Imperialist influences in "Wide Sargasso Sea"

Paper Summary:

Jean Rhys's novel, "Wide Sargasso Sea" can be interpreted as an unflattering account of colonialism in the Caribbean in a time when racial relations were at their worst. The writer demonstrates how the effects of imperialism can victimize one person as they are a source of power to another.

From the Paper:

"Antoinette can be viewed in the text as a casualty of the effect of imperialism. The Rochester figure of the text refers to her the lunatic he is tied to for life, but under different circumstances she may not have been a lunatic at all. Her unstable upbringing on the derelict property Coulibri was filled with threats and doubts; both her mother and the community reject her. Antoinette has grown up knowing that she, just like her mother, is a social outcast. To the recently freed Jamaicans her white skin and slave holding family are a reminder of slavery in the past, to them she is the "white cockroach". To English society of the time she is a "white nigger", having the physical features of "any pretty English girl" but in growing up in Jamaica has acquired characteristics and behavior of the Caribbean persona. Antoinette seems to be left without love from the two people she needed it from most, her mother and her husband. These factors, many of which can be accounted for due to racial tension within the region, have led to her insecurities and behavior that entice Rochester into concluding that Antoinette is mad like her Mother before her."

More papers on Imperialist influences in "Wide Sargasso Sea":

• Book Review # 119687 : "Voice Recognition - Orality in "Wide Sargasso Sea"
• Book Review # 73713 : "Rochester in "Jane Eyre" and "Wide Sargasso Sea"
• Book Review # 1029 : "Antoinette in Jean Rhys's "Wide Sargasso Sea"

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