Wide Sargasso Sea

One aspect of feminism involves knowing that you belong (or that you ought to belong), but having doors close to you because of your gender. Rhys interweaves weaves this theme through the short novel with the brutality, racism, and segregation of colonialism.

From this framework, Jean Rhys's colorful, hazy, and somewhat trippy prequel shows us the formative years of Antoinette Cosway (the woman gentle readers know as Bertha Rochester in Charlotte Bronte's “Jane Eyre”). We see a fragile young girl raised by a beautiful, but insensitive, mother in poverty on what was once a thriving plantation in the Caribbean. After losing her home, her son, and a pet parrot in a terrible fire, Antoinette's mother descends into madness fueled by “caretakers” who ply her with alcohol and appear to abuse her physically and sexually.

The specter of generational mental instability is hidden from the young man (unnamed, but most certainly Edward Rochester) Antoinette is suddenly married to. Although he finds her beautiful, he never tried to understand her. Instead he turns his back on her, behaving cruelly to her. Even before he takes her to England across the Sargasso Sea, away from the people and places she loves, he has imprisoned her mentally and emotionally.

Would someone who has not read “Jane Eyre” enjoy or understand this book? It is quite possible! I've read “JE” at least 10 times and find this back story of a woman who is depicted in that novel as close to a wild animal absolutely fascinating. One can see how a mental break followed by the inability of people of that time to provide treatment could leave to the sad state we find Bertha Mason Rochester in.