Jean Rhys's 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea rewrites Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre from a modern, postcolonial point of view. Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of Brontë's “madwoman in the attic” from the point of view of Bertha Mason. In Jane Eyre, Bertha is “hidden,” both in terms of her physical place in the attic and in terms of her story and voice. Rhys, however, develops Bertha into a complex character: in Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Cosway is a strong woman who rebels against and overcomes the colonial and patriarchal oppressions she faces because of her West Indian identity. Rhys's novel depicts Antoinette's final revenge on Rochester at the end of Jane Eyre as a valid response to this oppression. By changing points of view and rewriting some events in Brontë's text, Rhys subverts the colonialist framework from which Jane Eyre and Brontë herself come. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In writing Jane Eyre and the character of Bertha Mason, Charlotte Brontë appears to have relied on several colonialist pretexts. Ellen Friedman writes that Jean Rhys “exposes the assumptions of nineteenth-century English imperialism, Christianity, and patriarchy that served as the context for Charlotte Brontë's text” (1175). The first of these assumptions is that Bertha, as a Caribbean woman, is inherently different from English women like Jane. Rochester's initial portrayal of Bertha in his dialogue with Jane characterizes her as, in Edward Said's words, "sensual...more or less stupid and...willing" (145). Rochester initially meets Bertha at a party, and "she flattered him and generously displayed for [his] pleasure her charms and accomplishments" (Brontë 260); the diction of “shown” and “pleasure” specifically calls to mind Bertha's sensuality and her role as an exotic other. Brontë also perhaps alludes to syphilis when Rochester tells Jane, “[Bertha's] excesses had prematurely developed the germs of madness,” once again indicating Bertha's supposed sexual excesses (261). Likewise consistent with Said's idea that the native woman is sensual and available is that, in Jane Eyre, she has almost all the authority to convince Rochester to marry her: Rochester states: "Her family wished to assure me... and so she did,” and “her relatives encouraged me; the contestants teased me; seduced me” (260). By giving Bertha a great deal of sexual volition in Rochester's first impressions of her, Brontë characterizes her as an exotic "other" without considering other aspects of her character. In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, Rhys directly contrasts Brontë's sexually motivated portrayal of Bertha in his interpretation of Rochester's early interactions with Antoinette. Unlike Jane Eyre's Rochester, who attributes his love for Bertha to his own "charm", Rhys's Rochester tells the opposite: When I finally met her I bowed, I smiled, I kissed her hand, I danced with her. I played the part I had to play. It never had anything to do with me… I must have given a flawless performance. (45) In Rhys's novel, it is Rochester, rather than Antoinette, who has agency in their courtship period. The idea that "[Antoinette] never had anything to do with [Rochester]" completely subverts Brontë's notions of the native woman as sexually charged and, in Said's words, excessively "disposable" (145). Rhys continues to challenge Brontë's characterization of Bertha as sexually motivated and available as Rhys's Antoinetteshe initially decides that she "will not marry [Rochester]" because "[he] knows nothing about [her]" (46). Once again, Rochester must finally convince her and force her to marry: “I will trust you if you trust me. Is this an affair?" (47). Antoinette's decision not to marry Rochester due to their unfamiliarity reveals her as a character interested in something more sexual in her relationship with her husband, once again undermining Brontë's initial characterizations . In addition to relying on colonialist assumptions in characterizing the first Bertha, Brontë also portrays Bertha as an "other" after she goes mad and Rochester takes her to England, however, Brontë portrays her as an other demonic, blurring the line between human and animal; Brontë's Rochester specifically refers to Bertha as "a demon" comparing her to Jane, and her home, the attic of Thornfield Manor, as "the mouth of hell" , "the lair of a wild beast" and "a goblin's cell" (251, 265). In Brontë's portraits of her, Bertha is animalistic and inhuman: in the deep shadow, at the far end of the room, a figure ran back and forth. What it was, whether beast or human, could not be said at first glance: it seemed to crawl on all fours; he clung and growled like a strange wild animal: but he was covered with clothes; and a quantity of dark, graying hair, wild as a mane, hid his head and face. (250)In characterizing Bertha, Brontë strips her of her humanity: he refers to her simply as “a figure” and as “it,” and compares her to “some strange wild animal” with a “mane” (250). The idea that Brontë's Bertha never speaks, merely "screams," also robs her of her humanity and paints her as a demonic other (262). In Jane Eyre, it doesn't take long for Bertha to go from the exotic to the demonic. more: Rochester states: "in the very first letter I wrote to inform [his father and brothers] of