wide-sargasso-sea读书报告

1、Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 postcolonial parallel novel by Dominica-born author Jean Rhys. The novel acts as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's famous 1847 novel Jane Eyre. The opening of the novel is set a short while after the 1834 emancipation of the slaves in British-owned Jamaica. The pro

2、tagonist Antoinette conveys the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre). As the novel and their relationship progress, Antoinette, whom he renames Bertha, descends into madness.After reading through the novel, I can

3、t stop pondering over question: why the marriage between Antoinette and Rochester turn out to be a tragedy while the one between Jane Eyre and Rochester does the other way around. Although both of these two women have miserable life experiences, eventually they have different endings. When comparing

4、 these two women, we can easily find that Jane Eyre is very plain, poor and not very pretty, yet finally she has a happy marriage. However, Antoinette is pretty and owns a considerable number of legacies, yet her final destination is being mad and burned to death in a roaring fire. What are the reas

5、ons that make these two pitiful females have extremely different fates? Apart from the difference in their individual characters, there are, I think, some other reasons concerning gender equality and racial equality. It is obvious that Jane has achieved these two kinds of equality at last. She can r

6、each the equal level of thinking in spirit so that she can communicate with Rochester spiritually. Jane is not inferior to Rochester and Rochester is not inferior to Jane, either, so that is to say that their love is based on gender equality, which leads their love to happiness and permanence.If the

7、 happiness of love between Jane and Rochester is based on gender equality, then the tomb of marriage between Antoinette and Rochester rests on racial inequality and gender inequality.On the one hand,Rochester is representative of the metropolitan state while Antoinette is the representative of the c

8、olony. For Antoinette, she has identity crisis, for as a white Creole, she is neither part of the black slave community nor accepted as part of European, a lack of belonging. And the problem of displacement and a shaky sense of one's own identity are already well established in the first part of

9、 the text, long before the marriage takes place: “. a white cockroach. That's me. That's what they call all of us who were here before their own people in Africa sold them to the slave traders. And I've heard English women call us white niggers. So between you I often wonder who I am and

10、 where is my country and where do I belong and why was I ever born at all.”(102) We can see that Antoinette was living in the crevice, which is one reason that she is inferior to Rochester in identity. Because to Rochester, he has the noble identity of being an English gentleman although he takes li

11、ttle possession of money. His noble status is a determining factor that he can play a leading role in marriage. Rochester regards the black people in the West Indies with great loathing. Antoinette's insanity, infidelity, and drunkenness are the result of his misguided belief that madness is in

12、her blood and that she was part of the scheme to have him married blindly. Being a seemingly noble English gentleman, he had undesirable prejudice against Antoinette. To him, she seems to be simply another aspect of the West Indies' otherness that he cannot connect with: “She never blinks at all

13、, it seems to me. Long, dark, alien eyes. Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European either”. Rochester is not only a noble Englishman but also a colonist, while Antoinette is just a woman living on the edge of being accepted either by the black people or by the

14、white people. They are totally different in thoughts and behaviors. Therefore, their marriage is doomed to a failure. On the other hand, there is no gender equality between A and R. Although A has a relatively amount of money, she is too weak and too dependent on men that she finally loses everythin

15、g, including freedom. Throughout the story, we can find that Antoinette is virtually defenseless. She rarely protects herself, like when she visits her mother (who she knows is undependable and unloving) and goes to her mother with love, only to be rejected yet again. She has a similar episode with

16、Rochester. Fully aware that he does not, she asks him if he loves her and invites the misery his answer of, "No, I do not" (89). Sex is Antoinette and Rochester's only form of communication and they are communicating only their lust and desire for each other, not love. Sadly, Antoinett

17、e hopes their desire for each other, which is so powerful, will develop over time into love. But Rochester is not interested in loving Antoinette. From a feminist viewpoint, it is easy to see Rochester as simply cold and cruel, but he too is sorry that there is a lack of genuine communication in the

18、ir relationship. Rochester is unable to love what he sees as an object, a possession. He is also unwilling to make the effort to get to know Antoinette, to understand her, to love her. He begins to call her "Bertha", signaling the beginning of his separating himself from her (ironically he

19、 tells Antoinette he likes to call her Bertha because it is a name dear to him). As readers we are immediately made nervous by this new name, not only do we sense Rochester's impending erasure of Antoinette, but we associate the name Bertha with the madwoman he will lock up in the attic of Thorn

20、 field Hall. He was willing to get married to Antoinette with a purpose that he could possess her 3 thousand pounds left by her stepfather. He was the one who could sell his soul just to satisfy his greed. Antoinette is typical of women who suffered from mans imperialistic power at that time. She is

21、 only regarded by her husband as a source of finance and a subordinated object, having no say in family affairs. Thus, it is extremely hard for her to break this stereotype to gain the security she has long been dying for.In conclusion, whether its love or marriage, it should be grounded on equality

22、 so that it can be enduring and go towards happiness. Two classical novels present us two different kinds of women with similar life ordeals, so do two different kinds of love and marriage, yet they eventually have different endings. For Jane, she lives a happy life with Rochester but for Antoinette, the marriage between her and Rochester eventually ends up with trag