Last year, in 19th Century Novel, I read Jane Eyre. I really loved it, and I actually really liked Mr. Rochester. However, reading Wide Sargasso Sea has really changed my views. I mean, I know they're two completely different books written by two completely different people, but I'm getting a completely new perspective on Rochester that I didn't have before. Reading Wide Sargasso Sea is definitely making me rethink my views on Rochester in Jane Eyre, and not in a good way.
Though Rochester is "prideful" in Jane Eyre, I still liked him. I thought he was an interesting character, and very intriguing. I wanted to see him fall in love and marry Jane. I was devastated when she rejected him, and overjoyed when they finally were married. I felt sympathy for Rochester, I truly did. I felt bad for him that he had this mad wife that he had to keep locked away. Reading Jane Eyre, it did seem like Bertha Mason wasn't Rochester's fault at all. He truly had been tricked into marrying a mad woman for money, and there was nothing he could do about it. You know, I really felt for him. Here was a man, desperate to move on and find new, true love, and he literally can't because of his past. I'll be honest, I wanted Bertha out of the way so Rochester and Jane could be together, and I was so happy when they finally could be. I may have been one of the very few people in my class to actually feel that way.
But now, reading Wide Sargasso Sea, everything changes. I mean, what a difference a simple change in perspective makes. See, since I had only seen Bertha as mad in Jane Eyre, I could never imagine her coherent, and thus Rochester became the only source of reliable information. But in Wide Sargasso Sea, being with Antoinette as she grows up really changes the way I see her and Rochester. I have much more sympathy for Antoinette, and hardly any for Rochester now. I see Antoinette as the one who has been tricked and deceived, instead of Rochester. In Jane Eyre, it seemed like perhaps Rochester had had some sort of care or affection for Bertha. In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, I truly think Rochester never had any sorts of feelings for Antoinette. Sure, he thought she was beautiful, but he never seemed to actually care about her, he just went through the motions. Anyone can kiss, but not everyone can kiss with love and passion. I honestly think Rochester deceived Antoinette, as Christophine said, and "made love to her till she was drunk with it." And we've seen what happens when Antoinette gets drunk.
See, that's why I just can't believe that Antoinette is going insane. You have to consider her situation. I can pretty safely say that most women would go ballistic if their husband slept with another girl right next door to them. I mean, Rochester did that completely on purpose, he was rubbing it in Antoinette's face. I really lost all respect for him at that moment. Deception is one thing, but rubbing that deception in someone else's face is another thing entirely. Before, Rochester was being a jerk, but only in his head. Now, he's a complete and utter jerk.
But I digress. As I was saying, Rochester gets Antoinette drunk on him with love, and love can cause people to do crazy things. Especially since, it seems to me, that Antoinette is desperate for affection. She never felt wanted by her mother, or by the people around her. The only person Antoinette really ever got affection from was Christophine. But here's this strapping young Englishman, and he tells Antoinette he loves her, and she, never really knowing or experiencing love, believes him right off the back. She's basically an innocent impressionable child that he's manipulating. I mean, he's turning her into a proper English woman so he can bring her back as his wife. It's clear he doesn't love her, he doesn't even like who she is. He jumps at the possibility of her being insane, and uses it as an excuse to hate her and try and get out of the marriage. I mean, what an absolutely rotten guy!
I really hate Rochester in Wide Sargasso Sea, I really, really do. I don't like him at all. Not even a little tiny bit. In Jane Eyre, he was romantic, or at least I saw some romance in him. But in Wide Sargasso Sea, though you could argue that Rochester is being romantic, there is nothing underneath it. Rochester actually cared about Jane, maybe cause she was the proper English woman he was always looking for, but without any feelings towards Antoinette whatsoever, all of his charm and romantic acts on her are completely deceptive and make me sick.
1 comment:
This is a nice reflection of how _WSS_ serves as a critical commentary on Bronte's novel--like a good critical essay, it gets the reader to reexamine her reading of the source novel and to consider a character in a new light.
Your two competing readings of Rochester aren't maybe totally incompatible, though: if we take seriously Bronte's (and Jane's) idea of *redemption*--the sense that Rochester has made some appallingly bad moves in the past, but that he is haunted by them, and tortures himself with the thought of them, and doesn't see himself as *worthy* of Jane's love and all--then Rhys's portrait helps emphasize just how far he's humbled by the events in Bronte's novel. Maybe? Or does Rochester as a young man here behave SO badly that he can't be redeemed?
(This may be what Rhys had in mind--the idea that his "redemption" in _Jane Eyre_ depends upon Bertha throwing herself from the window, essentially sacrificing herself so that Rochester and Jane could be happy. She's not a real, three-dimensional character in _Jane Eyre_, and thus doesn't figure as strongly into most readers' interpretations of the "main" story. But Rhys has compelled us to look her tragedy straight in the eye--and to hold Rochester completely responsible for her death.)
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