Comparative Analysis between Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre
Racial Inequality in the Postcolonial novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhyss
Postcolonial literature deals with a body of literary writing which reacts to the discourse of colonization. It is also a literary critique to the texts which carry racial or colonial undertones. Wide Sargasso Sea is a postcolonial novel which was written as a prequel to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Postcolonial literature describes from the well-known literature from the perspective of formerly colonized. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the protagonist is known to be renamed and exploited in several ways.
The Emancipation Act 1833
In 1833, the British government passed the Emancipation Act which is said that the slave owners of the colonies would have to free their slaves before 1839. These slave owners would receive compensation by the state for their trouble. But the compensation was not as high as the market value of slaves at the time. The first page of wide Sargasso Sea state that “some will wait for a long time” (p.3). This quotation means that the former slave-owners and the newly freed slaves await compensation from the British government. This waiting drove a lot of planters into despair and poverty. In this case, include the Cosway’s family.
A comparison of themes
Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea are both excellent pieces of written work that explore the theme of racial identity and social class. In Jane Eyre, Jane struggles with her identity as a governess for aristocratic children. As a governess, she is expected to behave in the way that aristocratic people do. She was required to act with class and sophistication. At the same time, she was still considered a paid employee and treated as such. In addition, Jane had no money or power to change her situation
Jane struggled with the issue of social class because she was expected to act as if she was a member of the upper class while being treated as a member of the lower class. “Half of them detestable and the rest ridiculous, and all incubi. Racial identity plays a role in Wide Sargasso Sea that is similar to the struggle that Jane experienced in Jane Eyre. Antoinette struggles in this book because she is an outcast in Jamaica.
One reason is because she wears different fashions than that of the other women who live in Jamaica. Antoinette isn’t a part of either the white group or the black group and hears others call her a “white cockroach” as well as tell her that she isn’t the same as “real white people”
Narrative Techniques
In addition, Antoinette and her mother do not treat black servants badly as many of the other islanders do. They realize how much the black servants help them in their daily lives and respect them. This further highlights the differences between Antoinette and the other people who live on the island and makes it even more difficult for Antoinette to assimilate herself into either the white culture or the black culture.
The desire to be loved and accepted is another major theme throughout both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. In Jane Eyre, Jane longs for acceptance and the feeling of belonging. She also wishes for romantic love to come her way. “To gain some real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest” (Chapter 8).
Postmodernism in the Wide Sargasso Sea
Postmodernism is a late 20th-century style and concept which takes a step further from modernism. In the postmodern understanding, the meanings of truth and reality cannot be fixed. The fundamental elements for postmodernism are the diversity, plurality and difference. It is like an antithesis that neutralises any other theory. It challenges standard norms and conventions with absurdity and inconsistency. It has a pessimistic and uncertain tone and emphasises relativism, mysticism which creates an anxiety of the unknown; it leaves all the questions unanswered. Of course, it takes this pessimistic roots from the social and economic background of the era. The souls of people were fragmented and shattered somewhere that they cannot find. Writers of the era use several techniques to strengthen the core ideas of their text; and of these techniques is intertextuality
Intertextuality
Julia Kristeva is the producer of the intertextual theory in which Saussurean theory of signs and Bakhtinian theory of polyphonic, a literary text is open to various interpretations and voices, are combined. Kristeva believes that any text is a rewriting of another text; she states it by saying that there are no texts but intertexts. She considers the text as a surface with many intersections with other surfaces from another texts. The text is a combination; there for it is the productivity itself.
In this essay, we will argue the concept of intertextuality in Wide Sargasso Sea by the author Jean Rhys and Jane Eyre by the author Charlotte Brontë. Wide Sargasso Sea is written as a prequel to Jane Eyre and narrates the backstory of the character Bertha from Jane Eyre. Wide Sargasso Sea is a hypertext of Jane Eyre. It is written in a different era and is a kind of response to Brontë’s novel. With the response, Rhys emphasizes the omission and corrects the exploitative context. Jane Rhys writes the story of Bertha’s life as she is not satisfied with the ending of Jane Eyre. Rhys enhances the common elements in both novels such as dreams, the gothic style and irony through the characters Bertha and Antoniette.
To begin with, the character Bertha, the first wife of Mr. Rochester, is a character from Jane Eyre and is a minor character. Although the background of Antoniette is narrated in Wide Sargasso Sea, it is important to keep in mind that some characters call Antoniette Bertha. Here, the postmodern device intertexuality paves the way to uncover the meanings in the text. Yes, this is the character Bertha from Jane Eyre. Just like Jane of Brontë, Rhys takes the character of Bertha from Jane Eyre and narrates her life story with another name. She begins to narrate the story of Bertha just like Jane Eyre -from childhood to maturity. This genre is called Bildungsroman. Rhys narrates the life story of Antoniette from the childhood and emphasizes her rejection by other people. Antoniette is an ignored child and is devoid of love; but, the end of the story is different. Jane gets stronger in time but Antoniette is very weak in the end. Rhys challenges the conventions and make Antoniette defeated by the problem in her life unlike Jane. She lives isolated hopelessly with her cultural identity and is not matured in time. Therefore, Wide Sea Sargasso cannot be called a Bildungsroman like Jane Eyre. The norms are shaken and the meanings are scattered. The character in such a condition makes the reader think in a new and different way. It seems absurd to the reader. Although in Jane Eyre Bertha gains her freedom by committing suicide, she cannot gain anything but lose her sanity.
Moreover, in Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys has references from the events, feelings, experiences and locations from her own life story and reflects it with Antoniette, which is called structural irony. She wants to tell the reader that being an outcast is a very difficult experience. She creates another ironical tone with situational irony by developing unexpected experiences. To give an example, Antoinette’s love potion makes Rochester ironically betray her.
As a conclusion, we have stated the intertextual elements in the novels Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. The intertextual elements are the subjects of the two novels, the concept of dream, gothic atmosphere and irony. Rhys writes Wide Sargasso Sea as a response to Jane Eyre by uncovering the story of Bertha and giving her a voice. The author sheds light on the unspoken with borrowing several aspects from Jane Eyre to create such an atmosphere. The use of these aspects are crucial to the postmodern characteristic and make reader think. In the end, we accept Kristeva’s theory that there is no originality in literature that there are no texts but intertexts.
