The contribution of Antoinette`s dreams toward her character development in Jean Rhys` Wide Sargasso Sea - USD Repository
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THE CONTRIBUTION OF ANTOINETTE’S DREAMS TOWARD HER CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN JEAN RHYS’
WIDE SARGASSO SEA
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By M. Harry Aryanto T.
Student Number: 994214054 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2006
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Life is ours, we live in our ways.
N ot hi ng El s e M a t t e r s
( Met a l l ica : ) Never be afraid to sit a while and think.
(Lorraine Hasbery)
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T hi s und e r g r a d ua t e t he s i s i s d e d i c a t e d t o M y b e l ov e d m ot he r
M y b e l ov e d s i s t e r s
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study When we woke up from our deep sleep sometimes, we still wonder about the reality of our life. We sometimes cannot differentiate dreams from reality. When we are in real life, we thought that we are in a state of dreaming now,
because we cannot differ the reality and the dream itself. In some cultures, dream can mean a lot of things. “Assyrians saw dreams as omens. Bad dreams demanded action, i.e. exorcisms. Other dreams were seen as "advice". Egyptians believed that the gods revealed themselves in dreams, demanding pious acts, or warning of impending doom.”(http://www.rider.edu/suler/dreamman.html) From the ancient document, there are so many interpretations about dreams. People in different places, time, faith, and cultures saw dreams differently, for example in the Roman and Greek Ages in the quotation below:
Roman Ideas-Although the Egyptians created one of the earliest documents on dreams, known as the Chester Beatty papyrus, the Oneirocriticon or The Interpretation of Dreams by the Roman Artemidorus (c. AD 150) is the first comprehensive book on the interpretation of dreams. Greek Ideas-The Greeks didn't begin seriously considering dreams until 8th century BC. Homer, in his Iliad, describes a scene wherein Agamemnon receives instructions from the messenger of Zeus in a dream. Greeks also believed that dreams carried divine messages, but they could only be interpreted with the aid of a priest similar to those of the Babylonians and Egyptians. (http://library.thinkquest.org/11189/nfhistory.htm) From the quotation above, we can see that from the ancient age a dream was very important. People at that time believe that a dream was a message and
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2 has a meaning and it is like a prophecy to their future life. The interpretation of dream is the prophecy of one people’s life, not every person can interpret theirs.
Then, some of us still ask a big question in our head, why do we dream? There is no proven fact on why we dream. There are so many theories about dream. Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist who is known with the psychoanalytic theory, also has a theory about dream. According to him, “dreams carry our hidden desires.” (http://library.thinkquest.org/11189/nftheories.htm). Still from the same source, Carl Jung disagreed with Freud’s theory. Jung thinks dreams carry meaning, although not always a desire. These dreams can be interpreted by the dreamer.
From the psychological side, dream is a phenomenon. Henry Gleitman in his book entitled Psychology states, “Like many other phenomena, dream reflect what we know, what we have experienced, remembered, or thought-activities that psychologists call cognition” (1991: 8). The quotation above becomes the main reason why the writer is interested in analyzing the topic about dream. In this thesis, the writer tries to analyze the contribution of dream toward the character development of the major character based on human experience or what will happen in the future by believing dreams.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the preceding paragraphs stated in the background of study, the problem will be formulated as follows.
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1. How are the characteristics of Antoinette described? 2.
What are Antoinette’s dreams? 3. How do Antoinette’s dreams contribute to her character development? C.
Objectives of Study The main objective of the study is to find out the answer to the problem formulated above. This study aims to discuss further the characteristics of
Antoinette as the main character in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea and her dream. The first step is to find Antoinette’s characteristics. It is important to find Antoinette’s characteristics because it can be seen how her characteristics before her characteristics develop. After Antoinette’s characteristics are found, the next step as the second problem is to find Antoinette’s dreams that appear in the story and the interpretation of Antoinette’s dreams. The second step is also important, because the writer must know Antoinette’s dreams before go to analysis. Finally, the analysis tried to find the contribution of dreams toward the character development of Antoinette in the story.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding and to help the reader in understanding the topic above, it is necessary to explain the definition of the important term. The definitions are based on some books.
