Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Zuzana Violová A Comparative Analysis of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea Supervisor: prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A. 2017 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature 2 Acknowledgment I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A., for her guidance, support and valuable advice. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………........ 5 2. Literary Context ……………………………………………………………………. 8 2.1. Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre ……………………………………………………….. 9 2.2. Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea ……...…………………………………………….. 13 3. Analysis of Jane Eyre ……………………………………………………………... 17 3.1. Jane’s Path to Womanhood …………………………………………………………... 18 3.2. Jane Eyre, the Heroin ………………………………………………………………… 22 4. Analysis of Wide Sargasso Sea …………………………………………………… 29 4.1. Antoinette’s Path to Womanhood ……………………………………………………. 30 4.2. From Antoinette to Bertha……………………………………………………………. 33 5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… 37 Works Cited …………………………………………………….................................... 41 Resumé (English) ……………………………………………………………………... 43 Resumé (Czech) ………………………………………………………………………. 44 4 1. Introduction Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea are novels that are based on significant female characters who are exposed to strong male dominance. Jane Eyre, a highly praised novel of the Victorian era published in 1847, unfolds a story of an orphaned girl’s journey from childhood to maturity, whose immense persistence and patience had made her one of the most remarkable literary characters known to this day. On top of that, Brontë’s intriguing writing immediately draws its readers in and the popularity the novel has been still gaining to this day is earned rightfully. Wide Sargasso Sea was published in 1966 as a response to Brontë’s novel and therefore it is often marked as a ‘prequel’, a novel whose narrative precedes that of the previous work (Merriam-Webster). The novel tells a story about Brontë’s character, Bertha Mason, the first wife of Mr. Rochester. Nevertheless, Wide Sargasso Sea can be read independently of Jane Eyre and be still appreciated for its quality, regardless of its connection to the classic novel. Jean Rhys, influenced by Brontë’s work and intrigued deeply by Rochester’s first wife, took Bertha’s character and transformed her to her motherland, Jamaica. Although the novel is not based on the original character by Jean Rhys, Francis Wyndham, an editor who wrote the introduction to the first edition of Wide Sargasso Sea argues that the novel ‘exist in its own right, quite independent of Jane Eyre’ because ‘[Rhys’] personal knowledge of the West Indies, and her reading of their history’ creates something entirely new and original’ (Wyndham 12). However these two novels may differ in content, they do provide essentially the same message in spirit. They contribute not only to feminist movements but mainly to the womanhood itself by representing their main characters Antoinette and Jane in opposition to their male oppressor, Edward Rochester with whom they are both romantically related. 5 Both novels are written by female writers. Such a position alone may have caused difficulties during the times when they were active. Charlotte Brontë, a novelist of the 19th century was writing during the time when the printing market was dominated by male authors. It was more than impossible to succeed for a female writer and Brontë knew that very well. Gilbert and Gubar discuss the traditional concepts of writing in the 19th century where male writers considered themselves naturally gifted with a talent for writing. A pen was represented as a phallic tool and therefore men believed that they were naturally predestined for literary talent and writing (Gilbert & Gubar 8). Who knows if Brontë would have succeeded had she not created a male pen name? Rhys, too, met many obstacles during her active years that were mostly rooted in her relationships with men but the period of the 20th century was nevertheless more appreciative than the Victorian period. Their personal experience was a bottomless source of inspiration that helped to create realistic and unidealized portraits of women heavily influenced by patriarchal society. In the case of these novels, the crucial character that signifies the male dominance is Edward Rochester who appears in both of them. The writers portray their main female characters differently and there lies a source of inspiration for this diploma thesis. The aim of this work is to analyze Antoinette’s and Jane’s distinct approach to the relationship with Rochester. Antoinette, who falls in love with Rochester, is gradually crushed by his restrictive tendencies of behaviour and she becomes a victim of arranged marriage. On the other hand, Jane, who starts a relationship with Rochester willingly, does not let him influence her with his behavior. She does not accept his attempts to dominate her in their relationship and after the great disappointment, she leaves him in order to achieve independence. The thesis furtherly comments on the element of self-identity of both Jane and Antoinette. This view is specifically rooted in 6 their childhood experience that formed separately under distinct conditions. While Jane grows up as an orphan in England, Antoinette is reared in a fatherless family, in the exotic Caribbean during the period that followed shortly after the Emancipation Act was declared. In the first chapter, the novels are set into literary context and at the same time, the chapter provides an insight into the process of development of each novel separately. On top of that, the content is based on autobiographical portraits of the writers and therefore includes facts about personal lives and explains the influence of the authors on their characters Jane and Antoinette/Bertha. The third and fourth chapters offer separate analyses of Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea that are the core of the thesis and focus on the distinctive experience of Jane and Antoinette with male dominance, especially Rochester’s, and shows how they both cope with the patriarchal constraint accordingly. 7 2. Literary Context This chapter concentrates on the origin of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea with a brief introduction to Charlotte Brontë’s and Jean Rhys’ work. The sources for the content of the novels are autobiographical and therefore the subchapters discuss individually each writer’s personal life as well. It begins in their childhood and gradually gets to the point in their life when they were already established as successful novelists. Also, another important factor is that both novelists reflected in their work their own personal experience. Since the aim to sum up anyone’s life in a few paragraphs is an impossible task, there is used only information crucial for the purposes of this work To provide clarity, each subchapter is divided into two parts. The first subchapter deals with the personal life of Charlotte Brontë - her roots, motherless childhood and being a successful novelist. The latter is centered on the development of Jane Eyre, its publishing, and reception. The chapter dedicated to Jean Rhys discusses her background in the first part and the process of developing the story of Wide Sargasso Sea in the second part. The background of both writers is important for clearer insight into the literary context, but mainly for a clear apprehension of the characters of Jane and Antoinette because they were based on the real experience of their authors. 2.1. Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816 in Thornton, England to Patrick Brontë, an Irish priest, and Maria Brontë. She was the third of six children. At the time when Charlotte was born, the Brontë family lived at the parsonage in Thorton. In 1820, they moved to Haworth where the family settled. Charlotte’s mother got ill and died in 8 September 1821, at age thirty-eight. Aunt Elizabeth, Maria’s sister, had been living with the family for a few years so she could take care of the children. However kind-hearted and affectionate towards the children she was, they were her sister’s children after all and she chose to ‘adopt an unsentimental, rather withholding demeanor’ (Harman 42). And because Charlotte was at the time of her mother’s death only five years old, her memories of her were ‘very scant’ (38). Charlotte’s motherless childhood greatly affected her work. As Harman explains: ‘Brontë’s heroines are all motherless, adrift and starving for parental love‘ (38). In August 1824, Charlotte started to attend The Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge with her three sisters. The school was run by a local landowner and philanthropist. ‘The regime he instigated at school was deliberately Spartan one of early rising, long prayers, spare facilities, plain food and outdoor exercise, based on familiar charity-school models’ (45). With the addition of coldness and dampness in rooms, many distinctive illnesses quickly spread amongst the children. Charlotte’s sister Elizabeth and Maria had died suddenly in 1825. Due to the tragic events, Patrick Brontë decided to withdraw the remaining girls, Charlotte and Emily, from the school. Charlotte transferred the arduous and tragic conditions of school into Jane Eyre, particularly to the portrayal of Lowood school. Furthermore, it is in fact ‘the very first novel to use a first-person child narrator’, according to Claire Harman (55). After leaving school, children were tutored at home by their father. Apart from reading, learning and doing various chores, children were most of the time left on their own (57). During this period, Charlotte could experience for the first time the division between gender roles in their household, which was nothing unusual for the Victorian era. As Helen Moglen elaborates on this matter, she points at the unequal distribution of tasks that must have been done at home (Moglen 34).

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