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作 者姓 名 ： 赵 天琪
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中图分类号：I106 单位代码：10231

学 号：2016300354

硕士学位论文

《藻海无边》的空间叙事研究

硕 士 研 究 生：赵天琪
导 师：范丽娟 教授
学 科 专 业：英语语言文学
答 辩 日 期：2019 年 11 月
授 予 学 位 单 位：哈尔滨师范大学
 A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Master

A SPATIAL NARRATIVE STUDY OF

WIDE SARGASSO SEA

Candidate ：Zhao Tian-qi

Supervisor ：Fan Li-juan Professor
Speciality ：English Language and Literature
Date of Defence ：November，2019
Degree-Conferring-Institution ：Harbin Normal University
 Contents

Contents

摘 要 ································································································I
Abstract ·····························································································II

Introduction·························································································1
0.1 Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea ······················································1
0.2 Literature Review ·········································································3
0.3 Thesis Statement···········································································6
Chapter One Theoretical Foundation ·························································9
1.1 The Development of Spatial Theory····················································9
1.2 Distinctive Elements of Spatial Theory ··············································13
1.2.1 Topographical Space of Gabriel Zoran ·······································13
1.2.2 Social and Psychological Space of Henry Lefebvre ························15
Chapter Two The Topographical Space in Wide Sargasso Sea ·························18
2.1 Jamaica: The Place of Antoinette’s Growth ·········································18
2.1.1 The House in Coulibri ··························································18
2.1.2 The Convent in Spanish Town ·················································21
2.2 Granbois: The Place of Antoinette and Rochester’s Marriage ····················23
2.2.1 The Village of Massacre ························································23
2.2.2 The House of Honeymoon ·····················································25
2.2.3 Christophine’s House ···························································27
2.3 Thornfield Hall: The Place of Antoinette's Imprisonment·························28
2.3.1 The Attic of Antoinette ··························································28
2.3.2 The Room Outside the Attic ···················································30
Chapter Three The Social Space in Wide Sargasso Sea ··································32
3.1 Colonial Oppression in the Social Space ···········································32
3.1.1 Cultural Hegemony······························································32
3.1.2 Racial Discrimination ···························································34
3.1.3 Contradictions of Classes ·······················································37

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

3.2 Gender Oppression in the Social Space ·············································399

3.2.1 Men’s Domination ·····························································39
3.2.2 Women’s Resistance ···························································42
Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide Sargasso Sea ·························45
4.1 The Psychological Space Constructed by Rochester’s Letters ···················45
4.1.1 The First Letter: Contradiction Towards Marriage ·························45
4.1.2 The Second Letter: Fear of Obeah ············································47
4.1.3 The Third Letter: Determination of Going Back to England ··············49
4.2 The Psychological Space Constructed by Antoinette’s Dreams ··················51
4.2.1 The First Dream: Being Afraid in the Forest ································51
4.2.2 The Second Dream: Fear and Love to the Man ·····························53
4.2.3 The Third Dream: Rational Madness ·········································54
Conclusion·························································································57
Bibliography ······················································································59
攻读硕士期间所发表的学术论文 ····························································62
哈尔滨师范大学学位论文原创性声明 ······················································63
哈尔滨师范大学学位论文版权使用说明书 ················································63
Acknowledgements ··············································································64

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 摘 要

摘 要

《藻海无边》，英国女性作家简·里斯的代表作，讲述了克里奥尔女性安托
瓦内特悲惨的一生。小说颠覆了《简爱》中柏莎的疯女人这一形象，自出版以来
便引起了学者们的热议，对其研究也涉及到殖民主义、女性主义和话语权分析等
多个方面。然而，随着二十世纪空间叙事理论的发展，许多学者开始关注文本中
的空间元素，强调空间在文本中的重要性。本文在前人研究的基础上，运用加布
里尔·佐伦和亨利·列斐福尔的空间批评理论对《藻海无边》进行分析，旨在探
讨小说中的空间对女主人公的命运的影响。
论文主体分为四部分。第一章为论文的理论基础，简要介绍了近年来空间批
评理论的发展与论文所运用的空间理论，分别为加布里尔·佐伦提出的地志空间及
亨利·列斐伏尔提出的社会空间和心理空间。第二章为小说中的地志空间，主要围
绕三个地点展开。第一个地点是女主人公安托瓦内特的成长地牙买加，第二个地
点是安托瓦内特与罗切斯特的蜜月之地格瓦布朗，第三个地点是见证了女主人公
从被监禁到毁灭的桑菲尔德庄园。地志空间的描写为小说提供了活动场所，同时
也为主人公的成长提供了背景。第三章为小说中的社会空间，主要围绕两个方面
展开。第一个方面是殖民空间，主要体现在殖民所带来的文化霸权、种族歧视和
阶级间的矛盾冲突。第二个方面是性别空间，体现在男性对女性的控制和女性对
男性的反抗。社会空间丰富了小说的内涵，也塑造了女主人公的性格。第四章为
小说中的心理空间，主要关注两位主人公的心理发展。通过罗切斯特的三封信件
分析他由对婚姻的矛盾心理，到对异乡文化奥比巫术的恐惧，再到决心监禁安托
瓦内特的心理空间。通过安托瓦内特的三个梦境分析她从在森林中初遇男人的恐
惧，到对男人恐惧却又爱恋，再到她理性的疯狂的心理空间。心理空间揭示了人
物的情感变化，导致了女主人公的悲惨命运。
在小说《藻海无边》中，简·里斯通过地志空间，社会空间以及心理空间进
行叙事，讲述了安托瓦内特悲惨的一生。本文运用空间叙事理论分析了女主人公
从成长到毁灭的过程，揭露了边缘女性的生存困境。
关键词：安托瓦内特；空间叙事；地志空间；社会空间；心理空间

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

Abstract

Wide Sargasso Sea, the representative work of British female writer Jane Rhys,
tells the tragic life of the Creole woman Antoinette. The novel subverts Bertha's
image of mad woman in Jane Eyre and attracts heated discussion among scholars since
its publication. Researches on it also involves colonialism, feminism and discourse
power analysis. However, with the development of spatial criticism theory in the
twentieth century, many scholars began to pay attention to the spatial elements in the
text, emphasizing the importance of space in the text. On the basis of previous
researches, this thesis adopts the spatial narrative theories of Gabriel Zoran and Henry
Lefebvre to analyze the Wide Sargasso Sea, aiming to explore the influence of the
space in the novel on the heroine's fate.
The main part of the thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one is
theoretical foundation which briefly introduces the development of spatial narrative
theory in recent years and the spatial narrative theory used in the thesis, including the
topographical space proposed by Gabriel Zoran and the social space and psychological
space proposed by Henry Lefebvre. Chapter two is the topographical space in the novel,
which mainly develops in three places. The first place is the birthplace of the heroine
Antoinette Jamaica, the second place is Granbois where Antoinette and Rochester
spend the honeymoon, and the third place is Thornfield Hall which has witnessed the
heroine’s imprison to devastation. The description of the topographical space provides
the setting for the novel, and also a background for the growth of the heroine. Chapter
three is the social space in the novel, which mainly focuses on two aspects. The first
aspect is colonial space mainly reflected in the cultural hegemony, racial
discrimination and conflicts between different classes brought by the colonization. The
second aspect is gender space which is reflected in man’s domination to women and
woman’s resistance to men. The social space enriches the connotation of the novel and
also shapes the character of the heroine. Chapter four is the psychological space in the
novel, which mainly pays attention to the psychological development of the two
protagonists. Rochester’s psychological space of his ambivalence in marriage, his fear

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 Abstract

to alien culture of witchcraft Obeah, and then his determination to imprison Antoinette
are analyzed through his three letters. Antoinette’s psychological space, including her
fear from the first encounter with a man in the forest to fear but love to the men and
then to her rational madness, are reflected in her three dreams. The psychological space
reveals the emotional changes of the characters and results in the tragic fate of the
heroine.
In the Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys constructs the narrative structure of the
novel through the topographical space, social space and psychological space, telling
the tragic life of Antoinette. This paper uses the theory of spatial narrative to analyze
the the process of the heroine's growth and destruction exposing the plight of marginal
women.
Key words ： Antoinette; spatial narrative; topographical space; social space;
psychological space

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 Introduction

Introduction

0.1 Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys, a distinguished English novelist of mid-20th century, was born in

Dominica of British West Indies in 1890. Her primate name was Ella Gwendolen Rees
Williams. Her father was a Welsh doctor and her mother was a white Creole woman.
Rhys was strongly affected by her special identity as the generation of an English and
an Creole, and she was contradict to the white and black culture. During her childhood,
Rhys was educated in a local Catholic convent in Dominica and she also learned the
French dialect from some local Creoles. When she was sixteen, Rhys was sent to a
boarding school in England and later attended at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
in Cambridge. However, she was ridiculed as an outsider due to her accent and was
advised to leave the school. After her father’s death in 1910, it was reluctant for Rhys
to continue her study nor went back to her village. Therefore, she began to take various
jobs such as a chorus girl, mannequin and artist model to support herself.
Jean Rhys totally had three marriages. Before her first marriage, Rhys once fell in
love with a wealthy stockbroker Lancelot Grey Hugh Smith who supported her
financially even when their relationship ended. Suffering mentally and physically, she
even worked as a prostitute and thus had an abortion after which she started to write. In
1919, Rhys moved to Europe and married a Dutch poet William Johan Marie Jean
Lenglet with whom she had two children. Unfortunately, the couple lived a so poor and
miserable life that Rhys had no choice but to decided to sell out her husband’s works.
However, a friend of Rhys inspired and stimulated her to edit her diaries into fiction
through which Rhys met the English writer and critic Ford Madox Ford who
appreciated and helped her a lot in writing. One year after the divorce with William in
1933, Rhys got married to an English editor Leslie Tilden-Smith. They went back to
Caribbean in 1936 and wandered many other places. Leslie Tilden-Smith died in 1945.
Two years later, she married her third husband Max Hamer, who was a solicitor and a
cousin of her ex-husband. In 1949, Rhys was arrested and imprisoned in the hospital to

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

receive mental treatment. Afterwards, Max was imprisoned due to theft and died in
1966.
Jean Rhys created a few works during her life. In 1926, Rhys published her first
collection of stories The Left Bank and Other Stories with the assistance of Ford.
Under Ford’s suggestion, she changed her name from Ella Williams to Jean Rhys.
Rhys’s special social identity made her caught in the contradict cultures and races,
which shaped her style and themes in her later writing to a certain degree (Carole,
1991:56). In the following decade, she continually published four novels including
Quartet in 1928 which was related with her affair with Ford, After Leaving Mr.
Mackenzie in 1930 , Voyage in the Dark in 1934 and Good Morning, Midnight in 1939.
These four novels were considered to be about different stages of the same woman in
various names who drifted here and there with no happiness while had a clear
understanding to herself and others. Most of these novels received a high praise for the
outstanding writing style. After years of being drafted and perfected, Rhys’s
masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was published in 1966. The novel won the Royal
Society of Literature Prize meantime and won the prestigious W.H. Smith Literary
Awardand in 1967 which earned her the public recognition and reputation. Rhys passed
away on 14 May 1979, leaving her autobiography unfinished. The book later was titled
posthumously Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography.
As the outstanding work of Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea wins quite a few
favorable reception among critics. It is considered as a feminist and anti-colonial
response to Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, giving an account of Mr Rochester’s
marriage from the perspective of his mad wife Antoinette Cosway. In Wide Sargasso
Sea, Rhys also explores the issues including patriarchy, racism and and assimilation
revealing the oppression and exploitation in the colonial (Plasa, 2001:3). The novel
consists of three parts telling the miserable life of the beautiful Creole girl Antoinette
about how she is cheated into the marriage with Rochester, deprived of her property,
driven to madness, moved to England and locked in the attic.
The first part is narrated by the heroine Antoinette introducing her childhood
girlhood in Coulibri, Jamaica. The background of the novel is settled in Dominica not
long before the emancipation. Antoinette is a white Creole. Her father is an slave
owner and her mother is a beautiful white Creole. She is excluded by the local black

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 Introduction

people and the white English people due to her special identity. After her father’s death,
Antoinette lives with her mother, a disabled brother and a black servant Christophine
down and out. Her mother’s marriage with a wealthy Englishman Mr. Mason change
her life. Soon after the emancipation, some local blacks burns her new house and bring
her brother’s death which leads to her mother’s madness. After her mother’s death,
Antoinette is sent to the convent where she spends her girlhood. The first part ends
with Mr. Mason’s visit aiming at arranging a goog marriage for her step-daughter.
The second part develops following the narrator Rochester with Antoinette’s
narration occasionally. It tells the honeymoon of the couple in Granbois, Dominica, the
breakdown of their marriage and the madness of Antoinette. In order to get a mount of
money, Rochester comes to West Indies. Attracted by her fortune and pretty outlook, he
marries Antoinette. The couple travel to Granbois to spend their honeymoon. However,
Rochester is not used to the people nor the environment around here especially
Antoinette’s black servant Christophine. The couple spend a few happy days until the
appearance of Antoinette’s brother who wants to make some money by telling
Rochester something about his wife and her mother Annette. Troubled by her mother’s
madness, Rochester begins to keep aloof from Antoinette, which makes her confused
and insecure. In order to win back her husband’s love and save their marriage,
Antoinette turns Christophine for help and asks her to use Obeah. Rochester is angry
with her when finding out what Antoinette has done. He has sex with their beautiful
black young servant in the house which eventually drives Antoinette mad. The second
part ends with Rochester’s letter to his father telling his decision to take Antoinette
back to in England.
The third part starts with Grace Poole, a servant in Thornfield Hall who is
employed to watch over Antoinette, and then continues by Antoinette telling her life of
being imprisoned in the Thornfield Hall. After being taken to England, she is renamed
Bertha by her husband, looked after and watched by a nurse and servant. One night at
the servant’s sleep, Antoinette slips out the attic and burns the house as she does in her
dream.

