Jean Rhys’s use of imagery in section one of Wide Sargasso Sea’ in very significant; the imagery of isolation and neglect in particularly significant because it highlights the feeling of being abandoned and marooned that Antoinette and her family feel. Rhys demonstrates the isolation particularly when the family’s house is burned down; ‘There were so many of them...but I recognised no one’, this demonstrates that although they are surrounded by a large crowd, the whole family is totally isolated and detached from everyone. The image of the family surrounded by hundreds of people, and yet totally alone is significant to our understanding of truly how isolated the family are because we see them as belonging nowhere, because their home is now gone. This is also emphasised in the desertion of Myra, leaving Pierre to die; ‘she left him, she ran away and left him alone to die’, and Rhys seems to be suggesting that no one really cares about the Cosway’s, that they are unwanted. This emphasises the feeling that ‘now we[they] are marooned...now what will become of us[them]’.
Cultural differences, segregation: ‘We were not in their ranks’ – Antoinette sees the situation as a quasi-military one: feels herself to be excluded by white european incomers & more respectable plantation owners. ‘The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother’ – tensions between the island evident eg. ‘the road from spanish town to coulibriwas very bad’-displays segregation from Spanish Town which itself breeds negative connotations as from 1692 it had one of the worlds worst slave markets ‘worse still, a Martinique girl’ ‘Nelson’s rest’ signifys their segregation from society, the name of the property identifies it with one of the British heroes of the wars against Napoleon – Nelson married West Indian heiress Nevis & opposed abolistion of the slave trade. Therefore they are associated with evil and bad feeling considering they live nearby. ‘An unlucky place’ – ‘black people said it was haunted’ - ‘they notice clothes, they know about money’ –shows their separation in ranks according to class Ghostly, lonely, gothic: ‘the tree of life grew there. But it had gone wild’ – This shows how they have lost their way through the ‘garden of eden’, as originally adam & eve were banned before immortality was given. The fact it has grow ‘wild’ signifys their lonliness and loss of hope ‘she talked alone to herself I was a little afraid of her.’ – shows a ghost like possession over her mother. Combined with people’s evil feelings about her and the people surrounding her (for example Christophine and her links to obeah, which was seen as a sinister practice with strict rules) connotate that their is something more to her growing madness, just as there seems to be in Bertha later on. -Lotte
Jean Rhys’ use of imagery is significant in the opening section of ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’. ‘ A frown came between her black eyebrows, deep-it might have been cut with a knife. I hated this frown and once I touched her forehead trying to smooth it’, through this reference Rhys is conveying the madness which both Antoinette and her mother share. It suggests that they both have a ‘cut’ or wound in their brains, which is responsible for the psychological trauma they experience in the novel. Rhys’s suggestion that they have been somehow wounded links to the idea that Antoinette and her mother are essentially victims, as coming from a family of former slave owners they are targeted by the freed slaves. Furthermore Antoinette’s belief that there garden was ‘beautiful as that garden in the Bible’ implies that she views her garden as paradise. However this comparison to the Garden of Eden also suggests that there is evil lurking underneath the seemingly perfect place.
Rhys introduces the themes of repression and anxiety early on in the novel. Antoinette tries to repress the consequences of her mother’s horse being poisoned; ‘I ran away and did not speak of it’. She understands that something terrible has happened but doesn’t know how to handle the situation. Antoinette clearly suffers badly from anxiety. She knows that her family do not fit in with the white people in Spanish Town, interaction between racial groups in often antagonistic, and she has no real friends. There is a complicated racial structure on the island despite The Emancipation Act of 1833, racial groups are still resentful of each other. As a result, Antoinette is very isolated and repressed. She is too young to understand why the ‘Jamaican ladies’ are so resentful particularly of her mother. It appears to be repeated repression that drives Anoinette into insanity.
Madness and womanhood are very much intertwned in the novel. Antoinettes mother is the ifrst to succumb to insanity. ‘My mother usually walked up and down’. The treatment her mother recieves from the Jamaican women eventually broke her.
The imagery used to descibe Christophine is especially significant in this section at the beginnning of the novel. Arguably the most significant sentance used to portray her is, ‘She was much blacker – blue black with a thin face and straight features.’ Rhys seems to be exploring the idea of race. Within the population of ex-slaves, they maintain their own kinds of stratification. Christophine is isolated from the other Jamaicans because she is originally from the French owned island of Martinique. The words suggest that Christophine has an ambiguos and dark side. The blue black tone of her skin conjuers a sense of difference to most people and suggests a form of bruising. Rhys uses the description of her physical appearence to imply certain characteristics of Christophine’s character. The repetition of her black skin and black dress which ‘no other negro women did,’ further isolates her and adds a sense of mystery. Quickly it becomes clear that Christophine’s seperation from others is also due to her expertise in Obeah practices making her seem unsafe for Obeah is associated with both benign and malignant magic.
