In what ways does Jean Rhys characterize Antoinette as an outsider in Part One of the novel and to what effect?
Wide Sargasso Sea opens with the following words: “They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks”. To be in-between, ambivalent and not knowing which way to go or turn and not having a clear direction or advice to follow is what
the main character of Wide Sargasso Sea, Antoinette, has to struggle with throughout the novel. Described as a Creole, she is neither black nor white, but somewhere in-between Europe and the Caribbean, a slave and a master in a world where, due to decolonization, new identities and roles have to be formed in ways never experienced before; in Antoinette this creates an uncertainty of identity and belonging.
At her mother Annette's wedding she overhears the guests discussing Richard Mason's choice to marry Antoinette's mother.'A fantastic marriage and he will regret it. Why should a very wealthy man who could take his pick of all the girls in the West Indies, and many in England too probably?'
'Why probably?' the other voice said. 'Certainly.' 'Then why should he marry a widow without a penny to her name and Coulibri a wreck of a place? Emancipation troubles killed old Cosway? Nonsense – the estate was going downhill for years before that.' Antoinette's family is not part of any of the dominate social groups; neither are they physically a part of the Europe they once used to look up to. Antoinette's sex and status, geographical location and alleged state of mind all alienate her from the world around her, but at the same time she is bound to it, making her unable to change her situation. She does not belong to any sphere, yet cannot avoid being affected by all; with relatives both within the white and black community she is a hybrid both in a social and physical sense.
In the first part of the novel, Antoinette is telling us her story, and thus gives us her view of the way her family was excluded from the society. As a daughter to former slave owners, it might have seemed natural for her family to belong to the white community, rather than the black, but as the very opening words of the novel suggest, they were not in their ranks due to the Cosway's Creole background. The white community did not accept them, but neither were they welcome among their former slaves: “They hated us. They called us white cockroaches” (Rhys 8). Antoinette finds herself in a gray zone between the dominant blocks of power, not belonging to any of them, but instead forced to become a hybrid.
Hybridity among the Creoles in the Caribbean is not uncommon. Even if Antoinette's situation is not unique, it nevertheless does not make her life less problematic. The exclusion Antoinette has to deal with does not only come from the outside world and its people, but it also lives within her own family. Antoinette's mother is very distant and cold towards her daughter, depressed by the loss of her wealth, status and husband. She is laughed at by her former slaves, which also underlines the shift of power that has recently taken place on the island. She is at several points throughout the novel accused of being mentally unstable, which also reflects the way people view Antoinette; being the daughter of a mad woman will probably not go unnoticed and undiscussed.
Instead of crossing a physical border, and having to deal with the questions of belonging from a traditional immigrant perspective, the Cosways are immigrants within a society, forming their identity through the crossing from one system of power to another. Indeed they are second and third generation immigrants, now sharing a Creole background, which is even intensifying the questions of identity and belonging because of the difficulty they have in identifying themselves as either white nor black. These questions were perhaps not as pressing in colonial times when the Cosways could grow wealthy and powerful through the abuse and slavery they occupied themselves with and even were dependent on. But as the social structure changed and they no longer were by default on the top, new questions of identity arise. They were suddenly not in the white people's ranks due to their loss of economic status, their racially mixed, and allegedly mentally unstable background, but neither were they in the favor of their former slaves. It is this crossing from one system to another that changes the way they perceive their identity, and also changes the way they are seen by others.
Why it is so important to exclude such people as the Cosways from the white community? Orientalism-the Western view of the East- suggests that the East is seen as a realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive. Although the Carribbean is not technially part of the East, it is neither part of what is often referred to as West either. If the idea of East is expanded to include areas that are outside the European sphere of thinking regardless of geographical location, then these qualities of exotic, mystical and seductive perhaps reflect Antoinette and her mother's beauty. Furthermore, their behavior is seen as a result of the race and ethnicity. In other words, Antoinette can never change in the eyes of the English, because of her Creole background.
A large theme of colonialism is the "Other", where there is a line between "us" and "them". Ever since early Western thought equated the Good with notions of self-identity and sameness, the experience of evil has often been linked with notions of exteriority.The relationships Antoinette has throughout the novel are undermined by these problems caused by her not being defined by the world of “we”, but instead being a threat to all. She cannot be let in, because as a hybrid she can potentially destroy everything identity is built on. Antoinette learns very early on that she cannot count on the help or support from people close to her. These “others” are represented by several people in the novel: servants, visitors, friends and husbands to name a few. When she is rejected by her only friend, the black girl Tia, who for a little money turns her back to Antoinette and calls her a 'white nigger', clearly stating that Antoinette's family is not part of the wealthy white community:
'Keep them then, you cheating nigger,' I said, for I was tired, and water I had swallowed made me feel sick. 'I can get more if I want to. 'That's not what she hear, she said. She hear all we poor like beggar. We ate salt fish – no money for fresh fish. That old house so leaky, you run with calabash to catch water when rain. Plenty white people in Jamaica. Real white people, they got gold money. They didn't look at us, nobody see them come near us. Old time white people nothing but white nigger now, and black nigger better than white nigger'.
Instead of questioning her friend's words and proving her wrong, Antoinette accepts what Tia says. By not quoting Tia directly, but rather repeating her words in third-person narration, Antoinette demonstrates that she has internalized and accepted her friend's criticism and reported gossip. Antoinette seems to feel that Tia is right and that she really is a white nigger, not part of the white community on the island, and therefore not anyone to be taken seriously. Antoinette seems to take the comment personally, as criticism towards her actions and behavior, and not as a general comment about the situation of the white Creole minority at the time. It seems as if Antoinette sees her outsiderness as a result of her own actions, something personal – and hence also her own fault, not as a result of racial exclusion that she never had a chance to change. Antoinette views herself and her actions as the seed of something evil, which eventually affects also her mother.
According to Antoinette, it is not the situation her family was in, neither the lack of belonging, but her own actions that made her mother unstable. “Then there was that day when she saw I was growing up it like a white nigger and she was ashamed of me, it was after that day that everything changed. Yes, it was my fault, it was my fault that she started to plan and work in a frenzy, in a fever to change our lives”. The problem with Antoinette's view of her situation is that she does not understand that Tia's comments about her being a white cockroach also includes her mother and the rest of her family; it is not a personal comment. If her mother is already included in the comment, then Antoinette cannot carry the guilt of it all; it is not her fault. Antoinette's actions did not change anything, her personal problems are related to the political situation. Antoinette cannot see that 'what Tia said' included her mother too, because she has no grasp of the historical and ideological barriers that separate classes in West Indian postslavery society. Her personal is not political.
Antoinette's feelings of not belonging anywhere are gradually intensified and she chooses to find comfort in the wilderness that surrounds her worn down home, Coulibri. As she walks away, she thinks to herself: “And if the razor grass cut my legs and arms I would think 'It's better than people'. Black ants or red ones, tall nests swarming with white ants, rain that soaked me to the skin – once I saw a snake. All better than people”. It is people that leave her outside and alone, although she never did anything to harm them. It seems that she does not understand the reason for her exclusion, but is very saddened by this. Indeed, the exclusion she faces is not based on her actions, but on her background of not belonging and being seen as a threat, although perhaps not openly admitted of being one: how can a young woman be a threat to a mighty nation? Antoinette carries these feelings of abandonment as she grows older and as she in her teens attends a school run by nuns she is once again struck by the fact that people near her do not see and understand her situation: “They are safe. How can they know what it can be like outside”. The other girls do not share Antoinette's experiences of abandonment and cannot understand her.
