Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea tells the tragic story of Mr. Rochester’s first wife, Antoinette Conway Mason.
We meet Antoinette as the young daughter of an ex-slave owner in early 19th century Jamaica. When the Emancipation Act of 1833 is passed, depleting the wealth of slave owners, her father drinks himself to an early grave.
Antoinette spends her days alone, in isolation, much like Mr. Rochester, neglected by her mother and brother. An Englishman named Mr. Mason marries her mother and restores the estate to its former grandeur, and Antoinette is enrolled in a convent school. At seventeen, she is cultivated and presented to English society.
After a short courtship, she marries Mr. Rochester.
Because they knew so little of each other beforehand, the marriage is a lonely one. She feels rejected by him, and he gives her the name Bertha, of which she loathes. He takes her to England and locks her away in the attic, where she loses touch with reality and becomes violent.
Reading Wide Sargasso Sea is a wonderful companion to Jane Eyre, since I found that “the crazy woman locked in the attic” became a real person, one gaining my sympathy.
