Throughout the book, The Wide Sargasso Sea, we follow the story of Antoinette, a young girl born into an unlucky situation and turned mad. This story of Antoinette from normal girl to insane women that ended up suicide is what the main focus of this book is about. A reason given again and again in the book by the doctors in the story say that Antoinette simply has bad blood. Her mother went insane and because Antoinette was the daughter, Antoinette theoretically inherited her insanity. At least according to the doctors. Yet, should this be taken for granted? Or did Antoinette and her mother get placed in a situation where insanity seems a possible cause?
Her mother, Annette most definitely did not have an easy life. She starts off marring Alexander Cosway, someone not renown for being with one woman. Over the course of his life, he established himself as someone who sleeps everywhere, creating many illegitimate children in the process. After dying, Annette is left with the legacy of her husband, creating many people in her town to hate her. Many of the women in the society mock her for how out of society she is and how different she is. In comes Mason, a person from England who comes to be the husband of Annette. Mason at first proofs to be the bandage for Annette as people around her noticed that being with Mason caused her to be more like herself and more happy in general. However, their honeymoon period didn't last. After a while, Mason and Annette walked into a lot of turmoil, mostly due to Mason's confidant attitude towards life, assuming that he knows everything and the best course of action for every idea. This lead to the conflicts in interest, leading Annette helpless and unable to control decisions that she felt made the most sense. Annette felt that their safety as a family was at risk but Mason didn't listen. He continued to leak information in front of their servants, leading them to burn down their estate as they thought they were going to lose their jobs. The cause of this was the death of Annette's son, a breaking point for her. Already being trapped in the action of Mason, Mason later pushing Annette into the care of a couple, isolating her from society. This further drives her to insanity. Most of these events are very traumatizing and can be easily seem to ware down a mind to insanity. Her insanity was found in the actions that the people around her do. She is trapped with people who do not care for her and do not allow her to do what she thinks is right.
Antoinette's story is very similar. Her childhood was rough; She never got the attention since her brother needed a lot of caring as he was disabled. Just like Annette, the environment that she was raised in was horrible, as people around her alienated her for the legacy that her father made. She couldn't fit in and didn't get the mother model from her mother so she sought after other people in the society to take that role for her in her life. After her mother's decline, she went to a school where she continued to be bullied. She is then put into a marriage by her father to someone she just met, Rochester. Just like her mother, the marriage at first seems very good. They both seemed be ok with each other and Antoinette mental state seemed stable. Just like we said in class, Rochester seems to behave better that Mason did, by actually trying to learn the society that he steps into. However, over time, Rochester seems to understand that there was a backstory to the deal that he just stepped into, and eventually gets convinced that Antoinette is mentally unstable because her mother was. Rochester, being the only thing good in Antoinette's view that happened to her, in response created a potion to keep Rochester to love her. In response to this, Rochester sleeps with a maid through a thin wall that Antoinette could still hear, After all of this, Rochester bring Antoinette back to England and locks her up in an attic, similar to how Mason locked Annette up in Spanish town. Just like her mother, the main cause of her insanity seemed to be the situation that she was put into and the treatment that she was put through. Nobody deserves to be locked up like that. Therefore, I believe that both Annette and Antoinette were fine. It was the environment and people around them that caused their downfall. What do you guys think? Do you think that different people put in their situation would end up differently?
Her mother, Annette most definitely did not have an easy life. She starts off marring Alexander Cosway, someone not renown for being with one woman. Over the course of his life, he established himself as someone who sleeps everywhere, creating many illegitimate children in the process. After dying, Annette is left with the legacy of her husband, creating many people in her town to hate her. Many of the women in the society mock her for how out of society she is and how different she is. In comes Mason, a person from England who comes to be the husband of Annette. Mason at first proofs to be the bandage for Annette as people around her noticed that being with Mason caused her to be more like herself and more happy in general. However, their honeymoon period didn't last. After a while, Mason and Annette walked into a lot of turmoil, mostly due to Mason's confidant attitude towards life, assuming that he knows everything and the best course of action for every idea. This lead to the conflicts in interest, leading Annette helpless and unable to control decisions that she felt made the most sense. Annette felt that their safety as a family was at risk but Mason didn't listen. He continued to leak information in front of their servants, leading them to burn down their estate as they thought they were going to lose their jobs. The cause of this was the death of Annette's son, a breaking point for her. Already being trapped in the action of Mason, Mason later pushing Annette into the care of a couple, isolating her from society. This further drives her to insanity. Most of these events are very traumatizing and can be easily seem to ware down a mind to insanity. Her insanity was found in the actions that the people around her do. She is trapped with people who do not care for her and do not allow her to do what she thinks is right.
