Antoinette and Christophine

One scene in Wide Sargasso Sea that really interested me was Antoinette’s pleading with Christophine to perform obeah. First off, I really like this scene for a couple of pretty petty reasons. I find Christophine to be an interesting character as she is independent and slightly mysterious. For quite some time in the book, we have not seen much of her because Rochester took over the narration, and Christophine and him don’t really have any relationship, and he has little reason to think of her. In contrast, Christophine is very important to Antoinette. Also, Christophine is connected to voodoo, which is inherently interesting. In addition, it is interesting to note Christophine’s insistence that they don’t know that England. It shows the perception of mystery and the almost dreamlike quality that Rochester assigns to Jamaica that is now being applied to his land.

This scene is also one of my favorites so far for very real reasons. After being from Rochester’s point of view for so long, it is exciting to once again be in the troubled mind of Antoinette. Rochester is rather calculating and easily relatable to, as opposed to Antoinette, who has been constantly in bizarre situations and who we cannot really understand. It also shows a great dichotomy between how we have thought Antoinette is through Rochester and the letter and actually being able to see her as a sympathetic character that is not just some crazy, vile schemer. This scene also really moves the plot along after a lot of Rochester just doubting Antoinette. It shows Antoinette’s strong desire to be with Rochester. She very clearly wants to stay connected to him and doesn’t want him to hate her or to think of her as a “white cockroach” like the others on the island. I really hope that Christophine’s obeah plays a role later in the novel.

Rochester and Jamaica

Rochester is an Englishman, through and through. He is used to the way the world works in civilized England, which is why he is so uncomfortable in Jamaica. He immediately becomes sick upon his arrival on the island, coming down with fever. He is treated in what seems to be a rather modern, arguably English part of Jamaica, Spanish Town, Once he moves away from this last vestige of civilization, he ventures into a land he doesn’t understand, a land that he doesn’t like. He leaves behind his happiness. I believe it is summed up in the beginning of the first sentence of Part 2: “So it was all over…” (66). Immediately after this, he notes the strangeness, the unfamiliarity he has with his surroundings; he notes the “sad leaning cocoanut palms, the fishing boats drawn up on the shingly beach, the uneven row of whitewashed huts” and the weirdness of Amelie, “a lovely little creature but sly, spiteful, malignant perhaps, like much else in this place” (66).

So much can be read into the first page of Part 2 with Rochester’s descriptions of Jamaica. It is interesting to note his lack of wanting to be there, even though it is his honeymoon. He doesn’t want to be married to Antoinette. He constantly thinks back to England, such as on page 71, where he says Antoinette “might have been any pretty English girl” and when discussing the red earth of Jamaica, says, “It’s red in parts of England too.” Rochester has been pulled out of the place he wants to be, his safe, civilized England, which will undoubtedly present him with problems. As I said in my previous post, there is a constant motif of decay, and I expect Rochester to experience first-hand how this place seems to constantly bring that about. Arguable, he has already experienced decay, falling ill, and being thrown into a frightful little place from his beloved England.

Decay

As I first started reading Wide Sargasso Sea, I noticed a recurring motif; decay. As Antoinette wanders around Coulibri, one notices many signs of decay throughout the area. First of all, there is the image of the dead horse:

Then one day, very early, I saw her horse lying down under the frangipani tree. I went up to him but he was not sick, he was dead and his eyes were black with flies. I ran away and did not speak of it for I thought if I told no one it might not be true. (18)

Also, she talks of her once beautiful garden that has now decayed:

Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible – the tree of life grew there. But it had gone wild. The paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green, Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched. One was snaky looking, another like an octopus with long thin brown tentacles bare of leaves hanging from a twisted root. (19)

I believe these images of once beautiful things decaying correspond to multiple things in the first part of the book. Most importantly, in my opinion, this decay mirrors what is happening to the mother. She was once presumably quite sane but has now begun to slip into insanity. Also, in the situation in the house and in Jamaica there is the decay of seeming order into danger. The family’s ties to humanity have decayed, with the mother becoming nothing short of a recluse. The slaves in the house, who are supposed to be bound to the family, now seem to be against them. For Antoinette, she has to deal with the fear of everything falling apart around her, which I assume will come into play later in the novel.