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1. Dream
Henry Gleitman in his book entitled Psychology described dream as a kind of
nocturnal drama to which the only price of admission is falling asleep. It is
usually a series of scenes, sometimes fairly commonplace, sometimes bizarre
and disjointed, in which the dreamer often figures as a participant (1991: 6).2. Character
According to Holman and Harmon in A Book to Literature, character in a story
can be “a kind of creature, which imitates human being so that they exist as life
like. It means that they have some characteristic that real human being have so
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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Without the criticisms and reviews, this thesis is not complete. For that
reason, the writer quotes some criticisms and reviews from some scholars that already analyze Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea or websites that analyze and discuss the novel or Jean Rhys as the writer of the novel. The first part of this chapter is going to provide some criticisms and reviews about Jean Rhys as the writer of Wide Sargasso
Sea. Jean Rhys wrote many novels and short stories, but her most famous novel is
Wide Sargasso Sea and as a woman writer, she is also known as a modernist writer,
one of the best modernist writers in her time.
Jean Rhys is the author of many short stories and novels, of which perhaps
Wide Sargasso Sea is best known. Rhys is known as a modernist writer,
writing throughout the twentieth century, and is often paralleled with Joseph Conrad and T.S. Eliot. Like the modernist authors, Rhys' writing often centres around themes of "isolation, absence of society or community, the sense of things falling apart, dependence and loss" (Carr, 15). She uses poetic language, irony, and a concern for subjectivity and language to develop her themes of anxiety and loss (16). She often uses, like other modernist writers, a cosmopolitan, indeed metropolitan setting for her writing. Wherever the setting, she seems to keep to consistent patterns of imagery. (www.qub.ac.uk/eu/imperial/carib/sargasso.htm) From another website, a critic discusses Jean Rhys’ works that contain heroines. This criticism is written by an unknown scholar, but it is very interesting.
This criticism is about heroines in Jean Rhys novels.
In my research of Jean Rhys, I found that many critics assumed that she was writing about heroines very similar to her own personal makeup. This is
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6 definitely true, according to Rhys, but the critics could then not separate her writing from her life. Carr comments that this contributed to the myth of "feminine distress", that her heroines then took on all attributes of Rhys. This assumption obscured much of the complexity and significance of Rhys's writing, because readers and critics then try to make parallels to events in Rhys's life with those in her writing.
(http://members.tripod.com/~AtkinsonB/index.html)
On the quotation above, the unknown scholar made a research about Jean Rhys novels, and he/she found that the heroines in Jean Rhys novel are related to her personal life. Therefore, what Jean Rhys tried to reveal from her novel is about her life.
Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea is an autobiographical novel. In this novel, Jean Rhys tries to show her struggle against the oppression of her gender. Like Antoinette, Jean Rhys also has an unhappy marriage. This novel can be categorized as a feminist work, not just because the writer is a woman but also the novel describes the problematic situation of women through the character of Antoinette. Sherry Lewkowicz in her essay entitled The Experience of Womanhood in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea discussed womanhood in the novel.
Sargasso Sea maintains a steady absence of faith in woman's ability to transcend the oppression of her gender. Rhys's novel depicts the near impossibility of "success" for a woman in a patriarchal world. This is a strikingly different kind of feminism. Whereas Jane has developed many resources and defenses she can rely on to get her through her tribulations, Antoinette is virtually defenseless. (http://www.postcolonialweb.org/caribbean/dominica/rhys/lewkowicz14.ht ml) Still from the same source, the novel is compared to another feminist story written by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre. Both stories have a close relation, because the
7 character of Antoinette that is known as Bertha Mason is the same character as Bertha Mason in Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The story of Antoinette is the past story of Bertha Mason although Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre comes earlier than Wide Sargasso Sea.
