Breaking Antoinette Up
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette marries Rochester. Rochester doesn’t love her and only married her for money. Rochester takes everything away from Antoinette, driving her mad. Her madness isn’t inherited from her mother, she’s “mad” because of her situation in this terrible marriage. Rochester, even though he doesn’t love Antoinette, needs to be in control of everything. He “owns” her, and unfortunately, at the time, the law agrees.
Rochester “breaks” Antoinette. In the beginning of their marriage, he shows her some “love” and because of her past, Antoinette really wants to hold onto this feeling. But Rochester takes that away from her, he won’t give her “love”. This starts to break her because she wants this feeling so much that she would do anything. She goes to Christophine to ask for help and puts the white powder in Rochester’s drink. She basically drugs him, and you have to feel sorry for Rochester in this case. But the point is that Antoinette starts breaking when Rochester takes the “love” away from her. Rochester also cheats on her with Amelie which doesn’t help.
Rochester changes Antoinette’s name. He starts calling her Bertha. His other nickname for her is Marionette. He calls her Bertha so that she sounds more English. He needs her to conform to what he wants. He calls her Marionette because to him, she’s like a doll he can control. He thinks changing her name will turn her into the English wife he wants. He needs to be able to manipulate her as if she were his doll. He tries to take away Antionette’s identity.
He also moves to England, taking Antionette with him. He takes her away from her homeland and then locks her up in his attic. This kind of treatment is enough to drive anyone insane. You’re taken away from the only place you know and love. Then you’re confined to one room that is cold and dark. It’s really depressing, and you can understand why this made Antionette crazy.
Rochester needs to be in control. He needs Antoinette to be “his”. He even calls her “My lunatic. My mad girl” (166). He’s very possessive of her, which is why when Christophine says that Antionette would remarry, he gets really angry and jealous. He’s obsessively possessive of Antionette even though he hates her.
Antoinette is driven crazy because of all this. He takes away her “love”, her identity, and he locks her up. Rochester “breaks” Antoinette. She didn’t inherit her madness, she was driven mad.
This is a really good analysis of Antoinette's story. I agree with you that, despite what Daniel Cosway and others think, Antoinette was driven into madness; it wasn't inherent in her. I think that Rochester was the most direct cause of her madness, however I also think that she would've been better equipped to deal with Rochester had her childhood been better. Antoinette didn't really have a place in society. She was a creole girl, but she was raised almost entirely by Christophine, who was a different race, so she didn't fully belong to either group. Additionally, she was isolated most of her childhood, with no friends other than her brief relationship with Tia. I think that, had Antoinette had a specific place in society as well as a better support system, her relationship with Rochester could have gone better.
ReplyDeleteI agree. This idea that Rochester's taking everything away from Antoinette, even her name, homeland and freedom drives her insane makes sense. She has lost it all, and the person who took it away from her finds it alright to dangle the idea of love right in front of her, one thing she never got from anyone, and snatch it away just as fast. She is desperate to leave behind all of these denials, and one way to do that is to leave sanity behind as well.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you go into a deep analysis about how Antoinette's madness is essentially caused by her husband and not her genes. I think it's important how, not only do you talk about how her forced isolation caused her "madness", but also how Rochester's act of "taking love away from Antoinette" broke her, resulting in her turning "crazy". An aspect of this that I found interesting while reading was that throughout all that Rochester had done, Antoinette seemed to turn a blind eye but then breaks down after finding out about Amelie.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of the points you made. I would also argue that Antoinette's true breaking point comes after he locks her in the attic. Rochester is, in some ways, obsessed with Antoinette up until this point. He hates her, but hate isn't really the opposite of love, it's indifference. When Rochester locks her in the attic and stops coming upstairs, it's a sign to Antoinette that he no longer cares, that he is trying to ignore her rather than simply break her. Ironically, the moment he stops trying to break her is the moment she breaks completely (by burning down the estate). It might have been better for both of them if neither of them had expected anything out of the relationship and been indifferent the whole way through - an unhappy ending is a hundred times more bitter, having had a taste of happier love.
ReplyDeleteIts true that she was driven to madness because of Rochester. It is also ironic that Rochester tried to separate her identity from her mothers (Giving her new name, taking her away from her home, etc.) to try to prevent this madness. But in doing so, she driven her to madness. I felt like he did feel love for her at the beginning of their relationship but I feel like that love was driven by the fact that she was rich. Like a land that has yet to be conquered. But now that he has conquered the riches, he doesn't care about it much anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really good look into Antoinette. People think she is going to become mad simply because her mother did, but really Rochester did. And did Antoinette’s mother really go mad or did someone drive her there?
ReplyDeleteI agree. Antoinette's end was a result of the unfortunate circumstances she was put through and nothing more. It's really unfair how a lot of people label her as just turning mad like her mother. I think that if the other characters in the novel knew the whole story and everything she was forced to endure from a young age, they would give her an excuse.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Antoinette does not go mad because of her mother, but because of how other people treat her. Rochester bears most of the blame (being too stubborn and spiteful to accept Christophine's solution), but the locals also bear some blame for setting up the situation to become as bad as it did.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I totally agree. In class we definitely brought up the idea of how since Antoinette can't identify with the black or white community she tends to heavily identify with the actual place she lives. This probably made it worse for Antoinette when Rochester dragged her away because the west indies was her identity. This definitely could drive someone to insanity.
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