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

Wide Sargasso SeaPlaces take on a symbolic significance in Wide Sargasso Sea. Discussthe way in which Jean Rhys uses different locations in the narrative.Place in Wide Sargasso Sea seems to be used to convey Antoinettesframe of mind at different times in her life. Wally Look Lai believesthat The West Indian setting...is central to the novel...(and) thetheme of rejected womanhood is utilized symbolically in order to makean artistic statement more or less West Indian society and astir(predicate) an aspect ofthe West Indian experience.In Part One of Wide Sargasso Sea, Coulibri and the convent inSpanish townspeople are presented as contrasts in that they represent dangerand safety respectively. Antoinettes mother describes how she feelsmarooned in Coulibri, which could refer to both their geographicalposition and the fact that they live on an island, and also theirposition in society, and the racial tension which exists therein. Thisracial tension between the white Creoles and the blac k people stemsfrom the fact that Creoles such as the Cosways ancestors had beenslave-owners, and the freedom had left these families virtuallypenniless and lacking in respect. Jane Miller argues that a woman onher own..is always alone if she depends on men...and vulnerable andweakened as the..foreigner is vulnerable and weakened. She thereforebelieves that Annette and Antoinettes isolation is due not only tothe fact that they are foreigners, further also because they are women whoare forced to be dependent upon men, and I agree that this is partlywhat 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 theDark, who comes from England to the Caribbean and recounts herattempts to come to terms with her new life. A feminist would say thatAntoinette struggles primarily against the dictates of patriarchy. Forexample, it is Rochester who declares that Antoinette is not Englishor European either and also he who takes her away from her home inthe West Indies and locks her up in the attic in his house in England.However, Selma James believes that the feminism and track down issues runparallel to each other. She thinks that the female dilemma and femalevulnerability with men and in society generally is inseparable fromthe West Indian preoccupations about race.., and I am inclined toagree with her, and think that Jean Rhys uses location in the novelextremely effectively in order to convey this idea.