Wide Sargasso Sea (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Jean Rhys
- First Published: 1966
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: The mid-nineteenth century
- Setting: Spanish Town, Jamaica; Massacre, a village on the Windward Islands; and Great Britain
- Principal Characters: Antoinette Cosway, Annette Mason, Rochester, Christophine, Daniel Cosway, Amelie
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Culture, Caribbean, Love or romance, Race, Nature, Nineteenth century, Marriage, Alienation, England or English people, Jamaica or Jamaicans
- Locales: England, West Indies, Jamaica, Dominica, Windward Islands
Form and Content
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys’s characters fall into mental instability as a result of the rejection and isolation that dominate their lives. Rhys does not give a sentimental version of her characters’ declines but offers a detached journalistic account from two perspectives. The novel is divided into three sections. Section 1 is narrated by Antoinette, who describes the rejection that penetrates her early childhood. She also narrates section 3, which further depicts isolation as she is placed in an alien environment in England. Section 2 is...
[The entire page is 2370 words long]
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