Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea analysis, postcolonial literature, feminist criticism, Jane Eyre prequel, Bertha Mason, symbolism in literature, patriarchy, Creole identity, displacement, the Other, madwoman in the attic, Cambridge English literature guide, character analysis, themes.

Welcome, scholars and literature enthusiasts, to the inaugural issue of The Literary Lens. This guide is designed to provide you with a clear, detailed, and academically rigorous breakdown of Jean Rhys's seminal work, Wide Sargasso Sea. We will navigate its complex themes, characters, and literary techniques, equipping you with the knowledge to excel in your essays, seminars, and examinations. Our analysis synthesises key critical perspectives, including postcolonial theory, feminist critique, and symbolic analysis, to offer a holistic understanding of this groundbreaking novel.

About the Author: Jean Rhys (1890-1979)

Jean Rhys was a mid-twentieth-century novelist born in Roseau, Dominica, a Caribbean island that was then a British colony. Her personal history is crucial to understanding her work.

• Key Biographical Points:

• White Creole Heritage: Rhys was born into the planter class, a community of white descendants of European colonisers. This positioned her in a complex, often ambiguous space: she was neither fully accepted by the British colonial establishment nor by the Black Caribbean community. This experience of marginalisation directly fuels the central conflict in Wide Sargasso Sea.

• Life in England: She moved to England at the age of 16 and struggled with poverty, unstable relationships, and a sense of profound displacement. This personal experience of alienation and being an "outsider" in the metropolitan centre mirrors the plight of her protagonist, Antoinette.

• A Voice for the Silenced: After early literary success in the 1920s and 30s, Rhys fell into obscurity for nearly three decades. Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966, was her triumphant comeback. The novel is her most famous work, celebrated for giving a voice to a character famously silenced in Western literature: Bertha Mason, the "madwoman in the attic" from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Critical Appreciation

Wide Sargasso Sea is not merely a prequel to Jane Eyre; it is a powerful postcolonial and feminist rewriting of a classic text. Rhys shifts the narrative perspective from the English centre to the Caribbean periphery.

• 'Writing Back' to the Empire:
  The novel is a prime example of what postcolonial theorists Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin call "writing back." This is the process where authors from formerly colonised nations challenge and subvert the narratives imposed by the colonial power. Rhys "writes back" to Brontë by telling the story from the perspective of the Creole woman, revealing the colonial prejudices and patriarchal oppression that led to her tragic fate.

• Challenging 'Madness':
  Rhys reframes Bertha's "madness" not as an inherent genetic flaw, but as a social and psychological consequence of being dispossessed, renamed, and imprisoned—both physically in an attic and culturally in an English identity that is not her own.

• A Tragedy of Two Victims:
  While the novel powerfully centres Antoinette's suffering, a nuanced reading, as highlighted in the research by Inna Malissa Che Jamal et al., also encourages us to see Rochester as a victim of the oppressive patriarchal system. As a younger son with no inheritance, he is forced into a mercenary marriage, which fuels his own resentment and cruelty.

Plot Summary

The novel is divided into three distinct sections, each with a different narrative voice.

• Part One: Antoinette's Childhood in Jamaica

• Narrator: Antoinette Cosway.

• Summary: This section depicts Antoinette's impoverished and isolated childhood after the Emancipation Act of 1833. Her family, former slave owners, are now ostracised by both the Black Jamaican community, who call them "white cockroaches," and the wealthy English colonisers. Key events include the burning of her family estate, Coulibri, the death of her disabled brother Pierre, and the subsequent descent into madness of her mother, Annette. This section establishes the root of Antoinette's profound sense of dislocation and identity crisis.

• Part Two: A Disastrous Marriage in Dominica

• Narrator: An unnamed English gentleman (we know him as Mr. Rochester).

• Summary: Rochester arrives in the Caribbean and, motivated by her dowry, marries Antoinette. Initially enchanted by the lush landscape and his new wife, he quickly becomes overwhelmed by the alien environment. His growing paranoia is fed by a malicious letter from Daniel Cosway, a man claiming to be Antoinette's mixed-race half-brother, who alleges madness runs in her family. Rochester withdraws, renames Antoinette "Bertha," and consummates his relationship with a servant, Amélie, to torment his wife.

• Part Three: Imprisonment in England

• Narrator: Antoinette/Bertha.

• Summary: The narrative shifts back to Antoinette, now imprisoned in the attic of Thornfield Hall in England. Disoriented, cold, and stripped of her identity, she exists in a ghost-like state. The section culminates in her famous, dream-prophesied act: taking the keys from her guard, Grace Poole, and setting fire to Thornfield, an act of defiant self-liberation, even if it means her own death.

Major Themes

• Displacement and Alienation:
  This is the novel's central theme. As defined in the research, displacement refers to the feeling of being forced from one's home and feeling like an outsider in a new environment.

• Antoinette is displaced in her own homeland and later in England.

• Rochester feels alienated and threatened by the Caribbean landscape and culture, leading to a hostile withdrawal. He is also displaced from his family structure as a disregarded younger son.

• Racial Identity and the 'Other':

• The 'Other': A key postcolonial term for a person or group defined as foreign, strange, or outside the dominant social norm. The coloniser often constructs the native as the 'Other' to justify domination.

• The White Creole: Antoinette occupies a tragic middle ground. She is "othered" by the Black community for her white ancestry and by the English for being too closely associated with the Caribbean. She belongs nowhere.

• Patriarchal Oppression:

• Patriarchy: A social system structured around male authority and the supremacy of the father. In this system, women and younger sons often have limited legal and financial autonomy.

• Manifestations: Rochester's control over Antoinette is the clearest example. He renames her, controls her money, dismisses her voice, and ultimately imprisons her. However, as Li Luo's symbolic reading notes, Rochester is also a victim of this system, pressured by his father to secure a fortune.

• Madness and Power:
  Antoinette's "madness" is presented not as a medical condition but as the logical outcome of being systematically oppressed, silenced, and having her identity erased. It is a form of social and psychological disintegration.

• The Search for Identity:
  Antoinette's entire life is a struggle to answer the question, "Who am I?" This search is frustrated at every turn by the conflicting cultural forces and people who seek to define her.

Character Sketch

• Antoinette Cosway (Bertha Mason):

• The Tragic Heroine: A sensitive, lonely woman defined by her mixed heritage. She feels a deep connection to the Caribbean landscape, which Rochester hates. Her identity is fragile, and its systematic destruction by her husband leads to her tragic end. She evolves from a hopeful girl into a vengeful spirit, reclaiming agency through her final, fiery act.

• Rochester (The Unnamed Husband):

• The Complex Antagonist: He is not a simple villain. He is a product of English patriarchy and colonialism—entitled, suspicious, and ultimately cruel. However, he is also a young man displaced in a foreign culture, manipulated by his father, and psychologically unequipped to understand his wife or his environment. His actions are driven by fear, prejudice, and a desperate need for control.

• Christophine:

• The Voice of Resistance: An obeah woman (practitioner of Afro-Caribbean folk magic) from Martinique, given to Antoinette's mother as a wedding gift. She is one of the few characters with unwavering moral clarity and agency. She is fiercely loyal to Antoinette, criticises Rochester to his face, and represents a culture and power system that the English cannot comprehend or control. She symbolises resistance against colonial and patriarchal domination.

• Annette Cosway (Antoinette's Mother):

• A Foreshadowing of Tragedy: Beautiful and proud, Annette is broken by the death of her son and her rejection by society. Her descent into madness and abusive confinement prefigures her daughter's fate, highlighting the cyclical nature of oppression for Creole women.

Famous Excerpt 

From Part Three, Antoinette's narration in Thornfield Hall:

"There is no looking-glass here and I don't know what I am like now. I remember watching myself brush my hair and how my eyes looked back at me. The girl I saw was myself yet not quite myself. Long ago when I was a child and very lonely I tried to kiss her. But the glass was between us—hard, cold and misted over with my breath. Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?"

• Analysis: This passage is profoundly symbolic. The absence of a mirror signifies Rochester's complete erasure of Antoinette's identity. She can no longer see herself, literally or metaphorically. The memory of the "cold glass" separating her from her reflection as a child illustrates her lifelong alienation from her own self. The final questions—"What am I doing in this place and who am I?"—epitomise the complete psychological destruction wrought by her displacement and imprisonment.

Literary Techniques

Rhys's genius lies in her use of sophisticated literary techniques to convey her themes.

• Symbolism

• Definition: The use of symbols—objects, figures, colours, or places—to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

• Rhys's Use:

• The Sargasso Sea: A sea without shores, filled with tangled seaweed that can trap ships. It symbolises Antoinette's trapped, rootless existence between two cultures (Europe and the Caribbean), unable to find a safe harbour. (Li Luo)

• Fire: Represents both destructive hatred (the burning of Coulibri) and purifying rebellion (the burning of Thornfield). It is Antoinette's only means of agency and self-assertion.

