Wide Sargasso Sea
The novel opens a short while after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ended slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834. The protagonist Antoinette relates the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to an unnamed Englishman (implied as Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre). As their marriage progresses, Antoinette, whom he renames "Bertha" and confines to a locked room, descends into madness, in part from despair at being torn from her island home in the Caribbean and subjected to an alien culture and climate.
The novel is split into three parts:
Part One takes place in Coulibri, Jamaica, and is narrated by Antoinette as a child. Since the abolition of slavery her family has become very poor, Antoinette's mother Annette must remarry to a wealthy Englishman Mr. Mason. Angry at the returning prosperity of their oppressors, freed slaves living in Coulibri burn down Anette's house killing Antoinette's younger brother who is mentally disabled. As Anette had been struggling with her mental health up until this point, the grief of losing her son drives her to worsen. Mr. Mason sends her to live with a couple who torment her until her death and Antoinette does not see her again.
Part Two alternates between the points of view of her husband and of Antoinette during their "honeymoon" excursion to Granbois, Dominica. Likely catalysts for Antoinette's downfall are the mutual suspicions that develop between the aforementioned couple, and the machinations of Daniel, who claims he is Antoinette's (illegitimate) brother; he impugns Antoinette's reputation and mental state and demands hush money. Antoinette's old nurse Christophine openly distrusts the Englishman. His apparent belief in the destructive accounts about Antoinette aggravate the situation; Rochester becomes visibly unfaithful to her and emotionally abuses her. He begins to call her Bertha rather than her real name and flaunts his affairs in front of her to cause her pain. Antoinette's increased sense of paranoia and the bitter disappointment of her failing marriage unbalance her already precarious mental and emotional state. She flees to Christophine's house, her former servant and the woman who raised her. Christophine uses obeah to try to ease Antoinette's pain, however, foreseeing danger in this reverts to alcohol to calm her distraught friend. Antoinette returns home in a drunken rage and Christophine confronts her husband. The Mr. Rochester figure does not accept Christophine's suggestions of help for his wife and decides to take her back to England.
Part Three is the shortest part of the novel; it is from the perspective of Antoinette, renamed by her husband as Bertha. She is largely confined to "the attic" of Thornfield Hall, the Rochester mansion she calls the "Great House." The story traces her relationship with Grace, the servant who is tasked with guarding her, as well as her disintegrating life with the Englishman, as he hides her from the world. He makes empty promises to come to her more but sees less of her. He ventures away to pursue relationships with other women—and eventually with the young governess, Jane Eyre. It is clear that Antoinette is not of sound mind and has little understanding of how much time she has been confined to her attic internment. She fixates on options of freedom including her Stepbrother Richard Mason who, however, will not interfere with her husband, so she attacks him with a stolen knife. Expressing her thoughts in stream of consciousness, Antoinette dreams of flames engulfing the house and her freedom from the life she has there, she believes it is her destiny to fulfill the vision. Waking from her dream she escapes her room, sets the fire, and takes her own life by jumping from the roof.
insanity