Summary
Antoinette and her family do not fit in with the white
people in Spanish Town. According to Christophine, the Jamaican
ladies do not approve of Antoinette's mother, Annette, because she
is too beautiful and young for her husband, and because she comes
from Martinique (which was then a French colony, whereas Jamaica
was an English colony). When Antoinette asks her mother why so few people
visit them at Coulibri Estate since her father's death, her mother
makes excuses about the road being bad and travel being difficult.
Annette's only friend is a neighbor named Mr. Luttrell,
who suddenly and mysteriously shoots his dog and swims out to sea,
never to return. His house is abandoned, and his tragedy incites
widespread gossip. Annette, who has little money and whose clothes
become increasingly shabby, rides her horse every day even though
the servants jeer at her. One day, Antoinette finds her mother's
horse lying dead under a tree. Godfrey, a servant, confirms that
the animal has been poisoned.
A doctor from Spanish Town comes to check on Pierre, Antoinette's
disabled younger brother. After the doctor's visit, Antoinette's
mother is suddenly changed: She never leaves the house but walks
up and down the glacis, or verandah, in plain view
of the laughing servants. As her mother grows stranger and more
distant, Antoinette spends time in their overgrown garden. She also
visits with the servant, Christophine, who sings her songs from
her island home of Martinique.
The other women from the bayside are terrified of Christophine, who
reportedly has magic powers. When Antoinette asks her mother about
Christophine, Annette replies that Christophine was a wedding present
from Antoinette's father, and that she has been with them a long
time. Annette assures her daughter that Christophine has her reasons
for staying with them, and that her presence has protected them
in many ways. When Antoinette reminds her mother that the servants
Godfrey and Sass stayed with them after her father's death, her
mother snaps at her, saying that Sass would leave them any day and
that Godfrey is a deceitful and lazy rascal. Antoinette begins to
worry that Christophine might leave them. She then fans her mother,
who looks tired and ragged, but her mother turns away and asks to
be left alone.
Analysis
Narrated by Antoinette, Part One of Wide Sargasso
Sea focuses on her childhood at Coulibri after the death
of her father, Alexander Cosway. Antoinette's vague and fragmentary
memories focus on glimpses of tropical landscape, descriptions of
her mother, and examples of her childhood isolation. Racial tensions
and the disapproval of the white Jamaican ladies pervade these memories.
Danger lurks in all of these scenes; in fact, the novel begins with
the explicit warning, "when trouble comes, close ranks." Rhys sets
a tone of eerie silence in this West Indian landscape—the calm before the
storm of racial violence.
In a state of disrepair and decay, the Coulibri Estate
represents the downfall of the colonial empire and the aftermath
of its exploitative reign in the West Indies. The bizarre tale about
Mr. Luttrell speaks to the mood of apprehension among the island's
whites, who fear the revenge of the black ex-slaves. Antoinette,
as the narrator, seems particularly preoccupied with morbidity and
decay. The text is replete with images of death and rotting, such
as the flies that hover over the carcass of Annette's poisoned horse.
