Obviously there's a lot of unpleasant things happening in Wide Sargasso Sea. The main character, Antoinette, has had a poor family life with a distant mother and no father. This is only the surface of the situation, since what Antoinette has of a family is one that is shunned for its past and present. Her father was a wealthy slave-owner who is reviled for his drinking and adultery, as suggested by the "smooth smiling people" Antoinette hears gossiping as a child (25-26). The awful person that Mr. Cosway was is confirmed by his illegitimate son Daniel, who resents him for being a cruel slave-owner who ignored his children and bought and sold people "like cattle." (111) Now that Mr. Cosway is dead and the Emancipation Act has been enacted, Antoinette's family has become destitute and their change in social status has alienated them from whatever white upper-class they were once part of. Antoinette's mother is considered to be mad, which invites further suspicion from about everyone around. To sum it up, Antoinette's family is hated for her father and their role in slavery, and how they are presently poor and white. Their situation alienates them from the black and white people around them.
Antoinette experiences a lot of this ill will as a child through both actively experiencing it (hearing gossip, being threatened or called names) and just being shunned away in her home (her mother is aware that they are hated). While this unpleasant situation pervades her childhood, Antoinette has a poor relationship with her mother. Antoinette remembers her mother saying "Let me alone" when she tries to interact with her (18). The excerpt "I started to fan her, but she turned her head away. She might rest if I left her alone, she said," is particularly revealing. The closest relationship Antoinette has is with Christophine, her mother's "wedding present" from her father (19). She is a black woman unrelated to Antoinette, but cares for her when her own mother is unable. Antoinette cares a lot about Christophine, as she interacts with her often in adulthood, and as a young child she was too afraid to ask her mother about Christophine leaving (20). As Antoinette grows up, her mother passes away and she tries to not think about her.
I think Antoinette's difficult relationship with Rochester has a few allusions to her relationship with her mother. Again Antoinette is being ignored and interacting little with someone she's supposed to be close to. The question she asks Rochester--"Then why do you never come near me? Or kiss me, or talk to me,"--could also be asked of her mother.
I like the idea you propose of Antoinette's poor relationship with her mother leading to a poor relationship with her husband. As you said her closest relationship is with her mother's former slave but this isn't an intimate relationship but more of a close friendship. However neither failing relationship really seems to be her fault as her mother wouldn't actually give her any attention and her husband thinks she is going or already is insane and so he doesn't want to do much but control her which isn't a very nice relationship.
ReplyDeleteIt's striking to me how sympathetic and even forgiving Antoinette is toward her mother when she finally talks to Rochester about her--she doesn't seem to resent her mother's emotional distance and rejection of her; she seems to understand where it's coming from, and maybe even to relate a little bit. One effect of Antoinette's childhood is that she grows up not expecting love or affection or inclusion. So this makes the dynamic with Rochester all the more fraught, as he makes her "want to live" for the first time, and she explicitly fears what might happen if one day he takes that love away--as indeed he does. She has come to expect affection from him in a way she never really expected of her mother, and in some ways the sudden withdrawal of that affection (or at least the semblance of affection) is far more devastating to her.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Christophine is much more of a mother to Antoinette than Annette is. She is the only person with whom Antoinette has a strong connection. It is interesting to connect her relationship with her mother to that with Rochester.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in saying that Antionette's flawed relationship with Rochester is very similar to her flawed relationship with her mother. I think, however, that there is more of a direct connection than just saying they are similar. I think Antionette's flawed relationship with her mother led to her flawed relationship with Rochester because she never really knew what love was. If she never knew what love was, never experienced it herself, how could she love someone else?
ReplyDeleteGoing further than knowing what love is, I think a major failing point in this relationship is their interpersonal skills. It's not just the cultural gap that's the problem; Antoinette and Rochester argue TERRIBLY. They constantly attack each other personally, saying things like "you always do x" and categorizing the other's personality, instead of actually discussing what they did wrong and what the problem is. They end up yelling at each other about really vague claims, to the point where no one knows what the problem is and they're just trying to hurt each other.
DeleteVery cool connection! I also think its interesting to draw a line between Antoinette's feeling of isolation when she was with her mother, and her feeling of isolation when she is with Rochester. They're different senses of the word, of course, because with her mother Antoinette is cut off from the community around her, and the local hatred of her family leaves her alone, as well as her mother's distance. With Rochester, she's in a new town, at this big empty estate, and the distance and dissimilarity between her and Rochester is super evident. I think that element of just alienation is very important here too
ReplyDeleteYou make a very good point. We briefly talked about how her early relationships affected her relationship with Rochester, but this definitely brings it into a new light. It makes sense that because she never got that attention when she was a child is the reason that she is so desperate for Rochester's love. I think we just need to be careful and not put everything behind this reasoning, because she still has some agency, but this definitely a good point.
ReplyDeleteThis connection is very understandable. Often times, one's childhood can dictate what kinds of relationships one is able to form as an adult. This lack of nurturing from what is supposed to be her mother figure definitely hurt Antoinette. In the passages she tries to show tenderness to her mother, she ends it with a statement about how she no longer is so "naive" because she has hardened herself to her mother. There is an intense bitterness. I think the parallels between Rochester's treatment of Antoinette with Annette's treatment of Antoinette triggers some deep insecurities of not being wanted. This would explain the desperate acts to try to "win back" Rochester and Antoinette ultimately giving up and going "insane".
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