0.2 Literature Review

Jean Rhys is an outstanding British female writer, whose work Wide Sargasso Sea

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

rewrites the "mad woman" of Rochester’s ex-wife Bertha in the classic Jane Eyre by
Charlotte Bronte and thus was regarded as the prequel of Jane Eyre in the academic
circles. Since its publication, Wide Sargasso Sea has been highly praised by critics. The
unique West Indies scenery described in the novel deeply attract readers, and the
special life experience of the heroine and the identity crisis she suffers also make the
readers moved. More importantly, Rhys makes the silent mad woman Bertha in Jane
Eyre voice and transforms her into the vivid white Creole girl Antoinette in the Wide
Sargasso Sea which brings the heated discussion and rich studies.
Foreign scholars’ researches on Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea are quite rich,
including the overall study of Rhys herself and her works, colonial studies and feminist
studies. In 1978, Longman Press published the book Jean Rhys of James Lewis which
is the first one to be a comprehensive evaluation of Rhys. In this book, Rhys was first
listed as a Caribbean writer, and before that, she was always considered as a British
writer. What’s more, some scholars have focused on Rhys’s writing career and have
elaborated on the influence of her life on her character creation. In Jean Rhys: The
West Indian Novel, Teresa O’Connor (1986) analyzes Rhys’s unpublished manuscripts,
unfinished autobiographies and some her major works, and points out that “the cultural
and historical factors affecting Rhys make the alienation, despair and self-destruction
more clear and easy to understand in her works. What’s more, both the background of
the British colonial Jamaica on the West Indies in the 19th century and the profound
anti-imperialist connotations of the novel have made this novel favored by
post-colonial criticism. The outstanding post-colonial theorist Gayatri C. Spivak (1985)
regards the novel as "post-colonial anti-discourse" and claims that the work is
allegorical telling the relationship of violence between the colonizer and the colonized.
Some scholars believe that the relationship between Antoinette and her mother implies
a relationship between the colony and the Victorian British. Not only the native blacks
have experienced slavery, Antoinette’s marriage also reflects a slavery (Kimmey 115).
However, these works are not enough in exploring the identity of Antoinette, and the
study for exotic images is relatively weak. In the Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys sets out
from the perspective of "mad woman" telling the story in the first person’s tone, which
enriches reader’s understanding of Jane Eyre to some extent. This writing technique of
Rhys has an undeniable inspiration and influence on feminist criticism. Some scholars

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 Introduction

have studied the novel from the perspective of Eco-feminism thinking that Wide
Sargasso Sea is a natural product. Women have a natural and even inevitable
connection with nature. The tragedy of Antoinette is the result of natural encroachment.
In addition, some scholars have compared the study of Wide Sargasso Sea with Jane
Eyre through the comparative analysis of the characters themselves and the characters,
emphasizing the duality of female personality. However, such kind of study does not
separate literary works from the culture in the perspective of colonialism.
Domestic studies on Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea are from various
perspectives mainly focus on colonialism, feminism, discourse power and some other
aspects. Based on the special identity of Antoinette, some researchers analyzes the
reasons why she can’t find the sense of belonging, which leads to the exploration of the
root cause of Antoinette’s identity, that is, the existence of a hegemonic culture of
“colonization”. Some scholars use Lacan’s mirror stage theory to explore the identity
of Antoinette. In A Reading of Wide Sargasso Sea from the Perspective of Lacan’s
Mirror Stage and Sexual Realtions, Huang Jing (2008) analyzes the triple images of
Antoine’s identity. First, her mother Annette and the black nurse Christopher are her
first image. Secondly, the black group is the second mirror. In contrast with the black
group, Antoinette realizes that she does not belong to the black nor to the white, but to
"white cockroach." Last, her white husband Rochester is the third mirror. In
Antoinette’s eyes, Rochester is a noble white British image while she herself is an
image of the indigenous people, which brings the sense of crisis in establishing her
identity. The creation of these images makes the establishment of Antoine's identity
complex and contradictory. From this perspective, Antoinette’s identity barriers are
analyzed and different interpretations are made. In addition, the feminist study on Wide
Sargasso Sea is similar to that abroad. Some researchers start from the Eco-feminism,
some analyze the combination of Gothic elements and feminism in the novel from the
perspective of Gothic feminism. However, the study from the perspective of feminism
is not comprehensive and exists some problems. For example, the tragedy of
Antoinette is not just caused by the low status of women. To attribute Antoinette’s
tragedy to the low status of women and the hegemony of the patriarchal society is a
partial approach. What’s more, after the Wide Sargasso Sea is published, some scholars
have studied the power of discourse in Jane Eyre, including the exploration of “Bertha

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

Mason’s aphasia and the way of her aphasia” (Zhang Feng, 2009:126). The issue of
discourse power has to involve the field of narratology. It is precisely because of the
different narrative strategies that the phenomenon of aphasia of different characters has
arisen. Moreover, there is a narrative technique different from the traditional narrative
in Wide Sargasso Sea, that is, multiple voices alternately. In this way, aphasia becomes
an inevitable phenomenon in literary works. This way of study completely avoids the
discussion of colonialism and colonization, the status of women in sociology, but
studies the composition of text from the perspective of pure literature. Besides, some
scholars try to appreciate the novel from some other perspectives. For example, in her
paper The True Existence in the Wide Sargasso Sea—An Existentialist Interpretation of
Wide Sargasso Sea, Ren Zhuqing (2014) used the theory of French existentialist Sartre
to analyze the protagonist’s fate and explore the profound social significance, human
existence and meaning of life reflected in the novel. Some scholars analyze the ethical
and moral factors contained in the novel from the perspective of literary ethics
criticism, exposing various issues in the West Indian society and British society. The
various problems in the novel also reveal the hypocrisy and selfish self-interest in
human nature, which expresses Jean Rhys’s desire for equality, justice, freedom and
love. Generally speaking, this kind of exploration is still a discussion about colonialism,
feminism, and discourse power.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane Rhys describes the process of the heroine from
growth to destruction, exposing the survival dilemma of the marginal women.
Domestic and foreign scholars’ studies on Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea generally
focus on colonialism, feminism, the discourse power and the comparative study with
Jane Eyre. Most of these studies are limited to the analysis of time level. However,
with the development of spatial criticism theories in the 20th century, there has also
been a spatial turn in literary criticism. Many scholars have begun to pay attention to
the spatial elements in the text, emphasizing the importance of space in the narrative of
novels. On the basis of previous researches, this thesis studies the Wide Sargasso Sea
with the spatial criticism theory of Gabriel Zoran and Henry Lefebvre, aiming to
explore the influence of the spatial elements in the novel on the heroine’s
self-destruction.

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 Introduction

0.3 Thesis State ment

Jean Rhys is an outstanding British female writer whose masterpiece Wide
Sargasso Sea has brought heated discussion and received rave reviews since it was
published. Researches on Wide Sargasso Sea mainly involve colonialism, feminism
and the discourse power and so on. The spatial turn of literary criticism provides a new
theoretical perspective for text analysis. Starting from the perspective of space, this
paper attempts to adopt the spatial criticism theory to analyze the tragic fate of the
heroine Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea. The main part of the thesis consists of four
chapters which are the theoretical foundation, the topographical space, the social space
and the psychological space in the novel.
Chapter one briefly introduces the development of spatial criticism theory and
gives a brief description of several spatial concepts proposed by Gabriel Zoran and
Henry Lefebvre including the topographical space, social space and psychological
space, which provides the theory foundation for the paper. Chapter two studies the
topographical space in the novel, which is mainly developed around three places. The
first place is Jamaica, the birthplace of the heroine Antoinette. The second place is
Granbois, where Antoinette and Rochester spend the honeymoon. The third place is
Thornfield Manor witnessing the heroine’s imprison to devastation. The changes of
these topographical spaces provide the venue for the novel, and also backgrounds for
the growth of the heroine. At the same time, the symbolic meaning of specific space
and place such as the garden also plays an important role in the characterization and
theme expression of the novel. Chapter three explores the social space in the novel,
which focuses on two aspects. The first aspect is colonial oppression mainly reflected
in the British cultural hegemony brought by the colonization, racial discrimination
among the black, the white and the mix, and conflicts between different classes. The
second aspect is gender oppression, which is reflected in man’s domination to women
and woman’s resistance to men. These social spaces enriches the connotation of the
novel and also shapes the character of the heroine. Chapter four analyzes the
psychological space in the novel, which mainly pays attention to the psychological
development and changes of the two protagonists. Through Rochester’s letters to his
father, the psychological developments of his ambivalence in marriage, his fear of alien
culture, and then his determination to imprison Antoinette are analyzed. In Antoinette’s
three dreams, her psychological changes has experienced the fear to the man in the

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

forest, fear but also love to the man, and last no fear and love to the man. These
psychological spaces are adopted to reveal the emotional changes of the characters
involving in the miserable fate of the heroine Antoinette.
The conclusion summarizes the thesis and looks forward to the prospect of spatial
theory for literary research. Adopting the spatial theory of Gabriel Zoran and Henri
Lefebvre, this paper analyzes Antoinette’s self-destruction under the effect of
topographical space, social space and psychological space.

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 Chapter One Theoretical Foundation

Chapter One Theoretical Foundation

The theory of narratology originates in the West and is famous for its critique of
formalism. It mainly studies the narrative structure of literary works focusing on the
technical analysis to texts. For a long time, narrative researchers put their eyes on
studying the relationship of narration and time in literary works, while they neglect the
role and significance of space. The inclination of narrative from time to space is
inseparable from the emphasis on space in the fields of philosophy, social sciences and
cultural geography. Scholars begin to change their attitudes to the space in human life
and transferred the favor from the time to the space. They not only regard space as the
place where the story takes place and the necessary scene for narrative, but also use
space to express time, arrange the structure of the novel, and even to promote the entire
narrative process. This thesis mainly applies Henri Lefebvre’s and Gabriel Zoran’s
spatial theory to explore the miserable fate of Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea.

1.1 The Development of Spatial Theory

Affected by the ideas of structuralism, narratology was officially born as a

discipline in France in the late 1960s. Structuralist narratology advocates for the inner
and abstract study of the narrative fictional works mainly novels. It breaks the
phenomenon that traditional criticism relies too much on social, psychological factors
and subjective judgments. Structuralist narratology emphasizes the immanency and
independence of narrative works, and the central position of the works as a text, which
enables people to obtain the structural forms of narrative works. However, it cuts off
the connection between works and social, historical and cultural contexts to a certain
degree. Thus, the post-classical narratology combined with many other disciplines
including feminist criticism, psychoanalysis, rhetoric, and cognitive science springs up
in the West (mainly the United States). It pays attention to the reader’s dynamic role in
literary works and how social context affects the creation and acceptance of works.
However, these two ideas of narratology put their emphasis on the study of time
dimension, and the research on spatial dimension is intentionally or unintentionally

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

ignored.
“Space Turn” is hailed as one of the most important events in the 20th century for
knowledge and political development. In 1945, American scholar Joseph Frank firstly
put forward the concept of “spatial form” in his article The Idea of Spatial Form. This
article, combined with textual analysis, explicitly identified the issue of spatial form in
modernist literary works. In his article, Frank takes Djuna Barnes’s novel Nightwood
as an example analyzing the spatial form of modern novels from three aspects
including the spatial form of language, the physical space of the story and the
psychological space of the reader. He believes that “the literary works influenced by
the modernism literature trend show a spatial morphological characteristic as a whole
by adopting symbols, constructing images, and disassembling syntax” (Frank 27).
More and more novelists begin to take space as a means or technique using it in their
creation. His idea of spatial form in literary works brought wide discussions and
arguments among critics, and arose their interests in this aspect. Afterwards, a mount
of spatial theories come into being. Seymour Chatman puts forward the concept of
“story space” and “discourse space” in his work Story and Discourse. The story space
refers to the current environment in which behavior or story takes place, and the
discourse space refers to the space in which the narrator is located including the
narrative or writing environment of the narrator. He believes that “the dimension of
story events is time, while the dimension of story existence meaning people and
environment is space” (Chatman 261). The famous image researcher W. J. T. Mitchell
also publishes a few papers on the issues of literary space, such as The Spatial Form in
Literature: Towards a General Theory. He defines four levels of literary space: the
literal level referring to the physical existence of the text; the description level, which
is the representation, imitation or reference of the world in the work; the sequence of
events in which the text is expressed, traditionally the temporal form ; the metaphysical
space behind the story which can be understood as a system of meaning. The great
literary critic Bakhtin put forward the concept of “Chronotope” to examine how
characters are expressed in real historical time and space, and how the sense of time
and space created in the novel and the characters interact. In the literary chronotope,
time is no longer an abstract concept of empty space, and space also accommodates
various relationships and movements such as the environment, plots and characters.

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 Chapter One Theoretical Foundation

The distinguish literary critic Bakhtin put forward the concept of “Chronotope” to
examine how characters are expressed in real historical time and space, and how the
sense of time and space created in the novel and the characters interact. In the literary
chronotope, time is no longer an abstract concept of empty space, and space also
accommodates various relationships and movements such as the environment, plots
and characters. From the perspective of symbolism, French critic Gaston Bachelard
uses phenomenology as a methodology in The Poetics of Space to poetically observe
the architectural space of homes, drawers, cabinets and nests, and combines the
imagined space and poetry together (38). The consideration of this book on space pulls
back from the external publicity to the inner privacy, rejects the concept of treating
space as the container to which the external matter depends, and re-grants the space
with an ideology image. Bachelard’s exploration and inquiry into the poetic meaning
of space has benefited a lot for literary creation and literature research. The great
French thinker Henri Lefebvre puts forward the concept of “social space” in his
famous work The Production of Space. He explores the relationship between space and
social life, with the aim of constructing a “unified theory” to connect the various fields
separated in theory and practice, namely: physical space (natural space), psychological
space (discourse construction of space) and social space (the space involving
experience and living). He comes up with the proposition that “space is a social
product” to reveal the actual production process of space, the commercialization of
space, and the ideographic function of space in practice (Lefebvre 12). Unlike
Lefebvre, Foucault’s monograph on space issues is rare. Most of his discourses are
scattered in many of his books and interviews, but the impact is huge. In Discipline
and Punishment, he takes prisons as an example to present a detailed and ritualized
history of ritualized power space changes. This book itself can be seen as a model of
the critical space of criticism. He believes that modern people do not only live in such
opposing spaces as private space and public space, or family space and social space,
but actually live in many other spaces such as the space of imagination, the space of
feeling, the space of dreams, the space of enthusiasm and so on. The concept of “other
space” proposed by him not only corrects the misconceptions of some single-sided
understanding of space, but more importantly, broadens our horizons of understanding
space providing us with multiple choices for understanding space, and thus has

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

extremely important practical guiding significance for us to correctly and objectively

grasp the connotation of the concept of space. In 1984, Gabriel Zoran constructed a
space theory model in his work Towards a Theory of Space in Narrative which may be
so far the most practical and theoretically high one. Zoran divided the spatial structures
into three parts including “the topographical space, chronotopic space and textual
space” (310). His exploration to space issues is based on the fictional world of text,
emphasizing that space is a constructive process in which readers actively participate.
Talking about the domestic study of spatial narrative, Professor Zhang Shijun of
Jinan University and Researcher Long Diyong of Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences
can be regarded as outstanding scholars of spatial narrative research in China.
Professor Zhang Shijun published "A Spatial Study of A Dream of Red Mansions" in
1999. This book is a pioneer in the study of spatial narrative and inspires the study of
domestic spatial narrative which focuses on the characteristics of space narrative
embodied in Chinese ancient novels, also modern and contemporary novels abroad and
so on. Professor Long Diyong, the doctor from Shanghai Normal University, has been
devoting himself to the study of narrative and spatial issues. His doctoral dissertation
Space Narratology written in 2008 is the first complete and systematic academic
monograph on space narrative in China, which fills in the gaps of domestic study in
space. In this paper, he discusses the spatial narrative from the perspectives of the
spatial turn of narratology, the spatial expression of temporal narrative media, the
spatial narrative of modern fiction, the spatial form of modern fiction, image narrative
and text narrative. He classifies the problem domains of spatial narratology in detail as
follows: “spatial consciousness and narrative activities, spatial problems related to
narrative texts, spatial forms of overall reading and narrative works, image narrative
issues, focusing on space issues related to narrative texts” (Long Diyong 16). Spatial
form, through the interpretation of specific texts, analyses the types and characteristics
of spatial narrative in modern fiction. Long Diyong is one of the few scholars who
have been exploring and constructing the theory of space narrative in China. He has
made a positive contribution to the development of space narrative as a specialized
subject. It can be seen that domestic research on spatial narrative has achieved some
results, however, it can not be ignored that there are still many deficiencies in domestic
research on spatial narrative. For example, although some foreign research

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 Chapter One Theoretical Foundation

achievements on spatial narrative have been translated and introduced, there is a large
number of new research achievements abroad have not been introduced into China,
which is not conducive to grasping the latest trends of spatial narrative study. The
research in this field is still in its infancy, and it needs to be further developed and
excavated in depth and breadth.

