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1、Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 postcolonial parallel novel by Dominica-born author Jean Rhys. The novel acts as a prequel to Charlotte Bronts famous 1847 novel Jane Eyre. The opening of the novel is set a short while after the 1834 emancipation of the slaves in British-owned Jamaica. The protagonist An
2、toinette conveys the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre). As the novel and their relationship progress, Antoinette, whom he renames Bertha, descends into madness.After reading through the novel, I cant stop pond
3、ering over question: why the marriage between Antoinette and Rochester turn out to be a tragedy while the one between Jane Eyre and Rochester does the other way around. Although both of these two women have miserable life experiences, eventually they have different endings. When comparing these two
4、women, we can easily find that Jane Eyre is very plain, poor and not very pretty, yet finally she has a happy marriage. However, Antoinette is pretty and owns a considerable number of legacies, yet her final destination is being mad and burned to death in a roaring fire. What are the reasons that ma
5、ke these two pitiful females have extremely different fates? Apart from the difference in their individual characters, there are, I think, some other reasons concerning gender equality and racial equality. It is obvious that Jane has achieved these two kinds of equality at last. She can reach the eq
6、ual level of thinking in spirit so that she can communicate with Rochester spiritually. Jane is not inferior to Rochester and Rochester is not inferior to Jane, either, so that is to say that their love is based on gender equality, which leads their love to happiness and permanence.If the happiness
7、of love between Jane and Rochester is based on gender equality, then the tomb of marriage between Antoinette and Rochester rests on racial inequality and gender inequality.On the one hand,Rochester is representative of the metropolitan state while Antoinette is the representative of the colony. For
8、Antoinette, she has identity crisis, for as a white Creole, she is neither part of the black slave community nor accepted as part of European, a lack of belonging. And the problem of displacement and a shaky sense of ones own identity are already well established in the first part of the text, long
9、before the marriage takes place: “. a white cockroach. Thats me. Thats what they call all of us who were here before their own people in Africa sold them to the slave traders. And Ive heard English women call us white niggers. So between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where
10、do I belong and why was I ever born at all.”(102) We can see that Antoinette was living in the crevice, which is one reason that she is inferior to Rochester in identity. Because to Rochester, he has the noble identity of being an English gentleman although he takes little possession of money. His n
11、oble status is a determining factor that he can play a leading role in marriage. Rochester regards the black people in the West Indies with great loathing. Antoinettes insanity, infidelity, and drunkenness are the result of his misguided belief that madness is in her blood and that she was part of t
12、he scheme to have him married blindly. Being a seemingly noble English gentleman, he had undesirable prejudice against Antoinette. To him, she seems to be simply another aspect of the West Indies otherness that he cannot connect with: “She never blinks at all, it seems to me. Long, dark, alien eyes.
13、 Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European either”. Rochester is not only a noble Englishman but also a colonist, while Antoinette is just a woman living on the edge of being accepted either by the black people or by the white people. They are totally different
14、in thoughts and behaviors. Therefore, their marriage is doomed to a failure. On the other hand, there is no gender equality between A and R. Although A has a relatively amount of money, she is too weak and too dependent on men that she finally loses everything, including freedom. Throughout the stor
15、y, we can find that Antoinette is virtually defenseless. She rarely protects herself, like when she visits her mother (who she knows is undependable and unloving) and goes to her mother with love, only to be rejected yet again. She has a similar episode with Rochester. Fully aware that he does not,
16、she asks him if he loves her and invites the misery his answer of, No, I do not (89). Sex is Antoinette and Rochesters only form of communication and they are communicating only their lust and desire for each other, not love. Sadly, Antoinette hopes their desire for each other, which is so powerful, will develop over time into love. But Rochester is not interested in loving Antoinette. From a feminist viewpoint, it is easy to see Rochester as simply cold and cruel, but
