
• p. 26 (New masters after the Emancipation of
  slaves)
• Mr. Mason -- p. 32 p. 35
• II. White against creole e.g. p. 17 Aunt Coras
  husband 30
• III. Black against creole poor white
  cockcroaches p. 23

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Backgrounds (II)

• Background on Gender revealed through letters and
  conversation
• about the Cosways p. 28-29 Daniel Cosways
  letter pp. 96-99
• about Masons marriage 29-30
• Gender Rochesters Marriage and Inheritance p.
  70 114

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• Questions
• How do these racial problems influence Annette
  and Antoinette?
• 1. Annette--What does she want? P. 18
• Why is she aloof from Antoinette? pp. 20 22
  26-27
• 2. Antoinette -- How is she different from her
  mother? How does she survive? What do her
  dreams mean?

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Creole Identities and Race Relations inJean
Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

• Female Creole Identities
• Annette
• the horse p. 18/10
• her son p. 19/11
• her views of Godfry and Sass p. 22/12
• gay and a good dancer 29
• Annette vs. Mr. Mason -- p. 32/19 p. 35/20
• Coco p. 41/22
• What happened to her afterwards? P. 130- 134/78

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Creole Identities and Race Relations inJean
Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

• Antoinette
• the garden 19/ 10
• reaction to the death of the horse
• need of her mother p. 22/ rejection by her p.
  26 27
• refuge in nature p. 23/13 solitude 28 /16
• her dreams p. 26/15 pp. 59-60
• the second refuge in the convent p. 53 55 57
• death impulse p. 92

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• Questions II
• Relationships Antoinette and Christophine?
• And Conflicts between Antoinette and Tia?

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• Antoinette with the other Jamaicans
• the way to the convent pp. 48
• Sandi
• Antoinette and Christophine pp. 20-21 31

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Creole Identities and Race Relations inJean
Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

• Antoinette and Tia
• p. 23
• their betting p. 24
• the blacks invasion p. 45

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Part II Causes for the conflicts between
Rochester and Antoinette

• 1. Race different cultural backgrounds
• --her limited understanding of the world --
• -- p. 55 Is it true,' she said, that England
  is like a dream? p. 89 blanks in his mind 76
• 2. Gender Rochester's motivation for getting
  married not yet p. 77 p. 89, 90 not love her,
  93
• 3. Race Gender the letter from Daniel
  
• Rochester's suspicion of Antoinettes
  madness

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Part II Causes for the conflicts between
Rochester and Antoinette (2)

• Gender 5. Rochester's self-centeredness and
  possessiveness p. 94 the priest's ruined
  house--Pere Lilievre--Pere Labat -- self-centered
  103
• Race Gender 6. Antoinette's temperament--sense
  of doom and insecurity
• Race Gender 7. Antoinettes seeking for help
  from Christophine