‘We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking-glass’ this suggests that Tia is an image of what Antoinette wants to be, a black woman not a white Creole woman who is nether accepted by black communities or white communities. She is unaware that Tia is the one who threw the rock at her. Their destroyed friendship symbolizes Antoinette's continuing struggle to create a meaningful relationship with another person. Antoinette's last words of the fire scene suggest that she foresees her dismal future in her failed relationship with Tia. Antoinette writes that she sees herself in Tia's tears, alternatively suggesting that she can only self-identify with pain and suffering. MM
Imagery in section 1: - ‘One calm evening he shot is dog, swam out to sea’: violence, aggressiveness, gothic, mysterious, questionable, tension, intensive - ‘Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible’: use of religion, and the idea of Adam and Eve’s story and how the garden has ‘gone wild’ - ‘The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother’, ‘Martinique girl’: suggests isolation, lack of community, differentiation of race or class
In the Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys uses imagery, “shutters banging in the wind, ‘the black people said it was haunted’. The use of gothic imagery reflects the lonely atmosphere that is present both within and between the characters ‘I got used to a solitary life’ this lengthens the characters connection to the real world, and intensifies all happenings. Rhys’s choice of the word ‘banging’ emphasises the silence of their isolation. Whilst ‘the black people’ portrays the separation that they experience from society due to their race ‘we were not in their ranks’.
Isolation is a running theme throughout Jean Rhys’ ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ which is significantly emphasised in Rhys Imagery. This is because in the opening section of the book Rhys creates the idea of social exclusion as Antoinette states “The scent was very sweet and strong. I never went near it.” This suggests that Rhys wants to emphasise to the reader that Antoinette isolates herself from society. The structure of the sentence creates a literal image to the reader of Antoinette isolating herself from both society and nature, as the sentencing is short, which may highlight Antoinette running away from the outside world, perhaps because she is scared of the society around her, due to her social exclusion. -vl
An example of the imagery used in part one of Wide Sargasso Sea is often presented through the use of a paradox. This can be illustrated on page four of the novel as we read, “...a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell.” This positions the setting of the garden in a purgatory state; the imagery of this is difficult to comprehend as wider themes of death and life are explored in a rather unnatural way. This further creates a detached and isolated feel of the garden, which is strange considering it is “large and beautiful”. The voice of Antoinette often presents the imagery positively; inclining us towards what is being described but then quickly comments (haven't finished sozz)maryam xx
Jean Rhys’s use of imagery in section one of Wide Sargasso Sea’ in very significant; the imagery of isolation and neglect in particularly significant because it highlights the feeling of being abandoned and marooned that Antoinette and her family feel. Rhys demonstrates the isolation particularly when the family’s house is burned down; ‘There were so many of them...but I recognised no one’, this demonstrates that although they are surrounded by a large crowd, the whole family is totally isolated and detached from everyone. The image of the family surrounded by hundreds of people, and yet totally alone is significant to our understanding of truly how isolated the family are because we see them as belonging nowhere, because their home is now gone. This is also emphasised in the desertion of Myra, leaving Pierre to die; ‘she left him, she ran away and left him alone to die’, and Rhys seems to be suggesting that no one really cares about the Cosway’s, that they are unwanted. This emphasises the feeling that ‘now we[they] are marooned...now what will become of us[them]’.
ReplyDeleteMJ
Cultural differences, segregation:
ReplyDelete‘We were not in their ranks’ – Antoinette sees the situation as a quasi-military one: feels herself to be excluded by white european incomers & more respectable plantation owners.
‘The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother’ – tensions between the island evident eg. ‘the road from spanish town to coulibriwas very bad’-displays segregation from Spanish Town which itself breeds negative connotations as from 1692 it had one of the worlds worst slave markets
‘worse still, a Martinique girl’
‘Nelson’s rest’ signifys their segregation from society, the name of the property identifies it with one of the British heroes of the wars against Napoleon – Nelson married West Indian heiress Nevis & opposed abolistion of the slave trade. Therefore they are associated with evil and bad feeling considering they live nearby. ‘An unlucky place’ – ‘black people said it was haunted’ -
‘they notice clothes, they know about money’ –shows their separation in ranks according to class
Ghostly, lonely, gothic:
‘the tree of life grew there. But it had gone wild’ – This shows how they have lost their way through the ‘garden of eden’, as originally adam & eve were banned before immortality was given. The fact it has grow ‘wild’ signifys their lonliness and loss of hope
‘she talked alone to herself I was a little afraid of her.’ – shows a ghost like possession over her mother. Combined with people’s evil feelings about her and the people surrounding her (for example Christophine and her links to obeah, which was seen as a sinister practice with strict rules) connotate that their is something more to her growing madness, just as there seems to be in Bertha later on.
