The Fate of Coco the Parrot Foreshadowing the Fate of Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea
This paper analyses the similarities between the fate of Antoinette´s and the fate of her
pet parrot Coco. It states that the fate of the parrot foreshadows the fate of the main character.
The paper focuses on the pivotal points of Antoinette´s life in relation to the parrot.
The first scene of significance is clipping the Coco´s wings by Mr. Mason. The ability of
flight, often associated with freedom, is taken away from the bird by the Englishman, cripling
the very esence of the bird’s existence. In a similar way, Antoinette´s freedom and essence
was taken away by the Englishman who she was aranged to marry without even meeting the
man, depriving her of the rite of passage from young adult to adult a fully independent being?
from parents who gradually built the intimate and trustful relationship safe enough to leave
the nest and create one of her own.
The second and most significant event is Coco´s and Antoinettes demise. The paper
states that even if the book itself doesn´t express that directly, reading of Jane Eyre clears that
the departure of the parrot and Antoinette is the same. Coco falls from the roof in flames
because of his clipped wings in a same way as Antoinette falls in fire from the window
because of the “clipped wings” of her own – the desparate marriage that stripped her of her
own sanity.
The paper uses these two scenes to conlude that the parrot´s fate in the novel is paralel
to the heroine´s fate later in the story and foreshadows the demise of the main character.
On the Married Life of a Character Predestined to Despair: Love and Hatred in Wide
Sargasso Sea
This presentation on Wide Sargasso Sea focuses on the themes of love and hatred as the two
faces of relationship between men and women. These two themes are represented by the
clash of the two worlds – a self superior world of a poor English gentleman and a humiliated
world of a desperate but rich Creole girl. Despite the obvious disgust on the Englishman´s
side, the girl tries to make their marriage functioning, as she perceives it as her only chance
for happiness. However, the development of their relationship buried her only deeper and
more thoroughly into despair and with no hope for escape, but death.
On the Pressure of Social Predestination in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
The novel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys examines the totality of social
predestination as the main force affecting the fate of its characters.
Set in post-slavery colonial Jamaica, the story evolves around a white Creole girl
Antoinette and her English husband. Though the story has many layers and touches on several
issues, the social paradigm and especially the crushing impact of social predestination recur
throughout the story and represent arguably the main influence shaping the decisions and
behaviour of the protagonists.
When thinking about his wife, the English husband notes foremost that, “I watched her
critically. … Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European
either” (67). It indicates that in his eyes she does not have any social status, she is not a part of
the English society and can never become worthy of his affection. Later, Antoinette is offered
the possibility to escape her unhappy marriage but she is unable even to consider She does not
emphasize her feelings, she would not leave him out of love, but because he is her husband.
The social predestination and the importance of her social role drives her decision. She even
hopes that going to England – meaning becoming a part of the English social hierarchy – can
solve all her problems as she says,. Antoinette may not be explicitly aware of it, yet she
instinctively understands that the gap between her and her husband is mainly social – him
being a product of the class-petrified English society and her as a social outcast.
The social role and social predestination are ominously present throughout the novel
and they prove to be the critical factors directing characters’ decisions and their whole lives.
Bertha or Antoinette? The Relationship between Antoinette and her Husband in Wide
Sargasso Sea
This presentation examines the relationship of a married couple from the man’s point
of view. There are unusual conditions of the marriage - not enough love and sympathy for
each other. The Englishman feels uneasy and Antoinette is desperate. He calls her in different
names, such as Bertha. Why? Is the reason simple and obvious or more complicated?
Choosing typical English name instead of the exotic one tends to change their situation into
a normal relationship or to manipulate Antoinette and transform her identity...