66 pages • 2 hours read
Jean RhysWide Sargasso Sea
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1966A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Jean Rhys presents Dominica as a socially stratified society. What other forms of division exist in the book? What do these divisions tell us about nineteenth-century Caribbean societies?
How does Coulibri Estate operate in the novel both as a real place and as a site of memory where Antoinette revisits her family history and her fears?
Why do you think that Annette Cosway believes that Christophine has chosen to remain with the Cosway family? Do you agree or disagree with Annette’s assessment? Why or why not?
In what ways does Antoinette express her alienation from both the white English culture represented by the Masons and her husband, and her feeling of being a stranger in the Caribbean?
Would you characterize the character Daniel Cosway as a villain? Why or why not?
What roles do language and songs play in forming distinctions between British and Caribbean cultures?
Consider the relationships that Annette Cosway, Aunt Cora, Christophine, and Antoinette have with men. What position does the novel take on marriage?
Antoinette is both attracted to and repelled by England. Why do you think she feels this way? In what ways does England threaten Antoinette’s autonomy, and in what ways does the setting enrich her?
In what ways does Antoinette try to rebel against the condition in which her husband has placed her?
Imagine a conversation between Antoinette and the “woman with the streaming hair,” who is presumably Jane Eyre (112). What do you think they would say to each other? Why do you think that Rhys reiterates Brontë’s choice to keep the women apart?
Related Titles
By Jean Rhys
