Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea

            The Wide Sargasso Sea tries to sow the unfortunate situations in which non-whites find themselves in. The film showcases the racial injustices and sexual exploitation that they go through even with their wealth ownership. The film seeks to unveil to what extent white people are willing to go so as they do not get involved with creoles. The film takes one through the injustices and the rage that come afterwards when one sees danger ahead. Wide Sargasso reimagines a peculiar and exciting plot that on cannot easily relate with because it’s all about inner brutality. The main character Mr Rochester and his first wife, Bertha Mason, who is living in the attic at a room. At that point of time, women were not allowed to own anything, and so bertha Mason had to be sold to Mr Rochester so that h could take over the wealth from Mr Mason. Societal beliefs and injustices against the woman see bertha perish in her own home and wealth, which is no longer hers as she had been married off unwillingly. Mr Rochester comes for visits to the house, but he rarely stays at home with his wife as they are both strangers. The films show us the racial prejudice that seemingly, Mr Rochester does not want to be identified with Bertha because she is creole and that the pride and white supremacy in him does not allow him to be associated with her.

Upon her marriage to Mr Rochester, Bertha is subjected to living in one of the upper as a madwoman. Rochester does not want to be associated with creoles and end up locking her up so that none of his friends interacts with her or gets to know that she is married to a creole. He gives one of the servant’s instructions on how to deal with her. Unfortunately, she does not utilize his father’s wealth to do all the stuff that she had wanted to do. The act of segregating Bertha mason is a case to show that white man did not want anything to do with creoles, but on the other hand, they wanted something to do with their wealth. Mr Rochester racial and cultural superiority is infectious to the point that he does not use words like nigger because apparently, they refer to the” other”. The Wide Sargasso Sea shows Rochester with his sly nature manipulates Bertha financially and physically. Being locked in a room is enough psychologically torture towards her. Mr Rochester also fails in performing his duties as a husband as his wife is betrayed sexually. The white man did not want anything to do with the creole woman, and so he does not appreciate that even the money he is using belongs to the woman and he instead sees her as non-existent in his life. Racial prejudice has to lead the white man to view the other as people who should not be valued and therefore subjects them to great sufferings even when she is an heir to her father’s wealth.  She to undergo a lot of pains, but in the film, one can figure out that Rochester sees himself as one who had been manipulated. So he does what he does because he had no love for the woman, but instead Mr Mason, Bertha’s stepfather had paid him into marrying according to the creole’s tradition she could not inherit the wealth. So she had to be married off so that the husband could get what was rightfully hers.

The introduction of Jane Eyre to the story spices it more because Mr Rochester falls in love with her, and so does Jane. At the moment Jane is unaware of Rochester’s past life, and upon inquiry with one of the servant, she paints him as a right person but a no-nonsense man. Jane Eyre has been brought as a tutor to a young girl at Thornfield Hall. Their love seems to blossom with time because Mr Rochester stays in Thornfield frequently something that he never used to do.

Mr Rochester conspires to marry her at a wedding, but the wedding is called off when Mr Mason comes to the wedding and presents papers that indeed Rochester was a married man. The wedding is called off with her feeling torn apart because of what she had been subjected to by the man she thought loved her. Jane Eyre goes far away to a convent. Mr Rochester, on the other hand, is also hurt, his way of representing male dominance in the society has been tampered with.

Rochester calls his first wife crazy when she laughs disdainfully. She has her kept in a room and paints her like a mad person. Even when she shows her to Jane Eyre, she appears to be an insane person who wanted to devour someone. The thought increases her rage that her husband had branded her a mad person and tainted her family name. His selfish desires to own her wealth is significant because to him, the woman meant nothing but an object to be used. Mr Rochester presents her like her mother Annette had gone through when she was married to Mr Mason. “She is a drunken lunatic gone her mother’s way” Even with their knowledge the two creole woman could not untie themselves from racial ideas presented to them. They are depicted as a madwoman and therefore set to confinement like places where crazy people would stay, and they turn “mad” ideally because of the horror they were living as subjects. He says “she is mad but mine, mine… my lunatic. My mad girl” although she has subjected her to great misery, he ensures that he never departs from her because she sees her as an object or a plaything. At the end of the film, she sets fire on the house, but unfortunately, she burns to death during the moment. Her burning in the house showed the unspoken rage that had built inside her for quite some time having been subjected to racial prejudices by the man. “She said she loved this place and this is the last time she will see it.” This kind was a kind of revenge on her part because she needed to end this madness by white people. The burning of the house showed that the trauma and the colonialism she had gone through was enough because she could not speak out and defend herself because she was a creole woman. In the process, Mr Rochester becomes blind while trying to help her out in flames. But was it worth it? Having subjected her to that kind of torture, I do not think it was necessary. Jane Eyre comes to his mercy at the end of the film because she pities him. The film is a symbol of colonialism that the Jamaican people had to go through in the hands of the white men.  This film showcases that female can dominate over male because when Jane returns, she could not be pressured by him as he was lame and blind (Whiter, 2016).

References

Whitaker, C. (2016). The Zombi of the British Empire: Rochester’s Imperialist Drive in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea.