Books - Exmouth 1
This group meets at a member's home at 10.30am on the Second Tuesday of the month.
Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys
The title of the book, Wide Sargasso Sea, refers to a stretch of the Atlantic Ocean between the West Indies and the Azores, where winds are generally light and the water contains large amounts of floating weed, or sargassum. In the days of sail, a ship could be held up for weeks and the frustration and upset this probably caused mirrors the emotions of the main characters in the book.
Wide Sargasso Sea is set in the West Indies soon after the abolition of slavery. There are two narrators – Antoinette and Edward Rochester. Antoinette is a Creole, or white person, whose family had previously owned slaves. Although compensation was being paid to slave owners, the value of their property fell since those who had worked as slaves now demanded payment, leading to an increase in the price of sugar. Unsurprisingly, there was bad feeling between the white and coloured people and many ex-slaves were unemployed. Antoinette’s mother had recently married an Englishman, Mr. Mason, but they had to move after their property at Coulibri was burned down in a riot, leading to the death of Antoinette’s younger brother Pierre.
Antoinette’s mother lost her mind after this event and was admitted to a convent. Antoinette herself went to the convent later after staying with Aunt Cora and remained there for some years. She felt the convent to be a place of sanctuary, but when she was older, an arrangement was made between the Masons and the Rochesters that she should marry Edward. This was a financial arrangement and, although Antoinette was a beautiful young woman, Edward had no real love for her.
This part of the story had been told by Antoinette, but the narrator now changes to Rochester. He states that they travelled from Jamaica to the Windward Islands to spend their honeymoon on a family estate called Granbois, which was set in a beautiful wooded area near mountains. Antoinette proves to be a passionate woman but a letter to Edward from her half-brother, Daniel Cosway, describes the whole of her family as being subject to mental illness, which affects Edward’s attitude towards her. He finds the beautiful surroundings oppressive and is unable to relate to the black servants while she becomes unhappy, her behaviour more erratic and more reliant on her old nurse Christophine. Eventually, he decides to leave the Windward Islands, initially for Jamaica and then on to England.
Wide Sargasso Sea was written as an attempt to tell the story of Bertha – known as ‘The Madwoman in the Attic’ – in Jane Eyre. It points out how Rochester came to feel that he had been duped into marrying her. He insists on the name Bertha and he takes her to England in order to maintain control over her money. Whether she is truly mad or just deeply depressed is arguable.
There was some discussion about the situation of the slave-owning families in the West Indies. The book implies that they felt cast adrift by the abolition of slavery and there is the suggestion that their relatively small numbers led to some degree of inbreeding. Opinions about Wide Sargasso Sea were varied.
March – His Bloody Project by Roderick McRae Burnett
April – Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
May – The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
June – Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
July – All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr