Rhys modeled her character Antoinette Cosway after Bertha Mason, the madwoman from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Compare how these two women are portrayed.

In Wide Sargasso Sea, the black servants set Coulibri on fire after discovering that Mr. Mason plans to bring in workers from the East Indies. How did the diverse working population—comprising Indians, Chinese, African-Caribbeans, white Creoles, and Europeans—interact in the Caribbean during the nineteenth century?

Look into the treatment of the mentally ill during the nineteenth century and compare it to the way Annette Cosway Mason and Antoinette Cosway are treated in the story.

Research the living conditions of freed slaves in Jamaica and/or Dominica. How accurately does Rhys depict their lives?