-Lotte
Jean Rhys’ use of imagery is significant in the opening section of ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’. ‘ A frown came between her black eyebrows, deep-it might have been cut with a knife. I hated this frown and once I touched her forehead trying to smooth it’, through this reference Rhys is conveying the madness which both Antoinette and her mother share. It suggests that they both have a ‘cut’ or wound in their brains, which is responsible for the psychological trauma they experience in the novel. Rhys’s suggestion that they have been somehow wounded links to the idea that Antoinette and her mother are essentially victims, as coming from a family of former slave owners they are targeted by the freed slaves. Furthermore Antoinette’s belief that there garden was ‘beautiful as that garden in the Bible’ implies that she views her garden as paradise. However this comparison to the Garden of Eden also suggests that there is evil lurking underneath the seemingly perfect place.
ReplyDeleteRhys introduces the themes of repression and anxiety early on in the novel. Antoinette tries to repress the consequences of her mother’s horse being poisoned; ‘I ran away and did not speak of it’. She understands that something terrible has happened but doesn’t know how to handle the situation. Antoinette clearly suffers badly from anxiety. She knows that her family do not fit in with the white people in Spanish Town, interaction between racial groups in often antagonistic, and she has no real friends. There is a complicated racial structure on the island despite The Emancipation Act of 1833, racial groups are still resentful of each other. As a result, Antoinette is very isolated and repressed. She is too young to understand why the ‘Jamaican ladies’ are so resentful particularly of her mother. It appears to be repeated repression that drives Anoinette into insanity.
ReplyDeleteMadness and womanhood are very much intertwned in the novel. Antoinettes mother is the ifrst to succumb to insanity. ‘My mother usually walked up and down’. The treatment her mother recieves from the Jamaican women eventually broke her.
The imagery used to descibe Christophine is especially significant in this section at the beginnning of the novel. Arguably the most significant sentance used to portray her is, ‘She was much blacker – blue black with a thin face and straight features.’ Rhys seems to be exploring the idea of race. Within the population of ex-slaves, they maintain their own kinds of stratification. Christophine is isolated from the other Jamaicans because she is originally from the French owned island of Martinique. The words suggest that Christophine has an ambiguos and dark side. The blue black tone of her skin conjuers a sense of difference to most people and suggests a form of bruising. Rhys uses the description of her physical appearence to imply certain characteristics of Christophine’s character. The repetition of her black skin and black dress which ‘no other negro women did,’ further isolates her and adds a sense of mystery. Quickly it becomes clear that Christophine’s seperation from others is also due to her expertise in Obeah practices making her seem unsafe for Obeah is associated with both benign and malignant magic.
ReplyDelete‘We stared at each other, blood on my face, tears on hers. It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking-glass’ this suggests that Tia is an image of what Antoinette wants to be, a black woman not a white Creole woman who is nether accepted by black communities or white communities. She is unaware that Tia is the one who threw the rock at her. Their destroyed friendship symbolizes Antoinette's continuing struggle to create a meaningful relationship with another person. Antoinette's last words of the fire scene suggest that she foresees her dismal future in her failed relationship with Tia. Antoinette writes that she sees herself in Tia's tears, alternatively suggesting that she can only self-identify with pain and suffering.
ReplyDeleteMM
Imagery in section 1:
ReplyDelete- ‘One calm evening he shot is dog, swam out to sea’: violence, aggressiveness, gothic, mysterious, questionable, tension, intensive
- ‘Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible’: use of religion, and the idea of Adam and Eve’s story and how the garden has ‘gone wild’
- ‘The Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother’, ‘Martinique girl’: suggests isolation, lack of community, differentiation of race or class
In the Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys uses imagery, “shutters banging in the wind, ‘the black people said it was haunted’. The use of gothic imagery reflects the lonely atmosphere that is present both within and between the characters ‘I got used to a solitary life’ this lengthens the characters connection to the real world, and intensifies all happenings. Rhys’s choice of the word ‘banging’ emphasises the silence of their isolation. Whilst ‘the black people’ portrays the separation that they experience from society due to their race ‘we were not in their ranks’.
ReplyDeleteNB
Isolation is a running theme throughout Jean Rhys’ ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ which is significantly emphasised in Rhys Imagery. This is because in the opening section of the book Rhys creates the idea of social exclusion as Antoinette states “The scent was very sweet and strong. I never went near it.” This suggests that Rhys wants to emphasise to the reader that Antoinette isolates herself from society. The structure of the sentence creates a literal image to the reader of Antoinette isolating herself from both society and nature, as the sentencing is short, which may highlight Antoinette running away from the outside world, perhaps because she is scared of the society around her, due to her social exclusion. -vl
ReplyDeleteAn example of the imagery used in part one of Wide Sargasso Sea is often presented through the use of a paradox. This can be illustrated on page four of the novel as we read, “...a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell.” This positions the setting of the garden in a purgatory state; the imagery of this is difficult to comprehend as wider themes of death and life are explored in a rather unnatural way. This further creates a detached and isolated feel of the garden, which is strange considering it is “large and beautiful”. The voice of Antoinette often presents the imagery positively; inclining us towards what is being described but then quickly comments (haven't finished sozz)maryam xx
ReplyDelete