wide sargasso sea 1

Wide Sargasso Sea.
As soon as I started reading this book I liked it. I liked the way the language and style the book was written in did not confuse me and was easy to read. I also like the way it does not take it forever to get into the main story.
I started to read wide Sargasso Sea before Jane Eyre, therefore hadn’t a clue as the background from which the story came. After the class discussion i got the impression that, having read Jane Eyre first Wide Sargasso Sea is not so highly thought of. But I have to disagree, perhaps this is because I read it first, or perhaps just because I found it an easier and better read (by the way I only read the first part before I stopped to read Jane Eyre).
In this first part the story is told from the view of a young Antoinette. It tells of her life growing up in Coulibri. Sometimes it sweeps past things that we would have seen to have been important stages of her life, her father leaving for example, and at other times goes into great detail about the little things like her ‘friend’ stealing pennies from her. But we as a reader begin to see that these are the things that Antoinette sees as important and this is why she is recalling them to us, also this are the moments where she probably learns the most.
In many ways this book Has string links to Jane Eyre and not just by having the same characters. It uses many of the same themes such as all the unpleasant things that keep happening in the children’s lives and also the theme of religion. Throughout both books the characters are being taught about religion from other characters and their own experiences. Also the writing style in some cases is quite similar. Rhys will often spend a few lines describing a single thing that seems pretty insignificant just like Bronte does in Jane Eyre. However the descriptions in Wide Sargasso Sea, in my opinion, are a lot easier and more pleasant to read. For example “one was snaky looking, another like an octopus with brown tentacles bare of leaves hanging from a twisted root. “

Jane Eyre - 28 -end

28 - Jane has left Thornfield, and quickly runs out of money. She collapses on a doorstep, which happens to be the house belonging to a guy called st John. After his sister refuses to let Jane in, st John lets her in as she seems to be close to death.
29 -Jane spends 3 days getting better. She then talks to Hannah (one of the Rivers siblings) Hannah explains their history and then Jane tells then her real name and some things about her past. St John also promises to find her a job.
30 -St John finds Jane a job teaching at a local charity school for girls. Jane learns more about the Rivers family.
31 -Heiress Rosamond Oliver provides Jane with a cottage in which to live, whilst teaching, but Jane does not enjoy the work. From a conversation Jane assumes Rosamond and St John are in love.
32 -Jane is liked by her pupils. St John tells Jane of his plans to be a missionary, and how he cannot be with Rosamond as she would not fit in with that.
33 -Jane tells the Rivers her true name, and through a dead relative they Find out that they are cousins. Jane is delighted to have found some family at last and splits her inheritance with them so they each receive £5000
34 -Jane closes the school for Christmas and begins to learn German. St John asks her to come to India with him and become a missionary’s wife. She refuses.
35 -st John continues to try n put pressure on Jane into becoming his wife. Jane thinks she hears Mr. Rochester’s voice and decides to leave the Rivers and find him.
36 -Jane travels to Thornfield. And hears of how it became the charred mess it is now and of what has happened to Mr. Rochester.
37 -she meets with Mr. R and they go for a walk. He is now crippled and asks Jane to Marry him, she says yes.
38 - Reader she married him.
Themes:
The same that have run throughout the novel
Jane still has things bad happening to her, after everything good there is still something bad going to happen. Until the final chapter where she marries Mr. R and things seem to be going well for her.
Religion is still an important theme running throughout this section. In fact it is very strong with regards to St John and her relationship with the Rivers.

17-26

Chapter summery:
17) Mr. Rochester is away, and Jane begins to realise she feels a bit lost without him. He returns for a while, bringing many guests including Blanche Ingram. Jane tries to leave the party, Rochester stops her insisting she stay for a while almost hinting at his feelings for her.
18) Jane watches Mr. Rochester and Blanche whilst they were playing charades. She gets it into her head that they are going to marry. Later a Gypsy turns up to read the guest’s fortunes, blanche is first and returns disappointed.
19) Jane goes to the library to have her fortune read. The gypsy tells her what she said to Blanche, and Jane realises why she was upset. As she begins to read Jane’s fortune, Jane realises that it is actually Mr. Rochester in disguise! Mr. Mason arrives which troubles Mr. Rochester.
20) That night Jane is woken by a cry for help. Mr. Rochester comes to see her and asks her to help, he takes her to the 3rd story and Mr. Mason is there having been stabbed. After this Jane and Mr.Rochester walk in the orchard, and Mr. Rochester asks Jane for her opinion on a hypothetical story.
21) Jane has heard that it is a bad omen to dream of children, and she dreams about them over many nights. She then gets news of her cousin John Reed committing suicide and that Mrs. Reed is nearing death. Jane travels to Gateshead, where she is reunited with Bessie, and her cousins Eliza and Georgiana. Mrs. Reed dies.
22) Jane remains for another month at Gateshead, Then travels back to Thornfield
23) Jane encounters Mr. Rochester in the gardens and they go for a walk. Rochester confides in Jane that he has decided to marry and that he has found a governess position for her in Ireland. Jane is distressed by this and Rochester now proposes to her! And Jane accepts!
24) Jane and Mr. Rochester’s wedding does not run smoothly. Jane begins to get more and more nervous about the wedding, and other people’s doubts are not helping her. She begins to doubt that the wedding will go ahead.
25) Jane is beginning to have disturbing dreams about children that are worrying her. She then awakes to find a ‘savage looking’ women destroying her wedding dress. Mr. Rochester dismisses her to be Grace Poole. Mr. Rochester says he will explain after they have been married a year.
26) Everything is in place for the wedding. It seems all is going to go smoothly until one man stands up and says that they cannot be married as Mr. Rochester already has a wife. ‘Bertha Mason’ . Mr. Rochester protests and invites the congregation back to Thornfiled to see Bertha and that she is mad and that he should be allowed to marry again. They meet ‘the mad woman in the attic’ and Jane ends up locking herself in her room, distressed by the entire situation.

