Phrases to include:

 Eurocentrism
 Postcolonialism
 Disruption, flux, rupture, challenges, destabilising of social hierarchies
 Paradigms of modernity
 Exclusionary and patriarchal system of values
 Complex representation of Caribbean racial tensions
 Scrutinises
 Distinctive female condition
 Ignores the varied circumstances of female oppression
 Eurocentric bias
 Monolithic characterisation of women
 A’s fragmentary narrative voice
 Non linear narrative
 Writing back
 despite contextual shifts and changing standards, both texts hold great value as a
result of their unique representations of the progression of feminism
 Whoever controls the narrative is whoever holds power

Potential WSS topic sentences:

 Insanity is the inevitable and only outcome for someone who is Othered
 Rhys explores elements of B’s life that made her fecund for victimhood
 Rhys disrupts Eurocentric hierarchies in the hope that her audience will challenge the
oppressive superstructures around them
 Bronte is solely interested in the liberation of white femininity and ignores the plight
for the liberation of imperial subjects
 Female liberation based on the preclusion of races other than white femininity is not
female liberation of all 
 Like JE, WSS reclaims the marginalised voices of women who have been silenced
by patriarchal paradigms
 Unlike JE, WSS also reclaims the voice of people who have been silenced by
Eurocentricism and colonial paradigms
o To what extent this has been successful is debated. Antoinette’s humanity is
reified but are the voices of Christophine, Tia and other ex-slaves also heard?
 Rhys does not justify Bertha, rather she explores elements that made Bertha fecund
for victimhood
 Expansion of the worldview of Jane Eyre – world is less myopic
 Acknowledgement things happening outside of the Eurocentric context

Analysis:
“Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible…. But it had gone wild. The
path were overgrrown and a smell of dead flowes mixed with the fresh living smell…”
 B displaces a fundamental Western myth by demonstrating the corruption of the
idyllic landscape

Para 3: only thru death that Tia and Bertha can be reunited - so disparate in life

B1: There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now. I remember
watching myself brush my hair and how my eyes looked back at me. The girl I saw was
myself yet not quite myself. Long ago when I was a child and very lonely I tried to kiss her.
But the glass was between us—hard, cold and misted over with my breath. Now they have
taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?
  How WSS writes back to JE:
o Biblical/mythical literary references – modernism
o Pathetic fallacy and connection between internal and external worlds
o Motif of red
o Use of binary oppositions such as fire/cold
 Post-modernism – 1950s to 200s
o Rejection of assumptions, desire to break rules
 What does marriage do to Bertha/Jane?
o Suppress and destroy/liberate, free
 Juxtaposition of titles:
o JE – narrator of her eponymous novel. Bildungsroman centralised around
celebrating her achievements and journey to individuation
o WSS – a story about being stranded in between two places, geographic
dislocation, loss of name,
 “Bertha” – metaphor for the decentralising destruction of Antoinette
o R’s twisted thinking – changing A’s name will divorce her of her madness and
personality and leave her a docile wife
o Removes the royalty, prestige of her former name
 Last page: burning candle representative of celebrating her individuation and identity
o Neo feminism – destroying herself in the hope that those who come after
don’t have to
o Candle homage to hope: ends not with B’s death but hope that she died on
the altar for women afterwards
 B’s lapses in memory – degenerative issue, trauma
o Memory lapses occur at night – motif of night
o Association of night/moon with lunacy and madness
 Rochester unnamed – retort against the erasure of identity of Bertha

So between you I often wonder who I am and where is my country and where do I belong and why
was I ever born at all

long, sad, dark alien eyes

“[The black Creoles] all looked the same, it was the same face repeated over and over, eyes
gleaming, mouth half open to shout.”

Disappearance from the narrator after confronting with R of both C and Amelie

- C “walks away without looking back”

“marionette” “silence itself”

“the hidden place” “the secret he would never know” “cardboard house”

Critics quotes
“vindicating howl of rage and injustice” – Bidisha

Whilst critiquing patriarchal and colonial discourse, Rhys has effectively backgrounded and
exoticised the black Caribbean people in Wide Sargasso Sea
“…recasts the black Creoles’ silence in response to the legacy of colonialism as a strategy of power
rather than as a reflection of weakness, and challenges in doing so the Western habit of associating
speech with power”

“demonstrates that giving voice to oppressed peoples is more complicated than merely conferring
narrative authority upon speakers” Theresa winterhalter

Context:

- Development of black Creoles’ challenge to the dominant cultural system of white

bias and their increasing and positive identification with blackness, culminating in the
Rastafarianism in post-independence Jamaica
- Novel published just 4 years after Jamaica’s independence
- Unrest

