Literature refracts the past in order to shine a light onto our future.

Literature shines a light on the past to uncover new truths.

The role of literature is to interrogate the unique social paradigms within their context, and as
such the dynamic and evolving nature of history presents new social norms that conflict with
those of the past. It is thus a constant challenge for authors to interrogate and grapple with
the texts of the past, to celebrate them for their achievements but more importantly to draw
attention to their faults. This inevitable tension can be demonstrated through the exploration
of feminism and womanhood throughout literacy history. Whereas trailblazing feminism in
the Victorian era was a Euro-centric rejection of the ‘separate spheres’, postcolonial
feminism interrogates intersectionality and the deeply exploitative past of European
hierarchies.

This broadening view of womanhood and female autonomy is none more so evident than in
WSS by Jean Rhys and JE by Charlotte Bronte. Bronte was celebrated as trailblazer for
challenging the expectations of women during the Victorian era through her heroine Jane,
who maintained her individuality and autonomy throughout the bildungsroman text.
Nevertheless, Bronte’s Othering of Bertha demonstrates her clear Eurocentric bias and
exclusionary view of female liberation; this monolithic characterisation is disrupted by Rhys,
who holds a magnifying glass to the faults of Eyre’s novel in WSS to imbue Bronte’s
“madwoman in the attic” with story and voice. And yet even Rhys’ radical novel is cross-
examined with claims of exclusionary treatment of the Creole women in her narrative.
Ultimately literature can only attempt to provide a timeless answer to such a volatile and
controversial topic; although often only partially successful, it is crucial to continue to
animate and give voice to the marginalised.

Jane Eyre demonstrates the agency and autonomy that was not typically awarded to women
of the Victorian era and is thus a challenge to the patriarchal oppression of women. During
her first few weeks at Thornfield, Jane refuses to confine herself to “…making puddings and
knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.” The accumulation of
domestic duties women were expected to perform highlights Jane’s feelings of imprisonment
within her role as a governess in Thornfield. Her passionate characterisation “the
restlessness was in my nature” desires a more exciting life and the social agency to change
and grow, outside of the narrow paradigm of domestic duties that women were confined to.
Bronte intentionally disrupts the simplistic belief that the feminine was physically and
intellectually inferior to the masculine to embolden women to adopt more significant social
roles. When Rochester compares Jane to an angel, she responds: “I am not an angel…I will
be myself, Mr. Rochester; you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me.” The
religious allusion to an ‘angel,’ in tandem with the heavenly connotations evoked by
‘celestial,’ reveals Jane’s rejection of Rochester’s expectation of her purity and innocence.
As ‘The Angel in the House’, the ideal woman was meek, passive and submissive to her
husband, exemplifying the doctrine of the separate spheres. Jane’s rejection of her
predetermined, domestic role and assertion of her individuality as a “plain, quakerish
governess” thus demonstrates her rebellion towards the domestic paradigm, and demanding
the reader to seek autonomy in their own lives. Further to her rejection of domestic duties
noted above, Jane’s journey of individuation allows her to ultimately reconcile her autonomy
with the patriarchal expectation of marriage. She states “Reader, I married him.” The
emphasis on first person pronouns is an inversion of typical rhetoric surrounding marriage,
reinforcing Jane’s autonomy in making this decision despite submitting to the traditions she
initially rejected. Ruth Berneard Yeazell comments on this compromise, stating “...the
passion whose consuming force [Jane] resisted has finally been controlled.” Through her
agency and journey of individuation, Jane reconciles traditional domestic life with her own
sense of independence and passion, reaching a compromise between the two. However,
Jane is only able to maintain equality with Rochester through his symbolic dismantling in the
fire caused by Bertha, metaphorically elevating Jane through Bertha’s own destruction,
which will be further explored in this response.

