It's the buttoned-up English gal vs the sensual savage! Who will win the ultimate prize: one rough-physiognomied husband?
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We all know Bertha Mason as the madwoman in Rochester's attic, but in Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys gives her a voice and a childhood. In Jamaica. Jane's frigid English upbringing can suck on that..
Except that Bertha Mason (nee and hereafter Antoinette Cosway)'s childhood is not only rotten (like Jane's), it is tumultuous. Her father is dead and her mother rejects her in favor of her dumb idiot (in the literal, not the childishly pejorative, sense) brother and also it is just after Emancipation so the former slaves are all ROWR! *house-burning*
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And then she and her thirty thousand pounds are married off to a young Rochester, and we all know how that goes. (Hint: sooooer badly.)
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And the ultimate disparity between our two lasses is one of temperature. Jane is cool and reserved, even when detailing the death of Helen Burns (oh Helen, I never don't cry when you die), even when TEARING her heart out and fleeing Thornfield. Antoinette is all FEELINGS and sensual associations and enormous, venomous flowers. And it totally dooms her in the end.
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Because while Jane can susbsist on tea and toast (emotionally speaking) until the time is ripe for a proper, monogamous marriage, Antoinette wants it all and now. While Jane's endless parade of rejections forces her inward onto her steely resolve, Antoinette's starves her so badly that by the time young Rochester rolls around she can't (or won't) tantalize him with her reserve. Loving not wisely, but to well and all that.
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I will still and always love Jane Eyre the best, not only (though partially) because there is Justice For All. Mr Brocklehurst gets his come-uppance after the cholera outbreak (typhus? One of those Oregon Trail diseases), haughty Blanche is shot down for her gold-diggery ways, Jane makes all the rightest, hardest decisions and gets all the marbles. Victorian novels! You give me hope for the world.
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If anything, Wide Sargasso Sea exists to rebut this idea, because injustice rears at every turn. It's not fair that the child of former slave owners should suffer for the sins of her fathers. It's not fair that Tia should take Antoinette's pennies after betting her she couldn't do an underwater somersault, which she could. The land doesn't love you, there's no one to protect you, your husband keeps on eyeing the help.
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Give me my happily ever after. Jane Eyre wins this round. If you are playing along at home and/or have read either of these, feel free to dump your reviews in Ye Olde Linkye.
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Up next on the Everything Old is New Again docket: The Crimson Petal and the White; Rebecca. I'm not sure if you've eyeballed these books but guys? They are looong.
23 comments:
I love this piece - its so funny and incisive although I am not so sure that you have to chose between them?
Bon weekend and thanks for sharing
Hannah
Thank you for Tweeting with me during my First-Ever-But-Not-Really Read of JE! That was fun. :D
I'm working through WSS, and it's WAY BETTER than when I was in class with it. The notes in my book are all, "SHIFT!" and "MALE PERSPECTIVE V. GAZE!" and "parrot = metaphor? YES!" It's amusing to read the thoughts of my 4-years-ago English major self.
I read Jane Eyre years ago and recently read Wide Sargasso Sea. I have to say that Jane Eyre wins in my book as well. But Wide Sargasso Sea is an interesting supplement to Jane Eyre.
This is picky, I know...but you have referred to this book in two different entries as "Wild" Sargasso Sea, and it is "Wide" Sargasso Sea. The cover you have posted in this entry has the correct title.
Hannah - Thanks! And you're right, there is no need to choose. They both serve different purposes in the Big World of Books.
Tikabelle - My pleasure! And the parrot IS a metaphor. Clipped wings!
Emilee - Interesting supplement indeed. I love stories told from different angles.
Anonymous - This is like telling me that I have spinach in my teefs. I'm mortally embarassed (I actually referred to it as 'Wild' Sargasso Sea in FOUR posts) and eternally grateful. Thanks for not leaving my mistakes out to hang.
Wow - I had no idea about this other book. I'm still a big Jane Eyre fan after reading it for the first time as a kid -- largely for all the reasons you mentioned above. Definitely interesting to think of things from another perspective, though.
Oh, gosh, I love both of these books. I read JE first so I guess I prefer it, but WSS is so evocative. Love it.
I lovelovelove Jane Eyre!! I haven't read Wide Sargasso Sea yet, keep meaning to but just haven't got there!!