Wide Sargasso Sea was Jean Rhys' effort to rewrite, or more accurately, to
elaborate on and complicate, the history presented by Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel, Jane Eyre. The eponymous protagonist of Jane Eyre develops into a fiercely independent, self-assured, moral, and passionate young woman. (http://www.postcolonialweb.org/caribbean/dominica/rhys/lewkowicz14.ht ml) Another strong point about Wide Sargasso Sea that interests the writer was the connection between Wide Sargasso Sea with Charlotte Bronte’s Jean Eyre. Wide
Sargasso Sea is a unique novel; this novel is a kind of prequel of Charlotte Bronte’s
Jean Eyre. Usually when one novel has a sequel, it is made after the first novel, but
Wide Sargasso Sea as prequel of Jane Eyre was made after the sequel by a different
writer and in a different era. Written in the 19
th
century, Jean Eyre told a story about Rochester’s insane wife Bertha mason. The ending of this story did not satisfy Jean Rhys. She disagreed with Bronte’s presentation of Bertha Mason and set up to written a colonial story that was about from Bronte’s text. Wide Sargasso Sea derives from
Jane Eyre but this study would not discuss about Jane Eyre and would only focus on
Wide Sargasso Sea.An essay written from George P. Landow entitled Jean Rhys’ Political Attitude talks about Jean Rhys sympathy toward the Caribbean blacks.
Her illusionless sympathy with Caribbean blacks clearly appears throughout
Wide Sargasso Sea , despite the way most of them reject Antoinette, who, like Rhys herself, wished she had been born black rather than white.
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8 (http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/landow/post/caribbean/dominica/rhys/politi cs1.html) As stated above, Wide Sargasso Sea is kind of prequel of Charlotte Bronte’s
Jean Eyre, in this novel Jean Rhys also reveals the main character’s dream as one of
an interesting part in the story. In both works, dreams provide glimpse of the unexpressed emotion of the characters. In Dreams in Wide Sargasso Sea, Alan Gordon discusses about dreams in Wide Sargasso Sea.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, dreams leak into the waking world of the narrators, thus giving the novel a dreamlike tone. In Jean Rhys' postcolonial re-writing of Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, dreams serve many of the same functions that they serve in the original. The dreams of protagonist Antoinette are often clairvoyant like Jane's. Both characters also reveal interior selves when dreaming; Jane's dreams reflect a part of her consciousness that she represses and Antoinette's dreams reflect a part of her consciousness that she has trouble expressing. Indeed, the functional components of Antoinette's dreams often parallel those of Jane's dreams. Jean Rhys was clearly as aware of the various uses of dreams as Charlotte Bronte. (http://www.postcolonialweb.org/caribbean/dominica/rhys/gordon14.html) For the writer, Wide Sargasso Sea is interesting especially because of main character’s dreams that influenced her character development. It is uncommon when a dream has a big effect on the character development. Besides, dreams here become interesting because Jean Rhys uses dream as the foreshadows.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Every narrative work has a character. In An Introduction to Fiction, Stanton says that the term “character” has two meanings. It can refer to “the individuals who appear in the story and also the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral
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9 principles that shapes each of these individuals” (1965: 17). Holman and Harmon in
A Handbook to Literature mention that the term character is used to “designate the
individual’s speech and action. In other words, a character can represent human being’s actions, behaviors, and attitudes.” (1986: 81) Holman and Harmon in A Handbook to Literature state that characterization is the creation of these imaginary persons, so that the characters exist for the reader as lifelike (1986: 81). They classified characterization in fiction into three fundamental methods. The first method is the explicit presentation by the author of the character through direct exposition, either in introductory block or more often piecemeal throughout the work, illustrated by action. The second is the presentation of the character in action, with little or no explicit comment by the author, in the expectation that the reader will be able to deduce the attributes of the actor from actions. The third method is representation from within a character, without comment on the character by the author of the impact of the actions and emotions on the character’s inner self.
Murphy’s Understanding Unseen gives more detail techniques of characterization. It mentions nine techniques of characterization used by an author to describe the characters of a story (1972: 161-173).
a.
Personal Description An author uses this method particularly to give the description of character face, body, and the other physical appearances.
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10 b.
Character as Seen by Another Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe a character through the eyes and opinions of others.
c.
Speech The author gives the readers an insight into the character of one of the person in the book through what the person says.
d.
Past Life By letting the readers learn about a character’s past life, the author can give the clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character. This can be done by direct comment by the author, through the person’s thought, through his conversation, or through the medium of another person.
e.
Conversation of Others The author can also give the readers clues to a persons’ character through the conversation of other people and the things they say about her/him.
f.
Reaction The author can give the readers a clue to a person’s character by letting the readers know how that person reacts to various situations and events.
g.
Direct Comment The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.
h.
Thoughts The author can give the reader direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. In this aspect, he/she is able to do what we cannot do in real life. The
11 reader then is in privileged position; he has, as it were, a secret listening device plugged into the inmost thoughts of a person in his/her novel. i.