1.2 Distinctive Elements of Spatial Theory

With the development of spatial theory, space in literary works is defined

variously from theorist to theorist and critic to critic. This thesis mainly applies
Gabriel Zoran’s spatial theory of topographical space and Henri Lefebvre’s spatial
theory of social and psychological space to explore the miserable destination of
Antoinette in the Wide Sargasso Sea. The topographical space constructs the narrative
structure, the social space enriches the connotation of the novel and the psychological
space reveals the emotional changes of the characters.

1.2.1 Topographical Space of Gabriel Zoran

Topographical space, also defined as physical space by some scholars, is an
objective form of material existence, expressed in three dimensions of length, width
and height. For Gabriel Zoran, the space is a whole. In his work Towards the Narrative
Space Theory, Zoran divides the space horizontally and vertically explaining the space
from tow perspectives.
He proposes three levels of textual space structure which are “the level of
topography, the chronotopic level and the textual level” (Zoran 315). The first level is
topographical space, that is, the static and tangible physical place. The spatial
construction of this level can be achieved by direct description or narration and
dialogue. The second level is the chronotopic space in which events or actions are
staged including a series of events and movements limited by the constraints of the
story, the emotions and behaviors of the characters, and the author’s intentions. The
third level is the textual space which is influenced by factors such as language
selectivity, linear timing of the text, and narrative perspective and thus forms different
spatial reproduction effects. In contrast to the vertical dimension, Zoran also divides
the three levels of spatial structure in the horizontal dimension, namely “units of space,

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

the complex of space and total space”(327). Assuming that we can dissect space, scene
is a basic unit of space complex. If we divide it more subtly, the scene related to
geographical level turns into place, the scene related to temporal and spatial level turns
into zone of action, and the scene related to text level turns into field of vision.
Location is a point in space that can be measured (such as houses, cities, mountains or
rivers). The action domain can accommodate multiple events occurring in the same
place, or can contain the space that the same event experiences continuously. It is the
place where events occur, but there is no clear geographical boundary. Horizon is the
most complex and abstract concept among them, which involves readers' reading
decoding and and psychological perception.
For topographical space, Zoran explains in his article:

As mentioned, this is space at its highest level of reconstruction, perceived as

self-existent and independent of the temporal structure of the world and sequential
arrangement of the text. The text can express topographical structure by means of direct
descriptions, e.g., as in Balzac’s well-known openings, but in fact every unit of the text,
whether narrative, dialogic, or even essayistic, may contribute to the reconstruction of the
topographical structure. (316)

The construction of topographical space in literary works is often accomplished

through narrative and description. It refers not only to objects and places that are
isolated and still, but also to the activities of people and people who exist as substances.
It is not only the stage of character activities, but also the precondition of the novel. Its
existence provides the basis for the character’s words and deeds and the development
of narratives, forming all the spatial scenes in the novel narrative. Although the writing
of topographical space is based on the geomorphological structure and vegetation state
under the physical form, its profound symbolic meaning depends on the writers’ coding
of the hidden surface symbol of specific surface structure, vegetation state and river
waterway, etc. and the readers’ decoding of the cultural significance of geographical
features such as surface structure and vegetation state written in the geography space
during their reading.
The topographical space is closely related to author’s deliberate arrangement and
setting, which firstly serves as a carrier of narrative promoting the narrative process,
and secondly a symbolic system of referentiality conveying certain values and

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 Chapter One Theoretical Foundation

ideologies.

1.2.2 Social and Psychological Space of Henry Lefebvre

The concept of social space is first put forward by the French philosopher Henry
Lefebvre. “There is an indefinite multitude of spaces, each one piled upon, or perhaps
contained within the next: geographical, economic, demographic, sociological,
ecological, political, commercial, national, continental, global” (Lefebvre 8). In his
work The Production of Space, Lefebvre tries to correct the simple and wrong views of
space in traditional social and political theories.
“Social space is a social product, and the space thus produced also serves as a
tool of thought and of action also a means of control, and hence of domination, of
power” (Lefebvre 26). In The Production of Space, Lefebvre proposes the "social
space triples" namely spatial practices, representation of space and representational
space. Spatial practice is the real and lived physical space in real life. Representation of
space is a spiritual imagination space which conceived by scientists, architects and
others. It is an ideology space. Representational space is the combination of materiality
and spirituality, perception and imagination, and it is an infinite and open space. He
believes that “space is not only a static container or platform for the evolution of social
relations, on the contrary, many social spaces today are often full of contradictions,
overlapping and penetrating into each other” (Lefebvre 39). Talking about the sociality,
Lefebvre deems that space is first and foremost a product of society, that is, space is a
product produced by people through social productive activities and in certain social
productive relations, such as a house, a school, and even a city. On the other hand,
space is also involved in all social activities and production, which is a collection of
positive and dynamic relationships containing various social elements. The social
practice is defined as the practice embracing production and reproduction, and the
particular locations and spatial sets characteristic of each social formation and ensuring
continuity and some degree of cohesion, which implies “a guaranteed level of
competence and a specific level of performance” considering the given relation to
social members in a certain position of social space (Lefebvre 33). On the
consideration to the binary opposition of modern linguistics, Lefebvre criticizes the
limitations of subjective materialism that emphasizes material space and objective
idealism that emphasizes psychological space. On this basis, he regards the sociality of

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

space as the foothold of his theory. In addition, “everything in space is produced either
by nature or by society, through cooperation or conflicts” (Lefebvre 88). Having its
own initiative in social production, it affects and stipulates social relations among them,
and even constrains these relationships. For example, a prison as a social space will
monitor and constrain the behavior of prisoners and re-educate their thoughts. “Social
spaces interpenetrate one another and/or superimpose themselves upon one another”
(Lefebvre 86). In a sense, social space can also be called a cyberspace of interpersonal
relationships, which contains the blending and mix of various social elements, and has
the dual attributes of material and spirit. It is the intersection and interaction of these
two dimensions. Social space is both a product and a force composed of various
practical activities and production relations of human beings. There are collision,
absorb, integration and innovation among various elements and forces. To Lefebvre
space is no longer material or static, but productive, purposeful and political. Different
production methods produce different spaces, and space is counterproductive to human
life. Lefebvre places great emphasis on the social characteristics of geography.
If topographical space is about the investigation of the material world as an object,
then psychological space is about the exploration of the spiritual world of human as a
subject. According to Henri Lefebvre, “space is not only the platform to the stationary
development of social relations, but a dynamic process of practice relating to the
mental and psychological activities” (226). Psychological space in literary works
mainly lies in the subjective and internal psychological activities of the characters. “It
is a mental space formed by the phenomena presented in the external world which is
accepted by the human senses and then processed and transformed by the brain into
personal feelings and consciousness” (Lefebvre 186). The psychological space shows
the individual’s spiritual outlook, reflects the external reality and exposes the inner
thoughts and conscious emotions of the characters. As a metaphorical concept,
psychological space does not have a specific material form, which has been clearly
demonstrated and strongly proved by the psychological descriptions in fictional literary
works, especially in the creation of stream of consciousness novels. Therefore,
psychological space is closely related to cognition and experience, and also is
impartible to the distribution of social power and social ideology. Lefebvre himself
believes that the generalization of the concept of psychological space is limited. He

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 Chapter One Theoretical Foundation

gives some examples of psychological space, including “literary space, ideology space,
dream space and psychoanalytic topology and so on” (Lefebvre 243). In fact, like the
people in the real society the characters in literary fiction works not only live in a
certain physical and social space, but also live in the same way as the people in reality.
Under various social ideology, they often react differently in psychology, thus forming
a variety of psychological spaces. Conversely, the psychological space of a character
often reflects the physical and social environment in which the character is located, and
also the power relations and social ideology at that time.
Based on the study of classical and post-classical narratology, spatial criticism
examines the textual structure, symbolic meaning, social attributes and cultural
connotations of spatial writing in literary works. The three main types of space in
literary works are intertwined, coincident and mutually compensated. When using
spatial theory to analyze and study literary works, it is a unique perspective for us to
understand the works form the topographical space described in the works, the social
space of the background and the psychological space of the characters. Interpreting the
works from this level can help us not only understand specific scenes and plot
arrangements, but also analyze characteristics and explore different themes of the
literary works.

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

Chapter Two The Topographical Space in Wide

Sargasso Sea

According to Gabriel Zoran, “the existence of topographical space provides the

basis for the character’s words and deeds and the development of narratives, forming
all the spatial scenes in the novel narrative” (316). The external forms of these
topographical spaces refer to the specific scenes composed by characters’ behaviors
and actions in specific time and place, making the narrative space materialized
precisely. The choice of spatial scene is closely related to the presentation of the theme
and the transformation of topographical spaces promote the development of the
narration. In the Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys divides the narrative into three parts
setting the topographical spaces in Jamaica where Antoinette acquires the knowledge
and grows up, Granbois where Antoinette starts her marriage life, and Thornfield
Manor where the heroine is imprisoned and finally died. These topographical places
produce different living spaces and promote the narrative construction which play
indispensable roles in developing the plot of Antoinette’s destruction.

2.1 Jamaica: The Place of Antoinette’s Growth

“Space has never been empty, and it often implies a certain meaning” (Zoran 316).
As the first topographical space in the novel, Jamaica sets up readers a clear
background of West India which constructs the living space for Antoinette. In this part,
Jean Rhys mainly introduces two places including Coulibri where Antoinette spends
her childhood and Spanish Town where the heroine acquires the knowledge, depicting
Antoinette’s growth under the effect of the topographical space Jamaica.

2.1.1 The House in Coulibri

As the birthplace of Antoinette, Coulibri provides the narrative space for her
childhood. In this part, Rhys puts her attention on several scenes in Coulibri including
the garden, the old house and the glacis, giving them symbolic meanings in developing
the narrative space in Coulibri. Comparing the changes of these spatial scenes, Rhys

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 Chapter Two The Topographical Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

depicts the breakdown of Antoinette’s childhood.

The first spatial scene Rhys describes in Coulibri is the garden. “Our garden was
large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible－the tree of life grew there” (Rhys 4).
For Antoinette, the garden at home is like the Eden in the Bible. There are many
beautiful flowers with a bell-shaped mass of white, mauve and deep purple in the
garden. The cent of flowers is sweet and strong, she never goes to near it. From
Antoinette’s description of the garden, the Coulibri mansion in its prosperous day can
be easily imagined. “But it had gone wild. The path was overgrown and a smell of
dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the ferns, tall as forest tree
ferns, the light was green” (Rhys 4). Instead of pointing out the breakdown of
Antoinette’s family directly, Rhys uses the garden to expose their hard living condition
after a series of changes. “All Coulibri Estate had gone wild like the garden, gone to
bush” (Rhys 5). Now all of beautiful scenes in the garden disappear only left with the
smell of dead flowers, and meanwhile the prosperity in Coulibri no longer exists. Their
friends and relatives in the rich time do not show up after the death of Antoinette’s
father. All the servants are gone except the old Godfrey who can barely walk. Her
mother’s clothes for riding are in rags, and Antoinette has only two pieces of clothes.
What’s more, Annette’s horse which stands for her social position in Coulibri is
poisoned by the local people. Without any help from friends nor the relatives,
Antoinette’s family is abandoned just like the garden. Rhys depicts the scene of garden
in Coulibri and reveal the impoverished living condition of Antoinette, which help the
further narrative of the family changes.
The second spatial scene is the house of Coulibri. Things have changed after
Antoinette’s mother marries the rich businessman Mr. Mason who saves Antoinette’s
family from the poor living condition. The first thing changed is the Coulibri Estate.
Rhys depicts Antoinette’s feeling towards the change constructing a new living space
for her family. “Coulibri looked like the same when I saw it again, although it was tidy
and clean, no grass between the flagstones, no leaks. But it didn’t feel the same” ( Rhys
15). There are new servants standing by the sideboard, the picture ‘The Miller’s
Daughter’ on the wall, the white tablecloth and the vase of yellow roses. Facing with
the change of their house, Antoinette feels happy, peaceful and to be protected. In
addition, the rumor about Christophine and her witchcraft Obeah brings a change to the

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

house. Annette’s marriage with the rich Englishman arises the general dissatisfaction
and is thought to be connected with Obeah. In order to reveal the mysterious witchcraft,
Rhys introduces the readers Christophine’s room from Antoinette’s eyes: “I knew her
room so well－the pictures of Holy Family and the prayer for a happy death. She had a
bright patchwork counterpane, a broken-down press for her clothes and my mother had
also given her an old rocking-chair” (Rhys 25). Rhys shows Christophine’s room to the
readers in which there are no terrifying things related to the witchcraft ironing the
judges from the local people and also foreshadowing the later plot of Antoinette’s
marriage. No matter how much change Mr. Mason brings to the old house, he is never
able to change the hatred of the local blacks to them. It is these changes of their old
house that cause the breakout of the burn in Coulibri.
The third spatial scene is the glacis. “ My mother usually walked up and down the
glacis, a paced roof-in terrace which ran the length of the house and sloped upwards to
a clump of bamboos. Standing by the bamboos she had a clear view to the sea but
anyone passing could stare at her” (Rhys 5). From this description, it can seen that the
glacis is the place which connects people outside and inside the house. Their black
servant Christophine considers the glacis as a place where nothing good would happen.
“And I could hear the bamboos shiver and creak tough there was no wind. It had been
hot and still and dry for days”(Rhys 18). The description to the glacis implies the
following disaster of the fire. Many local black people gather together howling like
animals and throwing stones on to the glacis. When the house is burning, the parrot
Coco is all on fire with her feathers alight and laying on the glacis. The death of Coco
frightens the blacks because it is said that killing or seeing a parrot to die will cause
bad luck. The Glacis, on one hand, has witnessed the violence of burning old Coulibri
houses. On the other hand, it stops the local blacks from hurting Antoinette’s family
furthermore. “There would be nothing left except the blackened walls and the
mounting stone. That was always left. That could not be stolen or burned” (Rhys 27).
All the flowers are all burned out. Antoinette’s favourite picture is also destroyed in the
fire. All the houses burn into ashes and wastes with her favourite garden. Her brother is
died, her mother goes mad and her friend turns into an enemy. Antoinette loses
everything meaningful. The fire destroyed not only the house but also her happiness.
Rhys endows spatial scenes with symbolic meanings when describes the

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topographical space of Coulibri. From prosperity to decline and from being rebuilt to
burned, the change in the Coulibri is consistent with Antoinette’s fate. The burn of
Coulibri’s old house leaves Antoinette homeless, so the life of convent in Spanish town
naturally begins.

