Antoinette Character and Personality
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candle light dinner together. The beauty of Antoinette attracts his attention when Antoinette was sitting on the sofa. Her husband said, “I wondered why I had never
realized how beautiful she was” 80. Her husband also admires her when she is sleeping. At that time her
husband realizes that his wife is beautiful. As I looked she moved and flung her arm out. I thought coldly yes
very beautiful, the thin wrist, the sweet and well of the forearm, the rounded elbow, the curve of the shoulder into her upper arm. All
present, all correct. 88 Antoinette Marson is also a woman with high self dignity. She always
keeps her pride in every time she behaves, whether when she says or does something. She is willing to sacrifice to defend her pride. The example of her
effort in keeping her dignity is that she keeps many things to herself rather than tells people how actually she feels which is shown through Christophine’s opinion
about Antoinette. So she run off to tell you, I’d treated her did she? I ought to have
guessed that “she don’t tell me a thing”, said Christopine …she have more pride than you and she says nothing. 97
Antoinette believes that love and dignity are more valuable than money. She does not care of money as Christopine’s opinion: “She is better than you, she
has better blood in her and she doesn’t care for money. It’s nothing for her” 98. Antoinette is a loyal person. She is loyal to her landscape, as she said “I
love it more than anywhere in this world. As if it were an, more than a person…” PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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53. Soon after Antoinette gets married with Rochester, she chooses to live in her island because she feels more comfortable as her husband state his opinion about
Antoinette. We have arrived from Jamaica after an uncomfortable few days.
This little estate in the Windward Island is part of the family property and Antoinette is much attached to it. She wished to get
here as soon as possible. 75 Antoinette feels free when she lives in her own landscape. She feels that
she can do whatever she wants s in her land. Antoinette said “here I can do as I like, not I,” and then I said too,
it seemed right and that lonely place “here I can do as I like.” I grew to like these mountain people, silent, reserved, never servile
never curious or so I thought, not knowing that their quick sideways looks saw everything they wished to see. 80
How Antoinette loyal to her landscape is also seen from her opinion about how beautiful and how she feels comfortable to stay in that place through her
sense of belonging. She likes the nature of her island so, Antoinette eager to stay there for she really loves it.
…and I thought, this is my place and this is where I belong and this is where I wish to stay. Then I thought, what a beautiful tree,
but it is too high up here for mangoes and it may never bear fruit, and I thought of lying alone in my bed with the soft silk cotton
mattress and fine sheets, listening. 108 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Moreover, Antoinette Marson is actually a loving person. She also has a deep concern about others. She really loves her mother Annete. It can be seen by
her effort when she visits her mother after her mother goes mad. At that time, her mother ignores and rejects her. Antoinette will do anything to keep her mother. It
can be seen through Antoinette statement: “I am not forgetting person…one day I made up my mind to go to her…I thought I would kill anyone who is hurting my
mother” 85. “Then, it must be her…’But I am here, I said, and she said,
‘No’quitely. Then No ‘no no’very loudly and flung me from her. I fell against the portion and hurt myself.” 87
Antoinette loves Christophine very much. Antoinette does not decide the consideration that the people whom she loves are black or white people. It can be
seen when she hugs and kisses Christophine. She does not care although her husband does not tolerate her attitude because of Christopine is only a black
servant. “Why do you hug and kiss Christopine?”
“I’d say why not?” “I wouldn’t hug and kiss them, I’d say, I couldn’t.” 91
She loves and cares about everyone including people who have hurt her feeling. Antoinette really loves her husband although he does not give a good
treatment for her. She very worries when her husband goes out from home and does not come back for a couple of hours then she asks Baptiste to look for him in
case something happen to him. When Babtiste meets Rochester, he said that he has been looking for him and Antoinette frightened if her husband comes to harm
her 108. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Antoinette loves her husband very much. She would like to do anything to get her husband’s love and care. She asks Christophine to help her. Antoinette
believes that Christopine can make such a magic love potion to make her husband love her again. Antoinette is also willing to give anything to her husband, as
Christophine’s opinion. Antoinette also has deep concern for the children. She tries to help a boy
who cries when Antoinette and her husband prepare to leave to England. That boy wants to follow Antoinette’s husband to England, but he does not care with that
boy. He asked me when we first came if we if you would take him with
you when we left. He doesn’t have any money. Just to be with you. Because she stopped and ran her tongue over her lips, he loves you
very much. So I said you would take him. Baptize has told him that you will not. So he is crying. 112
Antoinette cares about her servant. She tries to defend her servant from her husband’s mocking way. She explains to her husband why Hilda is giggling very
rudely. It is not because she is stupid but because she is a shy girl. Sometimes she’d smile and a sweet childish smile, sometimes she
would giggle very loudly and rudely, bang tray down and run away. Antoinette said to Rochester that Hilda is not stupid but she
is only shy “no, no. She is shy. The girls here are very shy.” 54 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Antoinette is a generous person. She gives her money, food and drink to all visitors. Her husband cannot tolerate her behavior because it just wastes money
for useless thing. As for the money which she handed out so carelessly, not counting
it, not knowing how much she gave, or the unfamiliar faces that appear then disappears, though never without large meal eaten and
a shot of rum I discovered-sisters, cousin, aunts and uncles-if she asked no question how could I. 90
Antoinette is not a religious person. She does not believe in God’s power. She thinks that God does not help her in solving problem, because her family
always gets a lot of problem. Besides that, Antoinette feels that she has been discriminated by others.