Mannerism An author can describe a person’s mannerisms, habits, or idiosyncrasies which may also tell us something about his/her character
Stanton in Introduction to Fiction implies that literature is a unique imitation of life.
In life, on the other hand, there are no stereotypes, no mere copies: every person is an individual to those who known him, every love affair is a unique experience to the lover. The serious author takes life as his model. Instead of writing a “typical story” or a “typical war story”, he writes of particular individual in particular situation. The result, paradoxically, is that his story is typical - typical of life (1965:7). From this statement, it can be derived that there are other fields of knowledge related to literature and one that is used in this thesis is psychology. There are some aspects on how psychology can be seen as a “partner” from where readers can get a deeper understanding of literature. In Theory of Literature, Rene Wellek and Austin Warren explain that “there are four aspects that can be learned in literature from psychological point of view” (1956: 81). The four aspects are “the writer, as type and as individual, the creative process, the psychological types and laws presented within the works of literature, and the effect of literature upon its reader.”
Literature is a creative work in which an author uses his/her imagination to create a story. Imagination is a part of human unconsciousness. The terms
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2. The Relation between Literature and Psychology
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12 “imagination” and “human unconsciousness” are widely used and analyzed in psychology, especially in Freud’s theory of Psychoanalysis. Guerin’s A Handbook of
Critical Approach to Literature mentions that Freud’s most substantial contribution
to the development of modern psychology is his theory that stresses itself upon human unconscious part.
The foundation of Freud’s contribution to modern psychology is his emphasis on the unconscious aspects of the human psyche. A brilliant creative genius, Freud provided convincing evidence, through his many carefully recorded case studies, that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control. He demonstrated that, like the iceberg, the human mind is structured so that its great weight and density lie beneath the surface (below the level of consciousness) (1999: 127).
An author is an individual with his/her unique psychological type. Unconsciously, this psychological type of the author influences his creative process of making a story and, thus, it is reflected in the result of his/her work. Nevertheless, it can also be the author’s anti-type which is implied in his/her work, as Wellek and Warren in Theory of Literature say that “some writers reveal their type in their creative work, while others reveal their anti-type, their complement (1956: 84).”
As psychology is a body of knowledge which studies human psyche, the most related element of literature to psychology is its human or human-like characters. Referring to Barnet’s explanation about character in Literature for
Composition that “a character is a figure with specific mental and moral qualities, it is
obvious that characters are observable through psychology, in terms that they consist of unique mental qualities (1988: 71).”
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In order to get a better understanding about dream, this part will show some theories of dream. As stated in the previous chapter that the most important topic in
Wide Sargasso Sea that will be analyzed in this thesis is dream, so the theory about
dream is needed to help the writer analyze that topic.Thomas R. Murray in his book entitled Human Development Theories gives a description about Carl G. Jung’s theory. Jung’s theory of dream can be found in his famous theory namely Analytical Psychology.
The human psyche or personality operates on both conscious and unconscious levels. Jung defined conscious as the part of cognition that function under the control of ego. Unconscious is the remaining part not under ego control. Jung derived the evidence to support his collective unconscious proposal from his own to other’s dreams, vision and fantasies- with dreams defined as images that appear during sleep, vision as images appearing spontaneously without conscious intention while the person is awake, and fantasies as people’s purposely generated images when awake (1999: 58). Jung also gives three categories of variables in dream theory “(a) the sources of dream content, (b) the nature of symbols, and (c) function of dreams.” Here is the explanation about those three categories (1999: 59-60).
a.
Sources of Dreams Content Dreams images can originate from three main sources-current environmental stimuli, memories from the past and recent everyday experience.
b.
Function of Dreams Dreams reflect people’s basic nature, in the sense that dream are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche.
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3. Theory of Dream
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14 c.
The Nature of Symbol In this case, Jung agreed with Freud, images are the languages of dream with grammar unlike that of walking thoughts.
The next theory of dream is from Alfred Adler. This theory is applied in this thesis because both Adler and Jung have several similarities in their theory.
Montague Ullman in his essay entitled Dreaming, Life Style, and Psychology: a
Comment on Adler’s View of Dream , stated about Adler’s theory of dream.