Meursault and Marie

One thing that I did not like about The Stranger was Marie and Meursault’s relationship. For one thing, Marie is a totally likeable, empathetic character, which in my mind means she should have nothing to do with Meursault. She is caring and kind, a good person, and Meursault seems to only be attracted to her physical beauty. She dotes upon him constantly, and all he ever mentions about her is her physical attractiveness. He seems genuinely interested in nothing else but sex in regards to her, while she wants to marry him and spend the rest of her life with him. It is really quite painful reading about her and Meursault. She seems to enjoy life and is really upbeat, quite unlike Meursault. She sticks with him through the long, long trial and tries to support him. In spite of this, Meursault doesn’t want to marry her but is willing to do it pretty much for the hell of it; he doesn’t care. Even after he is an ass about marriage, she sticks with him. She puts up with all of his shit, staying by his side, and he is only interested in the fact that she is pretty. This relationship really makes it hard for me to say I enjoyed the novel, and it wiped away any chance of me feeling sympathetic towards Meursault.

Death

As I started reflecting back upon The Stranger, I noticed an overarching theme that kept showing up throughout the book: death. Almost all parts of the book have to deal with different attitudes towards death and coping with the inevitable decay of life. Salamano and his dog are both in failing health (in other words, in the process of dying) and they love each other. While Salamano is incredibly cruel to his dog, he genuinely loves it and helps ease its pain as it inevitably grows older. This contrasts Meursault’s treatment of Maman; he leaves her in a home to die.

Also, Meursault’s view of death as an absolute end to life, where one’s body decays in the ground and the soul does not travel on, comes into conflict with the views of others. His indifferent attitude applies to human death; he regards it as an inevitable fact of life. He argues vehemently with the chaplain, who preaches the idea of a necessary afterlife. His views seem to be an extension of his matter-of-fact opinions of the world. His own impending death makes him evaluate his firm views, and he realizes that he does not want to die. This makes him reflect upon something he never gave thought to earlier. When his mother died, he did not think about it. When he shot the Arab, he did not think about it. When he first went on trial, and a death sentence was possible, he did not think about what that would mean to him or to others, such as Marie. Camus uses Meursault’s looming death as a vehicle for him to finally think, to finally evaluate himself and his life. After sitting in prison for days without thinking about much of anything, he finally breaks out of his indifference and starts caring.

Meursault's Indifference

I believe the opening scene in The Stranger tells invaluable information about Meursault. His almost inhumane actions really interested me as most of the books we have read have expressed the narrator’s desire to be a part of some form of society (such as Jake and the Left Bank and Gregor and his workplace). In direct opposition to this, Meursault seems totally indifferent towards societal standards; he does not appear to want to fit in. When I first read the opening scene, I thought Meursault was almost cruel, not caring that his mother died, but as I reflect upon it, he seems indifferent, there isn’t a positive or negative spin on it.

His indifference is seen all throughout his mother’s funeral. He isn’t sad; he doesn’t even pretend to be. He wonders on what day Maman died out of curiosity, not because it seems to hold any significance to him. He drinks coffee and smokes in front of his dead mother with a caretaker. He also presents his decision to set his mother up in a home as logical, seemingly shedding no tears over it.

His total indifference in regards to his mother and societal standards is interestingly opposed by his interest in the environment. When he talks to others, his statements are short, to the point, and somewhat terse. He describes thinks quickly and in a matter-of-fact manner, but when he discusses the atmosphere and nature, he goes into much more detail. He goes on and on about the heat. Due to the heat directly affecting him, I believe him to be somewhat conceited, worrying mostly about what’s going on in terms of himself not others. This sets him apart from the bulk of society, a theme which interestingly has been mirrored in many of the other books we have read.