Jane Eyre & Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys Charlotte Bronte

There are many similarities between Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre. Such as how Antoinette is treated in her family as a child. She's almost like the unwanted one, who

gets left out and keeps to herself. She even seems to be mistreated like Jane was by her family. Also Antoinette was sent away to school like Jane. And even though she was beautiful and Jane wasn't it almost seems like both caused them to have different issues. Antoinette ended up marrying a man who fooled her into thinking he loved her by his looks and Jane got ignored and told how unattractive she was repeatedly. Both had damaging affects for sure. Jane was fierce and outspoken as a child but as she grew she learned to keep quiet and keep her thoughts herself. She dealt with Rochester's impolite manners toward her very well because it was what she was used to. Rochester in Wide Sargasso Sea seemed to hate how Antoinette and everyone wore their feelings on their sleeves and showed them in their eyes. Jane and Antoinette both had hard lives growing up as children and ended up with a large inheritance which gave opened up different doors for each of them. It gave Jane the ability to go back to Rochester and it gave Antoinette Rochester who was after her money.

I can't help but bring up how strongly I feel for Antoinette after having read Wide Sargasso Sea and I am practically ashamed for having felt sorry for Rochester for having to deal with his insane wife. However, I found it extremely interesting how the Jane and Antoinette's personalities differed. How Rochester fell for Jane's plainess and quiet manner but began to hate Antoinette for her wilder spirit.

Also another similarity I noticed was in the nannies or attendants at the house. Antoinette had Christophine who reminded me a lot of Bessie and how she showed tough love sometimes but always had pure love for Antoinette.

Colonization

First Edition Cover
Clearly colonization is a huge issue in Wide Sargasso Sea. Due to the desire for wealth and slaves a people gets exploited and lives get ruined. Even those who are chasing the wealth and consider themselves higher in society can't escape the wrath of colonization. An example of this is when Mr. Mason believes that he and his family will be fine and money can be made but in the end their home gets burned down and his step son dies. Colonization can't be all bad though? I mean, America came about through colonization. But how many had to die to fight for our independence? Same thing in Wide Sargasso Sea, due to the emancipation widespread chaos, starvation, and hate rushed throughout the area. It seems that colonization, exploration, and exploitation can all be grouped together in the sense that all have the ability to create and destroy. Colonizing creates new oppurtunities and worlds for people but also can take away freedoms of the natives or even those pulled into a world they don't want to be in due to their bloodline. Exploration opens people up to new places and peoples but as we can see in Robinson Crusoe exploration can its advantages (riches) and disadvantages (fellow sailors dying and watching men eat other men). And both of these can cause exploitation, with colonization in Wide Sargasso Sea it caused the people to be enslaved and be forced to fight back against the Englishmen. In Crusoe he sells people as slaves even people he makes promises to like Xury.

Rochester is way too hot!!

I watched the BBC version of Jane Eyre with Timothy Dalton as Rochester who in my opinion is much more attractive than Rochester is described by Charlotte Bronte in the book. Even Jane Eyre doesn't fit her description. She is of a healthy weight, comely facial features and overall very plain but she is not skinny nor does she give off the look of malnutrition as a child. I also didn't like how John Reed looked either he was too small in my eyes to be such a bully. However Bessie and Mrs. Reed I thought captured their character very well. Helen Burns was not in the movie long enough to really get close to however she did put across her views on accepting punishment very well. I didn't like how she was in the roadway when Rochester is thrown from his horse making it look like it was because she was in the way. The book portrays her as more of a heroine in that moment than the silly little woman causing the man trouble like the movie did. I also do not like how Rochester's wife looks less scary than Grace Poole! She looks almost normal. I mean her hair is a mess and she looks unclean but still very odd how she doesn't look like a beast like she was portrayed in the book. St. John in the movie doesn't seem as over-the-top and pushy in the movie as he does in the book. I almost like him, I mean he is still a little overbearing and very pushy about not having to be in love to be married but I have more feeling for him in he movie than in the book. However, the whole time I want Rochester and Jane to finally end up together. But I think in the movie Rochester's look help very much.

Friday who?

Friday loses his own identity and allows himself to be changed and mastered by Robinson Crusoe.

Page 149
"I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me; and first I made him know his Name should be Friday, which was the Day I sav'd his life;"

Crusoe gave no care for what his real name was. He is a twenty six year old man and he never even tried to ask him even after teaching him to speak to him. He just took control of who he should be right away.