And God who is indeed mysterious who had made no sign when they burned Pierre as he slept not a clap of thunder, not a flash of
lightning. 21-22 The other thing that shows her doubts of God’s power is when she has an
argument with her husband. She asks her husband to explain why he hates and does not care with her, but he does not answer. When she asks why he never
kisses her, Rochester answers by mentioning the word God. Therefore Antoinette cannot understand his God. When her husband answers her question whether he
believes in God or not, Antoinette shows her unbelievable about her husband answer that he believe in God by raising her eyebrows and the corners of her
mouth turned down in a questioning mocking way 127. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Antoinette is an irrational person. Antoinette is different from the conventional female heroines of nineteenth and even twentieth-century novels,
who are often more rational. We can see that Antoinette is in contrast. We can see the potential dangers of wild imagination and she is irrational. It can be seen
when Antoinette asked Christophine to use her obeah magic to concoct a love potion. After her husband ignores and does not care at all with her like before he
gets a letter from Daniel. In that case Christophine warns that such a brew will only make Rochester feels desire for his wife, not love but Antoinette forces her to
do what she wants because she believes that Christophine can help her. It can be seen through Antoinette statement: “Yes you can, I know you can. That is what I
wish and that is what I came here. You can make people love or hate or die” 112.
Antoinette’s irrationality can be seen when her husband asks about white powder that is strewn on the floor. Antoinette explains that it is only to keep
cockroaches away. Of course it makes her husband feels that there is something strange because there are no cockroaches in the house.
As I steep into her room I noticed the white powder strewn on the floor. That was the first thing I asked her about the powder. I asked
what it was. She said it was to keep cockroaches away. “Haven’t you noticed that there are no cockroaches in this house and no
centipedes? If you know how horrible this thing can be.” 136 Antoinette is a silent and sensitive young Creole girl who grows up with
neither her mother’s love nor her peer’s companionship. Antoinette also an PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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unconfident person because of Antoinette lacks a strong mother figure. Her only female role model is Christophine, who is an unattainable model because of her
blackness. In her childhood, Antoinette feels that her mother grows stronger and more distant. Antoinette spends more time in her overgrown garden because she
has nobody to talk to and to listen to. It can be shown when Antoinette tries to touch her mother’s forehead suddenly her mother pushed her away coldly and
without a word. Her mother also says that she wants to be alone. Therefore Antoinette always spends most of time in the kitchen and in the garden.
Antoinette feels that she is useless for her mother. In her garden, she feels comfortable and is protected from the cruel world
of human being. She feels so close with nature. Feeling isolated from the world outside, she stays in her garden until it is nearly dark and sits close to the old wall
at the garden. When I was safely home, I sat close at the end of the garden. It was
covered with green moss soft as velvet and I never wanted to move again. Everything would be worse if I moved. Christophine found
me there when it was dark and I was so stiff she had ton help me to get up. 7
Antoinette is an introvert person since she cannot express herself freely. She would rather keep all of her unhappy feeling by herself than telling other
people. She rarely has a conversation with her mother and people around her. Her husband thinks that her wife is the silent creature that he has ever married.
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..And one afternoon when I was watching her, hardly able to believe. She was the pale silent creature I had married.
Then I would look at her for long minutes by candlelight, wonder why she seemed sad asleep… In any case she had given any, but
coldly, unwillingly, trying to protect herself with silence and blank face. 52-54
Antoinette is a vulnerable person. It can be seen through her husband opinion about her. After they get married Rochester wonders why Antoinette
looks so sad while she is sleeping. In the night Antoinette always wakes and tells her husband about her unhappy childhood. She says that she is only happy in the
daylight hours. Then I would look at her for long minutes by candlelight,
wondering why she seemed sad a sleep,…I’d like remember her effort to escape No I’m sorry I dont wish to marry you. 90
Antoinette is always sad and cries at night. She also often talks about death. She tells her husband that, if he told about her dying, his words would kill
her. It means that if her husband hurts her and wishes her to die the world will kill her. Basically she really needs someone to safe and protect her since she lacks of
her mother’s love. “If I could die. Now, when I am happy would you do that?
