Isolation in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

April 2019, "Women's Literature"

Isolation in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

Jessica McDermitt

One hundred twenty years after the publication of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys published Wide Sargasso Sea. The novel chronicles the life of Bertha Mason, the madwoman in the attic from Jane Eyre—although, in this adaptation, Bertha is renamed Antoinette Mason. Across the two novels, Jane and Antoinette share many remarkable similarities, including significant social isolation throughout their lives. Notably, both women marry Mr. Rochester, who appears in both novels, despite consistent patterns of abuse and manipulation. The women are attracted to him because he offers companionship, status, and love, which neither has experienced before. In both Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane Eyre’s and Antoinette Mason’s histories of intense social isolation inform their interactions with Mr. Rochester.

Both Jane and Antoinette begin experiencing isolation through their lack of family connections during childhood. Antoinette grows up in a fragmented family with several half-siblings, as her alleged half-brother explains in a letter to Rochester. The letter implies that Antoinette’s mother has had at least three lovers and several children (Rhys 96). These supposed siblings do not appear in the novel, and Antoinette is never portrayed in a relationship with any of them, indicating that if they do exist, she never sees them, perhaps because they are not considered an official part of the family. Antoinette mostly grows up alone. Even her stepfather ignores her, spending months away from home after her mother goes mad. The only person who might provide a stable relationship for her is Christophine, the servant, who is present throughout the novel; however, when Antoinette goes to school, Christophine leaves to live with her son (Rhys 55). This lack of family connection throughout Antoinette’s life leaves her feeling isolated and unable to form meaningful connections.

Jane also grows up without a strong sense of family. Early in her life, orphaned Jane lives with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, but Mrs. Reed does not waste love on her. Jane considers herself “a discord in Gateshead Hall” with “nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children” (Bronte 9). Her self-descriptions in this passage demonstrate that she not only lacks familial support but also experiences rejection from her extended family. This upbringing creates a deep sense of isolation for young Jane. Jane never develops relationships with her cousins, even as an adult. This is evident when, faced with Mrs. Reed’s death, Jane reunites with her cousins Eliza and Georgiana. As the three tend to Mrs. Reed, Jane finds that Eliza has become an uptight young woman more concerned with good works than her aunt’s death, while Georgiana is far too concerned with parties and lovers to grieve (Bronte 232-34). Because Jane’s feelings about the situation do not align with either cousin’s, Mrs. Reed’s death, which should bring the cousins together, drives them further apart. This encounter serves to amplify the sense of isolation around Jane. She grows through childhood and young adulthood without family support in the same way Antoinette does.

Later in life, Rochester supplies both women the home, family, and sense of belonging they never experienced. In Wide Sargasso Sea, shortly after marrying Antoinette, Rochester notices that her eyes are “withdrawn and lonely” as she tells a childhood story; in response, he takes her into his arms and sings to her (Rhys 83). Antoinette has never experienced this kind of comfort, even from her mother and stepfather. Rochester takes time to make her feel loved, giving her a sense of belonging.  Later, the couple drinks to happiness, love, and the “day without end which would be tomorrow” (Rhys 84). The toast, full of promises of companionship and thoughts of the future, starkly contrasts with the instability Antoinette grew up with. No one has made these promises to her before. By offering them, Rochester provides Antoinette a solution to the loneliness she has experienced. Similarly, in Jane Eyre, Rochester provides a family and home to Jane. Early in the novel, Rochester and Jane walk and talk in the Thornfield grounds while Rochester’s ward, Adele, plays with a shuttlecock nearby (Bronte 136-41). In this scene, all the elements of a nuclear family are present, demonstrating that Rochester and Adele provide Jane with the family she was never a part of. This family eventually fills Jane’s need for “domestic endearments and household joys,” which she describes as “the best things the world has” (Bronte 393). This exalted view of family life guarantees that Jane will pursue anything that allows her to have a family, and Rochester fulfills these conditions perfectly. In addition to a family, Rochester provides Jane a home; when she fears she will lose him to Blanche Ingram, she explains, “wherever you are is my home—my only home” (Bronte 244). Plainly, she feels she belongs with Rochester as she does nowhere else. For Jane as well as for Antoinette, Rochester offers a relationship that fills the gaps left by their lonely childhoods.

Jane and Antoinette also experience a lack of meaningful connection with peers. Throughout her life, Antoinette is unable to positively identify with an established social group due to her race. A sharp distinction between races is evident on the first page of Wide Sargasso Sea, where Antoinette narrates, “they say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did”; later, she refers separately to the opinion of “the black people” (Rhys 17-18). By referring impersonally to these groups, Antoinette does not identify herself with either. She is not completely white or black; as a woman of mixed race, she is unable to form a racial identity and connect with an established group.  Antoinette’s description of her mother as “so without a doubt not English, but no white nigger either” emphasizes this sense of isolation by giving it history (Rhys 36). By describing her mother as disconnected from ethnic groups, Antoinette emphasizes not only her own feelings of race-related isolation but also her sense that this lack of identity is a heritage, passed down as certainly as positive racial identity passes down through generations.