Page 149
"I likewise taught him to say Master, and then let him know, that was to be my Name;"

He also takes over Friday by telling him to call him Master. Friday probably doesn't know what the word means really but the fact that Crusoe knows and seems to act as though he has the right to be his "master" takes away from Friday's own independence.

Page 149
"...he lays His Head flat upon the Ground, close to my Foot, and sets my other Foot upon his Head...and...made all the Signs to me of Subjection, Servitude, and Submission imaginable...I was very pleas'd with him;"

He doesn't even bother trying to allow Friday to feel as if he could possibly be himself and not be a slave. He allows Friday to give his life up to serve him. Even though Friday offers himself it ust seems that Crusoe takes advantage.

Page 153- after having killed a goat and then a parrot
"...beckoned him to run and fetch it...." "...I pointed to him to run and fetch it..."

Crusoe simply uses him to run after the things he kills. Being someone's servant in this way tears a person down and forces them to believe that one is the "master" and one the "slave."

Page 156
"...I began to instruct him in the Knowledge of God..."

Now many would say someone taking time to teach another about God is a very good thing, however in this case the teacher is also the "master" and therefore doesn't leave much room for Friday to think on his own. He asks many questions but in the end he just accepts what Crusoe has told him.

Page 163- Friday is asking Crusoe to go back to his home country with him
"You teach wild Mans be good sober tame Mans; you tell them know God, pray God and live new Life."

Friday accepted all Crusoe said because Crusoe is his master and now Friday believes that Crusoe's way is the best and is right.

Page 166- Crusoe has taught Friday how to use a gun. Which is not bad but for him that is taking away his ability to fight like a man as such. Here Crusoe has asked him if he can use a gun to fight the people who have arrived on the canoe and Friday is saying that he can.
"Me shoot"

Finally the biggest change is shown in the scene with the bear:
Page 212 & 213
"Me make you good laugh;....No shoot, me shoot..."
Here Friday shows the men something that was a sport in his own country but in the end he kills the bear with a gun. He feels that he can lose who he was and show that he is like the other men to show off.

Daniel Defoe's Life and Career

According to http://www.luminarium.org/eightlit/defoe/defoebio.htm Daniel Defoe was born Daniel Foe in 1659 in London. He was born into the working class, his father was a butcher. His father desired that he grow up to be a minister but as Defoe grew up he realized that the church was not for him. He went into business. He became very involved in politics and wrote pamphlets. He steadily began working more toward becoming a writer. In the late 1600's Defoe became bankrupt and began working at a tile company. His pamphlet writing allowed him to help out the King when the people were losing faith in him. But when the King died and the church began to gain power Defoe lost of his popularity due to the fact that he was not part of the church. He was a "dissenter." He ended up being put in jail for about two years. Even while he was in jail he kept writing the same kind of pamphelts that had gotten him in trouble in the first place. And later after being released from jail he got involved in something very interesting. He actually became a spy for the government. Then in 1719, he wrote Robinson Crusoe. Some state that he is the "father of the English novel." http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0896-7148(199223)4%3A3%3C386%3ATAOOTE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6 He led a fascinating life which finally ended in 1731.

The killing of the Albatross

Seeing Beauty in the Bad

First before I get into talking about the poem. I found a a site about Coleridge and a little about his life if anyone is interested.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/292

Something I found very interesting about the Rime is how the mariner killed the albatross for seemingly no reason except to give the story a point. So what was the point? The main thing I got out of it was seeing good in something bad. Realizing that God is in all things. Taking time to stop and smell the roses even on your worst day, those are the important things in life. These are the little things that can make a huge difference in your outlook on life. Taking time to appreciate God's nature and his mysterious ways shows your faith and desire to do good, more than just being sorry for something you did that turned out terribly bad. In the Rime the mariner only receives forgiveness and gets help when he starts see beauty in the odd creatures and snakes, and in the colors of the sea that has become practically rotten. He begins to notice the beauty in the colors of all these things and it is only then that he is finally able to actually pray and appreciate life and the Lord. I think a great passage that adds to this idea is from Henry Van Dyke:

"The Footpath to Peace
To be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars;to be satisfied with your possessions, but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them;to despise nothing in the world except cowardice;to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts;to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manner;to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends and every day of God,and to spend as much time as you can with body and with spirit in God's out-of-doors -- these are the little guide-posts on the footpath to peace."
By: Henry Van Dyke
(taken from http://www.jkeziaexpressions.com/Footpath-to-peace.html)

There are many intereting points brought out in the Rime but this one stuck with me because I am all for seeing beauty in the bad. Making the best of things that seem the worst, and taking time to appreciate what you have.