• Mirrors and Reflection: Symbolise identity and self-knowledge. The broken and absent mirrors chart the fragmentation and eventual erasure of Antoinette's sense of self.

• Thornfield Hall: The ultimate symbol of English patriarchy—a cold, imprisoning structure that must be destroyed.

• Multiple Narrators

• Definition: A narrative structure that switches between different character perspectives.

• Rhys's Use: By giving us Part One from Antoinette and Part Two from Rochester, Rhys creates a complex, multi-voiced narrative. This technique forces the reader to see both sides of the colonial and gender conflict, revealing the subjectivity of truth and the impossibility of a single, authoritative story.

• Intertextuality

• Definition: The relationship between texts, especially when one text shapes the meaning of another.

• Rhys's Use: The entire novel is in dialogue with Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Rhys uses the reader's prior knowledge of Bertha's fate to create dramatic irony and to subvert the original text, challenging its colonial and patriarchal assumptions.

• Postcolonial Theory

• Definition: A critical framework that analyses the cultural, political, and psychological legacy of colonialism and imperialism.

• Key Concepts in the Novel:

• The 'Other': As discussed in the themes.

• Hybridity: The state of being of mixed origin. Antoinette's Creole identity is a hybrid one, which causes her crisis.

• Subaltern: A term, notably used by theorist Gayatri Spivak, referring to populations that are socially, politically, and geographically outside the hegemonic power structure. Antoinette is a subaltern figure whose voice is silenced in the original text; Rhys's novel is an attempt to let her "speak."

• Patriarchy

• Definition: A social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, and control of property.

• Manifestation in the Novel: The legal system that gives Rochester control of Antoinette's wealth, the social conventions that allow him to imprison her, and the familial pressure he himself is under from his father.

• Creole

• Definition: In the West Indian context, this term can be complex. It often refers to a person of mixed European and Black descent. However, it can also refer to a white person descended from European settlers born in the colony. Antoinette is a white Creole, which places her in a socially ambiguous position.

Important Key Points 

Wide Sargasso Sea is a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Jane Eyre that gives a voice to Brontë's silenced "madwoman in the attic."

• The novel explores profound themes of displacement, racial identity, patriarchal oppression, and madness as a social construct.

• Jean Rhys's own background as a white Creole from Dominica provides an authentic and powerful perspective on the central conflicts.

• Key literary techniques include rich symbolism (the Sargasso Sea, fire, mirrors), the use of multiple narrators, and sophisticated intertextuality.

• A critical understanding of terms like 'the Other,' 'hybridity,' 'patriarchy,' and 'the subaltern' is essential for a deep analysis of the text.

• Characters are complex: Antoinette is a tragic figure seeking identity; Rochester is both a victimiser and a victim; Christophine is a powerful symbol of resistance.

Wide Sargasso Sea remains a cornerstone of postcolonial and feminist literature. Its exploration of identity, power, and the destructive legacy of colonialism continues to resonate powerfully with readers today. We hope this guide provides a solid foundation for your own exploration and analysis of this magnificent and tragic novel.

Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea analysis, postcolonial literature, feminist criticism, Jane Eyre prequel, Bertha Mason, symbolism in literature, patriarchy, Creole identity, displacement, the Other, madwoman in the attic, Cambridge English literature guide, character analysis, themes.

Gabriel Okara Selected Poems from Collected Poems (2016)

Gabriel Okara, Collected Poems analysis, The Call of the River Nun, Piano and Drums, Nigerian Civil War poetry, Biafran literature, postcolonial poetry, symbolism in Okara's poems, themes in African poetry, functional stylistics, literary techniques, war poetry, pacifism in literature, character sketch of Okara's persona, Cambridge English literature guide.

Gabriel Okara Selected Poems from Collected Poems (2016)

This guide is designed to illuminate the profound and intricate world of Gabriel Okara, one of Nigeria's most revered poetic voices. Focusing on selections from his Collected Poems (2016), we will break down his themes, techniques, and legacy in a clear, structured manner, perfect for deepening your understanding and enhancing your essays and examinations. Our analysis will draw upon key critical perspectives, including those found in seminal works like Chukwuma Azuonye's commentary on Okara's war poetry.

Once Upon A Time by Gabriel Okara

About the Author: Gabriel Okara (1921-2019)

Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara was a foundational figure in African and postcolonial literature. Hailing from the Ijo ethnic group in Nigeria's Niger Delta region, his work is deeply infused with the imagery, rhythms, and philosophies of his cultural heritage.

