Finishing Wide Sargasso Sea was certainly... a journey. We've experienced emotional rifts, a tumultuous marriage, and what has become an inside look of a character trapped in another book. A prevailing theme that I encountered while reading Rhys' novel was the overlying theme of mortality. Though it's the first thing that springs to mind, I'm not talking about just the physical deaths of certain people, like Antoinette's mother.
Specifically, I'd like to return to a quote that was said by that very person towards the beginning of the novel. When Antoinette inquires about Christophine to her mother, her mother's response reveals something about her outlook on the world.
'I daresay we would've died if she'd turned against us and that would have been a better fate. To die and be forgotten and at peace. Not to know that one is abandoned, lied about, helpless.'
At the time that we read this, it likely appeared incredibly pessimistic, and cast a cloud of negativity over Antoinette's mother from every scene on. However, it's important to note that we see Antoinette emulating some of these same feelings towards life when we see her become involved with Richard. Not overtly--she doesn't necessary say the exact same thing, but it's all in how she's portrayed (through Rochester's eyes) in the second part of the book.
Death doesn't only mean to cease existence and for a body to perish; death can also mean a loss of someone's sense of self and awareness, and especially an awareness of the fact that they might as well be dead. That sounds incredibly morbid, but I definitely saw similar sentiments in Antoinette. Take a small snippet of a conversation between Rochester and Antoinette as a prime example of this fascination with death and this lack of zest for life (on Antoinette's part).
"Always this talk of death. (Is she trying to tell me that is the secret of this place? That there is no other way? She knows. She knows.)
'Why did you make me want to live? Why did you do that to me?' [said Antoinette.]
'Because I wished it. Isn't that enough?'
'Yes, it is enough. But if one day you didn't wish it. What should I do then? Suppose you took this happiness away when I wasn't looking…'"
Antoinette vaguely questions the point of her existence; why would Rochester give her reason for wanting to live when it would probably be better to be dead? It's interesting that here, in this scene, she essentially gives Rochester total agency and power in controlling something as important (or, from her perspective, trivial) as her own life! It's obvious how dangerous this sentiment is, especially since Antoinette is as much of a threat to Rochester's sense of self as the environment and "secret of this place" is. Rochester basically has a direct hand not only in the fate of Antoinette's life, but also in her state of mind, as we can see later in the book.
The climax of the book, Antoinette's jumping from the balcony of the house in England, exemplifies how the original mindset of death being something that is "peace" has morphed into something that must be, if only for Antoinette's sanity. She realized during that final dream sequence that she knows what she must do.
Overall, Wide Sargasso Sea was dark. I had the movie (?) cover version of the book, in which an impassioned Antoinette is suggestively accosted by a similarly impassioned Rochester (at least I assume these were the characters portrayed on the book). In this case, it was a definitely a case of judging a book by its cover--there was almost nothing that was romantic about this book! At least not in the steamy romance drama way that was implied by the glistening wet hair and the passionate expressions on their faces. The book was overridden with subtleties that could have easily been missed, and hidden themes that definitely kept me from surface-level thinking.
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