Wide Sargasso Sea (Essential.penguin) |
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review by sbarranca
I read to escape and I escape to read!
I just finished Wide Sargasso Sea for the second time; this book stands up to countless readings. I don't know if Jean Rhys was the first novelist to tell "the other side of the story" ; I have since read more novels that follow this theme, such as Ahab's Wife and The Red Tent. Some of these retellings work well and some fall flat. Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea not only works, but it actually manages to rewrite Jane Eyre itself. (which I think would please Rhys as she was not a fan of English culture or the English as a people) Rhys creates the life story of Antoinette Bertha Mason; the character who was created by Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre, but Rhys is the author who gives her life. Antoinette "Bertha" Mason was the creole mad woman locked in Mr. Rochester's attic in Jane Eyre, but that is all we really know about her. She is depicted as wild, inhumane, savage, and consumed with madness. How did this woman end up mad? How did she end up in the attic in the first place? Are we to believe everything Mr. Rochester tells Jane after he is exposed as attempting bigamy? Rhys creates a life and a story for Antoinette before she was imprisoned in the attic. Rhys successfully creates a prequel to Jane Eyre that manages to superimpose Rhys's story over the one given to us in Jane Eyre. After reading Wide Sargasso Sea, one cannot read Jane Eyre the same way again. As Antoinette says in the novel, "there is always another side, always the other side of the story." Antoinette's story is told in three parts. The first part is predominately told in Antoinette's voice; this part gives us glimpses into her childhood and leads us up to her marriage with Mr. Rochester. The second part is told by Edward Rochester, and even though he makes choices we wish he doesn't, and he ends by hurting and attempting to create Antoinette into a new person (hence Bertha), we are given access to his thoughts and his confusion. Rhys give us the "other side" of Rochester also. The third part starts with Grace Poole's voice (Antoinette's prison guard of Jane Eyre), and ends in Antoinette's mind. Antoinette appears as a shadowy unsubstantial character in Jane Eyre; Rhys turns the tables in Wide Sargasso Sea, by creating a vivid energectic Antoinette and only alludes to Jane in the shadows. This is Antoinette's story, not Jane's. Rhys doesn't try to change Antointette's ultimate fate; she bows to Bronte's authorship for that. Antoinette, sadly ends up in Mr. Rochester's attic, and yes, she does leap to her death after she sets the fire. (This information can only spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't read Jane Eyre). But Rhys manages to change the meaning behind Antoinette's death. Instead of the fire resulting from the deranged antics of a lunatic madwoman, it is Antoinette's triumphant leap into death to regain her identity and to resist being "colonized" by Rochestor. (this novel is filled with post-colonial references) I urge everyone to pick up Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. It is actually a short read, especially in comparison to Jane Eyre, but it is an unforgettable one.
Ratings (100 pt scale)
review by sbarranca
I read to escape and I escape to read!
I just finished Wide Sargasso Sea for the second time; this book stands up to countless readings. I don't know if Jean Rhys was the first novelist to tell "the other side of the story" ; I have since read more novels that follow this theme, such as Ahab's Wife and The Red Tent. Some of these retellings work well and some fall flat. Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea not only works, but it actually manages to rewrite Jane Eyre itself. (which I think would please Rhys as she was not a fan of English culture or the English as a people) Rhys creates the life story of Antoinette Bertha Mason; the character who was created by Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre, but Rhys is the author who gives her life. Antoinette "Bertha" Mason was the creole mad woman locked in Mr. Rochester's attic in Jane Eyre, but that is all we really know about her. She is depicted as wild, inhumane, savage, and consumed with madness. How did this woman end up mad? How did she end up in the attic in the first place? Are we to believe everything Mr. Rochester tells Jane after he is exposed as attempting bigamy? Rhys creates a life and a story for Antoinette before she was imprisoned in the attic. Rhys successfully creates a prequel to Jane Eyre that manages to superimpose Rhys's story over the one given to us in Jane Eyre. After reading Wide Sargasso Sea, one cannot read Jane Eyre the same way again. As Antoinette says in the novel, "there is always another side, always the other side of the story." Antoinette's story is told in three parts. The first part is predominately told in Antoinette's voice; this part gives us glimpses into her childhood and leads us up to her marriage with Mr. Rochester. The second part is told by Edward Rochester, and even though he makes choices we wish he doesn't, and he ends by hurting and attempting to create Antoinette into a new person (hence Bertha), we are given access to his thoughts and his confusion. Rhys give us the "other side" of Rochester also. The third part starts with Grace Poole's voice (Antoinette's prison guard of Jane Eyre), and ends in Antoinette's mind. Antoinette appears as a shadowy unsubstantial character in Jane Eyre; Rhys turns the tables in Wide Sargasso Sea, by creating a vivid energectic Antoinette and only alludes to Jane in the shadows. This is Antoinette's story, not Jane's. Rhys doesn't try to change Antointette's ultimate fate; she bows to Bronte's authorship for that. Antoinette, sadly ends up in Mr. Rochester's attic, and yes, she does leap to her death after she sets the fire. (This information can only spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't read Jane Eyre). But Rhys manages to change the meaning behind Antoinette's death. Instead of the fire resulting from the deranged antics of a lunatic madwoman, it is Antoinette's triumphant leap into death to regain her identity and to resist being "colonized" by Rochestor. (this novel is filled with post-colonial references) I urge everyone to pick up Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea. It is actually a short read, especially in comparison to Jane Eyre, but it is an unforgettable one.
Ratings (100 pt scale)
review by cdelohery
I get off the train and linger in the subway to finish Wide Sargasso Sea. I like to let the evening rush hour go ahead without me, I like to sit on the graffitied bench without the small anxiety of waiting, to be settled for a moment in this transient place. I like stopping three pages before the end to reread the last chapter. Rhys plays along; Antoinette awakes from a premonitory dream of her death, and we go back, we end as she descends the steps to destroy her mansion-prison with a candle.
As I finally climb out of the station, I look up to see the green metro bulb, an unripe moon set against the barely blue night sky. I stop at the market to get groceries for the evening. Chicken, snow peas, an orange. An old man, a bagboy, beckons me to his check out aisle. His grin is broad and eager. I recognize him from the summer; he carried my groceries to my apartment for a tip when I was just getting off of bed rest. He is delicate with my dinner and hands me the bags one at a time, making sure my fingers are looped through both handles before he lets go. Cold outside? He asks. The wind comes sharp through the automatic doors as a squealing toddler plays with the magic of opening and closing. I have crossed the street and walked halfway down the block. I am thinking about mindfulness when the old man comes behind me, breathless, and asks me if I need help. Oh, no, I’m fine, I gesture with the one small bag. What do you need help with? He asks again. Oh, no, nothing, I’m fine. Work hard? He asks, still struggling to keep up with me. Yeah, long day, I say, not looking back. What's your name? He asks. Bertha, I say. A young girl, my age, recognizing, perhaps, the weary tone of my voice as I attempt to disengage, steps quickly between the old bagboy and me, and matches her stride with mine. She doesn't look at me but continues to walk close next to me, breaking the cardinal rule of New York sidewalk pacing. When I no longer hear his footsteps behind me, she speeds up, I slow down and watch her walk away. This is the way New York is kind. Without missing the walk light. I come home and research the Sargasso Sea. It is a very salty region of the Atlantic that is mostly lifeless; thick, inhospitable tangles of seaweed grows throughout and eels like to lay their eggs in it. Ships like to get stuck in it, too, so much so that it has been referred to as the "graveyard of ships." I know a place like that, closer than the Bermuda Triangle. Off Arthur Kill Road on the south shore of Staten Island. Tug boats and barges and old wooden ships resting a few hundred feet from the shore, decaying in the salt. I went there and tried to get close to the boats, but the mud was thick and needy. It sucked me in up to my calves and the more I struggled, the deeper I sank. The places still obsesses me, I want to go back prepared with tall boots, get closer, crawl inside the rusty vessels. So little in this country is allowed to be broken. I want to sit inside those ships, beautiful and useless, listen to them reminisce and complain to the always of the waves, remember how time feels in a place forgotten by the city.
Ratings (100 pt scale)
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