Resumo de The Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys?s play, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), is a novel and it was inspired by Charlotte Bronte?s Jane Eyre. In this play the main conflict is the different perspective about the ethic, the values and the social conventions between the British traditions and the West Indies
In comparison to other ?classic? plays or novels there are a few differences such as the non existence of headings or chapters. It is a play where its author ?invents her own side of the story? and its length is not like all the others, in the sense that it is much shorter. It is a unique play in its kind, with strong elements from the very beginning and it portrays the two different or I might say the three different social groups ?the British, West Indies and the Creoles- and their conventions on the island, which is within the middle of the Atlantic, half way between Europe and the Caribbean but is not either Europe or the Caribbean.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, the author uses the narration in the first person in a way that keeps our interest in a high level. In the first part of the novel the narration comes from Antoinette?s (the heiress) mouth, in the second part it continues with Rochester and in the third part it ends again with Antoinette.
Jean Rhys was a white West Indian herself, therefore she wanted to give her point of view and the differences between the English culture and the Caribbean and Rochester is the person who represents that difference. In her writing there is the feeling that she makes an effort on behalf of her heiress, to place her in the present reality via her own experiences, as Antoinette is a complex character and a bit of both cultures and so was Jean Rhys. She employs simple words to describe landscape or emotions. She gives obvious elements of primary exploitation from a human being to another human being starting from grandfather to son, from father to son by establishing a regime in this way. This kind of exploitation has not any coverage; it is clear and obvious as it derives from conventions and traditions passing from generation to generation. ?She was my wedding present? her mother says to Antoinette and she means Christophine.
One of Rhys?s great achievements was that she tried to give the man?s point of view, too and what she saw was that Rochester was also a victim, in the sense that he had been ?bought? as a husband and he had not been told the whole truth about his new family.
Although Rochester exploits Antoinette and represents so many oppressive and frightening things, at the same time he represents some security and comfort and protection from fear of the outside world. Antoinette on the other hand follows her fate, while sometimes she seems to be a viewer of the life and trapped in the conventions and traditions of the social structure.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, there are not so many dialogues and yet the play is not boring. Jean Rhys did not write her autobiography but she used elements and descriptions from her personal experiences and life. However, the characters are all connected with the effort of the powerful to dominate upon the powerless and make him/her reach his level whether this is possible or not. Behind each and every relationship there is exploitation in a different form or appearance. Rhys through her novel has achieved to give accurate elements of exploitation from a human being to another human being in social structures.

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