The Wide Sargasso Sea

             

   The “Wide Sargasso Sea” is a very interesting novel. I like it so far. While reading “Jane Eyre” I wondered about Bertha's story. Who was she before she met Rochester? Why is she crazy? And how does she feel about being locked in an attic? Few things are known about her and she was taken out of “Jane Eyre” too quickly and too conveniently. I felt as if Bertha was a stock character or a plot device used in the novel. Now in “Wide Sargasso Sea” that is another story. In fact, the story is about her. From her youthful days when she was a girl to when she became a seventeen year old (a grown woman in that period). She had to endure a lot, especially because she was semi poor, had a crazy mother, and her father is dead. She's more of an outsider (similar to Jane) and has few people in her life that she interacts with. This is surprising to me; in fact, her whole nature is surprising to me. I didn't picture Bertha (how do you make Bertha into Antoinette?) being so somber and thoughtful. But I like her character so far. I do not however like her mother (she cares for her brother more) and I do not like the way she is treated by the Jamaicans. I understand why they would dislike her family but burn her house down? And even her only friend betrays her. The girl has it tough. There are some facts in the book that line up with Rochester’s story of her in “Jane Eyre”, her mother is indeed mentally ill and Bertha is from Jamestown ,Jamaica. I guess you can say that Bertha is marginalized because she is isolated from everyone. She's not black, but she's not European or white  either. She's somewhere in between.