• Key Biographical Points:

• The Niger Delta Influence: The rivers, creeks, and natural world of the Delta are not just settings but active, living presences in his poetry. Poems like "The Call of the River Nun" and "The Fisherman's Invocation" are testaments to this deep connection.

• A Witness to History: Okara lived through pivotal moments in Nigerian history: colonialism, independence, the Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War, 1967-1970). These experiences, particularly the trauma of the war, fundamentally shaped his later work, moving his focus from serene nature to the horrors of conflict.

• The Linguistic Pioneer: He is famously known for his novel, The Voice, where he attempted to translate African thought patterns and syntax directly into English, a technique he also employs in his poetry to create a unique, hybrid idiom.

• The Pacifist Humanist: Throughout his work, especially his war poetry, Okara’s voice is that of a humanist and a pacifist, lamenting the senseless violence and moral decay of conflict while clinging to a hope for peace and spiritual redemption.

Critical Appreciation

Okara's poetic career can be broadly appreciated through two major phases, both of which are richly represented in the Collected Poems.

• The Early Okara: Nature, Nostalgia, and Cultural Identity
  In his early work, Okara is a poet of introspection and harmony. His poems explore the relationship between the individual and their natural and cultural environment. The mood is often lyrical, contemplative, and tinged with a sense of nostalgia for a purer, more authentic existence. "The Call of the River Nun" is the quintessential poem of this period, where the river serves as a metaphor for life's journey, spiritual longing, and the call of one's origins.

• The Later Okara: The Scars of War and Social Commentary
  The outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War marked a dramatic shift in Okara’s poetry. As analysed by Chukwuma Azuonye in his critical work ‘The Monstrous Anger of the Guns,’ Okara became a powerful poetic chronicler of the Biafran experience. His poems from this period, such as "Suddenly the Air Cracks," "Leave Us Alone," and "I Am Only A Name," are stark, visceral, and anguished. They grapple with themes of violence, displacement, starvation, and the psychological trauma of war, offering a searing critique of the political failures and neocolonial machinations that fueled the conflict.

Major Themes 

Okara’s poetry is a tapestry of interconnected themes. Understanding these will provide a solid foundation for your analysis.

• The Journey of Life and Spiritual Quest:
  The river is Okara’s primary symbol for life’s journey. It represents a course that is both beautiful and inevitable, leading from source to mouth—from birth to death and a hoped-for spiritual union with the divine.

• Poems to Study: "The Call of the River Nun," "The Fisherman's Invocation."

• The Clash Between Tradition and Modernity:
  Like many postcolonial writers, Okara explores the tension between indigenous African culture and the influx of Western modernity. His famous poem "Piano and Drums" perfectly captures this cultural dissonance.

• Poems to Study: "Piano and Drums," "The Mystic Drum."

• The Horror and Futility of War:
  This is a dominant theme in his later work. Okara does not glorify war; he exposes its brutal reality—the sudden death from air raids, the widespread starvation, the social corruption, and the lasting psychological scars (PTSD).

• Poems to Study: "Suddenly the Air Cracks," "Cancerous Growth," "Leave Us Alone," "Metaphor for a War."

• Displacement and Exile:
  The war created millions of refugees. Okara’s poetry gives voice to this experience of being uprooted from one's home and becoming a nameless, suffering statistic in the eyes of the world.

• Poems to Study: "I Am Only A Name," (originally "Expendable Name").

• Faith and Existential Anguish:
  Even amidst despair, Okara’s poetry often seeks solace in faith. However, this faith is frequently tested, leading to profound existential questions about God’s presence in a world of suffering.

• Poems to Study: "The Silent Voice," "I Am Only A Name."

Character Sketch

While poetry is not fiction, a consistent "voice" or "persona" emerges from Okara's body of work.

• The Observer: The speaker is often a reflective observer, deeply attuned to the natural world and the subtleties of human experience.

• The Cultural Insider: He speaks from within a specific Ijo and Nigerian context, using imagery and concepts rooted in that reality.

• The Moral Conscience: During the war, the persona becomes the conscience of his people—lamenting, accusing, and pleading for sanity and humanity in the face of madness.

• The Resilient Humanist: Despite witnessing immense suffering, the Okaran persona never completely abandons hope. There is always a whisper of faith, a memory of beauty, or a plea for peace that points toward resilience.

Famous Excerpt 

From "The Call of the River Nun"

"I hear your call!
I hear it far away;
I hear it break the circle
of these crouching hills."

