II. Rhys on Jane
Erye
"The creole in Charlotte Bronte's novel is a lay figure --
repulsive which does not matter, and not once alive which does. .
. . For me . . . she must be right on stage. She must be at
least plausible with a past, the reason
why
Mr. Rochester treats her so abominably and feels justified, and the reason
why he thinks she is mad and why of course she goes mad,
even the reason why she tries to set everything on fire, and eventually
succeeds. . . " (Gregg 82; emphases added)
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Rhys's Revision
of Jane Eyre:
I. Shift of dates:
Jane Eyre -- towards the end of the novel reads a book published
in 1808
Bertha confined in the attic in the first decade of the 19th century.
WSS's time frame shifted to 1830's onwards:
Emancipation Act 1833
Antoinette -- a child in the 1840's (Mark MaWatt qut in Gregg
83)
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II. Writing beyond the Ending:Jane Eyre
and WSS
-
"By turning a classic nineteenth-century novel
inside out and giving its voiceless character an explanatory story, Rhys
has constructed a critical examination of romantic thralldom and marital
power--internalized and external institutions that support gender inequality."
(45-6)
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"By a maneuver of encirclement (entering the
story before) and leverage (prying the story open), Rhys ruptures Jane
Eyre. She returns us to a framework far from the triumphant individualism"
of the character of Jane Eyre by concentrating on the colonial situations¡K.
Wide Sargasso Sea states that the closures and precisions of any tale are
purchased at the expense of the muted, even unspoken narrative,
which writing beyond the the ending will release. ('Remember,' Doris
lessing reminds us, 'that for all the books we have in print, there are
as many that have never reached print, have never been written down.'"
(46) --Rachel Blau DuPlessis
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III. What does Jean Rhys do and fail to
do in constructing female subjectivities?
If she presents the creole women's difficult
positions pretty well, is she fair to the Black subjects in the Caribbean
area? e.g. her presentation of Christophine
and voodoo.
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