Changing contexts lead to new, often higher expectations of art and literature, such that
texts that were once considered ‘progressive,’ are now ‘out-dated,’ and violate the social
codes of contemporary society. 
 Jane Eyre was considered a ‘feminist,’ novel at the time, whereby Jane demonstrates
agency and autonomy that was not typically awared to women – 3 good 
 Brontë’s classic novel’s portrayal of feminism falls short as it does not consider the
concept of intersectionality: instead, it is a colonialist-inspired, Eurocentric
interpretation of ‘equality of the sexes.’ – 3 bad 
 Wide Sargasso Sea attempts to address the shortcomings of Jane Eyre by breathing
life into the narrative of the ‘Madwoman in the Attic,’ by providing an alternative
perspective. This remedies the characterisation of Bertha as the, ‘other,’ and instead
humanises her. In saying this, Bertha is an exception to the portrayal of Creole
women within the world of Jane and Bertha, whereby Bertha is the only one afforded
complex characterisation.  
 Small comparative paragraph acknowledging that perceptions of gender dynamics
will continue to change over time, and so, the expectations of literature will change
accordingly. Thus, we must ask the question of whether literature is able to provide a
timeless answer to such a volatile and controversial topic, and if not, whether it is
worth attempting to. → you can resolve this how you choose. 
 Integrate throughout? Another paragraph? 

Para 1: 

Literature portrays contextually relevant representations of core values, such that throughout
time, the same values may appear differently in distant texts: this concept is demonstrated in
the comparison between JE and WSS, such that JE portrays a colonialist-influenced,
Eurocentric understanding of feminism, whereas WSS demonstrates a contemporary
understanding of intersectionality. Colonial-inspired, Eurocentric understandings of feminism
invloved the liberation and autonomy of tempered European women and is demonstarted in
JE through her moderation of her passionate nature through her journey of individuation,
ultimately allowing her to wed Rochester on her own terms.  Intersectionality refers to the
modern understanding that disrupts the monolithic characterisation of women and
interrogates the varied and diverse circumstances of female oppression, demonstrated
through Antoinette’s rejection of the idea of marriage to Rochester. 
2. Furthermore, the changing and evolving nature of values reveal the importance of
emerging literature to be able to interrogate and shed light onto the characters maligned by
the past. While Bronte presents a compelling feminist narrative, she is solely interested in
the liberation fo white femininity and ignores the plight for the liberation of Britain’s imperial
subjects by contributing to the vitriolic racism against them. In her attempt to “write back”
against such bias, Rhys disrupts Eurocentric hierarchies and imbues Antoinette with the
chance to explain her own narrative, in the hope that her audience will continue to challenge
the oppressive superstructures around them.

J1: Although Bronte’s characterisation of Jane challenges misogynistic preconceptions, she

still exemplifies the traditional English view towards colonialism and strips Bertha of her
agency to overcome the same paradigm. When Rochester is comparing Jane and Bertha,
he states “Compare these clear eyes with the red balls yonder…” Bertha’s red eyes
symbolise her excessive passion and allude to demons and sin. While Jane eventually
tempers her passionate nature, allowing her to relinquish herself to Rochester on her own
terms, Bronte does not afford Bertha the same opportunity due to the colonialist views of the
time. In the Victorian era, the native people of Britain’s colonies were believed to be savage
and morally corrupt and assimilated into the enlightened ways of British culture. Bertha’s
dominant personality is denounced as feral and forcefully suppressed, reminding Bronte’s
readers that rebellion against femininity must not come at the cost of temperance and civility,
particularly from non-white women. 

J2: Bertha’s dominant personality is denounced as feral and forcefully suppressed,

reminding Bronte’s readers that rebellion against femininity must not come at the cost of
temperance and civility, particularly from non-white women. When Jane searches for
answers about Thornfield’s destruction, she is told “...[Bertha] yelled and gave a spring, and
the next minute she lay smashed on the pavement.” Bertha’s death in the fire is a symbolic
sacrifice. As both a minority and a woman, she suffers the ultimate punishment for her
passionate nature and succumbs to gender expectations so Jane can complete her journey
of individuation. This potential question is intensified through the parallels between Jane and
Bertha and the symbolic ‘fire’ they both experience. These similarities in temperament and
yet vastly different consequences poses the pair as alternative character foils, such that
Bertha eventually succumbs to the feminine paradigm while Jane overcomes it, as a result of
their essential difference in heritage. As a Creole woman, Bertha has less social capital than
Jane, ultimately damning her to destruction and affirming the insular nature of the Victorian
context.

B2: “There must have been a draught for the flame flickered and I thought it was out. But I
shielded it with my hand and it burned up again to light me along the dark passage”

3. Despite changing standards and contextual shifts, both texts continue to hold great value
as a result of their unique representations of the progression of femininity; although it
overcomes the flaws of Jane Eyre, WSS is an outdated representation of intersectional
feminism by today’s standards, yet remains of great value due to its unique representations
of the progression of feminism. 
“Subaltern woman is inevitably spoken for in Western literature, positioned in silence.”
Catherine Geenty