You wouldn’t have to kill me. Say I die and I will die, you don’t believe me? Then try, try, say die and watch me die.” 55
She always expresses her sadness through crying. She feels comfortable when she tells her secret sadness. Antoinette’s vulnerability can also be seen from
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her statement when she is asked by her husband whether she wishes to marry him or not. Antoinette answers that she actually does not wish to marry him because
she is afraid of what may happen later 78-79. Antoinette is an emotional person. It can be seen when Amelie says to
Antoinette that her husband does not like their honeymoon. Therefore Antoinette gets angry with her. Antoinette jumps out and slaps Amelie’s face. She also grips
her face and groups her hair. Antoinette is angry when her husband asks Amelie to go away by calling her as a child. “You call her child,” said Antoinette “She is
older than the devil himself, and the devil is not crueler” 100. After that, Antoinette goes away and she walks very steadily. When her husband wants to
help her, she pushes him away. Antoinette took a few steps forward. She walked steadily. I went to
help her but she pushed me away, sat on the bed and with clenched sheet pulled at the sheet, then made a clicking sound of annoyance.
She took a pair of scissors from the round table, cut through the hem and tore the sheet in half, then each half into strips. 100
Antoinette’s emotionality can be seen when her husband tries to offer her rum, but Antoinette pushes the glass away.
I poured some rum out and offer it to her, but she pushed the glass away so roughly that spilled over her dress. 132
Antoinette realizes that she has lost her husband’s love, her name, her money, and her freedom. Antoinette is very angry when she knows that her
husband makes love to Amelie in the room next to hers. Therefore, she goes from PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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the house and when she returns, she seems totally angry which is shown through her husband’s opinion.
She passed me without looking at me, dismounted and went into the house. I heard her bedroom door slam and her handbell ring
violently. 143 The other thing that shows Antoinette is an emotional person is from her
husband’s opinion about his wife. He describes that Antoinette is totally angry with him when Antoinette opens the door she looks crazed.
Antoinette shrieked the bed room, Baptiste Christophine...When I saw her I was too shocked to speak. Her hairs hung uncombed and
dull into her eyes whish were inflamed and staring, her voice was very flushed and looked swollen. Her feet were bare. 144
Antoinette is very emotional and rude if someone hurts her. Antoinette speaks rudely to her husband for he has betrayed her with Amelie. She stands with
a broken bottle in her hands and murder in her eyes. She says that her husband is the same with the other slave owner, having slept with a servant and sent her
away. Antoinette accuses her husband of trying to transform her through obeah or magic by calling her “Bertha”, a name that he particularly fond of.
“I thought you liked the black people so much,” she said, still in that mincing voice. “But that’s just a lie like everything else. You
like the light brown girls better, don’t you? You abused the planters and made up stories about them, but you do the same
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thing. You send the girl away quicker, and with no money or less money, and that’s all the difference.” 95
Antoinette expresses to her husband how she hates him so much. Antoinette blames her husband for he has ruined everything even the most
valuable thing in her life, the place that she loves. “Do you know what you’ve done to me? It’s not the girl, not the
girl. But I loved this place I hate. I used to think that if everything else went out of my life. I would still have this, and now you have
been spilt it…I hate it now like I hate you and before I die I will show how much I hate you.” 95
Antoinettes emotionality can be seen when her husband tries to touch her. She bites her husband’s arm, when her husband grabs her wrist.
Antoinette cannot control her emotion. She is hysteric and curses all the member of her
husband’s body. I manage to hold her wrist with one hand,…but I was angry now
and she saw it. She smashed another bottle against the wall and stood with the broken glass in her hand and murder in her eyes.
“Just as you touch me once, you’ll soon see if I’m dam’ coward like you are.” Then she cursed me comprehensively, my eyes, my
mouth, every member of my body,…96. When Antoinette is locked by her husband in England, she shows her
emotion. Her husband locks her in garret room in her husband’s room. She is watched by a servant, Grace Pool who is paid double wages by Antoinette’s
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husband. Antoinette can no longer view time and place anymore. She does not even believe that she is in England when Grace tells her. She is totally angry but
she cannot express it. It makes her really depressed. Feeling rejected, oppressed, and isolated, she has potential danger by expressing herself emotionally, and when
Richard Mason comes to see her, he treats Antoinette as a stranger. She cannot bear her emotion. Antoinette rushes at him with a knife and she later bites him.
She overhears Richard saying, “I cannot interfere legally between yourself and your husband” 119. It is when he says “legally” Antoinette attacks Richard
faints. This event shows how emotional Antoinette is. She attacks Richard with knife and bites him as expression of anger.
“This gentleman arrived suddenly and insisted on seeing you. You rushed at him with a knife and when he got the knife away you bit
his arm. You won’t see him again.” 118 Antoinette has many characters in her life such beautiful, high self dignity
woman, loyal, loving person, has deep concern with others, generous, vulnerable, irrational, introvert, not religious, emotional and silent person. She is used to
escape from the problem that she faces. She keeps many things to herself rather than tell people how she feels and how she thinks. She rarely takes an action to
solve her problem and prefers to accept her condition passively.