Characters:
Bertha Mason - Bertha Mason is a formerly beautiful and wealthy Creole woman who has become insane and violent. She lives locked inside a secret room on the 3rd floor of Thornfield. She is Mr. Rochester’s wife.
Mr.Rochester- Seems to becoming a more disturbing and confusing character. He seems to be hiding many things from Jane, and with the revelation of his secret wife at their wedding, what else has he got to hide from her? Also he seems to be very emotionally insecure as he will not act upon his emotions until he knows that they are reciprocal ( reference to his ‘love’ for Jane). Also he seems to consistently be deceitful towards her, for example where he tricks her by pretending to be a Gypsy, or that rather confusing proposal.
Mrs. Fairfax- Turns out to be a rather lovely character, and we beging to see that her own intentions are that Jane is happy.
Jane- Jane is a bit of a hard character to analysis in so much text. All I can say is that what I have said before about her, though she is still growing emotionally, and learning of the hurt love brings she is still naïve and very trusting. For example Mr.Rochester has hurt and deceived her many tomes about her intentions towards her, yet she still goes running back to him. Maybe this is as she has developed a strong sense of need to be and feel loved. Also we see the kind caring side of Jane when she goes back to visit the Reeds. She shows them a lot of kindness even though they never showed her any compassion. Especially in the case of Mrs. Reed.

Themes:
I’d say again that the themes are carried through from section to section, you still have the fact that when ever anything good happens in Jane’s life it never lasts long. There will always be something just around the corner, to make her unhappy again. Which just adds to the boredom the book creates. I for one cannot stand listening to Jane moan constantly throughout the book. Another motif I suppose is all the description, and again it ranges at either one extreme or the other. She is either really happy about something and describes it that way.. Or is rather melancholy about the whole thing.. Which just bores me if I am honest.
There are also other themes such as Jane’s need for love and the often slight theme of religion.

11-16

Chapter summery:
11) A clean beginning in Jane’s life. This chapter is where Jane travels to Thornfield and begins to get settled there. In this chapter 2 main characters are introduced: Mrs Fairfax and Adele. Another character introduced is Grace Poole, though she does not seem to hold such an important role just yet, Bronte seems to want us to know a little about her.
12) This is where Jane first meets Mr. Rochester, however it is not known to her who he is. She meets him whilst she is walking down the path and he falls off his horse, and then proceeds to help him
13) This chapter is all about the very beginnings of a relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester as it is within this chapter they have their first convocation whilst knowing who the other is.
14) This again is another chapter of Jane beginning to know Mr. Rochester, and the first hints of her feelings towards him.
15) Here Mr. Rochester explains to Jane about his relationship with Adele. However in the latter half of this chapter a suspicious fire breaks out in Mr. Rochester’s room. Jane believes this has something to do with the strange employee of Thornfield Grace Poole.
16) Chapter 16 shows Jane letting her emotions take controls over her mind. She is surprised that Grace is still employed after the fire, and proceeds to question her about the event. However all Grace will say is that Mr. Rochester forgot to blow out his candles, taking herself out of the situation. Jane also appears jealous when Mr. Rochester goes to visit a Miss. Ingram.

