What does the title Wide Sargasso Sea mean?

The title of the novel refers to the Sargasso Sea, a vast area of the northern Atlantic Ocean which is home to sargassum, a kind of seaweed. The Sargasso Sea is legendary for being an oceanic black hole, where ships get ensnared by huge forests of floating seaweed, or drift helplessly when the wind ceases to blow.

What is the message of Wide Sargasso Sea?

Wide Sargasso Sea explores the power of relationships between men and women and discusses the themes of race, Caribbean history, and assimilation.

What defines the Sargasso Sea?

The Sargasso Sea (/sɑːrˈɡæsoʊ/) is a region of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by four currents forming an ocean gyre. Unlike all other regions called seas, it has no land boundaries. It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Ocean by its characteristic brown Sargassum seaweed and often calm blue water.

What is the secret in Wide Sargasso Sea?

The secret of Wide Sargasso Sea lies in the paradox that “Desire, Hatred, Life, Death came very close in the darkness. . . . Not close. The same” (79).

Where is the Wide Sargasso Sea?

1830s Coulibri, near Spanish Town, Jamaica; 1840s Granbois, near Massacre, Dominica; and Thornfield Hall, England. While the novel never gives us the exact year, we know that the novel is set in Jamaica at some point after 1834.

JEAN RHYS, Wide Sargasso Sea and the Genesis of Secrecy

Is Wide Sargasso Sea a feminist novel?

Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea displays many of the same feminist themes as Jane Eyre: its emphasis on female characters, the refusal to conform, and new ideas about the woman's position in society. But Wide Sargasso Sea also distinguishes itself as a uniquely feminist text through its objections to Jane Eyre.

What does Antoinette's dream mean?

27] This dream reflects young Antoinette's undeveloped sense of self-awareness. Its use of past tense suggests that Antoinette is distanced from her dream consciousness. The vagueness of the threat in her dream suggests she does not understand her fears, and reflects her bewilderment and fear at Tia's rejection of her.

What race is Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea?

Antoinette, her mother, and her brother are all Creole characters. Technically they're white, so you'll often hear them referred to as "white Creoles." But even though they're white, it was commonly believed that the island climate "contaminated" their race, making them lesser whites, so to speak.

How does Rochester treat Antoinette?

He treats Antoinette horribly without giving her time to reply to Daniel's allegations. He sleeps with the maid – on his honeymoon, with his wife in the next room. He gets Antoinette declared mad and locks her up in his attic.

Is Jane Eyre mentioned in Wide Sargasso Sea?

Jane Eyre is told in the first person. Wide Sargasso Sea is told by different narrators; Antoinette, Grace Poole and Rochester in the main, although it also manipulates additional devices for making audible the voices of others.

Why is the Sargasso Sea important?

"The Sargasso Sea is... of great biological importance as a place that provides essential habitats for nurturing many iconic marine species such as ... whales, tunas, swordfish and marlin. It is the place where turtles spend their 'lost years' using the Sargassum as a safe refuge within which to grow ... ."

When was the Sargasso Sea named?

The Sargasso Sea, which encompasses the Bermuda islands, was first mentioned by Christopher Columbus, who crossed it on his initial voyage in 1492.

Why was the Sargasso Sea feared?

In his diaries, Columbus wrote at length about “how he feared the Sargasso Sea because of its blankets of seaweed, which he believed were hiding dangerous coral reefs, which were capable of sinking unsuspecting ships.”

What are the major themes of the novel Wide Sargasso Sea?

How is identity presented in Wide Sargasso Sea?

In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys deals with identity through two major characters: Antoinette and her husband, Rochester. The novel compares English and Caribbean identities and explores the effect of conflicting identities within these various characters.

Why is Antoinette called Bertha?

Rochester refers to Antoinette as “Bertha” as a way of ensuring that she surrenders into his idea of a woman, as opposed to who she truly is.

Does Antoinette Love Rochester?

Antoinette and Rochester toast to their happiness. Antoinette shows him around Granbois and its environs. While at first wary, Antoinette eventually grows to trust Rochester and they consummate their marriage. Their relationship cools when Rochester receives a letter slandering Antoinette and her family.

Why does Jane Eyre call Rochester master?

They're are always playing with the power dynamic between them: Jane likes to call Rochester her "master" and to "serve" him, but it's also clear that she's stronger—emotionally and ethically—than he is, and that he (this Beast + Bluebeard + Persian King dude) desperately needs her.

Which version of Jane Eyre book is the best?

Why is Antoinette a white cockroach?

The villagers refer to Antoinette as “white cockroach,” in reference to her creole/white race. Antoinette is also the daughter of a former plantation owner; her class sets her apart from the other slaves.

What is a white Creole?

As mentioned, many whites in antebellum Louisiana also referred to themselves as Creoles. Among whites, the term generally referred to persons of upper-class French or Spanish ancestry, and even German ancestry (though all eventually spoke French as their primarily language).

WHO calls Antoinette a white cockroach?

Antoinette feels as estranged as her mother when others call her a "white cockroach" and when Tia accuses her and her family of not being like "real white people." Accepted by neither white nor black society, Antoinette feels great shame.

How long has Bertha been locked in the attic by the time she has her 3rd dream?

Glad was I when I at last got her to Thornfield, and saw her safely lodged in that third-storey room, of whose secret inner cabinet she has now for ten years made a wild beast's den—a goblin's cell.

What is Jane's first dream?

During the first, Jane experiences "a strange, regretful consciousness of some barrier" dividing Rochester and her (1.268). She dreams that she carries a bawling child on an unknown road, and Rochester walks ahead of her.

How is Wide Sargasso Sea a postcolonial novel?

Wide Sargasso Sea is a postcolonial re-writing which questions and challenges the colonialist representations. Rhys presents the colonized people in the Caribbean and how they define themselves, and moreover, how they are defined by others due to the colonialist social structures.