Antoinette's story is very similar. Her childhood was rough; She never got the attention since her brother needed a lot of caring as he was disabled. Just like Annette, the environment that she was raised in was horrible, as people around her alienated her for the legacy that her father made. She couldn't fit in and didn't get the mother model from her mother so she sought after other people in the society to take that role for her in her life. After her mother's decline, she went to a school where she continued to be bullied. She is then put into a marriage by her father to someone she just met, Rochester. Just like her mother, the marriage at first seems very good. They both seemed be ok with each other and Antoinette mental state seemed stable. Just like we said in class, Rochester seems to behave better that Mason did, by actually trying to learn the society that he steps into. However, over time, Rochester seems to understand that there was a backstory to the deal that he just stepped into, and eventually gets convinced that Antoinette is mentally unstable because her mother was. Rochester, being the only thing good in Antoinette's view that happened to her, in response created a potion to keep Rochester to love her. In response to this, Rochester sleeps with a maid through a thin wall that Antoinette could still hear, After all of this, Rochester bring Antoinette back to England and locks her up in an attic, similar to how Mason locked Annette up in Spanish town. Just like her mother, the main cause of her insanity seemed to be the situation that she was put into and the treatment that she was put through. Nobody deserves to be locked up like that. Therefore, I believe that both Annette and Antoinette were fine. It was the environment and people around them that caused their downfall. What do you guys think? Do you think that different people put in their situation would end up differently?
I think that anyone put in either Antoinnette or Annette's situation would reach a breaking point. Both characters have nearly no emotional support as they go through their traumatic lives and this coupled with a persisting sense of isolation and loneliness are enough to break anyone down.
ReplyDeleteI think there is definitely an idea of nature vs. nurture here. I think that is the way Antoinette was raised and the way that people interacted with her that has caused her to go mad. the mistreatment and physiological abuse that Antoinette got from nearly everyone around her is more that enough to make anyone crazy.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. A lot of the other characters in the book seem to think that Antionette must be crazy because her mother was also crazy. She was going to descend into madness no matter what. Rochester certainly seems to think this. Once Daniel tells him about Antionette's family it seems like there is a drastic changing point of how Rochester views Antionette. He seems to think that their fate is unchangeable. However as readers we are able to see into Antionette's childhood and her mothers life. Their madness makes sense to us. It's definitely we as readers viewing it as nurture while everyone else seeing it as nature.
DeleteFor Antoinette's mother, I feel like she was already on a slope heading downhill... slowly. Mason just removed the brakes and added oil. Her estate was already crumbling, she's already depressed. Losing her only emotional support (her son) was her last leg.
ReplyDeleteHowever, for Antoinette, her only support was her husband with his love that he gave her initially. She desperately try to regain that leg in order to not crash and burn like her mother did but he refused to give her that support. Causing her to literally crash and burn.
I agree. Annette was constantly trying to rebuild a past that she couldn't obtain, and this desperation, fueled by Mason's action which brought that crashing down made her insane. Also, Antoinette had the same desperation stemming from her declining love of Rochester, which ultimately is destroyed by Rochester, sending her spiraling down into madness.
DeleteYou propose an interesting comparison between Antoinette and her mother. I too think that their environment played a larger part in leading them to insanity rather than their characteristics alone. Antoinette was a victim of circumstance. Married to an Englishman she did not know up until the week of her wedding, Antoinette was practically forced into the marriage by her step-father, Richard Mason. She, like her mother, was unable to escape this life where both their husbands end up neglecting and cheating on them. I believe anyone placed into Antoinette or Annette's situations would succumb to depression from the utter hopelessness and lack of control over their lives.
ReplyDeleteThis seems very convincing. The circumstances of their lives would be extremely stressful on most everyone, and we have no specific evidence of them being insane for genetic reasons other than what people say about them. For instance, while Antoinette is strange as a child, she is well within the bounds of someone who never had the opportunity to make friends, and only begins to lose it much later, when she is put under many of the same stresses as her mother before her.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely the environment, since the entire book anything related to Antoinette is sad.
ReplyDeleteI think that you present a convincing argument for the environmental factors in Annette and Antoinette's mental declines. It's ironic that Rochester's response to hearing gossip about Annette's "insanity" is to emotionally abuse and eventually imprison his wife. Does Rochester really think those violent actions will improve the situation?
ReplyDeleteThe question of whether Antoinette's insanity is hereditary comes up frequently throughout the book, so it's definitely a good topic for a blog post. I think that you're right in saying that her (and her mother's) mental issues are a product of her environment. Her mother plays a large role in shaping Antoinette's environment in her early childhood though. So it's fair to say that the environment causes this insanity and not genetics, but it's important to note that Annette's insanity is crucial as well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it is the environment that caused both of these women to "go insane." I am curious about Annette's only source of comfort being from Pierre and her breaking point being when Pierre dies. It is heartbreaking to lose a child, and I can understand her mental decline stemming from that and the events surrounding his death. It also seems like she and Pierre have an actual connection and that his care is one of the only things she has control over, so to loose her sense of control (along with Mason coming in and taking things over, despite being oblivious to the local culture) would be deeply unsettling for Annette.
ReplyDelete