Okay,
during my panel presentation I asked a question regarding a statement made in
our article. And it's just been constantly bothering me so I wrote a little
thing about it. Here is the statement, just for incite:
"In
a critical essay titled “Race and Caribbean Culture,” author Sandra Drake
mentions that “Antoinette wants to use the spell to complete her assimilation
to England and to whiteness” (198), thereby at last earning a definite identity
for herself."
Alrighty,
lets discuss this. This is basically saying that Antoinette used
obeah to complete her naturalization to the English
culture. I mean using a culture's custom in order to distance yourself from
said culture, if that's not a mess I don't know what is. And overall, I don't
really agree with this statement for several reasons. The first is that
it is super contradicting. It doesn't really make sense for her to attempt to
distance herself from the Jamaican culture and into the white culture by using
a Jamaican custom.
Another
thing is that the whole reason Antoinette even used obeah was
to make Rochester fall
in love with her. She was
using obeah in attempt to make Rochester fall in love with the
Jamaican traits/behaviors that influenced her during her life. And
this completely opposes and smacks down the argument that is stated
in the article.
Overall,
I just don't think that the statement itself is a reliable way to analyze
that scene, Antoinette's subconscious reason for using or if this relates
to her racial identity at all. But then there is this:
"When
the potion ultimately fails to produce the desired effects, Antoinette is
forced to recognize her non-whiteness as well as her non-blackness because as
Christophine states to Rochester, “She is not béké like
you, but she is béké, and
not like us either” (93)."
I'm
not sure how to interpret this section of the article. I agree that when the
potion fails it kind of destroys her but I'm not completely sure if it actually
does have anything to do with race. I mean, it backfires and Rochester still
doesn't love her, which breaks her spirit because that was the whole point of
using obeah. I'm taking reach here and saying that in terms of race, she
doesn't know where she belongs because she can't make Rochester fall in love
with her and her Jamaican upbringing. But she also can't make him fall in love
with her even if she (attempts to) develop the English culture.
Then
again, does Antoinette want to develop an English culture? Mr. Mitchell brought
up the scene where Antoinette was having wine with Rochester, who called her
Bertha. And in the scene she initially rejects the name. This kind of
shows that she doesn't really want to have an English identity,
because she rejected the very European name of Bertha. But who knows. I'm
a bit iffy on this. If you guys have any interpretations regarding both or
one of the statements, leave a comment below.
(wow,
I sound like a youtuber, oy).
I agree with you here. When Antoinette convinces Christophine to give her the love potion, she is attempting to use very Jamaican remedies to fix things with Rochester. She is upset about the English laws that have removed her from her fortune and thus made her dependent, and she doesn't seem interested in becoming a part of that culture. I think it's precisely the opposite (as you said): she's trying to get Rochester more accepting of the Jamaican culture, so they could live more happily together.
ReplyDeleteI think that the point being made in the novel is that Jamaican and English culture don't mix. There was a common belief at the time that white people who lived in the West Indies would become wild, crazy, and uncivilized from being there. Obeah is a completely Jamaican thing, and was equated with witchcraft by many, so Rochester rejecting the love potion (physically and mentally, as neither seem to make him more attracted to her when he wakes up) would make sense. Jamaican and English culture don't mix, which is what makes Antoinette such an outsider, because she doesn't fully belong to either culture fully because of her race and socioeconomic standing.
ReplyDeleteI think there might be a little something to her wanting to be english. At one point she considers the opportunity to feel like an English girl exciting, and it seems like English culture had been somewhat glorified during her upbringing. However, I think that whiteness and Englishness aren't really the same thing. As far as I can remember, she never has any desire to be like the other Jamaican white people. Though your points about obeah being un-English still stand against my english-but-not-white theory. This is kind of a cop out, but I think her relationship with race and culture is very complicated, so it's possible that she could want to be both a part of the black Jamaican community and English in theory but not English in practice (when it actually comes to living in England and having an English name).
ReplyDeleteI had not thought of this perspective before reading your blog post, but I like how you say that when Antoinette used the love potion to try and win Rochester's true affection, she was using Obeah to fit into white culture. This makes perfect sense-- if she had a happy and traditional marriage with Rochester, perhaps even moving back to England, she would certainly be a normal part of white culture. While the obeah does not work and her plan fails, this is a very interesting perspective.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the article's argument you shared, which is ridiculous. Antoinette doesn't want to go to England, she wants to stay in the west Indies. And she still resents being called Bertha at the end. I hadn't thought of it as a rejection of European culture, but that is certainly an interesting way to look at it.
ReplyDelete