the union, having already begun to feel extreme disgust at its consequences... I added an urgent charge to keep it secret" ( 263). In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, Rhys consistently describes Antoinette as beautiful and feminine. Furthermore, Rhys's portrayal of Antoinette often directly contrasts Brontë's point for point. In contrast to Brontë's description of Bertha's "dark, graying hair", Rhys describes "[Antoinette's] hair" as "combed away from her face and [falling] softly far below the waist", and as having "red highlights and golden inside." ”, a much more feminine description (47). Similarly, while Brontë simply states that Bertha wore nondescript “clothes,” Rhys describes her as wearing a dress “made in St. Pierre, Martinique,” ​​and in the style “à la Joséphine” (47). Because Josephine Bonaparte is associated with Europe through her role as empress of France, Rhys's reference to her emphasizes Antoinette's “whiteness” in contrast to Brontë's “dark” and “purple” madness (250). Even after Antoinette is brought to England, Rhys continues to dissociate her from Brontë's Bertha: although the mad Antoinette eventually has "flowing" hair consistent with Brontë's descriptions of her, Rhys never acknowledges that it is Antoinette. The woman who corresponds to Brontë's description is always defined as "that ghost of a woman" and appears exclusively "surrounded by a golden frame": a mirror; she is only implicitly linked to Antoinette (11, 112). In creating a separate identity for her, Rhys creates a character who is "not at all the madman from Jane Eyre" (Rody 223). Although Antoinette never plays the role of the demonic other in Wide Sargasso Sea, towards the end of the novel she becomes the role described by Said as“sensual” and “consensual” as a result of her interactions with Rochester. Rhys subverts yet another of Brontë's colonialist claims: while Brontë portrays Rochester as a victim of his “infernal union” with Bertha, Rhys characterizes Antoinette as the oppressed party (259). Rhys suggests that Antoinette's madness and development in the European idea of ​​"native woman" are a consequence of her marriage to Rochester. Indeed, Rochester changes and creates Antoinette's identity in many ways. The most obvious way is that he changes her name from Antoinette to Bertha, “a name of which he is particularly fond,” despite her insistence that her “name is not Bertha” (Rhys 81). He also forbids Antoinette from speaking patois to Christophine to further distance her from her Creole roots. Rochester's attempts to differentiate her from her mother by changing her name and making her more European actually ironically backfire, as Antoinette grows up to fit Said's model of a native woman following her estrangement from her husband (which stems from the fact that “he never calls her Antoinette now”) (68). Laura Ciolkowski notes: “[Rochester] is determined to resolve Antoinette's ambivalence [about her heritage] firstly in the singular tones of English womanhood, and secondly, once his failure to regard Antoinette as the chaste mother of English sons is quite clear, in the equally singular tones of a wild otherness” (343). After their marriage begins to crumble, Antoinette desperately wants her husband to "come to [her] one night," indicating that her sexual desire begins to govern her actions (68). Furthermore, to satiate her desires, Antoinette wishes to avail herself of obeah, an institution seen by Europe as superstition; in this way Antonietta becomes not only "sensual" and "willing", but also "stupid" and superstitious from a European point of view. Similarly, after being brought to England, Antoinette states, "[My red dress] makes me seem intemperate and unchaste... That man told me so," indicating that Rochester constructs Antoinette as a "native woman" suited to nineteenth-century European colonialist views of the -century (110). By detailing Rochester's manipulations of Antoinette, Rhys undermines Brontë's hypothesis that Bertha's eventual revenge on Rochester is the result of her descent from "idiots and maniacs" (Brontë 249); rather, Rhys shows that Antoinette's final act of burning Thornfield manor was a major act of rebellion through which Antoinette, and Rhys herself, in the words of Aijaz Ahmad, "modified, challenged, overthrown [and] rewrote ” the “Western representations” of the colonial (McLeod 48). At the end of The Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette describes her final act as "why I was brought here and what I must do" (112); Antoinette's resolve and determination contrast with Brontë's Bertha, whose burning at Thornfield was simply one of her many inexplicable acts of “savage mischief” (364). Although Antoinette went mad at the end of the Great Sargasso Sea, she is still able to get her revenge; Rhys expresses Antoinette's ability to take revenge despite her madness through the symbol of the candle at the end of the novel. Although “the flame flickered and I thought it was out,” which expresses Antoinette's discouragement (and perhaps the reader's disbelief in her ability to rebel against her oppression), she “protected it with [her] hand and burned back to the light [she] along the dark passage” (112); the constant flame of the candle thus represents Antoinette's resolve and determination, and turns her seemingly inexplicable act of arson into the end, 1994, 132-49.