Summary
Antoinette rides her horse past the "Mounes Mors" rocks—the "Dead
Ones"—to Christophine's new house. Feeling that Rochester has become
cold and angry, Antoinette seeks Christophine's advice on how to
win him back. Christophine tells Antoinette to leave her husband,
but Antoinette refuses.
Believing that women are fools to rely on their husbands,
Christophine herself remains single and independent. She has had
three children, all by different men, and has held onto her money.
When Christophine urges Antoinette to take her inheritance and leave,
she is shocked to learn that, according to English law, Antoinette's wealth
now belongs to her husband. Undeterred, Christophine advises Antoinette
to go to Martinique under the pretence of visiting a cousin. Antoinette
takes the idea a step further, proposing that she go to England,
a place whose existence Christophine questions.
However, Antoinette dismisses these fanciful thoughts
and admits the real reason for her visit. She asks Christophine
for a love potion. Christophine counters that white people should
not play with magic, and that the potion will only make Rochester desire her, not
love her. Instead, Christophine urges Antoinette to simply talk to
Rochester, to explain her background and her feelings. Having already
tried to reason with him, Antoinette says that he will not listen.
She continues to plead for the potion.
Surprisingly, the old woman complies, drawing designs
into the earth and rubbing them out mysteriously. Christophine leads
Antoinette inside the small house to begin a ritual or incantation
that we never see. Antoinette notices, as she enters the room, a
heap of chicken feathers piled in a corner, and she later hears
a cock crowing, a sign of betrayal. Riding away, Antoinette wonders
how to interpret this sign as she presses the mysterious potion,
wrapped in a leaf, against her skin.
Analysis
This section, narrated by Antoinette, affords a glimpse
of her own impressions regarding Rochester, England, and her current
unhappiness. Her narration draws Christophine back toward the center
of the plot, whereas Rochester's narration has pushed Christophine
to the margins. This focus on Christophine shifts the balance of
power away from the white estate of the Creole landowner to the
simple, two-room dwelling of a black ex-slave. Crossing lines of
race and class, Antoinette's journey to Christophine's home reflects
an instability in the traditional structures, and it invites a reversal
of roles in which the ex-slave plays the part of knowing patriarch
and the Creole heiress begs for her help.
European and Afro-Caribbean ideas of womanhood clash in
the conversation between Christophine and Antoinette. Though Christophine
urges independence, Antoinette cannot break from her husband, on
whom she is financially and socially dependent. Like Coco, Antoinette
has had her wings clipped by an Englishman. It is for this reason
that Christophine questions why Antoinette would even want to go
to England. That Christophine even doubts England's existence echoes
Antoinette's earlier conversation with Rochester over "unreal" or
"imaginary" places. However, Christophine knows that Antoinette's
total dependence on Rochester is not imaginary, and she urges Antoinette
to escape.
