Key Facts
full title · Wide Sargasso Sea
author · Jean Rhys
type of work · Novel
genre · Postcolonial novel; reinterpretation; prequel
language · English, with bits of French patois and Creole dialect
time and place written · Mid-1940s
to mid-1960s; England
date of first publication · First version of Part One published in 1964;
completed novel published in 1966
publisher · Andre Deutsche
narrator · Antoinette in Part One; Rochester for most of Part
Two except for a scene narrated by Antoinette (when she visits Christophine);
Grace Poole and then Antoinette in Part Three
point of view · Rhys's critique of English colonialism and capitalist
values comes through in her depiction of post-Emancipation Jamaica. She
exposes the degraded ideologies of a traditionally slave-owning
elite and—although she provides for Rochester's perspective—her
point of view seems distinctly Caribbean. In fact, Rhys saw herself
as a displaced colonial and vehemently opposed English culture
tone · Nightmarish; violent; foreboding; sensual; exotic;
romantic; passionate; ecstatic; mysterious
tense · In the sections narrated by Antoinette the tense shifts
from present to past making it difficult to locate her in time and affording
her a disembodied, ghost-like presence. Rochester's narration is
more like a testimonial and is delivered in the past tense
setting (time) · 1840s
setting (place) · Jamaica; the Windward Islands; England
protagonists · Antoinette; Rochester
antagonists · Antoinette; Rochester (depending on whose story we
are being told)
climax · Identifying the climax in of the novel depends largely
on how we read it in relation to Jane Eyre. If
we stress the novel's significance as a prequel to Brontë's novel,
we might argue that Antoinette's final lines—as she prepares to
enact her fatal dream—represent the climax of the action. On the
other hand, taken as an independent work in its own right, Wide
Sargasso Sea points to the rising hatred between Antoinette
and Rochester. According to this perspective, the climax might be
the moment in which Rochester sees what he has made of his wife:
"I was too shocked to speak. Her hair hung uncombed and dull into
her eyes which were inflamed and staring, her face was very flushed
and looked swollen. Her feet were bare."
falling action · Rochester decides to symbolically "kill" Antoinette
by pushing her to childlike imbecility
themes · Slavery and entrapment; the complexity of racial identity; madness;
colonialism; the authority of a literary canon and the ability to
rewrite or reframe histories; the meeting of European and Afro-Caribbean
values
motifs · Disease and decline; death; magic and incantation;
fire; watching and following; heat and suffocation; mirrors and reflections;
saints and Christian martyrs; competing religious ideologies and
the mixing of beliefs
symbols · Birds; forests and trees; the garden; candles; insects;
names (Christophine, "Sass", Granbois)
foreshadowing · Descriptions of nature that are eerie or strange;
the death by poison of Annette's horse; Mr. Luttrell's violent outburst
and disappearance; Tia's cruel betrayal; the burning death of Coco; the
omnipresence of death in the cool, crypt-like convent; the recurring
forest-abduction dream; descriptions of ruined houses; the ominous
crowing of the cock; moths burning themselves in candles