2.1.2 The Convent in Spanish Town

The burning of the old house in Coulibri symbolizes the end of Antoinette’s
childhood. In order to narrate the next stage of Antoinette’s growth, Jean Rhys arranges
the topographical space Spanish Town where Antoinette acquires knowledge and
manners, and grows up into a young lady.
Before she goes to the convent, Antoinette is settled down in the house of Aunt
Cora to recover from the illness both physically and mentally. Before spending a lot of
ink on Antoinette’s life in the convent, Rhys mentions about the situation and condition
of Antoinette’s mother Annette who is taken care of by a coloured man and a coloured
woman in a clean pretty small house. Through the description of Annette’s good living
condition, Rhys shows a sharp contrast with her terrible mental condition. In
Antoinette’s view, her mother who is a part of Coulibri is also gone with the
disappearance of their old house, implying Antoinette’s end of life in Coulibri.
However, the way to a new life is not that easy. At the first day to the convent,
Antoinette has to leave Aunt Cora’s dark, clean and friendly house. Followed by a boy
and a girl who hate her, she has to pass a hill of which there are walls and gardens on
the each side. Out of the sight of Aunt Cora’s house on the hill, the boy and girl would
then behave badly to her. In addition, unlike those walls and gardens in the old house
of Coulibri which give her the sense of safety, the walls and gardens on the hill help
these two children bully her. Unfortunately, neither her mother in the old house of
Coulibri nor her aunt Cora in the home of Spanish Town can protect her ultimately.
Eventually, Antoinette has no choice but to go to the convent.
“A long empty street stretched away to the convent, the convent wall and a
wooden gate. I would have to ring before I could get in” (Rhys 32). By depicting the
way to the convent, Jean Rhys implies that to fit into the convent Antoinette has to
make some efforts. Eventually, Antoinette pulls the bell and the door opens to her. The
first place which has seen Antoinette’s turn of life is the parlour, “which furnished
stiffly with straight-backed chairs and a polished table in the middle” (Rhys 34). She

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can’t help crying the moment Antoinette hears the convent door shut behind her. She
does not say a word when the first nun leads her to a cool big stone-flagged room nor
when the second nun sponges her face and gives her milk to drink. It is in the parlour
that Antoinette gets the sense of safety and starts to talk when the third nun tells her
that she will not be frightened of her. The parlour which is used for receiving guests
symbolizes that Anna is accepted and adopted by the convent. At the same time,
Antoinette’s sense of safety here also heralds the beginning of her life in the convent.
As a place seeing Antoinette’s beginning of new life, the parlour also witnesses the end
of Antoinette’s convent life. Antoinette lives and studies in the convent for a number of
months until she is seventeen during which period Mr. Mason often comes to see her
and meets her in the parlour. Every time, he brings her various kinds of presents and
once a pretty dress which is impossible to wear in a convent. It is quite different the
last time Mr. Mason meets Antoinette asking whether she would like to live in England
and telling her that some friends will come next winter. By providing readers with a
topographical place like the parlour, Rhys not only explains Antoinette’s new life after
the burn of Coulibri, but also paves the way for the marriage between Anna and
Rochester in the following chapters.
In addition to depicting the parlour, Jean Rhys also describes another two places
which are the classroom and the dormitory. If the reception room witnesses the
beginning and end of Antoinette’s convent life, the classroom and dormitory enriches
her life here. After her recover from the bad mood, Antoinette is led to the classroom
by Louise. They cross a paved path with grass, trees and bright flowers on each side,
and then arrive at the classroom. “The hot classroom, the pitchpine desks, the heat of
the bench striking up through my body along my arms and hands. But outside I could
see cool blue shadow in a white wall” (Rhys 34). Antoinette learns how to embroider
in the classroom. What’s more, Mother St Justine will read them stories, teaching them
things of order, chastity and deportment. In order to enrich Antoinette’s growth in the
convent, Rhys arrange the plot of Aunt Cora’s leaving for England for the sake of her
health. Thus, Antoinette has to live in the convent like other girls and thus the
dormitory life naturally starts. To Antoinette, the convent is her refuge, a place of
sunshine and death. Every morning, nine girls including her will wake up by the clap
of wooden signal in the dormitory and then start to pray. They run to the stone bath and

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learn how to soap the body under the chemise and dress modestly. Unlike the day in
Coulibri, she now knows the difference between man and woman, and learns how to
behave properly. These things make Antoinette feels no happiness and also companies
her to grow up. From learning manners to living with others girls in the convent,
Antoinette has a different life experience which shapes her character and makes her
into an elegant lady rather than that little innocent girl.
The convent in Spanish Town serves as a refuge for Antoinette to learn and to
grow. Studying and living in the convent, the heroine of the novel Antoinette
transforms from an innocent girl to an educated lady. Arranging the topographical
space of Jamaica where Antoinette enjoys a higher social status than Rochester, Jean
Rhys completes Antoinette’s physical and mental growth in her first life period. The
topographical places in this part have played a significant role for the later
development of Antoinette’s marriage in Granbois.

2.2 Granbois: The Place of Antoinette and Rochester’s Marriage

The existence of topographical space provides the basis for the character’s words
and deeds, and the development of narratives. Granbois, the indispensable
topographical space for Antoinette’s second life period, has witnessed the breakdown
of her marriage and the loss of her ration. In this part, Rhys arranges some places
including the village of Massacre, the house of honeymoon and also Christophine’s
house to serve for the narrative of the Antoinette’s marriage life.

2.2.1 The Village of Massacre

In spatial narrative, there is also an issue of viewpoint, that is, through whose eyes
a specific space or space scene is reflected. This issue of viewpoint will also have great
impact on spatial development. In the second part of the novel, Jean Rhys changes her
narrative perspective from Antoinette to Rochester. In this part, Rhys uses Rochester’s
tone to start the narrative in the village Massacre telling the marriage in a different
perspective.
The first topographical space appearing in front of the readers is village Massacre.
In Rochester’s view, village Massacre is the end of their interminable journey in
Jamaica and meanwhile the start of their honeymoon in Granbois. There are “sad

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leaning cocoanut palms, the fishing boats drawn up on the beach and the uneven row
of whitewashed nuts” (Rhys 45). This honeymoon begins with the scene of the couple
and their servants hiding under a mango tree to shelter from the rain. Rhys takes the
advantage of spatial scene using the rain to exaggerate Rochester’s mood and also the
hero’s description to show the dissatisfaction and boredom for the environment of this
topographical place. On one hand, the heavy rain happens to stop Rochester from
greeting Antoinette’s local friends. On the other hand, he is reluctant to go to their nuts
to shelter from the rain even though he is wet and annoyed. For Rochester, both this
place and the people here are sombre. Things become different when it comes to
Antoinette. She is very glad to shelter the rain and to chat in the local houses. The
heavy rain in Rochester’s eyes is quite acceptable for Antoinette. In addition to
describing Rochester's boredom with rain, Rhys also mentions the trees, flowers and
sea around him. These vivid things are dark in Rochester's eyes, either too dark or too
dull. It is not difficult to see the difference between Rochester and Antoinette by
comparing their attitudes towards things in this topographical place.
What’s more, this topographical place of village Massacre is not only the
beginning of the honeymoon for the newly married couple, but also the beginning of
the truth for readers to know and understand. The scene of village Massacre makes
Rochester feel strange and awful just like his wife. “Long, sad and dark alien eyes.
Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European
either” (Rhys 46). In Rochester’s eyes, Antoinette is not good enough for him and his
marriage with her is a trade: three hundred thousand pounds for his soul. However, the
trade is not that bad because the bride is beautiful enough to satisfy his carnal desire. It
is obvious that the marriage is not that satisfied and happy at least for Rochester.
Village Massacre is a place where the real fact and situation of their marriage is
revealed. Except for the description of the couple, Rhys also refers to another
important character Daniel Cosway, Antoinette’s brother of another lady who lives on
the island near the village Massacre. Daniel’s appearance, more precisely his letter to
Rochester, raises the gap and estrangement between the couple, and becomes the fuse
of their marriage crisis. The topographical advantage enables Daniel to get the news of
the couple’s marriage and also their honeymoon in the Granbois, which gives him a
chance to write to Rochester. In his letter, Rochester is told that the Mason family cheat

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him on the fact that Antoinette is as insane as her mother. It is because of the letter that
Rochester begin to change his attitude to Antoinette and finally lead to the break out of
contradiction in their marriage.
The topographical space of village Massacre provides a beginning for the
narrative of the couple’s marriage life revealing the real mind of Rochester towards
Antoinette and leaving a fuse for their conflict. At the same time, the bad weather
using to exaggerate the atmosphere suggests that Antoinette’s road to a happy marriage
is full of difficulties.

2.2.2 The House of Honeymoon

Leaving Massacre and crossing the little river, the couple finally arrive at
Granbois where their honeymoon house locates. In this part, Rhys mainly arrange
several spaces such as the dining room, the veranda, the bedroom and Rochester’s
dressing room to narrate the plots expressing the crisis in Antoinette’s marriage .
“There was a large screw pine to the left and to the right what looked like an
imitation of an English summer house: four wooden posts and a thatched roof. She
dismounted and ran up the steps. At the top a badly cut, coarse-grained lawn and at the
end of the lawn a shabby white house” (Rhys 50). From Rochester’s description of the
house when he first arrives at Granbois, it can be seen that he is not satisfied with the
place. However, when he stands on the veranda, he feels a sweet air and the fragrance
of flowers. This feeling is unprecedented and fascinating to him. The veranda here is a
transitional place connecting the rooms in the house and the outside world. Rochester
enjoys the time lying in the hammock drinking rum with breeze blowing over. The
veranda creates a comfortable space for him to think and it also becomes the place of
the couple’s first talk after a long time emotional abuse. It is also at the veranda that
Rochester calls Antoinette Bertha during the conversation. Rochester asks something
he has been puzzled about all this time since he receives Daniel’s letters and Antoinette
tells him what she has experienced in the past in Coulibri. But when it comes to the
issue of her mother, Rochester feels the darkness in the veranda where he used to feel
enjoyable. In this atmosphere and environment, he feels afraid and nervous. After she
tells all the thing that about her mother, Antoinette goes back to the bedroom. The
conversation ends with her leaving.
Unlike other rooms, the dressing room is much more special. This place used to

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be Mr Mason’s study. There is a carpet, a wardrobe and a small desk with pens, paper
and ink on it. The room of which the layout makes Rochester feel comfortable
becomes a refuge of him. Firstly, this place provides Rochester with a private space in
which he feels secure. In this way, he can express himself boldly. From his letters to his
father telling him that the marriage is meaningless to him, to his letters asking about
Christophine’s witchcraft Obeah, then to his letters telling the news about his coming
home, the study also Rochester’s dressing-room creates favorable conditions for him to
write letters and provides space for the development of the plot. What’s more, the
dressing-room serves as a private place where Rochester can hide from Antoinette. It is
mentioned that the door to Antoinette’s room can be inserted with a stick which makes
it possible for Rochester to avoid his wife. After receiving Daniel's letters and meeting
him, Rochester's attitude towards Antoinette has changed from indifference at first to
disdain. He often ignores Antoinette for hours and lives in his dressing room.
Rochester is outraged when he finds that he is drugged by Antoinette who has asked
Christophine for help and used witchcraft to seduce him. Despite Antoinette's feelings,
or in retaliation for her, Rochester has sex with their black servant Amelia in the
dressing room just one wall away from Antoinette’s bedroom. He broke Antoinette’s
heart and more seriously made Granbois, the most precious place Antoinette cherishes
after her mother’s death, into a place which she hates most.
Antoinette’s bedroom serves as a significant place for the couple to get along with
each other. It also witnesses Antoinette’s witnessed Antoinette's change from a happy
married woman to a terrible mad woman. Before Antoinette is insane, Rochester has a
strong desire for her body and the couple usually have sex here. In the morning,
Christophine serves them breakfast asking Rochester to taste coffee and satirizing that
it is bull’s blood rather than horse piss that English women drink. Christophine's
statement makes Rochester dissatisfied and bored with her, which is why Christophine
later left Granbois. The first time Antoinette shows her madness is because that the
black servant Amelia insults her by calling her a white cockroach and she hits
Antoinette after being slapped in the face. To Antoinette's fury, instead of helping her
her husband ask her to stop. She “sat on the bed and with clenched teeth pulled at the
sheet, then made a clicking sound of annoyance. She took up a scissors from the round
table, cut through the hem and tore the sheet in half, then each half into strips” (Rhys

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75). At Christophine’s persuasion, she controls her mood. The second time Antoinette
loses her mind is at the time when she finds her husband having sex with the servant
who she hates very much. She goes to Christophine without telling her anything. After
the betrayal and humiliation brought by her husband, Antoinette shuts herself in the
bedroom drinking all day. When Rochester tells her that he doe not love her, Antoinette
eventually gives up her love for him and turns into an indifferent wife who hates her
husband.
In the house of the couple’s honeymoon, Rhys describes several rooms to narrate
Antoinette’s marriage life with Rochester. She uses the veranda to connect the outside
world and the inside house, takes advantages of their bedroom to describe their
changes in the marriage, and depicts the the conflicts with Rochester’s dressing room.
These rooms have witnessed their happiness and pain, providing the plot to develop
precisely.

2.2.3 Christophine’s House

Except for the house of their honeymoon, Rhys also describes an important place
that is Christophine’s house. This topographical place is set as Antoinette’s refuge
where she can always get love and help from her close friend Christophine when bad
things happen.
Aware of Rochester's aversion to her and longing for a free life of herself,
Christophine chooses to leave Granbois and return to her own residence.
Christophine’s house is full of vigor. There is a big mango tree in front of her house.
Colourful hibiscus grow in front of her door. Her room is decorated as she lived in
Coulibri, where Antoinette is familiar with these things. “There was a wooden table in
the outer room, a bench and two broken down chairs. Her bedroom was large and dark.
She still had her bright patchwork counterpane, the palm leaf from Palm Sunday and
the prayer for a happy death” (Rhys 85). As is known that Christophine is good to
Antoinette who she treats like a daughter of herself rather than a master. Meanwhile,
Antoinette is very dependant on her and regards her as a close relative. That is why
when Rochester ignores her, Antoinette comes to Christophine for help. Rochester’s
emotional alienation from Antoinette makes her unbearable and painful. While coming
to Christophine gives her sense of being at home. She confides to Christophine and
asks her for advice on how to save her marriage. Christophine suggests her to leave her

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husband Rochester. However, she gives Antoinette some love potion under her bitter
plea, which paves the way for the plot of Rochester’s sex with the black servant
Amelia. When the event happens, Antoinette is frustrated and comes to here again
because she is told by Christophine to come for her whenever she meets difficulties.
She can’t help crying when Christophine kisses her on the face. Antoinette does not say
anything and Christophine does not ask either. Christophine looks after her to eat and
to rest carefully. When Antoinette decides to go back to Granbois, Christophine once
again companies her.
As Antoinette's last refuge, although Christophine's house provides a place for
Antoinette to recover, it could not shelters her permanently which foreshadows the
final destination of Antoinette. In describing the place of Christophine’s house, Jean
Rhys vividly depicts the development of Antoinette and Rochester's marriage, which
makes the plot of the novel more delicate and natural.
Through the description of Granbois where Antoinette and Rochester have the
similar social status, Rhys introduces a few places for the event to happen and depicts
various scenes to shape the two main characters. When everything here is irreversible
and settled, Rochester chooses to leave and returns to his own territory in England.

