Throughout the play middleclass citizens are mocked due to their actions, the whole idea of this would have been humorous as the majority of the audience would have been middle class citizens, it would have also inspired them to consider moral issues.
Rhys too follows several conventions that are required to write a novel, a narrator, characters and characterization, settings, plot, themes and realism.
Wide Sargasso Sea opens with an unsettling narrative with the point of view of Antoinette as a child living at Coulibri estate. Through this narrative the language of the people is defined with a selection of dialect and patois. Although the narration is unsettling it draws us closer to Antoinette. Rhys flouts the conventions by using more than one narrator and refusing to use chapters or headings, instead the novel is set out in three parts. The use of imagery throughout the novel of the landscape is remarkable and reflects with the people’s laid back ways on the island. In part two we see a side of Antoinette’s husband which we do not see in Jane Eyre, here Rhys exploits Brontë’s Rochester by showing how his surroundings have affected him emotionally. Rhys used a more realistic view in the novel by displaying how an individuals situation and surroundings changes their behaviour.
English attitudes are also presented through Antoinette’s husband and Mr Mason who believes that English culture is more civilised.
Despite the fact that there can only be one ending much of the story is untold leaving plenty of room for further works.
Both writers developed themes for the rights of an individual and showed how that person stood out from their society. In Shaw’s play Eliza started out as a flower girl, her accent and manners made her prominent, even when her phonetics were improved she was still noticeable as her manners had not developed. Antoinette in Rhys’ novel also did not fit in, both as a child and an adult. Tia, her friend as a child, was not allowed to accept her due to her race, and as an adult her husband was unable to accept her.
Both pieces resemble what was wrong with the society at their era. Shaw points out the degradation of the lower class and how isolated Eliza was although she had company, the same situation can be seen in Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette is also isolated.
Feminism, another problem with society, can be seen as a theme within these works, the female figures are suppressed by male authority. At the beginning of Pygmalion Eliza is simply the flower girl where she uses her gender to exploit men to gain a sale. During the play there are concerns that Eliza may become a prostitute when Higgins is finished with her. However, Antoinette is shown as a submissive and accepts what happens without questioning it.
One of the most obvious comparisons is that both works are derived from a myth. Shaw’s piece is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses where the artist falls in love with his statue, and contains a romantic ending, in Shaw’s translation of contemporary realism reveals quite a different ending. Rhys’ novel is inspired from the mysterious madwoman, Rochester’s wife, from Jane Eyre.
During the works, it turns out that Eliza and Antoinette have no real choice over their lives. Eliza must continue her education of phonetics to become a lady and Antoinette had been sold to her husband.
Another comparison is that Eliza and Antoinette come from a single parent family where they were unloved. Eliza’s father, Doolittle, dominated her through beatings as she grew up, and sold her to Higgins without her consent, this reflects Victorian values. Antoinette’s mother never showed her love as a child, her mother ‘pushed [her] away … as if she had decided once and for all that [Antoinette] was useless to her’. (WSS, p7)
However, the female figures are not the only ones who derive from a lone parent. It may be thought that Higgins’ mother also didn’t display her love to her son as Higgins has a childish attachment to his mother. In the case of Antoinette’s husband it seems that his father has disinherited him as he ‘planned this because [his father] wanted to be rid of [him]. [His father] had no love at all for [him]’, (WSS, p104) so he hides his emotions and feels that a loving relationship is wrong.
The female characters depend on a male character. Eliza depends on Higgins to teach her phonetics as well as Pickering for financial needs. However in Wide Sargasso Sea there is more than one female character that requires a male. When Antoinette was a child her mother, Annette, marries Richard Mason to save them from poverty. And Antoinette’s cousin, Sandi saves her from a group of bullies. As an adult she is forced to sign over all her possessions to her husband where she has no choice but to rely on him.
The feeling of belonging somewhere is very strong in these works, as well as a sense of loss. After Antoinette’s husband sleeps with the servant Amelie, Antoinette senses the loss of her estate and finally speaks out with anger which is seen as her turning insane as she has ‘a crazy laugh’. (WSS, p95) Her mother was also driven insane when her home was burned down which led to the death of her son. Eliza’s loss is her identity as by the end of play she has transformed drastically.
The echoes in Wide Sargasso Sea can be compared with the symmetry in Pygmalion. In Wide Sargasso Sea the first part resembles echoed visions, such as the dream sequences which happen to come true, these are repeated further on in the novel. Symmetry can be seen with Doolittle where he enters to bargain with Higgins, here he is used to fill up time, and at the end, when he is due to marry gives the play the much needed happy ending.
These works show that no piece of art stands on its own. There is an obvious connection with Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre, the blend of these two pieces can be seen at the end of Wide Sargasso Sea where the narrator changes to Grace Pool and when Antoinette leaps to her death. Pygmalion’s link can be seen in Metamorphoses where the creator obsesses with what he created.
Shaw and Rhys used their texts to raise issues that were valid at their time, from feminism to racism; these issues are still ongoing today. Even though they flouted traditions and conventions their works have become great classics.
Word count 1,503
Bibliography
The Open University (2005) Azx103 An Introduction to the Humanities, Block 5, ‘Myths and Conventions’ Milton Keynes, The Open University.
The Open University (2005) Azx103 An Introduction to the Humanities, Resource Book 3, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
TV 19, DVD, A103, The Open University
TV 23, DVD, A103, The Open University
Audio CD 6, A103 The Open University
Audio CD 7, A103 The Open University
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, Penguin Books 1997
Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion, Penguin Books 2000