“Dreaming is a state of consciousness occurring during states of partial arousal. Under normal circumstances these states of partial arousal are brought about recur- rently throughout the night as a result of physiological factors impinging upon and influencing the threshold of the reticular activating system.” (http://siivola.org/monte/papers_grouped/copyrighted/Dreams/Dreaming_Life_Style_ and_Physiology.htm). Ullman also give Adler’s view of the dream. Adler has five views.
1. Any explanation concerning the meaning of dreams must not offend common sense.
2. Dreams are the product of a particular life style and, in turn, build up and enforce this style.
3. Dreams have to be understood in terms of the individual's orientation to his own future.
4. The use of the metaphor lends itself to the task of stirring up feelings. If dreams have a purpose this resides in the feelings they arouse.
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5. The dreamer engages in a tendentious ordering of experience so as to facilitate self- deception.
Macrobius From Commentary on the Dream of Scipio in The Norton
Anthology of Theory and Criticism written by Vincent B Leitch. gives some
classification of dream. Macrobius classified dream into five types (2001:198-199).1. Enigmatic Dream Enigmatic dream is dream that conceal with strange shapes and veils with ambiguity the true meaning of the information being offered, and requires an interpretation for its understanding.
2. Prophetic Vision We called a dream a prophetic vision if it actually comes true.
3. Oracular Dream We called a dream oracular in which a parent, or a pious or revered man, or a priest, or even a god clearly reveals what will or will not transpire, and what action to take or to avoid.
4. Nightmare Nightmare may be caused by mental or physical distress, or anxiety about the future.
5. Apparition Dream The apparition comes upon one in the moment between wakefulness and slumber, in the so-called “first cloud of sleep.”
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16 The last two of that classification of dream, nightmare, and apparition dream are not worth interpreting since they have no prophetic significance.
C. Theoretical Framework
The theories written above have an important role for the study. The theory of “character” in Stanton’s Introduction to Fiction and Holman and Harmon’s A
Handbook to Literature , and theory of characterization in Murphy’s Understanding
Unseen and by Holman and Harmon are used to analyze Antoinette’s characteristics
and to get a better understanding of the characteristics of Antoinette.
After her characterization is clearly understood, then it is important to find Antoinette’s dreams, the interpretation of her dreams. For this step, the writer used Jung’s theory of dream in Thomas R. Murray’s Human Development Theories and Adler’s theory of dream in Montague Ullman’s essay entitled Dreaming, Life Style,
and Psychology: a Comment on Adler’s View of Dream. After the character and
dream of Antoinette one clearly understood, the next step was try to find the contribution of Antoinette’s dreams toward her character development as seen in the story.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The object of the study to be analyzed in this thesis is a novel entitled Wide Sargasso Sea written by Jean Rhys and was first published by Penguin Books in 1966. This novel is an autobiographical novel of the writer. Wide Sargasso Sea is a sensational novel, since this novel won the Royal Society of Literature Award and the W.H. Smith Award on its first edition. This novel is consists of 120 pages and is divided into three parts. This study took Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea as the main object, and the
main character of this novel became the focus to be analyzed especially the main character’s dreams. The main character in this novel was Antoinette Cosway.
Throughout the story, she experiences three dreams in her lifetime. First, when she was a child, she dreamed about somebody who closes with her but hates her.
Second, it took place when she was in her 17, her dreams was about world according to Antoinette interpretation. The third dream took place when she was transformed into Bertha Mason. At that time, she dreamed about when she is wearing a dress and color of her dress changed. The first part of the novel tells about Antoinette’s childhood as a Creole in oppressive, colonialist society. At this time, she got her first and second dreams. This part tells about the time when Antoinette experienced oppression from her community. Her life changed when her mother remarries. She and her family had money and ate English food, but
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18 when the house was burned down by local people, her little brother died, and then her mother goes mad and died too. Then, she was sent away to school. When she left from the age of seventeen, she was a wealthy heiress and her fate sealed. The second and the third part of this novel tells about Antoinette’s meeting with a young Englishman, Rochester, who was attracted to her innocent sensuality and beauty when she was transformed into Bertha Mason. After their marriage, the rumors began, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between her demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette was driven towards madness. At the third part when she was transformed into Bertha Mason, Antoinette got the third dream.
