Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea Compare & Contrast
Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea have their obvious differences, but they are also connected in several ways. For example, both women are infatuated with Mr. Rochester at one point, while feeling a sense of dependency and weakness linked to their feelings for him. Mr. Rochester’s overbearing character and intrusive personality have both women questioning their involvement in each relationship. Besides that, Jane and Antoinette’s dreams provide foresight for the plot and theme of both novels. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette states “Is it true that England is like a dream? One of my friends wrote and said London is like a cold dark dream”. This quote hints at Antoinette’s tragic fate in the near future as she transforms into Bertha and is locked in the attic. Not only that, but both women grew up without a father, attended boarding school, and find out the secrets lurking behind Rochester’s past. The difference between both women however is their literary significance. Antoinette is a supporting character who derives from the novel Jane Eyre, and is only given a marginalized voice by Jean Rhys because of her dissatisfaction with Bertha’s destiny. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette symbolizes the internal and external destruction that colonialism can cause, and its long lasting effects that seep into Charlotte Bronte’s novel. In Jane Eyre, Jane is a champion for Victorian women as she exemplifies the potential that women have if they are not subjected to the societal limits and barriers that tradition has placed on them. Although both women are similar in various ways, they are equally different in their roles.