Post by ruchi on Nov 18, 2015 2:20:52 GMT
Something interesting that we didn’t really talk much about in class is Antoinette’s connection to nature. Brought up in Dominica, it only seems natural that Antoinette is quite close with the flora and fauna surrounding her at a young age. Even when she leaves the island, she seems to find Rochester’s garden a safe spot to her, away from the people in Thornfield Hall. For me, I think that her coherence with her natural surroundings may be a compensation for her inability to communicate and connect to other people throughout her life. In the absence of love and God in Antoinette’s life, nature is the one thing she can always depend on. The systematic rules of nature are something that she can understand and deal with even in its harshest settings, although she doesn’t seem to be able to with society in most settings. Her oneness with nature seems consistent with her logical frame of mind, and it is something that is easier for her to understand than people. Interestingly, Rochester, on the other hand, hates nature. He is confused and astounded by it. I think that Rochester finds nature undesirable because nature is one of the few things that Rochester is unable to control himself, which scares and overwhelms him. He is better with a more civilized order of rules, and the unpredictability and power of nature is something he cannot suppress.
I want to add on that both Jane and Antoinette adore and understand nature, while Rochester hates the mysterious, secretive ways of nature, showing the differences and inevitable conflicts between Rochester and his lovers. Nature, in a way, is passion, an outlet for Jane and Antoinette. Rochester desires orderly, simplistic ideas over the uncontrollable, wild ways of nature. Nature, therefore, is also a symbol of the modern woman, of the woman that both Antoinette and Jane had in them (Jane somewhat suppressed it, though), of the woman that Charlotte Bronte wanted to create: the independent, free, passionate, and intellectual woman. Furthermore, Antoinette came from a colorful nature in Dominica, and thus she embodies the characteristics of nature -- dark, unexplored, and threatening. Even the name of the novel, "Wide Sargasso Sea," alludes to the ever-changing, deep and secretive part of nature – the sea that separates Antoinette’s home island and England.