B. Approach of the Study
In order to get a better understanding about the character development of Antoinette Cosway, the writer will apply the psychological approach. It has been mentioned in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature that “the crucial limitation of psychological approach is that psychological interpretation can afford many profound clues toward solving a work’s thematic and symbolic mysteries” (1999: 126). According to the same book, “the psychological approach can seldom account for the beautiful symmetry of a well-wrought poem or of a fictional masterpiece” (1999: 126). Thus, basically the psychological approach can be applied in literature as a tool for reading beneath the lines. Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature
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19 mention that psychological approach is a viewpoint from where readers could observe certain human recurrent pattern.
Like mythopoeic approach to literature, the psychological involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent pattern. Unlike the mythopoeic approach, it draws on a different body of knowledge-most often on that offered by Sigmund Freud and his followers. This is not to say that all psychological criticism postdates Freud (1971: 14). From the explanation above, it is understood that psychological approach is aimed to observe literature specifically by using the theory of psychology, in which the pattern of human mind is widely studied. The most often theory that is used in this approach is one proposed by the founding father of psychology, Sigmund Freud. Here, psychological theory is utilized as the basis of the observation. In this case, the observation of the study will focus on the dream of the main character. This is where the psychological approach play its role because the theory of dream is highly related to the theory of psychological.
Nevertheless, there is still a wide possibility for using other experts’ theories since this body of knowledge is developed through time.
C. Method of the Study
The library research method was employed to conduct this thesis. The object of analysis for this thesis was a novel entitled Wide Sargasso Sea. The reading part took more than three times for the writer to get a better understanding of the novel itself. The writer also compiled some sources from the internet to support this analysis. To answer the problem formulation, the writer applied a psychological approach and there were some steps that the writer took to obtain the solutions to the problem formulation.
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20 In the first step, the writer started to read the novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, as the main data. While reading the novel, the writer paid more attention to
Antoinette’s dialogues and actions as the main character in the novel. Having read the novel, the writer also read some criticism about Wide Sargasso Sea. These activities would provide me with appropriate information about the novel.
The second, related to the first question in the problem formulation, the writer would analyze the description of Antoinette by applying Murphy’s theory in Understanding Unseen about character and characterization. Theories of dream would be applied on the third step in order to revealed Antoinette’s dreams throughout the story. The last step, to answer the last question in the problem formulation, the writer would use theories. The purpose was to reveal the contribution of Antoinette’s dreams toward her character development. After all steps were finished, the writer presented a conclusion for the study.
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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS As stated in the first chapter, this analysis deals with three parts. This thesis will focus on the influence or the contribution of dreams towards
the character development of Antoinette as the main character in Wide
Sargasso Sea . Since the main character in the novel is Antoinette, the first part of the analysis discuss further about the characterization of Antoinette.
It is important to have an understanding the characterization of Antoinette because with this method we can know her character changes before and after she has dreams. Characterization of Antoinette is still divided into two parts, the first is on her childhood until she is a teenager and the second part is on her marriage life. This division gives a more specific description about Antoinette and the changes of Antoinette’s characteristic.
The second part of the analysis deals with Antoinette’s dream. This part tries to find Antoinette’s dream and find the meaning of those dreams. Antoinette’s dreams will be found in two different times.
The third part of the analysis deals with the contribution of Antoinette’ dreams toward her character development. This part discusses the Antoinette’s dream and her character development.
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A. The Characterization of Antoinette 1. The Characterization of Antoinette during her Childhood Antoinette Mason/Cosway spent her childhood in Coulibri estate.
As a little girl, she never experienced beautiful moments during her early life. Her personality is introvert, and she feels that she lives in a solitude life. ‘I got used to a solitary life, but my mother still planned and hoped - perhaps she had to hope every time she passed a looking glass. (p. 3)’. From the quotation, it is quite clear that one of the reasons why Antoinette feels that she lives a solitary life is because of her mother. Antoinette feels that her solitary life is the reflection of her mother’s life in which her mother is the joke of the community. Another reason why Antoinette feels that she lives a solitary life is because she feels that no one will believe in what she says. “I ran away and did not speak of it for I thought if I told no one it might not be true. (p. 4)”. Antoinette seems to have a prejudice to other people, she never tries to have a conversation to other people but she just believes that they do not believe in her
Another strong point of Antoinette’s characteristic is insecurity. Her feeling insecure does not contain only physical context but also psychological. As an introvert person, she counts on her parents especially her mother to protect her. She always feels that she is not secure wherever she is even though it is in her own house. Her feeling of insecure in her own house is not only a physical insecurity where one feels insecure from a certain physical reason such as ghost, snake, thief, and robber. Her feeling
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insecure is a result of a bad experience in the past. Whenever she feels uncomfortable usually, she feels insecure.