2.3 Thornfield Hall: The Place of Antoinette's Imprisonment

In the third part of the novel, Rhys starts the story with the conversation between
the servants, which reveals the current situation of Rochester and Antoinette to the
readers. Antoinette places the narrative space of the story in Rochester's home at
Thornfield Hall, describing the attic in which Antoinette is imprisoned and meanwhile
the house outside the attic which is full of freedom. The topographical space of
Thornfield Hall enables Rochester to control Antoinette’s personal freedom which
eventually leads to the ruin of both Antoinette and himself.

2.3.1 The Attic of Antoinette

Antoinette, a woman full of passion and freedom, is locked into the cold dark
attic in which there is only a humble bedroom, a small dressing room and a room hung
with a tapestry leading to the outside. Rhys uses these rooms to depicts Antoinette’s
life in the attic telling how she turns into a mad woman.

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After destroying Antoinette's last home at Granbois, Rochester ships her to the
England and brings her to his home Thornfield Manor. He imprisons Antoinette in the
cold, dark attic and employs a servant to watch over her. In this dark room Antoinette
always wakes up very early and lies shivering because of its coldness.

There is one window high up- you can not see out of it. My bed had doors but they had
been taken away. There is no much else in the room. Her bed, a black press, the table in
the middle and two black chairs carved with fruit and flowers. They have high backs and
no arms. The dressing-room is very small, the room next to this is hung with tapestry
(Rhys 143).

Instead of describing the living space herself, the author uses what the heroine sees and
hears to construct the plot of the novel. According to Antoinette's description, we can
know that the living condition and environment of the attic is rather harsh, and the
facilities here are also very rudimentary. This is not so much the English manor
Antoinette yearns for as the prison for her. In such a strange and cold attic, Antoinette
does not live the life of an English girl she has imagined before but a a prisoner
stripped of liberty. There is not even a mirror in the room. Everyone knows what she
looks like now except herself. Her only connection with the past is her red dress which
carrying her memory in Spanish Town and Granbois. Her brother comes to see her, but
is hurt by Antoinette with the knife. Without the red dress, she can not be recognized
even by her own brother. The servant looking after her often ignores her existence as a
person but a fierce and violent toy from whom she can earn lots of money. Only in the
night after the servant Grace fall asleep can Antoinette move a little like a normal
person, drinking Grace’s wine or sneaking out of the room. In addition to the room
Antoinette sleeps, there is also a room the door of which hung with the tapestry. It is
often locked. The room whose door is covered with a tapestry is used to prevent
Antoinette from walking out of the attic. It connects not only the outside world of the
attic, but also a completely different life of Antoinette. One thing to be noticed is that
when Antoinette first arrives at Thornfield Hall, she is not completely irrational, but
also able to go out herself. The imprisonment in the attic makes her unconscious and
finally lose her mind. After lighting the fire with candles, Antoinette returns to her
room and lies quietly in bed waiting for her death.

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Taking advantage of the attic in Thornfield Hall, the author confines Antoinette's
action in England to a narrow space in which Antoinette lives a very terrible life. As a
venue for the heroine after her marriage is broken, the attic not only takes away her
soul and freedom but also the variety in her life, which naturally results in Antoinette’s
ruin with fire.

2.3.2 The Room Outside the Attic

In describing Thornfield Hall, the author does not spend too much inks on its
outlook, but let readers observe and know the castle by the heroine Antoinette through
whose eyes a sharp contrast of the environment between the attic she is imprisoned and
the outside room other people live is depicted sharply.
Unlike Antoinette's room, the world outside the attic is more magnificent. It is
mentioned that in Antoinette’s attic there is a room hung with a tapestry. Walking
across the corridor outside the room, it comes to the living space of Rochester. “ this
cardboard world where everything is coloured brown or dark or yellow that has no
light in it” (Rhys 144). Antoinette never has a chance to clearly see what Thornfield
Hall looks like inside or outside. The day when she is brought to England, Antoinette
once tried to ask the young man who brought her food in the cabin for help, begging
him to help her get rid of here. Unfortunately, the man tells the truth to Rochester
saying that he doesn’t know what to do. Antoinette is irritated and smashes the plates
and glasses against the porthole hopping it would break and the sea come in. However,
her violent behavior makes no difference, and she is feed with some medicines to sleep.
Antoinette wakes up in the night see a cola and dark sea which makes her believe that
they lost the way to England. In her opinion, this cardboard house is not England.
When she gets the chance to walk out the attic, she sees a girl in a white dress comes
out of the bedroom. In their eyes, Antoinette is a ghost in their world. She has been
made to feel a topographical misfit for the existence. What’s more, the author enables
Antoinette a place which she can remember, that is, the room where she has sex with
her lover Sandi. It’s a dull room, decorated with unfolded fans.This is one of
Antoinette's few memory when she is conscious. Later, Rochester shuts her up in the
attic when he knows Antoinette’s affair with Sandi. In addition, the author also refers
another scene of England. “There was grass and olive-green water and tall tress
looking into the water” (Rhys 146). To Antoinette, this should what the real England

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looks like, and if she is given a chance to live here she won’t be ill anymore.
Unfortunately, this trip outside the attic brings the event of hurting her brother. The
outside world which Antoinette longs for indirectly brings pain to herself. After
experiencing endless darkness and loneliness, Antoinette finally opens the door to the
room Rochester lives, takes up the candle and burns his world. She destroys the
Thornfield Hall just like Rochester ruins her Granbois.
Compared with the people outside, Antoinette lives a rather tragic life in the attic.
She is not treated as a person whether in the attic or in the outside world. Rhys uses the
repetition of scenes inside and outside the attic to control the narrative rhythm and
arrange the narrative process. Describing the place of Thornfield Hall where Rochester
enjoys a higher social status than Antoinette, Rhys draws an end to Antoinette’s life
and also to the novel.
“The topographical space not only constructs the narrative framework of the story,
but also plays a predictive role on the tragic fate of the character because of its rich
symbolic meaning” (Zoran 53). Each change in space drives the narrative forward, and
the choice and arrangement of topographical space implies the author's ethics and
morality. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys constructs three topographical spaces namely
Jamaica, Granbois and Thornfield Hall. In the transformation of these topographical
spaces, the author depicts three different life periods of the heroine Antoinette. From
Jamaica to Granbois and then Thornfield Hall, the transformation of these
topographical places help to depict Antoinette’s whole life trajectory.

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Chapter Three The Social Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

Social space is an important concept put forward by Lefebvre in his work

Production of Space. He believes that “space is produced by society, and different
societies produce different spaces” (Lefebvre 10). In Lefebvre’s view, space is no
longer the traditional dual opposition of material and spirit, but a field of control and
being controlled, domination and being dominated. “Social space is full of political
culture and closely related to class, race and identity” (Lefebvre 32). In the novel, Rhys
sets the social background in West India and the Britain in the 20th century, which was
dominated by colonial oppression and gender oppression. This chapter mainly focuses
on the analysis of social space represented by the colonial oppression and gender
oppression, exploring how Antoinette's miserable fate is affected by the social space.

3.1 Colonial Oppression in the Social Space

The novel Wide Sargasso Sea takes Jamaican society in the 1930s as the
background, telling the life of the heroine Antoinette, a mixed-race woman who is
rejected by both black and white society. As has been mentioned, the society has
significant influence on the social space. “Social space is full of political culture and
closely related to class, race and identity” (Lefebvre 32). Describing the cultural
hegemony, racial discrimination and class contradictions produces by the social space
of colonial oppression, this part exposes the damage and destruction the heroine
Antoinette has suffered.

3.1.1 Cultural Hegemony

“Social space is a container full of political culture...”(Lefebvre 32). In the
colonial society, the ruling class dominates the ideology and culture, and achieves its
dominant purpose by controlling cultural content and establishing important customs,
which is known as cultural hegemony. In the novel, Rhys exposes the cultural
hegemony in social space with the experiences of several women including Annette,
Christophine and Antoinette.

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The first one is Antoinette’s mother Annette, a wife of slave owner and also a
daughter of a slave owner, is a Martinique girl who comes from a French colony in the
eastern Caribbean Sea. She is beautiful and arrogant. Annette is used to riding her
horse for a walk in the morning. This habit remains unchanged after her husband's
death even when her riding suit turns to old and shabby because of poverty. After her
horse is poisoned by the local blacks, she still borrows a horse from her neighbor
Luttrell to go to the dancing party or join in a moonlight picnic. Later, she marries a
rich English business man Mr. Mason. They have the wedding in Spanish Town and
make Antoinette a bridesmaid. From her arrogant personality to her hobbies and to her
criteria for spouse selection, everything about Annette tends to be British. She has been
colonized and barren from her bones. The cultural hegemony is vividly expressed in
Annette.
This culture hegemony is reflected on Christophine as well. In the novel, Rhys
depicts her as a brave Martinique woman who dares to irony her master Rochester.
When Antoinette was a little girl, Christophine often sang songs for her. At most time,
these songs are French. Sometimes Antoinette will sings the song with Christophine
together even after she gets married with Rochester. Years later, Antoinette is hurt by
Rochester by having sex with a black servant. In order to make her less painful,
Christophine sings French lullaby to to lull Antoinette to sleep. Obviously, in
Christophine’s mind, these songs can calm her beloved master down and makes her
feel better. Even a brave, independent and powerful man like Christopher can hardly
escape the domination of hegemonic culture. This subconscious reaction is clear
enough to illustrate the impact of colonial culture on her.
What’s more, Rhys also exposes the culture hegemony in depicting Antoinette’s
attitude towards the change of her house. After her father’s death, Antoinette's mother
marries Mr. Mason who helps Coulibri restore to its former cleanliness. Everything
about this house has turned into British style. The family eat beef and pies just like
English do. After the abolition of slavery, Mr Mason still employs black servants to
serve them at table. The table is covered with a white tablecloth on which there is a
vase filled with yellow roses. There is a painting hanging on the wall called The
Miller's Daughter. It is a beautiful girl with brown hair and blue eyes. Antoinette like it
very much. As can be seen from Antoinette's reflection, she is happy with all these

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changes. Mr. Mason's influence on the life of Antoinette and her mother is precisely the
colonists' cultural erosion of the colonized. It is noteworthy that they are willing to
accept this culture and enjoy it which absolutely proves that “everything in space is
produced either by nature or by society, through cooperation or conflicts” (Lefebvre
88). The culture hegemony is produced by the cooperation between the colonial and
colonized. Thus, it can be seen the influence of culture hegemony on Antoinette is
tremendous.
“Social space is consisted of various kinds of relationships” (Lefebvre 34).
Antoinette's marriage with Rochester is also a kind of culture hegemony under the
manifestation of social space. Rochester comes to West India with the mentality of
marrying a local girl to get a fortune. While Antoinette, as has been mentioned, enjoys
and admires to the British life not to mention marrying a traditional English gentleman.
When Rochester loses interest in Antoinette which causes the rift in their marriage,
Christophine persuades Antoinette to leave him. To Christophine’s surprise, Antoinette
told her that she is now an impoverished woman with nothing. Because according to
English law, all her property belongs to Rochester the day she marries him. This kind
of robbery law imposed on Antoinette is undoubtedly a hegemonic culture, which
makes colonized people like Antoinette helpless. In village Massacre, the author
describes a scene like this that “The two women stood in the doorway of the hut
gesticulating, talking not English but the debased French patois they use in the island”
(Rhys 47). Even in the remote areas after the liberation of slaves, the influence of
culture hegemony is still deeply rooted. What’s more, Rochester also recalls the day
they live in the town. He wakes up early seeing women buying bread and hearing of
the hawkers hawking in French. The colonial rule forces the colonized people to accept
this kind of hegemonic culture which also affects the heroine Antoinette.
Apparently, the hegemonic culture under colonial rule has penetrated into the
lives of the colonized no matter in the centre of the town nor in the remote village.
Living in the social space of colonial oppression, Antoinette is greatly influenced by
the cultural hegemony.

