Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Book Analysis

In the novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, written by Jean Rhys, the author addresses the issues of gender, racial, and cultural identity through the protagonist Antoinette, to discuss identity and the theme it creates. Antoinette deals with the difficult and different standards for women, being different from others because of her race, and her new husband disliking her home country of Dominica. These aspects reveal the overall theme of the dangers of losing oneself from the opinion of others.

Women are held to different standards than men and for some women, like Antoinette, it is difficult for her to follow them. Her husband, Rochester, holds her to these standards which eventually results in Antoinette losing herself quickly. Antoinette could not be seen as the pure and innocent girl she was supposed to be since she flaunts her beauty to everyone around her. She is not supposed to act that way and Rochester is calling her crazy and mad because of it. Rochester argues, “She thirsts for anyone-not for me…” (Rhys 99). Since Antoinette flaunts her beauty, Rochester has become jealous, and he is keeping a close eye on her. He is under the impression that she is mad and crazy because she is not necessarily following the standard to be appropriate and focus on only your husband. Antoinette starts to lean into it and become the crazy person she was made out to be. Eventually, she broke and Rochester said, “I felt her teeth in my arm… but I was angry now and she saw it. She smashed another bottle against the wall and stood with the broken glass in her hand and murder in her eyes” (Rhys 89). Rochester quickly turns Antoinette into this girl she did not want to become or ever be like. She gets physically aggressive with Rochester thus supports his theory of her being crazy and mad. Given these points, Antoinette loses herself and is being forced to become someone she did not want to be and did not know. Not only did she lose herself, but she also lost her thoughts and opinions of herself which led to her downfall.

In the country of Dominica, Spanish town, the convent school, and Jamaica, Antoinette never fit in because of her race and that leaves her feeling different and lost. Antoinette is being teased by the black kids, who are the minority on the island, for being mixed. Antoinette has the impression that, “They hated us. They called us white cockroaches” (Rhys 13). The kids calling her white cockroach are making Antoinette feel like an outsider even though she grew up on the island with them. Soon after, at the convent school, Antoinette asked Hélène a student there, “Please, Hélène, tell me how you do your hair, because when I grow up I want mine to like yours… but Hélène, mine does not look like yours, whatever I do… she turned away, too polite to say the obvious” (Rhys 32). Antoinette wants to be like Hélène and the way she thought she could bond or fit in better is by copying what she does, like her hairstyle. Since Hélène is a black girl, she has a different hair type than Antoinette and she does not understand the difference, provoking the feeling of being left out and lost within herself. Therefore, Antoinette facing the issue of being called a name and not realizing how she’s different from others is making it hard for her to make friends and belong. She is trying to change her look to fit in, which is resulting in her forgetting where she came from and who she is.

Home is everything to Antoinette, she has great memories and loves the culture of Dominica but her new husband, Rochester feels the complete opposite causing Antoinette to lose her opinions and happy memories of the place she once called home. Right after Antoinette and Rochester got married, they go to Dominica to stay at Antoinette’s mother’s house. Stepping one foot onto the island of Dominica, Rochester blatantly expresses, “Everything is too much” (Rhys 41). Without having respect for his new wife, he forms a stubborn opinion about Dominica, that he hates it. He hates the place Antoinette loves and he is not trying to hide it. He does not want to immerse himself and learn about her culture, he only wants to go back to his home, England. Throughout the novel, Rochester tries to get Antoinette to move to England with him and at the end, Antoinette says, “They tell me I am in England but I don’t believe them” (Rhys 107). From the force of Rochester, Antoinette ends up in England. She lost her home and the place she loves the most because Rochester wants to move and follows through with it without Antoinette’s knowledge. Furthermore, Rochester’s opinions and beliefs about Dominica trumped Antoinette’s feelings and opinions. She ends up in England from his force but since she lost the last one thing of hers, she lost herself and her feeling of home all in one.

Ultimately, Antoinette loses her sense of identity from the gender, racial, and cultural issues she faces continuously in the novel. The outside voices that are sharing their opinions with Antoinette are overpowering her voice, resulting in her losing herself in those voices. As she grows up, the more it occurs and each time it is a danger to herself since she is losing a little bit of herself in each issue she faces. Having the novel end with her not knowing herself at all.