Through the looking-glass : reading and reflecting from Wide Sargasso Sea to Jane Eyre
Date
2003
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Haverford College. Department of English
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea addresses such issues as desire, hatred, death, and violence. These themes are echoed subtly in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, but without Rhys's text, one might miss these significant undertones. In this way, Jane Eyre is a reflection of Wide Sargasso Sea. Traditionally, critics maintain that Rhys's novel revises Bronte's text. Due to current critical fascination with postcolonial literature, however, modern readers often read classical texts as the sequels of their post-colonial interpretations, and frame their readings in a postcolonial context. These analyses are a result of more than the sequence of a particular reading experience. The value of reading Wide Sargasso Sea as the primary text and Jane Eyre as the reflecting image is this: Rhys's narrative draws attention to resonances of Wide Sargasso Sea in Jane Eyre that might otherwise go unnoticed. As a result, doubts emerge regarding the success of Jane's narration, and why it must fail.