I am definitely a fan of Jane Eyre. Wide Sargasso Sea . . . not so much. If it had been a stand a lone book and not based on Jane Eyre, my reaction may have been completely different. As it was, WSS just did not connect with my impressions from JE.
The way I read Jane Eyre, the madwoman in the attic is representative of the suppressed part of jane's character, because she is so angry about womens' lot in life (and her own) (note the rant Jane has on the roof that Virginia Woolf, in 'A room of one's Own' says interrupts the book)... so in a way Wide Sargasso Sea is extraneous - people act as though it's a big feminist correction of Jane Eyre, but Bronte was already angry and feminist enough, thank you v. much
I love Jane Eyre. Wide Sargasso Sea, though, is one of the best retellings of a separate novel. That being said, I always think the original is better. Thanks for the great review!
Jane Eyre is one of my two favorite books ever, so I have mostly shied away from Wide Sargasso Sea. That was clearly a mistake - it may not be as good but it is probably worth reading on its own.
Plus, then I have an excuse to reread Jane Eyre. =)
I thought Wide Sargasso Sea was a melodramatic, overwrought piece of bleh. I'm pretty sure growing up in a hot climate and having a sucky, unfair childhood isn't all that's gonna throw you off your rocker- which, if we remember correctly, is what Bertha is. Off her stinkin' rocker. And Rochester is a good man, which is something WSS seems to forget. I literally laughed out loud at the silliness of this silly book.
I should really read Wide Sargasso Sea sometime soon, since I loved Jane Eyre so much.
Great review! I too love Jane Eyre, but thought Wide Sargasso Sea was such an interesting way look at the Crazy Wife In The Attic.
I actually like both books, but have to say to avoid the movie version of Wide Sargasso Sea at all costs! It was gratuitous rather than really exploring the issues Rhys wrote about. It was just a huge disappointment to me.
TexasRed - It is! I think even when alternate perspective books are bad I tend to like them, just because I like seeing how someone else interprets my favorites.
Lorin - I wonder how it would be to read WSS having not read JE? Because part of the reading experience of WSS is, I think, knowing that Antoinette is doomed.
Elise - Keep moving it up the pile! It's not terribly long.
Stephanie - I know, I kept wondering how I would treat the book as a stand-alone. It's so difficult to divorce it from what you already know.
Joanne - Bronte is the feministiest. I think WSS was also to correct some of the racistness of JE - you know, Bertha being a 'half-caste' and therefore mad. The problem is that WSS is still kindaprettyracist.
Olivia - You can never replace Jane Eyre.
Meghan - Any excuse to read JE is a good one. I may or may not have wormed it into this project to have such an excuse.
Jane Doe - I thought WSS could have painted Rochester in a WAY dimmer light, and I thought Rhys was remarkably restrained. That being said, I'm with the mad bloodlines bit. Being hot and rejected just exacerbated her madness.
irisonbooks - It's an interesting go, definitely.
Jennifer - I love reading alternate stories, even when I don't totally agree with them.
Becky - I will definitely be avoiding this movie. However, did you know a new Jane Eyre is coming out next year? Jane is played by the girl from Alice in Wonderland, who is insanely pretty and therefore not at all Janeish. Oh movies, you never quite get it right.
I loved Wide Sargasso Sea! I had to compare these two novels in an essay in University! Great review :)
I was so excited to see your post - I didn't have time to comment then but starred it to come back to (thank you, Google Reader). Anyway, Jane Eyre is my favorite book. Hands down. I read Wide Sargasso Sea last year and thought it was .... odd. Very odd. I sort of felt like I was in some sort of drug-induced haze through much of it. Maybe that was the intent? I don't know. The descriptions were great, but again, hazy. I never really connected to the characters. To be fair, I want to give it a re-read, but still.
Put mine up. Still need to got back and re-read Jane Eyre.
It's up! I can't ever express all my feelings re. Jane, but I did my best. :P
I love the author but havent read the nooks yet.
I did it! I tried to read WSS a few years ago and didn't like it at all, but this time I did think it was an interesting take on JE. Your point about the differences between Jane and Antoinette's characters is well taken, but I also think they are similar, especially in the way they are both starved of affection as children. Jane finds that morality (which Helen instructs her about) can give her the strength to survive. Antoinette is tragic, but much more passive.
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