Wide Sargasso Sea

The Psychological Aspects of Wide Sargasso Sea

More often than not, people read novels and analyze them in an autobiographical way. Most of the time this approach to analyzing novels is appropriate. In regards to Jean Rhy's Wide Sargasso Sea, an autobiographical approach can be taken, but this takes away from all of the other views of the novel. There are numerous ways this novel can be read in, one being the psychological take. Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea with the desire of showing what really happened to “Bertha” from Jane Eyre, her novel acts as a prequel. In Jane Eyre, Antoinette was known as the crazy lady in the attic. Rochester seemed to have reason to lock her up there, but Rhys did not agree. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys tells Antoinette's back story. She makes it so that Antoinette is reacting to her tragic life. Although Rhys intended on making the society of the novel the focal reason behind Antoinette's madness, Rhys also included, whether it was intentional or unintentional, many ways to analyze Antoinette’s madness psychologically. Throughout Antoinette's life she encounters many events where she learns through observation, there are numerous nature vs. nurture aspects, there is the fact that Antoinette has no sense of herself. All of these components play a role in the halt of Antoinette's development, causing her to not go through this process properly, with the outcome being her going mad. Even though Rhys' intentions were to criticize the patriarchal society, in doing so, she also wrote the novel so that Antoinette's insanity can be evaluated by psychology.

In the beginning, the readers are briefly introduced to Antoinette's family. We learn that the mother favors Antoinette's little brother and that the father is out of the picture. Immediately this is a factor that plays a role in Antoinette's poor development, she is missing a father figure. And from what we learn about the father it can be concluded that mentally he is not all there....