| Wide Sargasso Sea - Extract n°2 |

Commentaire Wide Sargasso Sea - Extrait 2

De "Coulibri looked the same" (p.13) à "Persisetently. Angrily." (p.14)

[ Corrigé, note : 15/20 ]

The extract we're going to study belongs to the first part of the novel. Antoinette, the heroin, comes back to Coulibri Estate, after spending some time with her brother Pierre at her aunt's in Spanish Town.The dramatic context grows more complex ; indeed, the new character introduced brings some changes in the Cosways daily life.
This new character is Mr Mason, he got married with Annette, a former widow andAntoinette's mother. He's a welthy Englishman who came to the West Indies with Mr Luttrel – Antoinette's neighbour who commited suicide – to make money buying up the old estates. The Cosways were poor, his arrival should have been a blessing and a great relief. But it's not so simple.
Of course, they use his money to repair the estate and to have a better social status. Mr Mason engage new servants, that Antoinette doesn't like very much, and Sass, a former slave, come back at home. 'Someone' has said that « They can smell money », that's to say he comes back now he knows he'll be paid. But instead of being relieved, Annette is more and more frightened. Here is the main change of atmosphere : the fear of the Black community, a real danger that threaten the family everyday.

Annette is convinced she's hated by the former Jamaïcan slaves (« The people here hate us. They probably hate me »). She wants to leave Coulibri Estate because she doesn't trust them. The Blacks are not really mentionned, they are supposed by the pronoun « they », or by « the people here ». « They » seem to look after what the Cosways do everyday, « they invent stories about [Mr Mason], and lies about [Annette] ». This community is omnipresent in their life, as if they were watched.
Mr Mason do not pay attention to what her wife say, for him, they are too « lazy » to be dangerous. Annette treats the Blacks as equals, whereas Mr Mason treats them as children, laughing at Annette's fear. He thinks they are only curious, but Annette uses the adjectives « dangerous » and « cruel ». She adds that he can't understand.

In fact, Mr Mason can't understand because he's not the same mentality, not being born in Jamaïca. He belongs to another White group, he's stranger for everything. Annette knows what the Black community can do and the way they think. She feels something terrible is going to happen if they stay at Coulibri Estate, and she's right : they will soon burn the house.

When Antoinette comes back home, she feels that something has changed, and this change has been provoked by the Black community, by this « they »: « It was their talk about Christophine that changed Coulibri, not the repairs or the new furniture or the strange faces ». Here is another important theme of the novel, and of this extract.

On the second paragraph, Antoinette describes Christophine's room. This room is full of contrasts. First of all, the furniture : the « old » rocking-chair and the « broken-down » cupboard contrast with the bright counterpane. Then, Antoinette mentions « the picture of the Holy Family and the prayer for a happy death ». Practicing obeah, Christophine should not have roman catholic pictures in her room. She practices black magic and prays everynight. In Jamaïca, tradition and religion are not incompatible.
The third paragraph introduces the idea Antoinette made herself of obeah. One day, as she's coming to this room, something unusual seems to happen (« suddenly », « yet one day »). She's strangly frightened, even if it's not dark (« the door was open to the sunglight ») and if there's someone in the stables, she's afraid. She feels like there is behind the cupboard a dead's hand, white chicken feather from a coak dying as his blood is falling into a bassin, « slowly, slowly ».
She has never heard exactly about obeah bu she imagines what it could be and what Christophine could do in her room. The sacrifice of a cock are common in obeah rituals, but the idea of the hand might have come from mixed traditions.When Christophine arrives, she's not afraid anymore and forces herself to forget.
Obeah is also suggested by what Annette says: « They try to find out what we eat everyday » ; putting poison in food is also part of black magic.



To conclude, this extract stresses two very important points for the novel : the fear of Annette face to the Blacks hatred and the lack of understanding of her husband, and obead practiced by Christophine that keeps the Blacks away and frigthen Antoinette.
However, they will not stay calm a long, and their hatred will soon explode with the fire in the house that will definitly change the Cosways' destiny.