Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.

 

Caribbean Cultural Representation in Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is a very powerful rewriting of a forgotten story. It is written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. In Brontë’s novel, there is a mysterious character called Bertha Mason, the “madwoman in the attic.” She is shown only through Jane’s and Mr. Rochester’s eyes and is described as violent, insane, and inhuman. She does not speak for herself, nor do we learn her history. 

       Jean Rhys, who was born in Dominica in the Caribbean, felt this was unfair. She believed that Bertha Mason had a story of her own and that her “madness” was not simply natural but connected to colonial and patriarchal oppression. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys renames her Antoinette Cosway, a Creole woman from Jamaica. The novel tells Antoinette’s life from childhood to her forced marriage with Rochester, who later takes her to England and imprisons her.

      Through Antoinette’s story, Rhys represents the cultural, racial, and social conflicts of the Caribbean in the nineteenth century. The novel deals with identity, madness, gender, colonialism, and truth. Importantly, Rhys gives us multiple perspectives Antoinette’s, Rochester’s, and Christophine’s showing that there is not just one truth but many.

1. Caribbean Cultural Representation :

     One of the most striking achievements of Wide Sargasso Sea is its representation of Caribbean culture. Jean Rhys shows the Caribbean not as a backdrop for Europeans but as a complex, living world that shapes people’s lives and identities.

a) The Landscape :

       The novel opens with Antoinette describing her childhood home, Coulibri Estate, in Jamaica. The descriptions of tropical forests, heavy rains, wild flowers, and intense heat create a vivid picture. The natural setting is both beautiful and threatening. It mirrors Antoinette’s emotions: sometimes full of joy, sometimes filled with fear.

      The Caribbean landscape also feels very different from the calm, orderly English countryside described in Jane Eyre. Here, nature is wild, unpredictable, and full of passion. This difference in landscape reflects the difference in culture and psychology between the Caribbean and England.

b) Creole Identity :-

    Antoinette Cosway is a white Creole, meaning she is of European descent but born in the Caribbean. This identity is very complicated. On one side, the black community sees her family as connected to slavery and calls her cruel names like “white cockroach.” On the other side, Europeans from England see her as “not truly English.”

      This double rejection makes Antoinette feel rootless. She belongs neither fully to Europe nor fully to the Caribbean. Her mother, Annette Cosway, also experiences this. Even though she is white, she is poor and socially isolated after the death of her first husband (Mr. Cosway, a former slave-owner). Both mother and daughter suffer from this “in-between” identity.

c) African-Caribbean Traditions

        Rhys also shows the richness of African-Caribbean traditions through Christophine, a Martinican woman who looks after Antoinette. Christophine practices obeah, a form of folk magic, healing, and spiritual wisdom rooted in African traditions. For Antoinette, Christophine is both a mother figure and a source of strength.

      Unlike European Christianity, which in the novel is linked to control and colonial power, obeah represents independence and resistance. Christophine uses it to protect Antoinette and to challenge Rochester’s authority.

d) Racial Tension After Emancipation :

       The story takes place in the years after the abolition of slavery. Freed black people resent their former masters, and white Creoles like the Cosways are left powerless and poor. This tension explodes when the black community burns down Coulibri Estate. During this fire, Antoinette’s disabled brother Pierre Cosway is badly injured and later dies. This tragedy destroys Annette’s mental health.

     Thus, Rhys portrays the Caribbean as a place of hybridity, racial tension, cultural mixing, and historical pain.

2. Madness of Antoinette and Annette

      Another central theme in the novel is madness. Both Annette and Antoinette suffer breakdowns, but their madness has different causes and meanings.

a) Annette’s Madness

   Annette Cosway, Antoinette’s mother, is a beautiful young widow at the start of the novel. She is poor and isolated. The black community hates her family because of their history with slavery. When she remarries Mr. Mason, an Englishman, she hopes for security. But Mr. Mason underestimates the racial tension and ignores Annette’s warnings.

      The fire at Coulibri is the turning point. In this fire, Annette’s son Pierre dies. This trauma completely shatters her. She becomes paranoid, aggressive, and mentally unstable. Eventually, she is taken away and locked up, separated from Antoinette.

      Annette’s madness comes from personal grief and social rejection. She loses her child, her home, and her sense of safety. Her mental collapse shows how fragile women’s lives were in such an unstable society.

b) Antoinette’s Madness :

     Antoinette grows up with the fear of ending up like her mother. From childhood, she faces rejection from both blacks and whites. Black children insult her, while English visitors treat her as inferior.

