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''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is a 1966 postcolonial novel by Dominica-born British author Jean Rhys, who had lived in obscurity after her previous work, ''Good Morning, Midnight'', was published in 1939. She had published other novels between these works, but ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' caused a revival of interest in Rhys and her work. It was her most commercially successful novel, benefiting as well by feminist exploration of power relationships between men and women. The novel is written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's noted novel ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), describing the background to the marriage that Jane learns about after going to work for Mr. Rochester. It is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole heiress, from the time of her youth in Jamaica to her unhappy marriage to a certain English gentleman—he is never named by the author. He renames her to a prosaic Bertha, declares her mad, and requires her to relocate to England. Caught in an oppressive patriarchal society in which she fully belongs neither to the white Europeans nor the black Jamaicans, Cosway is Rhys' version of Brontë's devilish "madwoman in the attic." As with many postcolonial works, the novel deals with the themes of racial inequality and the harshness of displacement and assimilation. It is also concerned with power relations between men and women. ==Plot== The novel opens a short while after the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ended slavery in the British Empire on 1 August 1834.〔("Emancipation" ), ''The Black Presence,'' National Archive.〕 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. Describing childhood experiences, she reviews several facets of her life, including her mother's mental instability and her mentally disabled brother's tragic death. 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 two 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; he becomes visibly unfaithful to her. Antoinette's increased sense of paranoia and the bitter disappointment of her failing marriage unbalance her already precarious mental and emotional state. 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. Expressing her thoughts in stream of consciousness, Antoinette/Bertha decides to take her own life as she believes this is her destiny. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wide Sargasso Sea」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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