Wide Sargasso Sea
A book review of sorts for a prequel to Jane Eyre
We, who love Jane Eyre, know that Mr. Rochester is a big “red flag”, and we also know that his side of the story about Bertha is questionable, to say the least.
Well, that’s where The Wide Sargasso Sea comes in; the prequel to Jane Eyre gives us a different perspective told by both Bertha, whose real name is Antoinette, and young Mr.Rochester. This short novel was published in 1966, got its author belated, but deserved recognition. A book review of sorts, a prequel to Jane Eyre (A generic spoiler ahead)
The novel follows the life of Antoinette since childhood, and then focuses on her and Mr.Rochester’s early days of marriage and the unraveling of it, followed by a short snippet of events in Thornfield Hall.
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Her childhood was filled with isolation, shunning by their community, not belonging, and traumatic events. Antoinette is what was called at the time, Creole, a person of European descent, but born in the Caribbean, and they were despised by the black community in Jamaica yet never accepted by the European community, one of the main reasons for Mr. Rochester’s rejection and abuse. Her father and grandfather were slave owners, and that adds another layer to their exclusion and open harassment from their community. A lot of regional history and religious and cultural concepts were placed in the book and made her story even more complex.
The main story picks up on their honeymoon as they are honeymooning at Antoinette’s mother’s estate on a small secluded island. A brief, passion-filled early days of their marriage made Antoinette so in love with him, and also all her fortune is now Mr. Rochester’s, legally. So she is in an incredibly vulnerable spot, and her mental health has always been fickle, and she clearly suffers from PTSD and depression.
As we know from Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester was “tricked” into marrying her for her money, and yes, he was definitely left blind to some crucial information about her social standing, her past, and her family’s history of “madness”, but upon learning that from a strange man on their honeymoon, he acts cruelly, and manipulates, controls, and abuses Antoinette.
One of the most gut-punching things in the book was that he starts calling her Bertha out of nowhere. When she asks him why he is calling her that, he casually says because he is particularly fond of that name. This is just one of many acts of erasure, manipulation and control placed on her by Rochester; it punched me in the gut and left me crying for a good while. Then, as we know, he decided that she is mad because of her family history and her heritage being inferior and takes her to Thornfield. The rest we know from Jane Eyre.
It’s quite clear that it had been a long time coming for this novel, as the style shifts abruptly and is not equally created, but also it’s called modernist because of this stylistic mix. The 1st part felt quite fragmented in a stream-of-consciousness way, but I think it reflected the trauma-filled childhood of Antoinette very well. But in the main part, we start with Mr. Rochester’s narration, and when her narration comes, we can already see that the distinct style of 1st part is no longer there. The third one is brief fragments. The writing is not exactly a masterpiece, but retelling or giving a prequel to one of the beloved classics in such a brilliant way, exploring such complicated themes in such a short book, and giving a life to “the mad woman in the attic” makes this book a good read for sure. (4/5) If you loved Jane Eyre, it’s a must-pair. It also makes a good late summer, early autumn read with its hot, humid Caribbean atmosphere and gothic descent to madness at Thornfield Hall.