Once I would have gone back quietly to watch her asleep on the blue sofa-once I made excuses to be near her when she brushed her hair, a soft black cloak to cover me, hide me, keep me safe. When I was safely home, I sat close to the old wall at the end of the garden. It was covered with green moss soft as velvet and I never wanted to move again. (p. 7) From the quotation above, we can see that she always feels insecure and she must hide to make her in a secure condition. Her house maybe can give her a cover to protect her but she still feels insecure. In some other pages, Jean Rhys gives so many descriptions that Antoinette always feels insecure. Here, she clearly states that what she always thinks about is how she can be in a safe situation, especially how to be safe from a stranger.
I lay thinking, ‘I am safe. There is the corner of the bedroom door and the friendly furniture. There is the tree of life in the garden and the wall green with moss. The barrier of the cliffs and the high mountains. And the barrier of the sea. I am safe. I am safe from stranger. (p. 10) As an introvert person, she does not like to have a conversation or a situation where she has to meet other people instead of her family. She knows that they do not believes her and this situation will make her feel insecure. If she has to go somewhere, she will prefer meeting animal or any other things except people along the way.
I took another road, past the old sugar works and the water wheel that had not turned for years. I went to parts of Coulibri that I had not seen, where there was no road, no path, no track. And if the razor grass cut my legs and arms I would think ‘It’s better than ants, rain that soaked me to the skin-once I saw a snake. All better than people. Better. Better, better than people. (p. 11) Antoinette also feels insecure when the dark comes. For her, darkness cannot give her the safe condition. Antoinette will feel comfortable and secure if she is in bright place and she will feel insecure when she cannot see the sun. In this condition, she wished to have someone like Christophine, a black slave who take cares of Antoinette, or a dog that can protects her when Christophine is not at her side.
I left a light on the chair by my bed and waited for Christophine, for I liked to see her last thing. But she did not come, and as the candle burned down, the safe peaceful feeling left me. I wished I had a big Cuban dog to lie by my bed and protect me, I wished I had not heard a noise by the bamboo clump, or that I were very young again, for then I believed in my stick (p. 17-18).
From Antoinette’s statement above, we can see the reason why she feels insecure and depends on Christophine. At that time, apparently, she finds a long narrow piece of wood from which Christophine knocks the nails out. As a little girl, Antoinette really believes that the piece of wood or the stick can protect her from anything or from the worst as long as she has it near her. She really believes that it can protect her because as a child she also believes that everything is alive including the stick.
When she grows up, she does not have that stick anymore. She understands that the stick or any other inanimate thing cannot protect her.
Therefore, now she depends on Christophine and a big Cuban dog to protect her, otherwise she still feels insecure.
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The reason why Antoinette always feels insecure is also influenced by her mother’s statement that the society in Coulibri estate is not secure and good for her family although here she said that it is not safe for Pierre, Antoinette’s little brother.
He sighed. ‘I feel very well here. However, we’ll arrange something. Quite soon.’ ‘I will not stay at Coulibri any longer,’ my mother said. ‘It is not safe. It is not safe for Pierre.’ (p. 16) The quotation above reflects how her mother’s statement gives a big effect to Antoinette. As a little girl, she believes what an adult people say especially her own mother. Antoinette’s mother saying that the society is not secure because people do not like a black people whom married with a white man. In this case, Antoinette’s mother married to Mr. Mason, a rich white man, for her second husband.
2. The Characterization of Antoinette during her Marriage Time
Jean Rhys puts Antoinette’s characterization in marriage life in part two. In this part, the narrator is not Antoinette anymore but Rochester, her husband. Although in this part Rochester is the main narrator, Antoinette is still the narrator in several parts. As the narrator of this part, the discussion about the characterization of Antoinette is from the point of view of Rochester. Although this part is dominated with Rochester, still, Antoinette becomes the narrator for a small part where Antoinette shows her honesty to her husband during the early stage of her marriage.
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