When I first started reading Wide Sargasso Sea, I had a lot of trouble following what was going one. Coming to it from The Stranger, which was written in a very simple and fairly straightforward way, the writing style of Wide Sargasso Sea was really hard to follow. To me, it seemed like it was composed of a series of vignettes, each of the short sections didn't seem to be as connected as many other novels that I've read, but they were still coming together to form a story. As I got further along, I became more and more accustomed to Rhys' way of writing. Also helping me was the fact that as Antoinette grew older, her narration became easier to follow and the ideas were more complete and thoroughly explained.
I read Jane Eyre for an English class last year, and I think that that definitely shaped my attitude going into Wide Sargasso Sea. Knowing how the story ends made me want to keep a certain distance from Antoinette. In Jane Eyre, the character that Antoinette becomes isn't a character that is easy to relate to, and since its narrated by Jane Eyre, she isn't a particularly likable character either. However, I almost immediately began to feel sympathetic towards Antoinette. I really like the idea that Rhys had to take a character who isn't really understood and tell their story, after reading only the first section, there are already things that I previously didn't understand, but now see explanations for.
1 comment:
Interesting comments--Antoinette is a character who is "misunderstood" in the novel in which she initially appears (she doesn't even have her "real name" in Bronte, according to Rhys's version), as well as within her own life (as Rhys imagines it). The reader may want to keep a certain distance, but it's remarkable how quickly that intimacy develops, with the reader.
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