Wide Sargasso Sea Book Review

~ Wide Sargasso Sea ~

Our world today faces many problems and it seems that sometimes, the best way to inform people about these problems is through literature. Throughout our intensive, In the Footsteps of Seneca Falls, we learned that even a one-stanza poem by Emily Dickinson could have the same amount of hidden meanings and important messages as an actual book.

Novels like Wide Sargasso Sea are important to read because they give us context about problems from the past and ones that are prevalent in the society we live in. Wide Sargasso Sea is about the life of a Creole girl named Antoinette Cosway who lives near Spanish Town in Jamaica. Antoinette’s mother, Annette, decides to marry a man because their estate is very rundown and the family is in dire need of money. Marrying for financial support and stability was a commonly discussed topic throughout our intensive and is an important part of the history of women and our fight to gain equality. However, it is very difficult to be equal to men and remain financially stable when you are limited to working in your own house.

The novel also focusses on the effect that a person’s race can have on their life. Throughout Antoinette’s childhood, people taunt and criticize her because she is Creole and because her now deceased father was a slave owner. Antoinette is even made fun of by one of her playmates named Tia who ends up calling Antoinette a racial slur, steals Antoinette’s fancier dress when she is in a pool, and then Tia leaves her dingy dress for Antoinette to wear home. She also faces criticism when she is walking home because other children follow her and call her a “white cockroach”.  Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg for Antoinette.

The threats and criticism continue to worsen until the villagers build up so much hatred that they decide to set Coulibri, her family’s estate, on fire. As a result, her brother dies and Mr. Mason, Antoinette’s stepfather, isolates her mother because he thinks she has gone mad, by sending her to an island to be cared for by people of color. Therefore, Antoinette lives in a convent for a year and then with her Aunt Cora until she marries a man that her stepfather picks for her which brings us back to the role that many women played in society because Antoinette’s stepfather signs over all of her wealth to her husband so that he will marry her. Their marriage is very complicated, lustful, and scandalous because Mr. Rochester, her husband, cheats on Antoinette with a maid in order to get back at her because she had a spell cast on him in hopes for an improvement in their marriage.

Mr. Rochester ends up forcing Antoinette to move to England and isolates her on the top floor of their new house, which is almost a direct parallel to her mother’s situation when Mr. Mason sends Annette away. Antoinette decides to take her life into her own hands for once and… Read the book to find out!!! :)

You should read the book to read about what happens to Antoinette and to read about the societal problems of racism, sexism, and much more that Antoinette and many other women are forced to face on a daily basis. Even though we can never fully understand something until we experience it ourselves, it is important to read stories like this about oppression so that we can reflect upon them and create change throughout the world.