“I remember the dress she was wearing–an evening dress cut very low, and she was barefooted.” (Rhys 80). Antoinette recalls her attire and the events of their final meeting. She was told by those around her that she made her mother’s condition worse, as Annette grieved over the loss of her son.

Antoinette is not left with positive memories of the last time she sees her mother, Anette. The second portion of the book is the longest, and largely features Rochester’s perspective, allowing him the power to shift the reader’s understanding of the events.Īntoinette is not the only character trapped in the exchange of power and sexuality, as the reader can see this with her mother. Antoinette is given multiple alternate names by a character who does not have his own. The act of not having a name allows him to create what he wants the reader to understand in his narration. Given Rochester’s power in the novel as the only character to exist significantly of his own volition in both novels, he has the most power. “The male narrator is unnamed in the text, significantly so both because he is his own ‘subject’ and thus free from objectification by naming and also because by not being named he becomes omnipotent, the god-like creator of Bertha’s narrative text” (Fayad 231). In the article “Unquiet Ghosts: The Struggle for Representation in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea,” author Mona Fayad writes about the representation of women and of the characters of color within the novel.

The use of sexuality and power and the relationship between the two shapes the characters in the novel, leading to the objectification and degradation of the characters who do not hold power.įor the sake of this analysis, Antoinette’s husband will be referred to as “Rochester.” This designation is noted in critical works of the text, as it aligns itself with Jane Eyre, the companion novel. However, there are a few characters who do not exist within the dynamics of sex and power and their existence should be noted. This novel demonstrates the dynamic of sex and power. Characters and their power dynamics are shifted due to their involvement with those around them. One specific approach in order to see power is in sexuality and the act of sex.

One can find that with power, characters can make a change to their environment and their role in the story. Antoinette, the leading character, has a shifting amount of power throughout the novel, along with the rest of the featured characters. Relationships create a form of power in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea.

Wide sargasso