| Wide Sargasso Sea - Extract n°5 |

Commentaire Wide Sargasso Sea - Extrait 5

De "The road climbed..." (p.39) à "that cannot be filled up" (p.44)


[ Corrigé, note : 16/20 ]

Our extract is set at the beginning of the second part. The narrator is no longer Antoinette but her new husband, Rochester. The setting has also changed : the second part takes place in Dominica, and more precisely in Granbois, for the young couple's honeymoon.

Rochester and Antoinette didn't make a love marriage. Before the XIXth century, people rarely got married because they wanted to, their parents arranged it for them, because it was a matter of money. Here, Antoinette's step-father, Mr Mason, and Rochester's father have arranged the marriage for the same reason. Mr Mason has chosen Rochester because he's of « a good race ». As Rochester is the second son, according to the english law, he will not inherit: as a consequence, he has to make a wealthy marriage to make fortune.

That's why he considers his wife like a stranger. He doesn't even call her « Antoinette », but « the woman » or « the girl », as if she was unknown, anonymous. She's just « beautiful », but her « pleading expression annoys [him] ». They force themselves to smile and to be kind with each other, but we can feel the tension between them.

The letter to his father (he'll never send) is a way Jean Rhys uses to express the arranged marriage conditions. « The thirty thousand pounds have been paid to me without question or condition » : Rochester, like Antoinette, has not chosen to get married, he has been paid to do it and he commits to respect his father's will (« I will never be a disgrace to you »).

Moreover, this marriage is definitely doomed. The setting itself does not seem to be by their side, Rochester has been sick with fever for two weeks, the village they visit is called « Massacre », which contrasts with « marriage » and evokes suffering and death. The landscape itself is not welcoming, « not only wild, but menacing ». Jean Rhys uses, like Charlotte Brontë, the technique of word painting  which suggests the character's feelings through the description of the landscape. He feels like the hills are going to close in on him, like a prisonner who cannot escape. The colors are too « extreme », « everything is too much », « too much blue, too much purple, too much green », « the mountain too high, the hills too near ». He's ill-at-ease and uncomfortable, like he was not where he should be.

What's more, if Rochester doesn't like the place, he also dislikes the people there. « Sombre people in a sombre place ». For example, Amelie, the servant sems to be « a lovely little creature » at first sight, but she also looks sly, spiteful and malignant, as if she was a devil's creature. When he meets Christophine for the first time, she appears like a rival (« We stared at each other for quite a minute. I looked away first and she smiled to herself »), both want to have power over Antoinette. Every place, every person, everything is against him.

Later on in the extract, Antoinette and Rochester are going to their honeymoon house. He qualifies the air of « intoxicating », in spite of the smell of cinnamon, roses and orange blossoms. He enters the house « unwillingly ». Even the refuge of Mr Mason's room quickly become suspicious. « The feeling of security had left me ».
Mr Rochester is alone. The bird sings a lonely sound, there's not any sound in the house, Antoinette tells him this is « her place », as if he was an intruder. « Nothing » and « everything », the « refuge » and his suspicion, the people in the house but the feeling that it is deserted, « Massacre » and « marriage », the beautiful landscape and Rochester uncomfort, all these contrasts emphasize his lonelyness, but also the abyss between him and his wife.

To finish, three heavy symbols announce the future. The song of the « cock » is hardly evoked, announcing the coming betrayal of Rochester. Rochester steps on the wreaths, symbol of welcoming, right after he has drunk with Antoinette to happiness, as if he knew the marriage will never make them happy. Then, he sees his wife through the looking-glass, one of the most important symbol of Antoinette's thin identity. That's in that place that she's going to lose this identity and turn mad, because of Rochester, who'll call her Bertha to bemuse her.

These discreet clues are condemning our two characters to decline, and Antoinette to madness and death. Nothing in this extract witnesses of the happiness they should feel during their honeymoon. On the contrary : there are all the ingredients to make them unhappy. Because they are doomed.