Why is antoinette mad in wide sargasso sea

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel gave relevant lectures between and at several universities on the issue of madness. Berthold-Bond, Theory of Madness 1. The desire of living in unity is, in fact, a never-ending process as the human being is confronted frequently with disruptions within it. In order to manage it, people tend to sink backinto the period of infancy, in which the infant was not yet able to distinguish between inner and outer world and thus, was in complete harmony with itself ibid.

By doing it, people are able to confront themselves again with the difficulties brought by the outer world, as a full return to this state is not able within a healthy consciousness. As a result, people have achieved unity between themselves and the outer world,at least until the next disruption appears.

For further elaboration of the self-development, Hegel introduces in his theory the concept of desire. In this concept, he distinguishes between the terms desire and second face of desire that emphasize exactly on those processes that human beings have to undergo in order to achieve their goal of unity in their individual life.

Berthold-Bond, Theory of Madness On the other hand, Hegel introduces the second face of desire , building the counterpart to desire. Hence, the second face of desire wishes to sink back into the period of infancy, where disruptions and painful experiences caused by the outer world cannot be found. Thus, human beings are caught in a never-ending process of desiring to recover the pre-conscious state and tempted to turn backwards into it.

Hence, by the time human beings have completely turned backwards into the life of feeling , i. People are not able to distinguish anymore between inner and outer world, so that they create a reality within themselves cf. Thus, in the Hegelian theory, madness is set in the life of feeling , containing primitive instincts, body and nature, where the connection between the mind and outer world is detached and hence, the mind becomes self-sufficient cf.

Magee Therefore, those human beings unconsciously searchfor an alternative and found their rescue in total regression into the life of feeling cf. Considering the assumption that madness requires a previously, fully developed and healthy consciousness, it results in the assumption that a mad human being possesses a double center of reality, in other words a double personality cf.

On the one hand, every mad self maintains a connection to the real world — though a very slightly one — and therefore, has the ability to refer to that rational consciousness. Thus, the mad person is driven by two personalities struggling against each other, though the unconsciousness plays the dominant part in this combat.

The issue of dreams plays an important role in the theory of Hegel as they are seen as concepts that project the deepest internal wishes and drives and thus, symbolizes the unconscious cf. Dislocation and distorted thoughts and meanings can be recognized and analysed in every dream of human beings. Sleeping is, therefore, to be seen as a withdrawal into the life of feeling where unconscious drives are portrayed cf.

By the help of dreams, people are able to escape daily alienation and painful experiences and, thus, are capable to cope with them and to bring those in unity with reality. Taking the illness of madness into account, this means that mad human beings are imprisoned in this state of sleeping but while awake. The inner wishes and drives are transferred into reality. Thus, outer and inner world cannot be distinguished anymore cf.

The point is that rationality is replaced by a more primitive and archaic discourse, exactly that of the life of feeling. Healthy human beings are able to reflect those feelings and can connect it to reality. In contrast to those people, mad persons are not able to cope with alienation and turn back in a pre-historical state.

Hence, the connection to reality and social contact to others cannot be built. To conclude, madness can be seen as a response to experiences of isolation and alienation. Mad human beings attempt nostalgically to return to the pre-historical state of nature, that maintains deepest wishes and instincts. By reaching this period, they might also achieve self-unity, as the self is not experiencing itself in connection to the outer world and thus, do not have to suffer from painful experiences caused by history.

Although they might obtain happiness, they cannot be considered as healthy human beings with a full developed and sane consciousness. Here, Antoinette is depicted as a crucial person, who had become mad and over all a monster. After reading Jane Eyre , Jean Rhys felt the urge to unfold the story as she felt that some parts were missing so that post-colonial characters were set in the wrong light cf. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide.

By Jean Rhys. Previous Next. Antoinette Mason Rochester So…is she or isn't she? Here are a few things to mull over: Antoinette the Madwoman Back to that pesky question again. Antoinette the Creole Antoinette challenges characters both white and black on their views on race, particularly their treatment of white Creoles.

Antoinette the Vamp There's probably a weighty feminist tome out there on why women are called "vamps" if they're up front about their sexuality. Antoinette the Zombie Like many characters in the novel, Antoinette at times acts like a zombie, particularly at the end of Part II.

Antoinette the Victim? Antoinette the Dreamer However you might feel about her as a character, you have to admit that she's got a vivid dream life, so vivid in fact that it seeps into the reality she lives in. What's Up With the Ending? Yet, despite being equally drawn to her, Rochester fears this depth of emotion and the ensuing lack of control. Rochester is subject to a conflict between his own sexual desire on the one hand and ideologies of race and gender on the other:.

Wide Sargasso Sea offers an examination and questioning of long established ideas about women and madness. The Victorians believed that women were especially vulnerable to insanity and were much more likely than men to pass it on to their children.

Under the arrangement of her stepfather, Antoinette married Rochester. But Rochester did not love her and he accepted the marriage just for thirty thousand pound dowry. The honeymoon had not finished, Antoinette was abandoned by her husband. Antoinette protested at first, but without success. And then falling into despair, she had alcoholism and became numb. Later, she was brought back to Britain by Rochester and imprisoned as a madman in the attic of Thornfield.

Her nervous thoroughly collapsed, and finally she set fire to the house and ended her life. Many critics conducted a further research on this novel. A lot of critics and scholars, home and abroad, have mainly analyzed and interpreted the text from various perspectives, such as feminist criticism, postcolonial criticism, deconstructionist criticism, anthropology, psychoanalysis criticism, and archetypal criticism.

Mardorossian discussed the novel from the perspective of double decolonization and feminist criticism [1]. Porter made a comparison between the heroines and victims of Jane Eyre [2]. Some put great emphasis on its writing style or pay more attention to the identity of Antoinette, while others have tried to compare the similarities and differences between Wide Sargasso Sea Jane Eyre.

In addition to the above mentioned oversea studies, Chinese scholars have also contributed a lot to the study of this novel. For example, Liping Chen has focused on the identity crisis undergone by Antoinette Cosway and Edward Rochester to illustrate the phantasmatic nature of White identity [3]. Jiong Tang has analyzed the heroine of the novel from the perspective of self psychological development [4].

Deming Zhang tries to explore the same fate both individual and cultural identity through identity narrating [5]. In this paper, we will try to explore the causes that lead Antoinette to death, through the social context of her life, her growing family environment as well as her personal characters defects. Antoinette was born in a slave-owning family in Jamaica in the nineteenth century.

At that time, the West Indies abolitionist movement is surging, the uprising black slaves rise to fight their equal rights. Her father, a slaveholder, died suddenly. As a white Creole in West Island of Jamaica, the intermediate between Blacks and pure whites, the heroine Antoinette was doomed to suffer confusion of self identity.

On one hand, they were marginalized by the white rulers. On the other hand, they were suffered hatred from the blacks. They hated us. They called us white cockroaches. Let sleeping dogs lie. I walked fast, but she walked fast…. Rhys, [7]. As the social conflicts were intensified, the white rulers chose to leave, but the native mestizo whites from Martinique had no way to go, most of them still lived here, their homeland. Antoinette grew up in the chaos.

She could not enjoy the material life of a wealthy family. She suffered the hardships and vicissitudes of life at the young age. She had no friends, either. The people around her were hostile. Since people are connected with the whole society, they have mutual influence. The role of the community is dominant and decisive.