Although Bronte’s characterisation of Jane challenges misogynistic preconceptions, her

classic feminist novel falls short and ignores the varied circumstances of female oppression;
Wide Sargasso Sea addresses the shortcomings of Jane Eyre by providing an alternate
perspective. Jane Eyre is a colonialist-inspired, Eurocentric interpretation of sexual equality
and strips Bertha of her agency to achieve liberation. Writing during the peak of the British
Empire, Bronte embodied British views that any race other than Englishness was morally
corrupt and savage compared to the enlightened ways of British culture. Bertha is
characterised as animalistic, with a “discoloured…savage face” and “like some wild animal”,
bestialised and sacrificed for the success of Jane. When Jane searches for answers about
Thornfield’s destruction, she is told “...[Bertha] yelled and gave a spring, and the next minute
she lay smashed on the pavement.” Bertha’s death in the fire is a symbolic sacrifice. As both
a minority and a woman, she suffers the ultimate punishment for her passionate nature and
succumbs to gender expectations so Jane can complete her journey of individuation and live
in “perfect concord” with Rochester. Yet 120 years later, Rhys proclaims that female
liberation based on the preclusion of races other than white femininity is not female liberation
of all. She reclaims the voice of Bertha by exploring the elements that made her fecund for
victimhood and thus imbues her with humanity. While marriage liberates Jane, Bertha is
suppressed and destroyed due to her background.

 Juxtaposition of titles:
o JE – narrator of her eponymous novel. Bildungsroman centralised around
celebrating her achievements and journey to individuation
o WSS – a story about being stranded in between two places, geographic
dislocation, loss of name

 “Bertha is not my name”

o Metaphor for the decentralising destruction of Antoinette
o R’s twisted thinking – changing A’s name will divorce her of her madness and
personality and leave her a docile wife
o Removes the royalty, prestige of her former name, attempt to delegitimise her
o B’s rebellion, association of nomenclature to identity. Already too late.
o “calling me by another name…that’s obeah too”

Rhys details Bertha’s transformation into a “marionette”, becoming “silence itself”.

 “I shielded [the flame] with my hand and it burned up again to light me along the dark
passage”
o Burning candle representative of celebrating her individuation and identity
o Neo feminism – destroying herself in the hope that those who come after
don’t have to
o Candle homage to hope, ends not with B’s death but hope that she died on
the altar for women afterwards
o Compare to JE + B’s demise

“vindicating howl of rage and injustice” – Bidisha

Though Rhys’ novel addresses the flaws of its predecessor, it still provides an incomplete
characterisation of the full scope of modern femininity through its depiction of black Creole
characters.
 Antoinette’s freedom can only be attained by the repression or occlusion of coloured
Caribbean women
o Mirrors Jane and Bertha
 “It was as if I saw myself. Like in a looking-glass.” 
o A’s jealousy of Tia as she will never have a racial identity to call her own;
“white cockroach”
o Deeply ironic – inconsiderate of the racial struggles of black women

 “This is free country and I am free woman”

o Irony of the “freedom” of C and other black women, while white Creole are
depicted as victims and prisoners “marooned” in a hostile land
o Black characters manipulated to express the isolation of the white Creole
o Freedom only served to malign themselves further – loose morals etc

 C “walked away without looking back” after saying R was “wicked like Satan self”
o Failure to stand up to white oppressors
o Silent and ancillary for most of the novel – disappears after she stands up for
herself
o Represents a continued oppression of black characters

 Although Theresa Winterhalter suggests that “giving voice to oppressed peoples is

more complicated than merely conferring narrative authority upon speakers”
o True to an extent – and yet this only affirms the need for more literature etc
 Small comparative paragraph acknowledging that perceptions of gender dynamics
will continue to change over time, and so, the expectations of literature will change
accordingly. Thus, we must ask the question of whether literature is able to provide a
timeless answer to such a volatile and controversial topic and yet it is still worth the
attempt
 Despite changing standards and contextual shifts, both texts continue to hold great
value as a result of their unique representations of the progression of femininity;
although it overcomes the flaws of Jane Eyre, WSS is an outdated representation of
intersectional feminism by today’s standards, yet remains of great value due to its
unique representations of the progression of feminism. 
 Most European women are no longer forced to “knit stockings” but still women of
colour are
 Must continue to animate and give voice