Wide%20Sargasso%20Sea

1
Wide Sargasso Sea

• An Introduction

2
Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch

• 8/24/1890 the daughter of a Welsh doctor and a
  white Creole mother
• 1907-8 Attends the Perse School, Cambridge.
• 1909-10 Tours as a chorus girl. Abandoned by her
  lover.
• 1919 Marries Jean Lenglet and moves to Paris. 29
  Dec., birth of a son who dies three weeks later.
  altogether 3 marriages, 2 children.

3
Jean Rhys--Biographical Sketch

• 1923-24 Meets Ford Madox Ford. Husband in jail,
  affair with Ford. (ménage a trois--Ford, Stella
  Bowen, Jean))
• 1933 Divorce.
• 1934 Marries Leslie Tilden-Smith.
• 1945 TS dead. Begins work on Wide Sargasso Sea.
• 1947 Marriage to Max Hamer.
• 1957-66 Works on Wide Sargasso Sea after public
  interest following a radio broadcast of her work
  tracks her down.
• 1966 WSS published. Wins the W. H. Smith Award
  for Writers and the Heinemann Award of the Royal
  Society of Literature.
• 1978 Receives the Commander of the Order.

4
Rhys her characters and her self-identity

• Her characters , all drifting, unhappy,
  unstable, but with clear self-knowledge and
  understanding of others.
• I have no prideno name, no face, no country. I
  dont belong anywhere. (Good Morning, Midnight.)
  
• Rhys Only returned to Dominica once in 56 years
  
• Rhys . "I don't belong anywhere but I get very
  worked up about the West Indies.  I still care. 
  . .  ."

5
Rhys her self-identity

• "Do you consider yourself a West Indian?"  She
  shrugged.  "It was such a long time ago when I
  left." "So you don't 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!  I'm not, I'm
  not!  I'm not even English." "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. 

6
The title

• Sargasso Sea The heart of the Bermuda Triangle
  is covered by the strangest and most notorious
  sea on the planet the Sargasso Sea so named
  because there is a kind of seaweed which lazily
  floats over its entire expanse called sargassum.
  (source)
• signaling the wide division between Antoinette
  and Rochester and the race and gender entangled
  relationships in the Caribbean area.

7
Sargasso Sea
8
Rhys on Jane Eyre

• "The creole in Charlotte Bronte's 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
  emphases added)

9
Rhys's Revision of Jane Eyre  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.
• WSS's time frame shifted to 1830's onwards 
  Emancipation Act 1833 Antoinette -- a child in
  the 1840's  (Mark MaWatt qut in Gregg 83)

10
Backgrounds on Race

• I. white masters, New Old Christophines
  comment 15
• Mr. Luttrells p. 9
• New masters after the Emancipation of slaves
  Mr. Cosway and Mason -- p. 17 p. 19
• II. White against creole e.g. p. 17 Aunt Cora's
  husband 18
• III. Black against creole poor "white
  cockcroaches" 13

11
Characters

12
Genealogy

• CoswayAnnette
• Alexander Daniel Pierre
• Sandi ----Antoinettehusband----Amèlie
• (Bertha) (Rochester)
• Christophine Tia

13
Questions for Part I of WSS

• What kind of mother-daughter relationship is
  described in Part I?
• Mothers rejection (11, 13, 15, 28-29,
  36death)
• What kind of racial relationship is described
  here?
• multiple alienations of the creole
• from the white people (9)/
• -- Mason does not understand the racial
  relationship (19, 21)
• -- from the blacksformer slave-owners white
  cockroaches (13)/white nigger (14)

14
Questions 2

• How will you describe the relationship between
  Antoinette and Tia?
• friendship (13-14), divided by racial
  differences (27)
• In WSS Rhys deliberately alludes to the biblical
  myth of the garden. How does she describe this
  garden? What is the significance of the garden
  imagery in Part I?
• What is the significance of the fire scene and
  the burning of the parrot (25)?
• How does the convent affect Antoinettes life?
• How will you interpret the two dreams (15, 35-36)?