Characters:
Jane: as with the rest of the novel so far, this part of the story is still describing Jane’s social learning curve. She is still learning to control her feelings and to not let them take control of her. I.e. being jealous of people Mr. Rochester cares for, as she seemingly wants to have her feelings for him returned.
Mr. Rochester: One of the characters introduced in this section of reading, he already looks like he is going to have a big impact on Jane. Although after finishing reading these chapters it is very clear that Jane has Strong feelings for him that they might not be reciprocated. To me as a reader he gives the impression that he is a very closed character, as in a man that does not share his emotions openly, maybe a good representation of men of this era?
Mrs. Fairfax: she seems to be portrayed as a nice, welcoming elderly lady. She is the Housekeeper of Thornfield. She shows Jane that not all authority figures are awful, in that she is nice to Jane unlike any of those Jane has described to us in the past, i.e. Mr. Brockelhurst or Mrs. Reed.
Adele: this is the young girl, whom Jane was hired to teach.

Themes:
Emotional growth - I.e. Jane is still learning to control her emotions , or speaking her own mind
Religion - still a strong point as Jane is beginning to thank god of things
Freedom - Jane begins to have more freedom after she has left Lowood.

chapters 5-10

These are the chapters where, to me, the book seems to become easier to read as the plot begins to flow more and also where I am being to get used to Bronte’s style of writing. In these 5 chapters the plot focuses on Jane’s time at Lowood. This is a school that Mrs. Reed has sent Jane to, in order to get her ‘out of the way’. Chapter 5 begins with her journey to Lowood. This is where Jane seems to feel a sense of freedom that she is getting away from this secluded and unhappy lifestyle she has been forced to live. During the next few chapters we see Jane beginning to understand the way the world works. She beings to learn social skills, and manages to make a close friend. However in chapter 9, this friend unfortunately dies. Following this chapter 10, just seems to be filling in the gaps between this part of Jane’s life and what she thinks is the next part of importance. It recalls how she stayed at Lowood for another eight years, to of them as a teacher. It concludes with her choosing to change the course her life is taking and leaving Lowood.

Many new characters enter and exit the book in these few chapters. Jane obviously continues to remain the central character, and even though she is recalling her story from later in life you can see how much she grows from the experiences she has and her environment. She begins to learn about compassion, and in turn becomes totally depended on it. It seems that she now thinks that she needs this to survive. One of the key characters here is Helen Burns. This is the closest friend Jane has at Lowood, and we learn from Jane that she is a very compassionate person and also very intelligent and religious. She has a lot of faith in god, and this rubs off on Jane in that she almost sees that there must be something of great importance there, if it means someone can stay so calm whilst facing death. Another wonderful character introduced is Miss Temple. Though Jane’s eyes we create connotations of this wonderfully compassionate and intelligent woman. She cares for those whom are ill in chapter 9, and earlier on in the book overrules Mr. Brockelhurst’s rules and gives the orders for the hungry pupils to be fed. Jane also becomes really close to her and this is emphasized in chapter 10 where Jane decides she can no longer stay at the college once she has left. Again, Mr. Brockelhurst is shown to be an uncaring and harsh man. His Christianity is portrayed so differently from Helens that you can see the to far ends of the spectrum, this only creates more loathing for Mr. B. In the readers eyes and a more welcome emotion towards Helen.
One of the main themes is the emotional growth of Jane. Throughout the chapters Jane becomes more aware of her action and other peoples. Doing this she begins to change herself as to fit in. also the theme of things coming to an end played a part especially in the last few chapters. With many of the characters leaving the story, including Miss temple, and Helen as she dies. Also one part of Jane’s life comes to an end when she decides to leave Lowood.

jane Eyre 1-4

Jane Eyre is not the usual sort of book that I would choose to read, and 4 chapters into it I am still finding it difficult to read. This does not mean however, that I do not find it to be good literature. Bronte starts the book giving a melancholy view over Jane Eyre’s current situation. What is interesting about this is that this is the view of Jane herself therefore creating a sense of empathy in the reader. This is down to many things: the words and writing techniques Bronte has chosen to use; the way Bronte has portrayed Jane in the things that she does; and the way that the other characters treat her. Bronte introduces many characters in these first few chapters; there are for example John Reed, Mrs Reed and Bessie. None of whom seem to have many kind feelings towards the orphan child whom is living in the Reeds house. However this slowly subsides for the character Bessie, who does seem to have a slight soft spot for the child.
I do not seem to find the plot in these chapters very readable. This I think is due to the long way Bronte has of getting her point across, and telling this story. It is almost a style of writing I have never read before therefore taking sometime to get used to it. I think my point is emphasized in the fact of now trying to recall much of what has happened I fail to do so easily. The mood of the story changes quite a lot during these chapters. Jane seems to go through momentary period of happiness, or at least you, the reader can assume she has. This seems to occur most often when she is on her own and can imagine her own world away from confined and excluded lifestyle she is forced to live.
I found the most interesting and readable parts of these chapters to be when Jane was locked in the red room, and when she left for school. These parts to me contained the most interest for me as this is when Bronte changes her writing style, and the sentences become shorter to allow action in the reading. Or quite simply when the plot begins to move faster and something seems to happen.