Cruelty and Insanity in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Essay -- Wide S

Cruelty and Insanity in Wide Sargasso Sea by denim RhysWide Sargasso Sea provides unique insight into the gradualdeterioration of the human mind and spirit. On examining Antoinetteand her mother Annette, the reader gains a new billet ofinsanity. One realizes that these two women are mentally perturbed asa result of numerous external factors that are beyond their control.The cruelty of life and people jabbing Annette and her daughter tolunacy. Neither mother nor daughter have a genetic predisposition tomadness, and their downfall is an inevitable result of the actions ofthose around them and the unbearable nature of their bread and onlyter situation.Antoinettes condition owes its beginnings to the solitude of herchildhood, thus the cold, unfeeling treatment she receives from herhusband does not create her mental instability, only exacerbates it.At the beginning of the novel, it becomes apparent that solitude is aprimary cause of theCosway women?s insanity. Antoinette?s narrationre veals that her mother is not accepted by other white people inJamaica because she originated from Martinique, and the Jamaicanladies in particular ?never approved? of her mother ?because shepretty like pretty self?. Her only friend, Mr. Luttrell, commitssuicide after he tires of waiting for monetary earnings for theloss of his slaves. Annette is left with no one of her colour or classto associate with. In describing her childhood, Antoinette only speaksof one friend, a Negro girl named Tia, but this was an ephemeralfriendship. Antoinette had no one belonging to her age group or classthat she could associate with. For the most part, the young girl isvery isolated and alone, sort of like her mother. Utter lon... ...umstances of thelives that Annette and her daughter lead in Coulibri serve as thefoundation for their insanity. The reader cannot attribute theirdownfall to a genetic trait, but must(prenominal) instead understand that theprocess of going insane would not have started i f their life at thebeginning of the novel was not so lonely and miserable. peck is cruelto these two individuals, and the cruelty of the Negroes is the onlyhuman cruelty inflicted on Annette and Antoinette at Coulibri, thustheir lunacy begins as a result of both sources. Antoinette?schildhood leaves her with emotional scars and prohibits proper mentaland personal growth, thus she marries her husband with these alreadyestablished problems, and her husband?s actions only serve to developthe animated unstable tendencies. Work CitedRhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York Norton, 1982.