     Her marriage to Rochester becomes the final step toward her breakdown. At first, she wants his love, but Rochester mistrusts her. He listens to gossip about her family’s madness and believes she is dangerous. He cheats on her with a servant girl and, most importantly, renames her “Bertha.” By doing this, he takes away her identity.

   Antoinette feels powerless, voiceless, and alienated. When Rochester takes her to England and locks her in the attic, she becomes the “madwoman” described in Jane Eyre. But in Rhys’s novel, we see that her madness is not natural—it is the result of colonial power, cultural rejection, and patriarchal control.

c) Comparison Between Annette and Antoinette :

Annette’s Madness: caused by personal tragedy, the death of Pierre, and the loss of her home. Her breakdown is more about grief and isolation.

Antoinette’s Madness: caused by rejection, loss of cultural identity, and Rochester’s domination. Her breakdown is more symbolic—it shows the destructive power of colonialism and patriarchy.

      Both women are victims, but while Annette’s madness reflects personal suffering, Antoinette’s madness reflects wider historical and cultural oppression.

3. The Pluralist Truth Phenomenon:

      One of the unique things about Wide Sargasso Sea is its structure. Instead of giving us one single truth, Rhys shows events from different perspectives. This is called the pluralist truth phenomenon.

Antoinette’s Point of View: She reveals her feelings of fear, desire for love, and deep loneliness. Her voice shows the humanity behind the woman called “mad.”

Rochester’s Point of View: He describes the Caribbean as strange, threatening, and confusing. His narration shows the colonial mindset—suspicious, fearful, and controlling.

Christophine’s Voice: She provides a Caribbean perspective. She speaks with confidence, challenges Rochester, and offers wisdom that neither Antoinette nor Rochester fully understands.

       These different voices create a complex picture. No one perspective is the full truth. This narrative style shows that truth is plural, not absolute. It also corrects the one-sided version in Jane Eyre, where Bertha Mason is seen only through Rochester and Jane.

        Through pluralist truth, Rhys makes us understand that history and identity are built from many voices, not just the voice of the colonizer.

4. Post-Colonial Evaluation of Wide Sargasso Sea :

From a post-colonial perspective, Wide Sargasso Sea is a rewriting of colonial literature and a critique of European dominance.

a) Giving Voice to the Silenced :

     In Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason is shown as a monster without a voice. Rhys changes this by giving her the name Antoinette Cosway and telling her full story. This is an act of resistance—it restores dignity and humanity to a woman erased by colonial literature.

b) Critique of Colonial Attitudes:

     Rochester represents the colonizer. He mistrusts Antoinette, sees her as inferior, and tries to control her. By renaming her “Bertha,” he denies her identity. This act symbolizes how colonialism forced its values on colonized people, erasing their culture.

c) Hybridity :

       Antoinette’s identity shows the idea of hybridity she is neither fully European nor fully Caribbean. This “in-betweenness” is painful but also shows the mixing of cultures. Post-colonial theory often discusses hybridity as both a struggle and a richness.

d) Christophine as Resistance :

     Christophine is one of the strongest voices in the novel. She does not accept Rochester’s authority and uses her African-Caribbean knowledge to resist. She represents the strength and survival of colonized cultures.

e) Madness as a Colonial Outcome :

     Finally, the madness of Annette and Antoinette can be read as the product of colonialism. Both women are destroyed by social rejection, racial hostility, and patriarchal control. Their insanity is not natural but created by the power systems around them.

Conclusion :

 

      Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is much more than a prequel to Jane Eyre. It is a rewriting of history, a feminist protest, and a post-colonial critique. By giving voice to Antoinette Cosway, Rhys restores humanity to a character once dismissed as “mad.” The novel represents Caribbean culture through its landscape, Creole identity, African-Caribbean traditions, and racial tensions. It shows how Annette and Antoinette both suffer madness, though for different reasons Annette because of personal tragedy and Antoinette because of cultural rejection and colonial oppression. The use of pluralist truth challenges the idea of a single narrative and emphasizes that history has many sides.

      From a post-colonial perspective, the novel exposes the cruelty of colonialism and patriarchy while celebrating Caribbean resistance through characters like Christophine. In the end, Wide Sargasso Sea transforms the “madwoman in the attic” into a tragic but powerful symbol of silenced voices and colonial suffering.

Thank you for reading..

Reference :

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Gilbert, Sandra, and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press, 1979.