3.1.2 Racial Discrimination

As Lefebvre has pointed out that “social space is closely related to class, race and
identity”(32). The colonial oppression in West India and Britain inevitably produces

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and sharpens the racial discrimination between the white and the black also the
marginal people like Antoinette who’s identity makes her suffer a lot.
To a large extent, Antoinette is the victim of racial discrimination under the social
space. This racial discrimination is the product of colonial society, and meanwhile . In
1834, Britain promulgated the Emancipation Act which ended slavery, but the end of
colonial system did not bring liberation and peace to the local people. On the contrary,
abolition of slavery not only disintegrated the manor economy, ended the dominant
position of the local white people, but also stimulated new hatred between black and
white since the colonial period. Antoinette's father is a white slave owner and his
mother is a Creole descendant. This special identity leaves her being discriminated
against by both black and white people. Blacks discriminate against her because of her
embarrassing situation and difficult economic conditions, while whites refuse her
because she is not of pure white origin. After the abolition of slaves, the
long-suppressed ethnic conflicts turns much more tense, the false loyalty of the past
turned into open rebellion, the old camouflaged friendship turned into naked hatred As
the descendant of a slave owner, Antoinette is inevitably hostile to the black people
who have been slaves. Although Antoinette spends most of her childhood among
blacks, she never thinks blacks are friendly. Antoinette once says that she never look at
any niggers because they hate her. Antoinette uses the word "hate" to describe the
tension between blacks and Creole whites exposing the hard situation in the racial
discrimination. In order to portray this racial discrimination more vividly, Rhys creates
another character Tia who is a black girl. Although Antoinette regards Tia as her best
friend, the cunning Tia sees Antoinette as the same as other "white niggers". She is
hostile to Antoinette cheating her and stealing her clothes. In order to sharpen the racial
discrimination, Rhys arranges the fire in Coulibri. The fire deliberately set off by local
blacks pushes their conflict with the white Creole mother and daughter to an extreme.
At a critical juncture, Antoinette first thinks about her little partner Tia. However, Tia
pitilessly throws a stone at Antoinette, shattering Antoinette's fantasy into pieces. The
fire brings about the irreparable damage to Antoinette. She lost everything important
from her home to her mother and brother. What’s more, the discrimination from the
blacks and whites does not disappear even when she leaves her home. Antoinette is
also threatened by blacks even after she leaves Coulibri to live in Spanish Town. On

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her way to the convent, a group children containing a black boy and a black girl
mercilessly laugh at her and even beats her up. They throw away her books and push
her down to the ground. When she spends her honeymoon at Granbois, she is mocked
by her black servant Amelia who insults her as white cockroach. Driven by anger,
Antoinette slaps her in the face in result of being hit back. Antoinette is deeply
disgusted and hatred by blacks whether as a slave owner's daughter or as a Creole
woman with white skin.
Different races in the colonial oppression produce various identities and thus
result in the social space of racial discrimination. Except the hatred from black, the
white English represented by Rochester also show the discrimination. His
discrimination against people in West India resulting in the hatred of everything in this
colonized land. When he went to the village of Holocaust, Rochester thought the
people here were very barbaric. He also dislikes Christophine very much. In his
eyes,Christophine dresses strangely and behaves impolitely. In order to depict
Rochester's hypocrisy, Rhys arranges the plot of his affair with Amelia. On one hand,
Rochester looks down upon black people and feels disgusted about them. On the other
hand, he is glad to be served and has sex with their black servant Amelia. Same thing
happens on Antoinette. As a colonist of traditional and pure British origin, Rochester
disdains Antoinette's identity. However, he covets Antoinette's beauty and uses
marriage to defraud her in order to get her money. He regards Antoinette as an
irritating alien. In the novel, Rochester describes Antoinette's eyes in this way. “Long,
sad, dark alien eyes. Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not
English or European either” (Rhys 46). From his description to the house we can see
that in his eyes Antoinette is an alien rather than his wife. His discrimination against
Antoinette is self-evident. Every time Antoinette asking something about England
makes him feel ridiculous. Because in his mind, Antoinette’s ideas have been
indoctrinated in this kind of social space, and she can't understand whatever he says
not to mention to believe. In his letter to the servant in Thornfield, he does not want
anyone to know about Antoinette because it makes him feel shameful to marry a
Creole woman as his wife especially an English man like him. When she is taken to
England and kept in the attic, Antoinette is treated as a mad woman who lost her mind
knowing nothing. She is even seen as a ghost in the night. In this racial space of the

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white world, Antoinette is ignored as an invisible person.

Social spaces are full of contradictions of which racial discrimination plays an
important role. In colonial oppression, the racial discrimination occurs between whites,
blacks and Creoles. These colonial problems lead to conflicts among different races,
and meanwhile deepens conflicts among classes.

3.1.3 Contradictions of Classes

“Space is not only a static container or platform for the evolution of social
relations, on the contrary, many social spaces today are often full of contradictions”
(Lefebvre 39). Colonial rule promotes the development of capitalism, aggravates the
gap between the rich and the poor, and at the same time inevitably produces the social
space of class contradictions. In this part, Rhys takes two traditional English men Mr.
Mason and Rochester as an example to reveal their contradictions with the colonized
people represented by Antoinette.
Although Jamaica passes the Emancipation Act, colonial rule and slavery do not
end. “These new ones have Letter of the Law. Same thing. They got magistrate. They
got fine. They got jail house and chain gang. They got thread machine to mash up
people’s feet. New ones worse than old ones - more cunning that’s all” (Rhys 11). Like
German scholar Gabriele Schwab said, “once the power relationship is reversed, the
perpetrator becomes the victim and the victim becomes the perpetrator” (166). The
former perpetrator is involved in a new round of violence with guilt and shame, while
the former victims are full of anger and hatred. After the enactment of the
Emancipation Act, the lives of many slave owners have changed. They have lost a lot
of free labor and become very embarrassed. And the compensation promised by the
British government is as far out of reach as the fantasy. In the long and endless waiting,
many slave owners among whom Mr. Luttrell is the first one tired of waiting, can not
bear the present life and choose to commit suicide. Many slave owners' estates begin to
be abandoned and sold at very low prices. In this case, the cunning British
businessmen come to the land having a good plan. So does Mr. Mason. Of all the girls
in Jamaica, he marries a widow Annette and naturally gets the Coulibri house although
it’s old and shabby. Before Annette marries Mr. Mason, her life is as poor as other
slave owners, especially after her husband’s death. The local blacks always laugh at her
and even poisons her horse. Some black children also insult Antoinette as a white

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cockroach and ask her to get out of here. This kind of class contradiction is not so
fierce in the early liberation of slavery. It is believed that the slave owners are as poor
as beggars. They have no money to buy fresh fish. The house they live in are also
cracked everywhere. Despite their discontent with former slave owners, the downfall
of the ruling class has temporarily pacified the local black people so that they have not
acted so aggressively for a while. However, when Coulibri regains its former prosperity,
the contradiction between blacks and them becomes fierce. After seeing the new
furniture and decoration of the house and knowing their comfortable life now, the
hatred starts up again and even worse than before. However, Mr. Mason does not
believe in the hatred even when Annette quarrels with him to leave here. What irritates
the local black people and drive them to take actions is Mr. Mason’s plan to import
labour from the West Indies. Such behaviour is undoubtedly a humiliation to them.
Driven by anger, they set the fire to burn Coulibri. Even Antoinette's best friend Tia
threw stones at her. In the early days of slavery liberation, the ruling class and the class
being ruled could even be friends. However, with the increasingly fierce contradictions
between classes, old friends eventually turn against each other. Eventually, Pierce died
in the fire, Annette went mad and even Antoinette got hurt badly. In the struggle
against classes, Antoinette’s family become tragic victims of class contradictions.
In addition to Mr. Mason, the contradictions between classes in the novel are also
reflected in another colonial Rochester. Rochester's status as the second son in the
family makes him not entitled to inherit property due to the British law of the eldest
son inheritance. Put in a quandary, he comes to Jamaica hoping to change his
embarrassment through marriage. Since Mr. Mason has a strong preference for
Antoinette, Rochester gets a generous dowry after his marriage with Antoinette.
During his honeymoon trip, Rochester meets Christophine for the first time in
Granbois. Unlike other servants, this dark black servant is particularly tough. She calls
her coffee bull's blood and mocks what the British drink horse's urine. Christophine
undoubtedly shows her contempt for the ruling class. After hearing about witchcraft
Obeah, Rochester writes to Mr. Fraser, the Sheriff in Spanish Town who ensures him
that Christophine would make no threaten to him. After feeling the threat from the
ruling class, Rochester got a sense of security from the his reply standing for the ruling
class. When his marriage with Antoinette breaks down, Christopher comes to persuade

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him to try to love Antoinette once more. However, this persuasion does not play a good
regulatory role, but irritates Rochester. Rochester is so outraged that he asks
Christopher to get out of the house, but Christopher rejects him justly saying that he
has no right to do so as this is the house of Annette and now belongs to Antoinette.
Even when Rochester warns her to let the police deal with it, Christophine is not in the
least timid saying that “No place here. No chain gang, no tread machine, no dark jail
either. This is free country and I am free woman” (Rhys 126). In Christophine's view,
there is no colonial class ruling here, and everyone is a free man. But what unexpected
is that Rochester refers the sheriff Mr. Fraser to her and reads her the reply letter which
concerns and defeats her arrogance. At last, Christophine has no choice but to leave
unwillingly. From initial scorn to the soft persuasion with a pleading tone, from
self-confidence to inadequacy, Christophine completely fails in the contest with
Rochester as well as the ruling class.
The prosperity and development of the capitalist class inevitably lead to the
uneven allocation of resources, meanwhile bring the oppression and exploitation of the
working class, which results in the conflict between the classes. The development of
colonial society produces the social space of culture hegemony, racial discrimination
and class contradictions. Rhys uses these elements of social space to arrange the plot
revealing the misfortune colonial oppression brings to Antoinette.

3.2 Gender Oppression in the Social Space

“Society produces the power relation, and the space of power gives birth to
society and its ideology such as law, morality and patriarchy” (Lefebvre 243). In a
typical colonial society especially a country like Jamaica, men are decision makers
with absolute power and prestige, while women are attached to their families. This
space of power results in the patriarchy. Describing man’s oppression to women and
woman’s resistance to men, Rhys reveals the gender oppression under the colonial rule
and the tragic fate of women represented by Antoinette.

3.2.1 Men’s Domination

“A woman is seen as a part of males’ hereditary property: at the very beginning
she is owned by her father, then her husband” (Simon de Beauvoir 42). Society

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

produces the power relation of which men are in domination in Antoinette’s time. In
the Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys describes several women's marital life, revealing man's
control and oppression to women vividly.
The novel begins with Antoinette's mother, Annette, a very beautiful Martinique
woman. She is the second wife of old Cosway and much younger than him. After old
Cosway’s death, their family becomes impoverished, and no one who has visited them
regularly ever show up again. Her aunt Cora in Spanish Town is not allowed to visit
them under the control of her husband who is said to dislike them. What’s more, all the
servants who served them leave Coulibri except the old housekeeper Godfrey and
Christophine. They are laughed by the local people who even poisoned her horse to
retaliate against her just because she is the wife of a former slave owner. Annette cares
about her son Pierre who is ill all the time so much that she barely takes notice of
Antoinette. She emphasizes her son than her daughter, which expresses a typically
patriarchal value. In order to change the miserable situation, Annette remarries Mr.
Mason, a wealthy British businessman, and lives a comfortable material life again.
Their servants come back and their visitors increase. Even so, Annette fails to escape
the oppression of men in patriarchal society. Although Mr. Mason loves her very much,
it is undeniable that he loves not only Annette, but also the old house of Coulibri, the
property left by her ex-husband. In the social space created by gender oppression, men
dominate everything. After the marriage, Mr. Mason renovates the house of Coulibri.
However, he does not consult Annette on how to repair the house. Because in his eyes,
he is the new owner of the house, and has all the right to deal with the house. The good
times are not long. Black people are angry about the comfortable life they enjoy. After
the long-standing contradiction erupts, they set fire to the manor. Antoinette is
seriously injured and Pierre loses his life in the fire. Annette is also severely stimulated
and her mind becomes confused. “Women’s words do not have any power and
credibility in front of men”(Kimmey 117). Before the tragedy of the fire happened,
Annette had talked to Mr. Mason many times about the blacks' resentment and
dissatisfaction with them and persuaded him to move out of here. However, Mr Mason
disagreed and insisted on staying. With this fire, Rhys cleverly exposes the stupidity
and silly of men. After the fire, Annette is forcibly sent to a house in the countryside to
recover from her injuries by Mr.Mason who seldom comes to see her ever since her

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mental illness. Annette is left alone and is insulted by the black servant who kisses her
lips in her absence of consciousness. Without Mr. Mason’s favor, Annette suffers a lot.
From Annette's experience, it is not difficult to see that marriage is more like a
trade-off for women, exchange their youth and beauty for man's shelter rather than
pursuing for love. Men are the main source of income in the family and determine the
status of women in society. When the male role is absent in the family, everything in
women's life is greatly affected.
In addition to Annette, Antoinette is also a victim in the social space of gender
oppression. She is neglected by her mother as a child and spends most of her time with
her black wet nurse Christophine. After their house in Coulibri is burned down, Mr.
Mason sends her to Spanish Town to recuperate. When her health is recovered,
Antoinette is sent to the convent to study. Mr. Mason believes that as a girl, besides her
dignified appearance, she should also behave appropriately like a lady. The rule that
men decide everything in the patriarchy leaves Antoinette no choice. She had nowhere
to go but to listen to her stepfather. When she grows up, Mr. Mason comes to the
convent to see her and discloses about her marriage. However, Mr Mason died before
Antoinette get married. He left her a rich legacy as a dowry. Mr Mason's son Richard
hates Antoinette so much that he coerces Antoinette into marrying Rochester so that he
could get rid of this burden and inherits Mr Mason’s heritage. Under stepfather's
arrangement and brother's conspiracy, Antoinette marries Rochester. In a
male-dominated society, Antoinette loses the freedom of her marriage and has to obey
the arrangement of the men in her family. According to British law, Antoinette's
property of three thousand bounds belongs to her husband Rochester after marrying
him, which shows imperialist preference for men and oppression of women. Rochester
has no feelings for Antoinette. He marries Antoinette in order to get her dowry and
covet her beauty. After draining Antoinette of all her value, Rochester treats her
indifferently especially when he learns about her mother. Rochester seizes the
opportunity to start snubbing her. He lives alone in the dressing room, ignoring
Antoinette but kind to her servant who abused her. In order to take revenge on
Antoinette’s poison of aphrodisiac, he even has sex with her black servant just next her
room. When Antoinette is completely devoted to him, he takes her back to England and
imprisons her in the attic, restricting her personal freedom. Finally, he drives her mad

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and pushes her to the destruction in the fire.

In the social space of gender equality, male oppression of women is cruel and
selfish. Women have no choice but to depend on men to survive. When thought to be
useless, they are usually abandoned by men. After suffering from male persecution and
mental disorder, Antoinette is restricted personal freedom and finally lose herself just
the same as her mother.

