The first thing I thought of when we began talking about and
reading Wide Sargasso Sea, was a short story I read last year in class called
The Yellow Wallpaper. The Yellow
Wallpaper is about a woman, who has supposedly gone insane, and is banished to
the attic in the summer home of her and her husband. While locked in the attic, it becomes the
only safe place for her to be, and inside the wallpaper she believes is a woman
trapped behind the ugliness and smell of the paper. She is determined to take down the paper and
free the woman trapped behind the paper.
In the beginning of the story, you are told she had just given birth to
a baby, so all of these actions would today be known as postpartum
depression. The story is a lot more
involved and at the end, she crawls around the room as though she is the women
that she has just set free from behind the wallpaper, and actually is pretty
funny and creepy how it is written. Here
is a link to the full text of the writing, I really enjoyed the piece and it
isn’t too long, definitely worth at least looking over: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/wallpaper.html
In the beginning of The Yellow Wallpaper as in the beginning
of Wide Sargasso Sea, neither woman seems to be as insane as the people
labeling them like to think that they are.
It’s only until they are locked away in a room to continuously think and
over analyze what is happening and what they are feeling that the insanity
becomes more and more prominent. Like
what was said in class, when anyone is forced into solitude and all they have
are the thoughts going around in their mind, the sanest person would eventually
go insane. These novels all take an
interesting spin on feminism and how a woman is treated in a patriarchal society. How differently things would be, had they not
been married to the man they were married to.
For many, that is what the women in The Yellow Wallpaper saying she is
finally free is about, finally being free from the marriage that has made her
so miserable. Throughout Wide Sargasso
Sea, Antoinette definitely had her moments of insanity before she was locked
away to a room, but wouldn’t anyone go somewhat mad, after being raised by a
mother like hers and having lived a young life the way she did? Antoinette has a need for protection and to
feel safe, she is in constant need of these feelings. And for the most part, feels more comfortable
around black people and not her own people.
The constant not being able to be a part of society that accepts her for
who she is, and having a husband that won’t give her the comfort that she
needs, is enough to drive her to insanity.
This insanity though comes from never fitting in and always being a part
of a patriarchal society that didn’t understand her needs. Most in our society that don’t feel like they
fit in or are outcasts, eventually are driven to outlandish insanity too.
This post mirrors my thoughts exactly! I'm an English Lit major, but may consider picking up a second major in Women's and Gender Studies, so gender relationships and stereotypes are something I'm really passionate about. I remember reading a quote describing how females in literature tend to be either "a seductress, a witch, or insane," something along those lines, anyway. For whatever reason, historically females in literature could not be taken seriously. I still have yet to finish this book, but I can clearly see like you do that it is a piece of feminist commentary on insanity and gender roles. Funnily enough, I have not read "The Yellow Wallpaper," despite having heard of it many, many times before, but after reading Wide Sargasso Sea and making the same connection to the short story I really ought to read it now!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I never made the connection. I read "The Yellow Wallpaper" a few years back and it is almost identical. Both seem like outright messages to the domineering ideals in the patriarchal society that is the British Empire of that era. These women are driven insane by the men in their lives by being imprisoned mentally and somewhat physically.
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