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?
Great points! I never noticed the creased brow detail, but that's a great example of how Rhys draws clear parallels between Annette and Antoinette. These parallels make the story even more tragic, because we have hope at the beginning that Antoinette will not follow in her mother's steps, which is destroyed at the end.
ReplyDeleteThey are definitely a lot of parallels between Antoinette and Annette, and I appreciate Rhys drawing them out for us. She could have just as easily not have provided context for Annette's descent into "madness," but her decision to do so allows us to see why Annette and Antoinette's actions are justified.
ReplyDeleteI really like this comparison. Another interesting similarity is that both are deprived of a "social group" Annette is Martinique, but lives on an island with only one other Martinique person (that we know of). Similarly, Antoinette never really developed a true identity because she grows up rejected from two influential groups, and therefore doesn't have a social group either.
ReplyDeleteI think these are some really interesting comparisons to draw, especially the bit about the furrow in Annette's forehead and how later Antoinette has the same thing. I like this one because it shows not only how they are similar through their situations and experiences, but also physically, as Antoinette comes to embody her role as "little Annette".
ReplyDeleteThey both die after burning down their homes that were also their prisons. There are differences in the details, but they both have the same general end to their lives.
ReplyDelete