Annette and Little Annette

In Wide Sargasso Sea, many parallels are drawn between Antoinette and her mother, Annette, possibly showing the inherent aspect of madness but also the unfortunate treatment of women of this time.

We first start clearly seeing similarities between Antoinette and Annette after Antoinette grows up. For instance, both women rely heavily on Christophine - they go to her for advice and seem to respect her more than the other residents of Coulibri. She is their emotional support; especially after Annette's marriage to old man Cosway and Antoinette's marriage to Rochester, we see how much the two women rely on Christophine as their confidante.

The author draws direct similarities between Antoinette and Annette especially after Antoinette seems to start her descent into madness. The beginning of Part I mentions Annette's furrowed brow as seen by Antoinette, with a crease so sharp it seems it was cut by a knife. Later, in Part II, Rochester sees Antoinette's brow with the same sharp crease, allowing the reader to immediately associate Antoinette with her mother, not-incidentally at the same time that Rochester had been avoiding Antoinette after learning of how her mother was mad.

On that note, madness is the strongest link between Antoinette and Annette. Although it was believed at the time of the novel that madness was inherent through the maternal line, we can see that both women were driven to madness because of external factors - namely, their husbands. Because Mason refused to let Annette leave with Pierre, ignorant of the danger, Pierre died and left Annette with Mason to blame. Rochester essentially betrayed Antoinette, breaking a promise made on their wedding day, driving her to despair as she loved/relied on him too much.

Are there any other similarities between Annette and little Annette?

Alexithymia and Meursault's Relationships

In a panel presentation yesterday, we were introduced to the idea that Meursault suffered from Alexithymia, an personality construct where the afflicted has a strong dissociation of feeling. Under stressful situations, the afflicted will have a physical reaction to the perceptions that cause emotion. Yet at the same time, people with Alexithymia crave emotional contact, on a higher level than unafflicted people.

With the various conditions presented in the previous paragraph and the fact that alexithymia usually results from childhood trauma (father dies/leaves, mother emotionally unavailable), I think that Meursault has Alexithymia and that his condition spills over into his relationships. This is especially evident with his romance(?) with Marie and friendship with Raymond.

The book briefly mentions the awkwardness of Meursault and Maman living together, as Maman would just follow his motions with her eyes, and how their relationship wasn't the best. This is possible evidence that Maman was an emotionally unavailable mother for Meursault, becoming a factor in his desire to have a relationship with Marie. Not saying that Meursault sees Marie as a mother, but simply that he subconsciously wanted more emotional contact, as a basic human being. But because of his emotionlessness, it difficult to say if he truly loves Marie or if he is simply using her to satisfy his emotional needs.

As for Raymond, I would consider this as Meursault having found a more fatherly figure. Not that Raymond is older or that they consider each other family, but that Meursault wanted his father's acknowledgment and approval when he was young, but was never able to receive it. So when Raymond asks him to help write a letter, Meursault agrees because he wants Raymond's - someone's - acknowledgement. Because he does not feel or care that Raymond is a little sketchy, he is able to help Raymond and become his friend.