Our class discussions have basically reached a consensus in that Rochester is both the less sympathetic narrator and also the villain of the story. By the end of the novel he clearly ends up doing some pretty evil stuff. This is interesting considering that we do see Rochester's thought processes for much of the novel, and we see a lot of conflict in his life that causes us to somewhat sympathize with him. By looking at his thought processes, though, we get a picture of how an insecure man turned into a villain.
Rochester comes to the Caribbean with insecurities and with his pride having been hurt. By looking through Rochester's narration, we see multiple instances of Rochester being sensitive about his being respected. Much of this stems from his status as a second son who does not inherit his father's estate. Not only does this put Rochester in a more difficult financial situation (he has to find another estate to be rich on), it also causes him to be estranged from his family members. Because of this insecurity in his life, Rochester holds on to the one thing he feels he can take pride in while in the Caribbean, and this thing turns him into a villain: his Englishness.
We see through Rochester's eyes that Rochester can only see Jamaica with a English lens. He prefers the duller environment of England to the lush and vibrant environment of Jamaica. He is also distrustful of Jamaican people and culture, and this includes Antoinette. This distrust of Jamaica in favor of his Englishness triggers his response to Daniel Cosway's letter, which feeds his paranoia about Jamaica and that side of Antoinette. As we said in class, Rochester wants to make Antoinette more English while at the same time remaining distrustful of her due to her Jamaican background. This turns into a desire to control and transform Antoinette into Bertha, a name representing Rochester's vision of his ideal English woman. In large part this desire to control Antoinette drives both of them to madness by the end of the novel.
With all this being said, we continue to see Rochester struggle with controlling and exploiting other people. We see this in his talk with Christophine near the end of the novel, where he struggles to come to terms with the truth that Christophine lays out in front of him about his actions. It is as if Rochester is a reluctant villain who is not entirely comfortable with his actions. Eventually, his pride and colonialist-like desires cause him to angrily dismiss Christophine. When Rochester and Antoinette head to England, he feels grief over what he has done to Antoinette when he thinks to himself that if Antoinette says die, he will die. Nevertheless, he comes to the conclusion that he hates Jamaica and Antoinette.
Rochester's turns into a villain over the course of the novel, and that transformation is driven by his English pride, which leads to his hate and villainous actions toward Jamaica and Antoinette.
Let me know about your thoughts on the narrative of the novel!
Rochester comes to the Caribbean with insecurities and with his pride having been hurt. By looking through Rochester's narration, we see multiple instances of Rochester being sensitive about his being respected. Much of this stems from his status as a second son who does not inherit his father's estate. Not only does this put Rochester in a more difficult financial situation (he has to find another estate to be rich on), it also causes him to be estranged from his family members. Because of this insecurity in his life, Rochester holds on to the one thing he feels he can take pride in while in the Caribbean, and this thing turns him into a villain: his Englishness.
We see through Rochester's eyes that Rochester can only see Jamaica with a English lens. He prefers the duller environment of England to the lush and vibrant environment of Jamaica. He is also distrustful of Jamaican people and culture, and this includes Antoinette. This distrust of Jamaica in favor of his Englishness triggers his response to Daniel Cosway's letter, which feeds his paranoia about Jamaica and that side of Antoinette. As we said in class, Rochester wants to make Antoinette more English while at the same time remaining distrustful of her due to her Jamaican background. This turns into a desire to control and transform Antoinette into Bertha, a name representing Rochester's vision of his ideal English woman. In large part this desire to control Antoinette drives both of them to madness by the end of the novel.
With all this being said, we continue to see Rochester struggle with controlling and exploiting other people. We see this in his talk with Christophine near the end of the novel, where he struggles to come to terms with the truth that Christophine lays out in front of him about his actions. It is as if Rochester is a reluctant villain who is not entirely comfortable with his actions. Eventually, his pride and colonialist-like desires cause him to angrily dismiss Christophine. When Rochester and Antoinette head to England, he feels grief over what he has done to Antoinette when he thinks to himself that if Antoinette says die, he will die. Nevertheless, he comes to the conclusion that he hates Jamaica and Antoinette.
Rochester's turns into a villain over the course of the novel, and that transformation is driven by his English pride, which leads to his hate and villainous actions toward Jamaica and Antoinette.
Let me know about your thoughts on the narrative of the novel!
There is an important further shift in perspective, right at the start of part 3, which I'd hoped to look at more specifically in class (in your section--we did touch on it in 2d period). Grace Poole quotes Mrs. Fairfax as talking about her deep sympathy for Mr. Rochester, who returned from the West Indies a "changed man," and whose deep suffering is visible on his face. She says not to ask her to pity any person who played a role in destroying her beloved master, whom she had known "since he was a boy." The reader's sympathies may well be with Antoinette here, but Rhys reminds us how Rochester is framed in _Jane Eyre_ as a tragic figure whose trip to the Indies as a young man has altered him, and he now is this brooding, melancholy, tormented figure. In Bronte's novel, Bertha is the "cause" for this tragic fall, and he is depicted with more sympathy than this semi-human "madwoman." Rhys reminds us, just before launching into Antoinette's very sympathetic and tragic narrative voice again, that this story has not always been seen as Antoinette's tragedy: in Mrs. Fairfax's view, Rochester is not the villain.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I definitely agree and like that you explain Rochester's actions by his ignorance. I also felt as though that at some points in the novel that Rochester was almost a reluctant villain as you said. I think a key part of the "Englishness" that causes Rochester's pride to win in his moments of slight hesitation is the ignorance which seems to be a character trait within the "Englishness" (if that made any sense). I really think that it was the reluctance to try and understand the culture and environment that Rochester is in that drives him to paranoia and later the "villainness".
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I thought the idea of British pride was especially intriguing. Building off of your post, I thought Rochester was subtly trying to bring out the Jamaican in Antoinette to have power over her in a sense. However, disliking that fact that she is part Jamaican, Rochester more apparently projects an English persona onto her. I feel like these conflicted projections also contribute to Antoinette’s conflictions of being Jamaican and English. These different projections almost lead to Rochester slowly becoming a villain as you say.
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