What does fire represent in Wide Sargasso Sea?
Fire is the ultimate destructive and redemptive force in the novel. The fire at Coulibri is an act of retribution and defiance on the part of the nearby black community, but it destroys the life that Antoinette has known as a child.
Who set coulibri on fire?
Fire in the novel is associated with rebellion, both political and emotional. In Part I, ex-slaves set fire to Coulibri as an expression of their discontent, partly with Mr. Mason’s plan to import slaves from the East Indies.
When the house is burned down what animal dies Wide Sargasso Sea?
The women at the wedding condemn the family as strange, talking of a six-foot snake they saw at the house—a symbol of the evil that resides at Coulibri.
What is the symbolism of the title Wide Sargasso Sea?
The title of the novel refers to the Sargasso Sea, a vast area of the northern Atlantic Ocean which is home to sargassum, a kind of seaweed. The Sargasso Sea is legendary for being an oceanic black hole, where ships get ensnared by huge forests of floating seaweed, or drift helplessly when the wind ceases to blow.
Who dies in the first fire in Wide Sargasso Sea?
The events of the night leave Antoinette dangerously ill for six weeks. She wakes to find herself in Aunt Cora’s care. Pierre has died. Annette’s madness, which has revealed itself gradually over the years, has fully surfaced after the trauma of the fire.
Is Antoinette black in Wide Sargasso Sea?
Wide Sargasso Sea is a story of binaries that entrap Antoinette, our Creole (or a person born in the West Indies but of European or African descent) woman in the English Caribbean. Antoinette is perpetually neither this nor that. Mona Fayad refers to Antoinette’s story as a “tale of a schizophrenic” (225).
Why does Annette leave coulibri?
After a year of marriage, Annette and Mr. Mason begin to argue about whether to leave Coulibri. Annette pleads with her husband to move because she feels hated at the Estate. He laughs, assuring her that the servants are harmless, that the blacks are too lazy to be threatening.
Who dies in the fire in Wide Sargasso Sea?
These descriptions not only recall the grotesque death of Annette’s bird, but they also mirror Antoinette’s perverse fascination with fire and foreshadow her own tragic end.
Why did Rhys write Wide Sargasso Sea?
Rhys aims to restore this voice with her text. She intended Wide Sargasso Sea to stand on its own, apart from Brontë’s novel, as a challenge to the canon. As a postcolonial work, the novel indicts England’s exploitative colonial empire, aligning its sympathies with the plight of the black Caribbeans.
Why does Antoinette go mad?
In Wide Sargasso Sea Antoinette’s “madness” can be interpreted as a social phenomenon; she is driven “mad” by her patriarchal husband. Her “madness” is a consequence of Mr Rochester’s oppression in a diseased patriarchal society, a society that allows and accepts cruelties towards women.
Does Antoinette commit suicide in Wide Sargasso Sea?
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.