In the year 1966, 119 years after the original publishing of Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is published. The book uses Jane Eyre as its hypotext in order to imagine the prequel for the novel Jane Eyre. The introduction to the novel by Francis Wyndham states, "In Wide Sargasso Sea, which is set in Jamaica and Dominica during the 1830s, she returns to the spiritual country as to a distant dream: and discovers it, for all its beauty (and she conjures up this beauty with haunting perfection) to have been a nightmare" (Rhys 12). The novel is told in three parts, first in the voice of Antoinette (Bertha) as a child, followed by the voice of Mr. Rochester, and ending with the voice of Antoinette as an adult living in Thornfield Hall. This choice to tell the story in different narrative voices allows for readers to get inside the headspace of each character in a way they are unable to in Jane Eyre, where it is told strictly in the first-person point of view from Jane. This choice is specifically helpful in observing the mental space of Antoinette deteriorate from childhood to adulthood, and immersing readers inside the thinking-process and emotional state of Rochester. By the end of the novel, it ends up highlighting Rochester’s cruelty, and creates a heightened sympathy for Antoinette.
For further reading on the ways that this storytelling strategy reveals Rochester’s cruelty, read “Reinterpreting Wide Sargasso Sea: Jean Rhys’ Strategy of Diminishing Rochester” by Junggil Yoon. An excerpt of the abstract states, “Jean Rhys explores the intersecting forces of racism and sexism, as manifested in a single character, whose abuse of station and power becomes emblematic of the abuse of the larger society, However, discerning readers may uncover another layer of the story. Wide Sargasso Sea prophesies a downfall of white male power through the psychic and physical destruction of Rochester” (Yoon).
Bibliography: Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea, W. W Norton & Company, 1966.
Yoon, Junggil. “Reinterpreting Wide Sargasso Sea: Jean Rhys’ Strategy of Diminishing Rochester.” Journal of English Language and Literature/Yǒngǒ Yǒngmunhak, vol. 49, no. 3, 2003, pp. 449–474. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2003362302&site=ehost-live.