Manipulation and Sex in "Wide Sargasso Sea" "Wide Sargasso Sea," a book by Jean Rhys, is a story about a Creole woman living

        

“If I could die. Now when I am happy. Would you do that? You would not have to kill me. Say die and I will die. You don’t believe me? Then try, try, say die and watch me die” “Die then, die!” I watched her die many times. In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty. Only the sun was there to keep us company. We shut him out. And why not? Very soon she was eager to what’s called loving as I was-more lost and drowned afterwards.

In this passage, “die” has a parallel meaning of orgasm. Rochester says “In my way, not in hers,”  he further says, “I did not love her. I was thirsty for her, but that is not love.” These two segments show that Rochester is not in love with Antoinette. Rochester married Antoinette because of his lust after her and for the reason of her wealth. After Rochester receives a letter from Daniel Cosway, suggesting he had been ‘deceived’ in to this marriage, his relationship with Antoinette changes drastically; Rochester withholds Antoinette from having sexual intercourse with him. For Antoinette this is terrible since being loved is one of the aspects Antoinette missed during childhood and Rochester is the only one that can give Antoinette this feeling. “I never wished to live before I knew you.” Then a terrible thing happens for Antoinette; she drugs Rochester but the day after he sleeps with Amélie. The following describes Rochester’s betrayal on Antoinette:

There was a spark of gaiety in her eyes, but when I laughed she put her hand over my mouth apprehensively. I pulled her down besides me and we were both laughing. That is what I remember most about that encounter. She was so gay, so natural and something of this gaiety she must have given to me, for I had not one moment of remorse. Nor was I anxious to know what was happening behind the thin partition which divided us from my wife’s bedroom.

 Antoinette hears her husband and Amélie, which devastates Antoinette and she is beside herself of anger. Antoinette and Rochester have a conversation after the happening, which shows how Antoinette reacts on Rochester’s escapade. “I hate it now like I hate you.” Here she speaks about how Rochester’s deed changed her feelings for the manor. At that moment, she stops crying and says, “Is she so much prettier than I am? Don’t you love me at all?” Rochester answers with the shocking information that he does not love her.                            In the novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys the character of Mr Rochester tries to change Antoinette Cosway by renaming her Bertha. According to Jayachandran, “It is agonisingly reminiscent of the renaming of slaves by slave owners Antoinette does her best not to be deprived of probably the only thing she now has by resisting this. The more Rochester insists, the firmer her resistance becomes.”  Rochester is not satisfied with his Creole wife, therefore is determined to change Antoinette into an English woman by changing Antoinette’s name into Bertha. According to Robert Kendrick Rochester attempts to “imagine Antoinette into the role of a proper English wife, and is forced to recognize her ultimate inability to conform to the discourses which constitute the normal within the frame of English upper class subjectivity” Rochester renames Antoinette and says, “Don’t laugh like that, Bertha.” Moreover, Antoinette responds with, “My name is not Bertha; why do you call me Bertha?” Rochester’s argument to that is, “Because it is a name I’m particularly fond of.  I think of you as Bertha.”  Antoinette however does not endorse Rochester’s attempt to rename her because Antoinette does not desire to be Rochester’s slave. She resists his attempt but finally turns into Rochester’s slave. This passage describes the moment when Rochester overpowers Antoinette by renaming her: “ ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘of course but you will come in and say goodnight to me?’ ‘Certainly I will, my dear Bertha.’ ‘Not bertha tonight,’ she said. ‘Of course, on this of all nights, you must be Bertha.’ ‘As you wish,’ she said.” After this, Rochester drinks Antoinette’s drugged wine and betrays Antoinette the next day with Amélie. The couple gets into a fight in which she resists to be called Bertha: “When I turned from the window she was drinking again. ‘Bertha,’ I said. ‘Bertha is not my name. You are trying to make me into someone else, calling me by another name. I know, that is obeah too.” This fight is the turning point for Antoinette’s wellbeing and she is taken to England rather as slave for Rochester.                                                                                                 In the third and last part of the novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” Antoinette Cosway is brought to England against her will. Rochester is embarrassed by his un-English, wild woman that is bound to him thus locks her up under the close supervision of Grace. 

‘They knew the he was in Jamaica when his father and

 brother died,’ Grace Poole said.  ‘He inherited everything,

 but he was a wealthy man before that.  Some people are

 fortunate, they said, and there were hints about the woman

 he brought back to England with him.’ 

Grace is supposed to keep the woman in the attic a secret while mister Rochester starts to live a completely new life with his new wife Jane, which is described in another novel that “Wide Sargasso Sea” is based on. This novel is named “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. In this part of the book “Wide Sargasso Sea”, Antoinette, now Bertha, has become completely mad and she even tries to kill her own half brother Daniel Cosway. Antoinette however doe not remember this escapade: “So you don’t remember that you attacked this gentleman with a knife?...” Rochester uses Grace to keep Antoinette locked up and unknown to the outer world and hereby overpowers Antoinette. Unfortunately for Mr Rochester, Antoinette escapes one night and listens to her dream, which she has three times in the book. The dream tells her to set fire on Thornfield Hall. All of Rochester’s attempts to regain all power are gone.                 In the novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” By Jean Rhys, masculinity plays a big role. Because white men had all power at the time of the colonialism in which the novel is set, the character of Rochester also attempts to gain all power over Antoinette. Because Rochester feels uncertain in his marriage to his Creole wife and is ashamed of Antoinette, he tries to change her into someone that she is not; an English woman. Rochester first attempts to make Antoinette trust him by frequently giving Antoinette what she missed during her whole life; love and tenderness. Rochester enchants his young wife by frequently having sexual intercourse with her. After Rochester receives Daniel Cosway’s threatening letters and pays Daniel a visit, Rochester feels more dissatisfied with his marriage, denies sex with Antoinette, and betrays her with Amélie. With this, Rochester takes Antoinette’s feeling of being loved from her which she never had before. Rochester also tries to change Antoinette’s name into Bertha, because to him it is more English. With the renaming Rochester seems to fail, so he turns her into Bertha by taking Antoinette against her will to England. Here Rochester imprisons Antoinette, now Bertha, as last try to regain power over Antoinette. All of Rochester’s attempts to regain power over Antoinette fail when Antoinette turns mad and sets fire on the house where Rochester and his new wife Jane now live. The power of masculinity that Rochester desired is vanished.

 

           

         

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