Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea - Physics

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Darren Puigh
Kellie Holzer
English 200
2 February 2003
Through the Looking Glass: Two Heroines Diverge
On the subject of people’s accounts and perceptions, the lunatic beast of Jane Eyre who is
also the ill-fated heroine of Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette Mason, states, “There is always the
other side, always” (Rhys 77). Jane Eyre and Antoinette Mason, the female protagonists of these
two novels, travel through two different visions to reach the reader, begging the question: by
how much do these two pivotal characters really differ Seeming parallelisms between the
characters of Jane and Antoinette abound through both novels. However, their similarities sitting
on the surface only illuminate the disparity between the two individuals, proving that they are a
foil for one another. Their dissimilarity might possibly have sprouted its roots initially in their
differences of belief in God and their views of themselves.
Struggling with self-appreciation and positive acknowledgment, these women find within
themselves either an insuperable strength of character, or its antithesis: a questioning of their
identity. An example of the latter is when Rochester is asking about the story behind a servant’s
song and Antoinette responds, “It was a song about a white cockroach. That’s me. That’s what
they call all of us who were here before their own people in Africa sold them to the slave traders.
And I’ve heard English women call us white niggers. So between you I often wonder who I am
and where is my country and where do I belong and why was I even born at all” (Rhys 61).
Antoinette gives definition to herself through other’s interpretations of her. Due to the fact that
she is always seen as alien, even by her own husband, she begins to lose faith in everything

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around her, including herself and her beliefs. This can be seen later in life when she responds to
whether she believes in God or not by saying, “It doesn’t matter what I believe or you believe,
because we can do nothing about it, we are like these [dead moths killed by flying into the candle
flame]” (Rhys 77). Antoinette gives no credence to her life or her accomplishments. However,
Jane does not follow this path. Ms. Eyre maintains a resilience in her beliefs of self and God, no
matter the adversity, internal or external. The reader can see this in the text through the insight
of Jane’s thoughts in response to Rochester’s plea. He wishes her to run away with him, since no
one in the world would care or be injured by her transgression. Jane reflects, “I care for myself.
The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect
myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man” (Brontë 270). It matters not how
others conceive her, but rather how she views herself. Essentially, she is making a vow to be
true to herself and to be true to the laws that she is governed by. This is coupled with her
absolute trust in her God. It is clear to see this unalterable faith when explaining to Rochester
how power can be abused by humans when Jane says, “The human and fallible should not
arrogate a power with which the divine and perfect alone can be safely entrusted” (Brontë 118).
Jane finds a love for herself and God that is encompassing, forgiving, and ever-growing.
While there lies a freedom in the expression of love for Jane after fighting her own
demons of self-doubt, those demons remain for Antoinette who ensconces her love away. When
talking about her honeymoon home with Rochester on the island of Dominica, Antoinette
exclaims, “I love it more than anywhere in the world. As if it were a person. More than a
person” (Rhys 53). Later on in the book, she goes on to describe her love for her home by
saying, “I loved it because I had nothing else to love, but it is as indifferent as this God you call
on so often” (Rhys 78). Possibly due to Antoinette’s past relationships, she perhaps feels more

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secure in entrusting her full love to a place instead of a person, especially since she feels she had
nothing else to love. An unchanging land that delivers warmth and protection, it gives her what
no man could and what she truly desires: peace. In contrast, Mr. Rochester asks Jane if she will
be sorry to leave Thornfield, and she answers, “I love Thornfield – I love it, because I have lived
in it a full and delightful life, - momentarily at least. I have not been trampled on. I have not
been petrified” (Brontë 215). It is clear to see that her love of a place is the result of the social
interactions that she had while in residence of that environment. Nature, while important, is the
backdrop of a play consisting of actors such as herself and those she cares for. It’s in the way
that these two express their love that their incongruity becomes most apparent.
Despite the dissonance between their views of themselves and their situations when they
are older, one can’t help but draw analogous elements from these two lives. Both of them grew
without the loving support of their parents. Both have a companion of sorts during their
childhood in the capacity of a nanny; Jane has Bessie and Antoinette has Christophine. Both go
off to school when they are young (either to a convent or an institution) where they are, in effect,
abandoned. What makes these two characters a foil of one another is that they grow into such
separate and distinct adults, in spite of the fact that they come from such comparable
upbringings. So, although their environment sought to shape their temperament, the uniqueness
of each individual remains apparent. It was best said by the national spokesman for Literacy
Volunteers of America, Wally Amos (1936 - ), who believed that “life is just a mirror, and what
you see out there, you must first see inside of you.”

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Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.

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Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you.
Wally 'Famous' Amos (1936 - )
diverge
Given similar opportunities, different baggage, different adults.
Way they react to Rochester. JE – turn to religion to escape (t.253), WSS – turn to obeah to go
back
JE keeping it real, not an angel, keeping him one step back, not given in
m.247, not treating jane like human being
Rochester, name
Janet = Bertha t.83, b.106
Betrayal
Amelie = Bertha
Red-room = looking glass
Childhoods
Courage through hate, b.29 for WSS, reacts to adultery with hate b. 88 WSS
m.61, self-identity WSS
Inmate
JE: t.73, t.105, b.118, t.207, t.326
Love
Jane: b.63, m.71, b.136, t.149, b.209, b. 210 (called to presence), m.215, t.255 (unchanged
love)
WSS: b.67-t.68, t.53,
JE, home in people, Bertha, home/love in a place
Religion:
WSS: b.76-77, m.78, b.25, b.34
JE: t.107, m.118, m.274
t.151
m. 158, Jane genuine, Bertha not