Reading Oppression and Repression in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea

Abstract

Annette and Antoinette were unwelcomed by all. They “were not in their (the white people’s) ranks” and “The Jamaican ladies never approved” (Rhys 3) of them. As Creoles, they had no root. Being of colour and not belonging to the prevalent binary structure, they never fit in. Neither the whites accepted nor the blacks. Throughout they were mistreated and suffered in the hands of both. While Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847) represents the unfit monster in Bertha, Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) re-presents the story leading to Bertha's present state. The journey from innocence to madness was forced onto the ‘monster’ of Bronte's Jane Eyre through various means and Rhys’ counter to the gothic romance provides an opportunity to re-read the disregarded characters in their ‘natural’ habitat, far from the cold and gloomy London. Their marginalization is realized through Rhys. The plot arouses the curiosity of the reader, illuminates the unheard story of the Creoles and brings into light the possible reasons for their ‘downfall’. This paper is an attempt to make an inquiry of the oppression faced by the ‘Others’, its impact on their psyche and the repression that led them to the doorstep of insanity. Through the means of a discursive study, it delves into the reasons for their degraded physical and mental state. The study employs the theoretical lens of Edward Said’s “Other” and Sigmund Freud’s “Trauma” to reach the desired analysis.