3.2.2 Women’s Resistance

“Everything in space is produced either by nature or by society, through
cooperation or conflicts”(Lefebvre 88). The unequal circumstances of patriarchal
society under the social space of gender oppression eventually results in the resistance
of women towards men. The female characters depicted by Jean Rhys in the novel,
including Annette, Antoinette and Christophine are not women who are willing to
submit to the control of men and lack of self-awareness.
In the social space of gender oppression, women do not have a choice to choose
whom they marry in a patriarchal society. Everything should be arranged by their
fathers or males in the family. After Antoinette's stepfather, her brother arranged a
marriage for him. Under Richard’s coercion, she agreed to the marriage. However, juts
the day before the wedding, Antoinette regrets it. On the premise of happiness and
security Rochester promises her, Antoinette finally agrees to marry him. This behavior
depicted by Rhys expresses Antoinette’s self-consciousness to strive for her own
interests. After marriage, Antoinette takes Rochester to Granbois to spend their
honeymoon. As they pass through the village Massacre, they are caught by the rain.
Rochester shelters himself from the rain under the trees, but she runs to the local house
regardless of Rochester's obstruction. They enjoy a good time for a while. When he
knows the news about her mother, Rochester becomes more and more indifferent to her.
When Antoinette is mocked and scolded by her servant Amelia, Rochester blames her
instead of helping her. This contradicts Rochester's promises of giving her happiness
and security, which makes Antoinette furious and disappointed. She pushes Rochester's
hand aside and vents her discontent by tearing up the sheets. After the quarrel,
Antoinette tries to talk to him but is refused. In the absence of communication, she
chooses to turn to Christopher for help. She hopes that Christophine would use the
witchcraft obeah to help her, and she even use aphrodisiacs to save her husband’s love

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to her. Antoinette takes Christophine's advice and frankly explains everything about
her mother to Rochester. When Rochester suggests to talk about it next time in the
daylight, Antoinette firmly and fiercely refuses, saying that “You have no right to ask
questions about my mother and then refuse to listen to my answer” (Rhys 100). After
seeing what Rochester has done with Amelia, Antoinette first returns to Christophine
and then back to Granbois a few days. In this situation, she clearly realizes the fact that
her husband does not love her. Antoinette bites Rochester in the arm when he stops her
drinking, which angers him. Unwilling to show weakness, Antoinette takes up the
broken bottle and looks at him fiercely. She shouts at Rochester and abuses him up hill
and down dale. She mocks him like the black slave who has kissed her mother in her
absence of consciousness. Rochester has no choice but to listen to Antoinette’s insult.
It is also the worst quarrel between the couple. Antoinette's resistance to Rochester's
oppression is accumulated and explosive. To some extent, it makes Rochester realizes
the power and oppression from women. As Antoinette said, she is not as a coward as he
is. When she is brought to the Thornfield Hall locked in the attic, Antoinette still
escapes from prison and sets fire to the manor. Although the heroine tries to change her
life status and destiny under such circumstances, the way she chooses is incorrect and
she has never been able to achieve her wish. From the silent tolerance of man’s
domination to resistance giving Rochester a fatal blow, Rhys portrays Antoinette as a
female character in a very delicate and realistic way.
Another woman that can't be ignored in the Wide Sargasso Sea is Christophine,
Antoinette's wet nurse. As a black servant in the patriarchal society, she is unable to get
rid of the strong gender oppression. After the disintegration of slavery, Christophine
becomes a free woman and is no longer oppressed by colonists or slave owners. She
dares to say no to the man who oppresses her and she sneers at the either patriarchy or
colonialism. When Antoinette asks her for help hoping to win back her husband’s heart,
Christophine's first thought is to persuade Antoinette to leave Rochester. She
encourages Antoinette to fight for her marriage and happiness with courage and
strength rather than witchcraft. “All women, all colors, nothing but fools. Three
children I have. One living in the world, each of a different father, but no husband, I
thank my God. I keep my money. I don’t give it to no worthless man” (Rhys 83).
Christophine's words fully reflect her sober consciousness. Although she is in an

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excluded social space, Christophine always has the sense of self-protection and
independence. In her view, women have to have courage to survive in this dangerous
and evil world. After knowing about Antoinette's grievances, Christophine
accompanies her back to Granbois. She negotiates with Rochester to give Antoinette a
sum of money to let her go, or to try to put aside the past and love her once more.
When the negotiations fails, Rochester asks her to leave and threatens that he will turn
to the men and police in the village to take her away. However, Christophine is not
afraid of it, and even scorns at him saying that those man are not stupid enough to
goads her. She is brave enough to fight against the threat and oppression of men.
What’s more, unlike other women at that time, Christophine clearly knows the
importance of money and that is why she is in charge of her own economic right. Men
dominate women by controlling their financial resources. It is because of lacking
initiative on economic issues that Antoinette has no choice but to return to her husband.
Only economic independence can bring real freedom and eliminate restriction from
others. At the end of the novel, Christophine fails to win anything valuable for
Antoinette in this negotiation and left helplessly.
Women are severely discriminated sexually, racially and culturally in the
patriarchal society. The gender oppression in the novel makes it impossible for women
to escape the fate of being ruled by men. The social space produces by gender
oppression is vividly depicted through the personal development of female characters
especially the heroine Antoinette.
Space is not only a static container or platform for the evolution of social relations,
on the contrary, social spaces are often full of contradictions, overlapping and
penetrating into each other. The topographical space provides the platform for the
social space. The social space of colonial oppression and gender oppression produces
the culture hegemony, racism and class contradictions. In the novel, Jean Rhys uses
topographical spaces to construct the plot and social spaces to shape the characters
which eventually gives birth to psychological space.

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 Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide

Sargasso Sea

Psychological space is influenced by topographical space and social space,

reflecting the inner thoughts and emotional changes of people. It focuses on the
psychological level of the characters’ inner contradictions and struggles. In a novel,
characters’ “self-expression, psychological activities, dreams and emotional appeals all
constitute the psychological space” (Lefebvre 248). These psychological spaces reflect
their personality, characteristics and value orientation, and also determine their life
choices. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys uses the letters and dreams to construct the
psychological space of Rochester and Antoinette, revealing the causes of Antoinette's
miserable fate and drawing an end to her life.

4.1 The Psychological Space Constructed by Rochester’s Letters

“Space is not only the platform to the stationary development of social relations,
but a dynamic process of practice relating to the mental and psychological activities”
(Lefebvre 226). Rochester's psychological space is constructed by his letters which
show his inner struggle and emotional activities. From the letter informing his father of
his marriage to the letter inquiring Mr. Fraser about Christophine and later the letter
telling his decision to return to England, the author describes Rochester's psychological
changes in his different life periods.

4.1.1 The First Letter: Contradiction Towards Marriage

The psychological space reflects character’s inner thoughts and emotional feelings.
In order to enrich Rochester’s psychological feelings, Rhys depicts his doubts and
hesitations in the first letter which constructs the hero’s psychological space of
contradiction towards marriage.
In his eyes, the marriage with Antoinette is a foregone conclusion. “So it was all
over, the advance and retreat, the doubts and hesitations. Everything finished, for better
or for worse” (Rhys 45). Rochester’s reflection towards the marriage reveals his

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unwillingness and helplessness. Everything he met on the honeymoon trip bothers him.
The listless trees, the winding houses and the continuous rain all make him more
distressed and gloomy. Before arriving at Granbois, the author describes a detail part of
Rochester's psychological activities. In his statement, Rochester calls the marriage with
Antoinette a trade. Beautiful wife and rich dowry make him sell his soul and accept the
marriage. In England, where the eldest son inherits, the second son's status deprives
Rochester of the right to inherit his father's property. He has no choice but to come to
Jamaica and finally marries Antoinette. At the end of this psychological activity, the
author added a word “yet” to make Rochester stop voicing which delicately depict the
hero's hesitation and unwillingness. After a long journey, Rochester finally arrives at
their destination. Led by Antoinette, he visits the house and writes the first letter to his
father in the study which is dressing room.

Dear Father, we have arrived from Jamaica after an uncomfortable few days. This little
estate in the Windward Islands is part of the family property and Antoinette is much
attached to it. She wished to get here as soon as possible. All is well and has gone
according to your plans and wishes.I dealt of course with Richard Mason. His father died
soon after I left for the West Indies as you probably know. He is a good fellow, hospitable
and friendly; he seemed to become attached to me and trusted me completely.This place
is very beautiful but my illness has left me too exhausted to appreciate it fully. I will write
again in a few days' time (Rhys 54).

In the letter, Rochester tells his father some basic information. From his words it can
be known that marrying Antoinette is in the plan of her father rather than him. Apart
from showing his respect and obedience to his father, Rochester does not show much
emotional activities. It can be seen that under the English law of the eldest son
inheritance system, he has been suppressing his heart. After thinking about it, he added
something to the letter.

I feel that I have left you too long without news for the bare announcement of my
approaching marriage was hardly news.I was down with fever for two weeks after I got to
Spanish Town.Nothing serious but I felt wretched enough.I stayed with the Frasers,
friends of the Masons. Mr Fraser is an Englishman,a retired magistrate,and he insisted on

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 Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

telling me at length about some of his cases. It was difficult to think or write coherently.
In this cool and remote place it is called Granbois (the High Woods I suppose) I feel
better already and my next letter will be longer and more explicit (Rhys 54).

Unlike the first part of the letter, Rochester expresses some personal emotions in it. He
explains to his father why he hasn't written to him for so long a time because of his bad
condition and the unthinkable environment. From this we can see Rochester's caution
and circumspect under patriarchy. However, Rochester feels the sweetness of the air
when he comes to the cool and quiet place of Granbois where he can get the
dominance. “The psychological space of a character often reflects the physical and
social environment in which the character is located” (Lefebvre 233). Rhys uses this
psychological change to reveal Rochester’s weakness. In the village Massacre, the
author puts Rochester in a strange environment that does not belong to him, which
makes Rochester feel a psychological oppression. So whether it is the green trees, the
blue sea or the purple flowers, they are all too much dense in Rochester's eyes. Even
his beautiful wife Antoinette makes him feel uncomfortable as well. Coming to
Granbois, Rochester sees a British imitation of the house which he is much more
familiar with. Without the pressure from the strange environment and the alien people,
Rochester relaxes his vigilance psychologically, and his illness naturally eases a
lot. Only then does he feel the fragrance of flowers and the coolness of water, and
notice the extreme beauty of his wife.
Rochester's psychological changes including his unwillingness and helplessness
towards the marriage with Antoinette are vividly manifested. His first letter constructs
the psychological space of contradiction. In this psychological space, Rhys enriches
the marriage life of the couple showing the marriage from a different perspective.

4.1.2 The Second Letter: Fear of Obeah

In the second letter, the author construct Rochester’s psychological space through
his fear. Shortly after the marriage, Rochester and Antoinette have a crisis in their
relationship. He writes the letter to Mr. Fraser asking about Christophine under the
guise of writing books about obeah. The psychological space presented in the letter
indicates Rochester’s worry and scruple.
Instead of elaborating on the contents directly, Rhys presents the letter in a

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

narrative way of Rochester. “I told him that I was considering a book about obeah and
had remembered the story of the case he had come across. Had he any idea of the
whereabouts of the woman now? Was she still in Jamaica?” (Rhys 111) He does not
directly ask the details about witchcraft obeah, but in the name of writing a book about
it, which expresses his psychological activity of male mentality and hypocrisy.
Rochester and Antoinette have a sweet time temporarily after they arrive at Granbois.
But Rochester is not happy inside his heart because he does not love Antoinette and
only regards her as a tool to satisfy his sexual desire. When he receives Daniel's letter
and hears about the madness of her mother, Rochester does not have much ups and
downs in his heart. Instead, he feels a sense of calm and peace. This letter is more like
a long-awaited opportunity for Rochester to alienate his wife open and aboveboard.
His mentality towards Antoinette has also changed from initial blankness to
indifference which is showed even when Antoinette is bullied by her black servant. At
this critical moment, Christophine, Antoinette's most trusted woman, leaves her.
Although Rochester could easily manipulate Antoinette, he is unable to control
Christophine who he is dissatisfied with. Christophine's departure fuels Rochester's
arrogance and makes his attitude towards Antoinette more indifferent. Daniel's second
letter breaks Rochester's initial tranquility, at which time Rochester's psychology is
filled with suspicion and curiosity. With such a mentality, he goes to meet Daniel, but
ends up with a terrible defeat under the threat of money. At the same time, he also
learns about the myth of Christopher’s witchcraft obeah. His dissatisfaction with
Christophine turns to fear. This also explains why long after ignoring Antoinette, he
accepts her request for a conversation. He also asks her about obeah getting an answer
full of uncertain. Antoinette tells everything about her mother and her childhood
experiences, Rochester does not respond much. Later, they spend a night together.
Rochester wakes up and finds himself being drugged. He feels sick, dizzy and
vomiting. After that, Rochester's indifference to Antoinette transfers to anger. As an
orthodox Englishman, he is cheated by a Creole woman, which makes him feel
humiliated and angry. In retaliation for Antoinette, he has a sex with the black servant
and deliberately let Antoinette know it. In fear of Christophine especially the
mysterious witchcraft, he writes the letter to Mr. Fraser.
In the development of psychological space in second letter, Rochester has

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 Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

experienced strangeness, amazement and then indifference and anger. When it comes
to Christophine, his psychological emotion turns from initial dissatisfaction to curiosity
and then fear. Rochester’s psychological space in the second letter promotes the plot of
his decision in the third letter.

4.1.3 The Third Letter: Determination of Going Back to England

Following the inquiry about Christophine and the witchcraft obeah in the second
letter, the author then arranges Rochester’s quarrels with Antoinette and then
Christophine. The psychological space constructed in the letter stimulates and
promotes Rochester’s left from Granbois. In the third letter, the author constructs
Rochester’s psychological space which transfers into his behaviors of going back to
England after a series of inner struggle.
Shortly after he writes to Mr. Fraser, Rochester receives his reply. In the letter, Mr.
Fraser tells him the case about Christopher and ensures him that he could find Mr. Hill,
the local white sheriff, if he needs to. This reply dispels Rochester's fear of
Christophine and the witchcraft obeah, and gives him a sense of security. What’s more,
it also becomes a powerful weapon to help him defeat Christopher and drive her out of
Granbois. When Antoinette comes back, she has a dreadful row with Rochester. She
bites him on the arm, scolds him for what he has done and even breaks the bottle to
confront him. Rochester is furious about it, yet could do nothing to help himself escape
from the situation. After Christophine stops Antoinette's vent, he goes to the veranda
alone to calm down. The author has mentioned before that Rochester feels the
sweetness of the air in the veranda and enjoys the pleasant time here. However, at this
moment, he feels that the veranda is full of hostility, and that the trees even their
shadows is a threat to him. From the sense of superiority to the anxiety and panic now,
the author skillfully depicts Rochester's psychological changes by describing his
feelings in the veranda. After the quarrel with Antoinette, Rochester no longer has any
hope for the marriage as well as Antoinette. Later, he has a talk with Christophine who
criticizes him for marrying juts to get money. Christophine’s words makes him fly into
a rage with shame saying that he would give up his life if he could get rid of all these
things. However, when Christophine asks him to give Antoinette a sum of money and
let her go, Rochester is alert and ready to defend himself. Rochester's
self-contradictory behaviors expose his hypocrisy. After forcing Christophine to leave

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

Antoinette, Rochester couldn't wait to write to his father. He condemns his father for
arranging the marriage and blames himself for his arrogance. When he clams down
under a careful consideration, he writes in the letter：

We are leaving this island for Jamaica very shortly. Unforeseen circumstances, at least
unforeseen by me, have forced me to make this decision. I am certain that you know or
can guess what has happened, and I am certain you will believe that the less you talk to
anyone about my affairs, especially my marriage, the better. This is in your interest as
well as mine.You will hear from me again.Soon I hope (Rhys 128).

From anger before writing the letter to calmness after consideration, Rochester
completes the transition from a young, careless son to a canny man. From the words he
uses in the letter, it can be seen that there is no longer the respect and obedience to his
father, but with a hint of threatening and warning. In addition to his father, Rochester
also makes up his mind to prison Antoinette in the room. He does not want anyone in
his hometown to know about his marriage, let alone Antoinette. In his opinion,
marrying a Creole woman is a disgraceful thing in itself, especially the wife he marries
is a mad woman. Although he has struggled with Christophine's words about
Antoinette’s love to him, Rochester takes her back to England and imprisons
Antoinette in the attic of Thornfield Hall.
On the one hand, the author uses Rochester's psychological changes in his letters
to promote the development of the plot. On the other hand, Rhys also depicts the hero’s
emotional changes towards Antoinette to imply her miserable fate in the following
future. By describing Rochester’s letters writing to his father, the author promotes the
plot to another topographical space Thornfield Hall.
The author uses Rochester's letters to construct his psychological space,
reflecting his inner thoughts directly and objectively. In the first letter to his father,
Rhys outlines Rochester's marriage to Antoinette, and depicts his inner struggle and
helplessness. When facing with the marriage crisis, Rhys arranges Rochester to inquire
about witchcraft obeah and Christopher in the second letter revealing his fear. When
the newly married couple break up completely, the author refers to the third letter in
which Rochester showed great calm and indifference. These psychological spaces not
only give birth to his behaviors, but also have an influence on Antoinette's

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 Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

psychological space, which is shown in her dreams.

4.2 The Psychological Space Constructed by Antoinette’s Dreams

“Space is a dynamic process of practice relating to the mental and psychological

activities” (Lefebvre 226). For Lefebvre, dreams is also one of manifestations of
psychological space. In the novel, Rhys presents Antoinette's psychological space
through her three dreams in three different topographical places namely the old house
in Coulibri, the convent in Spanish town and the attic in Thornfield Hall. Under the
common influence of topographical space and social space, Antoinette's psychological
space transfers from initial fear to love then rational madness. The psychological space
indicates Antoinette’s inner activities and emotion which lead to her final end of life.

4.2.1 The First Dream: Being Afraid in the Forest

As a manifestation of psychological space, dream reflects the character’s mental
activities in the real world. Surrounded by the hatred of local black, Antoinette has a
strong sense of oppression and pressure. In the first dream, the author depicts
Antoinette’s psychological space with her fear which reflects her miserable experience.
Antoinette's first dream in the novel is a true portrayal of her inner world. It is in
the old house in Coulibri that the author describes Antoinette's first dream. She dreams
of “walking in the forest and someone who hates her has been following her, but she
can't clearly see the face of this person. The heavy footsteps comes closer and closer to
her. However, no matter how hard she struggles and shouts she is not able to escape
and move” (Rhys 11). Antoinette wakes up crying finding her mother looking down at
her. However, instead of consoling her, her mother Annette blames her for screaming
so loudly that she disturbs Pierre’s rest. After making sure that she is on her own bed,
Antoinette comforts herself that she is safe. The moss-covered green wall in the garden
is her barrier, and the sea is her barrier which protect her from being hurt. Before the
author describes Antoinette's first dream, Antoinette has just been betrayed by her
black friend Tia who is brought by Christophine. She is Antoinette's playmate and also
only friend in Coulibri. Antoinette stays with her all the time. They eat and sleep
together every day and take bath in the river. However, the little black girl takes all
Antoinette's coins and wears her clothes away. Antoinette grows up in the West Indies,

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

where people have just been liberated from slavery. Although slaves no more exist in
this place, colonial rule does not end with it and racial hatred and struggle between
different classes still existed. Antoinette is the daughter of a former slave owner. On
the one side, she has white blood in her body, so the local black community rejects her
and hates her. On the other hand, her mother is a Creole rather than a pure English
woman, so the white community is reluctant to accept her. She has no friends and is
often bullied by local black children. She is even called a white cockroach and told to
get out of here. Antoinette has been living in an lonely and helpless environment of
exclusion by both black and white people. In this circumstance, her psychological
space is constructed and reflected in the dream.
“Dream is essentially a means of expression of thought, a valuable psychological
and spiritual phenomenon” (Li 151). In Antoinette's dream, she couldn't see the person
who makes her feel hostile, but only the darkness around her, which indirectly implies
that the person whose face couldn't be recognized was the incarnation of the black girl
Tia or to be more precise the local black people. It was Antoinette's experience of black
exclusion and betrayal of her black friend in Coulibri that makes her fear and triggers
such a dream. In addition to reflecting her psychological changes, Antoinette's dream
also foreshadows her subsequent unfortunate experiences. Facing the temptation of
money, Tia betrays Antoinette and gives up their friendship. Similarly, when local
blacks learn about her stepfather Mr. Mason's labor plan, they destroy the Coulibri
estate in the face of conflicts of interest. When her home is ruined, Antoinette tries to
turn to Tia for help. To her disappointment, Tia throws a stone at her, breaking
Antoinette's dream of belonging to the black community. What’s more, when facing
the dangerous fire and anger from the black people, her mother is not able to protect
her just like what she does after Antoinette wakes up from the nightmare. Although she
repeatedly emphasizes that she is safe and that strangers would not come back to her,
Antoinette has no choice but to leave her homeland. Eventually, she marries a stranger
who hated her and is taken to England where she is surrounded by white strangers.
In the psychological space of her dream, Antoinette is scared, and she could not
resist or escape form the hatred and threaten. Antoinette's dream not only reflects her
psychological activities when facing with the outside world, but also implies that her
fate will be an inescapable nightmare.

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 Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

4.2.2 The Second Dream: Fear and Love to the Man

Dreams express the character’s inner activities and psychological changes. In
order to present Antoinette’s emotional changes towards Rochester, Rhys intentionally
arranges Antoinette's second dream after Mr. Mason tells the news that a man from
England is coming to visit. In the second dream, the author constructs a psychological
space which is consisted of fear and love.
Antoinette, who lost his home, is taken to Spanish Town to recover. After being
sheltered for a short time by aunt Cora, she is sent to a local convent to study.
Antoinette's long life in the convent and her childhood experience fill her with fear and
resistance towards the outside world, so when Mr. Mason is about to take her out of the
convent and take her to meet the English visitor, Antoinette has the second dream. In
her dream, Antoinette is “wearing a beautiful white dress. In order not to dirty the dress,
she lifts the hem and follows the man walking in the woods” (Rhys 40). Although she
is frightened to death, Antoinette does not intend to ask for help. Even if someone
wants to save her, she would refuse because she believes that it is impossible to escape.
The man's face is darkened because of hatred which frightens Antoinette to cry. She
puts down her beautiful white dress and drags it to the ground. The man takes her to a
garden surrounded by stone walls. It is too dark to see the wall or the steps. Antoinette
trips over her dress and falls to the ground. She touches a tree and holds it in her arms
refusing to go on walking, but the tree shakes violently as if to get rid of her. To some
extent, Antoinette's dream foreshadows the terrible marriage life she will face and
implies her miserable situation in the future.
“In the dream, the dress symbolizes women, while white color represents purity as
well as the white skin of the white people” (Li 152). Antoinette's love to her white
dress shows her yearning for Britain and her admiration for the white people. What’s
more, that disgusting person stands for her future husband Rochester who brings her to
England and locks her in the attic of Thornfield. The dirty white dress indicates that the
innocent girl will be trampled mercilessly. The swaying tree which attempts to trip
Antoinette onto the ground indicates her husband’s physical and mental devastation to
her. This dream is more like a mirror reflecting Antoinette's experience in the marriage.
She is deceived by Rochester devoting herself without hesitation, and eventually
suffers a lot harm. Although knowing about the hatred of Rochester, Antoinette still

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

can’t help loving him. The dream shows Antoinette's helplessness, and also implies the
helplessness and vulnerability of women in the patriarchal society. After Antoinette
wakes up from her dream, the convent's nun Mary brings her a cup of hot chocolate,
rubbing her hands to keep her warm and asking her to forget the evil dream. At the
borderland between sleeping and waking, she seems to see her mother waving to
Coulibri on the cobblestone path in her riding suit. The novel links Antoinette's dream
with her mother's life and death which also indicates that Antoinette, just like her
mother, will bid farewell to her homeland.
The psychological space in the second dream develops with the event in the novel.
Instead of bringing Antoinette safety and happiness, her husband dislikes and hates her.
She is plundered by Rochester and imprisoned in the attic losing her freedom
completely just like what she has experiences in the dream. Her marriage eventually
becomes a nightmare leading her to a miserable life.

4.2.3 The Third Dream: Rational Madness

“Space is a dynamic process of practice relating to the mental and psychological
activities” (Lefebvre 226). Depicting what has happened in the former two dreams,
Rhys draws an end in Antoinette’s third dream in which the author constructs a
psychological space of Antoinette’s rational madness through the depiction of her
behaviors after the fire.
Antoinette's third dream happens in England when she is confined in the attic of
Thornfield Hall. For Antoinette, Britain is her dream in which everything is gorgeous.
When her marriage with Rochester is broken, she is taken to England and imprisoned
in the attic. Her dreaded dream finally comes true. This time, Antoinette finally
finishes the dream and sees a clear ending of herself in the dream. She dreams of
lighting a candle and looking for the altar. “She sees her whole life in the candlelight
and all the things she cherishes including orchids, the tree of life, the old house of
Coulibri and her beloved paintings of Miller's Daughter” (Rhys 150). The man who
hates her also appears in her dream. Antoinette looks at the dress on the floor as if a
fire has spread through the room. The psychological scene in the dream reminds her
what to do. After her marriage with Rochester, Antoinette changes from a simple girl to
a mad woman. And Rochester is no longer a positive image of imperialism, but a
greedy and ruthless husband. He pursues Antoinette in order to get a generous dowry.

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 Chapter Four The Psychological Space in Wide Sargasso Sea

When he gets Antoinette's money, Rochester changes the gentle manners and treats her
badly. In addition, he cheats on Antoinette and has sex with Amelia, their black maid.
When Antoinette is forced to go insane, Rochester does not take good care of her.
Instead, he imprisons her in a cardboard attic at Thornfield Hall. He does all the
ruthless things to Antoinette, and makes the white image represented by himself
become a devil in her mind.
Although she is driven mad, Antoinette gets her consciousness occasionally,
which is clearly shows in her preparation for lighting the fire. Life in the attic endows
her with time and allows her to think. The last dream gives her inspiration telling her
what to do. When facing with the fire in the psychological space of her last dream, she
realizes the meaning of her life and finds her self-identity. Everything in the past is
clear: in the convent, Antoinette gains a short peace, but eventually she could not
escape the bondage of patriarchy and marries Rochester under the arrangement of her
stepfather. She sets her last hope on her marriage to Rochester, hoping that he would
bring her happiness and peace. However, under Rochester's pressure and revenge,
Antoinette completely loses herself. Her imagination and dream of the home is also
shattered by Rochester. Later, she is brought to her dreaming country which eventually
takes away her freedom. The psychological space indicates Antoinette’s inner activities
and emotion which are reflected through her dream. Although she is mad, Antoinette
holds some reason in her mind. She is aware of the servant’s regular arrangement and
pretends nothing happens. Finally, after Grace fell asleep she gets a chance to do
herself. She walked out the room, set the fire and then went back to her bed. Driven by
the rational madness, Antoinette sets fire to her husband's estate and destroys the
prison of her freedom and soul.
Jean Rhys describes Antoinette's three dreams to reflect the her psychological
process in her different stages of growth. These dreams produce Antoinette’s
psychological space which has witnessed and promoted her from being a lonely and
repressed girl, to a brave woman and wife pursing herself, and then to a free person of
reborn after being imprisoned. The author explains Antoinette's tragic fate by
describing the heroine's psychological changes in her three dreams.
The psychological space of a character often reflects the physical and social
environment in which the character is located, and also the power relations and social

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

ideology at that time. Psychological space enriches the inner activities of characters
and influences their behaviors, which naturally promotes the narrative process. In Wide
Sargasso sea, Rhys uses Rochester's letters and Antoinette's dreams to construct the
psychological space of the two protagonists, and ingeniously arranges the plots through
their psychological changes. Rochester’s psychological development results in his
determination of bring Antoinette to Thornfield Hall, while Antoinette’s psychological
changes push her to light the fire. The development of their psychological spaces
results in their final destiny and meanwhile leads the novel to an end.

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 Conclusion

Conclusion

Jean Rhys, a famous female writer in 20th century in Britain, tells the tragic fate
of a white Creole girl Antoinette in her masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea. The novel
rewrites the mad woman Bertha in Jane Eyre, which breaks white stereotypes about
marginalized women. Rhys reveals the huge physical and spiritual pain the marginal
women have suffered, expressing her concern for their life in the society.
Based on the previous researches, this thesis adopts the spatial theory of Gabriel
Zoran and Henri Lefebvre to analyze the destruction of the heroine Antoinette. In the
Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys firstly sets the topographical space of the novel in
Jamaica where Antoinette acquires the knowledge and grows up, Granbois where
Antoinette starts her marriage life, and Thornfield Manor where the heroine is
imprisoned and finally died. Through the transformation of these topographical spaces,
Antoinette’s whole life is clearly depicted. What’s more, Rhys sets the social space of
the novel in West India and the Britain in the 20th century, which was dominated by
colonial oppression and gender oppression. The writer used Antoinette's experience in
these kinds of social spaces to expose cultural hegemony such as Antoinette’s
admiration for British culture, racial discrimination such as her being blamed white
cockroach, and class contradictions such as her being betrayed by the best friend. On
the basis of topographical space, these social spaces not only shape the character of
Antoinette but also affect her inner thoughts. Last, Rhys skillfully arranges Rochester’s
letters and Antoinette’s dreams to construct their psychological space during the
development of topographical space and social space. Psychological space is
influenced by external phenomena and transformed into personal feelings and
consciousness. Rochester’s changes of thoughts in the letters which witness his
psychological development lead to his imprison for Antoinette. While Antoinette’s
emotional development in her dreams which implies her psychological changes results
in her destruction in the fire. The interaction of topographical space, social space and
psychological space eventually results in Antoinette’s death.
With the spatial turn of literary criticism in the 20th century, the development of

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 哈尔滨师范大学硕士学位论文

spatial criticism theory provides a new research angle for text analysis. From the
perspective of space, this thesis analyzes the topographical space bringing Antoinette’s
growth, the social space shaping her character and the psychological space reflecting
her thoughts. The specific topographical setting and expression techniques in the novel
present important spatial significance. The thesis adopts a new theoretical approach in
the research direction hopping to contribute some new perspectives to the novel.

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 Bibliography

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 攻读硕士期间所发表的学术论文

攻读硕士期间所发表的学术论文

1. 浅析<灿烂千阳>中的女性成长》.校园英语.2017(21).
2. 从<爱玛>看简奥斯汀的的女性主义婚姻观.校园英语.2018(8).
3. 《黄色墙纸》中的叙事视角解读.社会科学.2018(2).

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 Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my respected supervisor professor
Fan Lijuan, who gives me guidance in the preparation and the completion of this thesis.
When I fall into difficulty in writing the thesis, my supervisor gives me great supports
and insightful ideas. I appreciate much about her intelligence and serious attitude to the
academic study, especially in the field of literature. Under her guidance, I have
completed my thesis eventually.
In addition, I would like to extend my thanks to all the teachers who have taught
me during my postgraduate study in the Foreign Languages College of Haerbin
Normal University. I have benefited a lot from their earnest teaching and enlightening
which are of great help to my writing. I am also very grateful to Professor Cheng
Shuang whose excellent lectures have laid a solid foundation for my knowledge in the
English language learning and critical thinking in the thesis.
Special thanks also go to my beloved family and friends. I am very grateful to my
uncle who spares no efforts to support me. I also appreciate my boyfriend who
accompanies and encourages me during the whole process of writing the thesis. Thanks
for my parents and friends who constantly encourage me in my study and contribute to
my completion of this thesis. I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to all
of them.

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