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1.2 Introduction of Wide Sargasso Sea
Wide Sargasso Sea is Rhys’ most representative work. With the publication of famous Jane Eyre, nearly all the readers around the world worship the confident and independent Jane Eyre. Only Rhys notices the mad white Creole woman Bertha in Jane Eyre, who has the same race identity and culture background with her. She thinks that Charlotte discriminated Creole people. So she determines to write a story about the mad Bertha to convey the real truth and introduce the Creole people to the whole world.
The novel tells the tragic life of a Creole woman called Antoinette. It consists of three parts. The first part reflects the Creole’s survival crisis by showing Antoinette’s dangerous, lonely and loveless childhood at Coulibri after the death of her real father Alexander Cosway. The second part tells the story of Rochester and Antoinette’s loveless marriage. The last part narrates the end of the story: Antoinette fires the house to revenge and jumps into the fire after being caged by Rochester in the attic for many years. 源:自*751`%论,文'网·www.751com.cn/
Through this novel, Rhys shows the Creole people’s hard life and the racial and sexual inequality under the dual oppression of patriarchy and colonialism.
2.The External Factors of Antoinette’s Tragic Life
Antoinette is born in a slave owner family in Jamaica in 19th century. At that time, Jamaica is one of the English colonies. The colonialism intensifies the social contradictions. Unluckily, Antoinette’s real father dies in a social riot. Since then her family lives in straitened circumstance and utter poverty. Relatives and friends keep away from them and their slaves leave them gradually. The local black people bully and humiliate them. They are subjected to endless bullying. To improve their life, Antoinette’s mother Annette marries Mr. Mason who is an English man. Mason wants to make a fortune in Jamaica like any other English people. He marries Annette only for her estate. Several months later, their happy life ends. The local black people hate them so deeply that they burn their house trying to kill them. Antoinette’s little brother dies in the fire and this almost drives her mother mad. Then her mother is incarcerated by her stepfather. And Antoinette is sent to a convent. One year later, her stepfather arranges her to marry Rochester who is compete a stranger to her. She is cheated by them, and marries him not knowing the truth of the matter. After Rochester gets all her money, she follows the trail of her mother. Being imprisoned in Thornfield and being ill-treated for many years, she grasps the opportunity to revenge. After burning Thornfield, she jumps into the fire to ends her tragic life.
2.1 Gender Oppression of Females in Patriarchal Society
The word Patriarchy refers to despotic rule by the male householder or the sovereign in which power is principally held by adult men. It means men have absolute authority and leadership and they can control the fate of women who are concerned to be inferior to men.文献综述
In patriarchal society, the male who own properties and titles rule the society. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Mr. Mason, an English white man, marries Antoinette’s mother Annette for her estate. After losing all the property, Annette depends on her husband completely. Insidious Mason incarcerates Annette in a house with the excuse that Annette is mad. He arbitrarily arranges Antoinette’s marriage with a completely strange English man called Rochester. He promises to offer Rochester 30000 pounds as Antoinette’s dowry. By these ways, he abandons his wife and stepdaughter Antoinette. He never cares about Antoinette’s opinions. This reveals that in patriarchal society, men absolutely rule women and oppress women with ethical and moral requirements and the rules they set, but they can do anything without punishment. In a typical patriarchal society, the younger sons in a family can not inherit properties. As the second son of his family, Rochester, who has no right to succeed to his family property, requires money to remain his status and fame. On the one hand, Rochester’s father prefers to give all property to his eldest son; on the other hand, concerning about the fame of his family, he doesn’t want Rochester to be a poor wretch. He knows that Antoinette has a large sum of money as her dowry. So he fraudulently arranges this marriage for Rochester. Though Rochester despises Antoinette, he has no choice but to marry Antoinette. Poor Antoinette falls into the scheme for money. Shortly after Rochester acquires Antoinette’s property, Antoinette starts to suffer from this loveless marriage. Rochester robs everything and leaves nothing to her. Now she is worthless to him. If she dares to show angry with his husband’s contempt and oppression, it will only cause more annoyance and disgust. Antoinette can’t stand her misfortune in marriage, but what she can do is bearing her husband’s insult and obeying him. Women can’t receive real independence without financial independence. Before they marry, their lives are completely controlled by the householder of their family. After they marry, they lose their inherited property and only concerned to be their husbands’ servants. Generally speaking, women are robbed of all their rights and being treated unequally by men. Antoinette’s marriage reflects a gender oppression of females in patriarchal society.