Starting the Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys was a bit of a tough task. I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan just because there was so much going on that made it hard to understand. But, I am not here to discuss my struggles. So let’s talk about Rochester.
When he was first introduced, I kind of felt for the guy. He wakes up in a foreign land married to the “alien eyed” Antoinette. He walked into the marriage without knowing anything about her or her family history. Everyone in the town knew about Antoinette’s family history but they kept all the information secret from him. It was kind of like an ongoing joke that the townspeople had about Rochester’s and Antoinette's relationship. And while this is happening, Rochester still trying to fit into being the master of the estate. But he kind of loses the dominance in this role because he is in the dark about so much along with the fact people don’t really take him all that seriously.
Somewhere in the book where this was fairly evident was his conversation with Amelie. In this seen, Rochester has finally figured out that something is amiss.This is somewhere he seeks to find answers, but she is kind of toying with him. She gives him indirect, or incomplete answers. I feel like this is more of an amusement for her, to taunt and mess with his head, knowing he won’t act on what she’s saying. Although, not much he can do about because he’s not aware about the secret. And he can’t really punish her if he doesn’t know whether she spoke the truth or not. In this scene, it can be observed that Amelie is in control of the situation. Even with a servant, we can see that Rochester’s supposed dominate role is lacking.
Although, being a white, male, Englishman, Rochester is supposed to be familiar and able to fit into the dominant role of a family, he is unable to because all of his life, he's always been just second best. Moving to the Windward Islands, he assumed that he would be able to finally be the dominant one. But to his dismay, because he is kept in the dark during his stay, he can never find the light and the role he feels he should play.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how, since Rochester has been figuratively kept in the dark, he feels the need to punish Antoientte by literally keeping her in the dark. Although this punishment is cruel, it's understandable. Rochester seemingly taking the Hammurabi method by claiming "and eye for an eye".