• Analysis: This opening is deceptively simple yet powerful. The repetition of "I hear" establishes an immediate, personal connection with the river. The river's call is so potent it can "break the circle" of imposing hills, symbolising how the pull of one's origins and spiritual destiny can overcome any obstacle. The personification of the hills as "crouching" adds a sense of latent, living power to the landscape, a hallmark of Okara's animistic view of nature.

Literary Techniques 

Okara is a master craftsman. Here is a breakdown of his key techniques and the literary terms used to describe them.

• Personification

• Definition: A figure of speech in which a thing, an idea, or an animal is given human attributes.

• Okara's Use: The natural world is alive in his poetry. Rivers "call," hills "crouch," and jets fly in "gruesome glee." This technique creates a universe where everything is interconnected and possesses agency.

• Example: "I want to view your face again and feel your cold embrace" (from "The Call of the River Nun" – the river is personified as a person to be embraced).

• Symbolism

• Definition: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

• Okara's Use:

• The River: Symbolises life's journey, time, destiny, and spiritual flow.

• The Canoe: Represents the individual self navigating the river of life.

• Piano and Drums: Symbols of Western and traditional African cultures, respectively.

• Kwashiorkor: A disease of malnutrition; in his war poems, it becomes a powerful symbol of the physical and moral decay caused by the conflict.

• Imagery

• Definition: Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

• Okara's Use: He employs vivid, often contrasting imagery. The serene "silver-surfaced flow" of the river is set against the "mangled bones and homes" of war. His imagery appeals to all senses—auditory ("stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle"), visual ("swollen stomachs"), and tactile ("cold embrace").

• Allusion

• Definition: An indirect or passing reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance.

• Okara's Use: In "Leave Us Alone," he alludes to Icarus from Greek mythology ("O modern Icarus!") to warn the Nigerian government that its prideful, war-driven flight will lead to a fall. He also references Wilfred Owen, the great World War I poet, to place his own war poetry within a global tradition of anti-war writing.

• Functional Stylistics (as seen in the analysis of "The Call of the River Nun")

• Definition: A linguistic approach that analyses how language functions in different contexts to achieve specific communicative goals. It looks at how register, tone, and word choice change with the speaker's purpose.

• Application to Okara: We can see this in how the language of "The Call of the River Nun" shifts:

• Stanza 1: Register is declarative and receptive ("I hear your call!").

• Stanza 2: Shifts to a descriptive and sensory register, full of yearning.

• Final Stanza: Becomes philosophical and devotional, addressing God directly.

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Definition: A psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. Okara’s poem "Metaphor for a War," written years after the conflict, is a profound depiction of this condition.

• Okara's Use: The poem shows a woman years after the war, still physically and psychologically shattered, suddenly re-living the trauma of an air raid ("Then suddenly—screams!"). Azuonye's commentary highlights this as a central theme in Okara's later work, exploring the long-term, invisible wounds of war.

• Pacifism

• Definition: The belief that war and violence are unjustifiable and that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means.

• Okara's Use: This is the moral core of his war poetry. Even when expressing outrage, as in "Leave Us Alone," the poems ultimately argue for cessation of violence and a plea to "be left alone" to heal and build a peaceful society.

Important Summary

• Gabriel Okara is a first-generation Nigerian poet whose work bridges the personal and the political, the traditional and the modern.

• His poetry is divided into two major phases: the early, nature-focused lyricism and the later, politically charged war poetry.

• Central motifs include the river as a journey, the cultural clash between Africa and the West, and the physical and psychological devastation of war.

• He is a master of symbolism and personification, creating a deeply animistic and interconnected world in his verse.

• Critical analyses, such as those by Chukwuma Azuonye, position Okara as a humanist and pacifist whose war poems are a vital testament to the Biafran experience and a powerful condemnation of neocolonial violence.

• Understanding the historical context of the Nigerian Civil War is essential for a full appreciation of a significant portion of his Collected Poems.

We hope this inaugural issue of The Okara Observer has provided a clear and comprehensive roadmap for your exploration of Gabriel Okara's profound poetic legacy. His work remains a vital touchstone for understanding 20th-century African literature and the universal human experiences of identity, conflict, and the search for meaning.

Gabriel Okara, Collected Poems analysis, The Call of the River Nun, Piano and Drums, Nigerian Civil War poetry, Biafran literature, postcolonial poetry, symbolism in Okara's poems, themes in African poetry, functional stylistics, literary techniques, war poetry, pacifism in literature, character sketch of Okara's persona, Cambridge English literature guide.