Insanity in WSS

Prompt: Discuss the portrayal of insanity in Wide Sargasso Sea

Introduction

Thesis Statement: Jean Rhys portrays insanity as a socially constructed method to exert power over subaltern women.

Main Idea 1

Topic Sentence: Jean Rhys connects the madness of her protagonist Antoinette to representations of insanity common in the eighteenth and, respectively, in the nineteenth century while deconstructing them at the same time. 

Main Idea 2: 

Topic Sentence: In her novel, Jean Rhys uses different contemporary archetypes of madness and fuses their aspects in the persona of Antoinette to blur the notion of one unbreakable perception of insanity. 

OR

Rhys’s depiction attempts to state explanations for Antoinette’s madness but also refuses to fit into one category; thus, it again challenges the notion of one true notion of insanity as well as reality. 

Main Idea 3: 

Topic Sentence: Jean Rhys equips Antoinette with madness to gain agency as a means to subvert patriarchal hegemony

Conclusion

Thesis Statement: Jean Rhys portrays insanity as a socially constructed method to exert power over subaltern women.