Just as Antoinette is isolated by her ambiguous racial status, Jane is isolated by the ambiguous socioeconomic status inherent in her career as a governess. Nora Gilbert, professor of English at the University of North Texas, writes that historically, a governess “had to be a woman of a high enough caste to qualify as a well-bred role model for the children in her charge, but she had to be poor enough to need to work for a living” (458). Because a governess must support herself, she clearly cannot share the economic status of her wealthy employers, but to work, she must be educated and thus more privileged than the regular servants. As a governess, Jane Eyre occupies this ambiguous space between privilege and poverty. Thus, her employment keeps her from forming meaningful connections with anyone at Thornfield, leaving her isolated. Jane feels this isolation keenly. Before Jane officially meets Rochester for the first time, she describes Thornfield’s “darksome staircase” and her own “lonely little room” in a gloomy section that echoes with loneliness and indicates Jane feels trapped at Thornfield (Bronte 111). Just as she feels trapped at Gateshead Hall and Lowood School, where she struggles to connect with people, Jane feels trapped at Thornfield, where her socioeconomic status prevents her from forming significant friendships. The job she believes will free her pushes her farther into isolation.  Just as Antoinette’s mixed race prevents her from claiming a social group, Jane’s job prevents her from connecting with others.

Rochester offers the connection and companionship that both Jane and Antoinette lack and cannot find from others of their own class. To Antoinette, Rochester provides a connection that allows her to feel safe. Before meeting Rochester, due to her sense of isolation, Antoinette “never wished to live,” but she never explained her feelings to anyone because “there was no one to tell” (Rhys 91). The fact that she shares her feelings with Rochester indicates that Antoinette feels more connected to him than to any other person. This is because Rochester sees past Antoinette’s racial status. At times, he describes Antoinette as similar to “any pretty English girl” (Rhys 71). Rochester does not push Antoinette away because of her race or social standing, like many people she interacts with; this acceptance draws her to him.  Similarly, for Jane, Rochester represents an opportunity to rise above her station. He expresses admiration for her immediately, confessing, “the fact is, once for all, I don’t wish to treat you like an inferior” (Bronte 129). Rather than focusing on Jane’s lower socioeconomic status, Rochester offers companionship on an equal footing. To Jane, who has spent her life as a dependent with no truly equal companions, equality is appealing. Rochester’s offer of companionship is an offer of connection. Because Rochester offers both Jane and Antoinette a way out of their social isolation, they respond favorably to his advances throughout the two novels.

The isolation that Jane and Antoinette experience throughout their lives leaves them craving not only companionship but also love and deep attachment—needs which Rochester easily fills. Jane’s ultimate desire, thwarted for most of her life, is love and companionship. At Lowood School, she explains to a friend, “I cannot bear to be solitary and hated” (Bronte 64). Jane needs connection. However, she rarely forms connections, and for most of her life, she is solitary and sometimes hated—until she meets Rochester, who provides companionship and love. As their relationship develops, Rochester explains that he has “a nervous notion” that he “should take to bleeding inwardly” if he loses Jane (Bronte 250). In this passage, Rochester indicates that he not only wants Jane but also needs her. With him, Jane feels that she will not be solitary or hated, so she is drawn to him. Though she expresses it differently, Antoinette wants love as much as Jane does. She is desperate enough to revert to black magic when she feels that Rochester no longer loves her. To her, love “is what I wish” (Rhys 112). Love is all she lives for. Rochester fulfills Antoinette’s wish for love, causing her to become deeply attached to him.  Later in the novel, when Christophine confronts Rochester about his cruelty, she explains “[Antoinette] love you and she give you all she have. Now you say you don’t love her and you break her up” (Rhys 158). This passage demonstrates how deeply attached Antoinette is to Rochester; without his love, she is unable to function. Clearly, Rochester provides the solution to both Jane and Antoinette’s craving for attachment and companionship. 

In their family lives and their class identity, both Jane Eyre and Antoinette Mason face intense social isolation that Mr. Rochester provides the solution for. Despite his abusive and destructive behavior, both women cling to him. For Jane, Rochester fulfills her long-denied need for a family, offers an opportunity to rise above her social station to equal status, and provides her with love and companionship. For Antoinette, Rochester provides a sense of stability she did not get from her family, perceives her apart from her racial status, and offers her the love she is desperate for. Plainly, Rochester offers everything Jane and Antoinette want, so it is not surprising that they both fall in love with him—for better or for worse.

Works Cited

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Longmeadow Press, 1990.

Gilbert, Nora. “A Servitude of One’s Own: Isolation, Authorship, and the Nineteenth-Century British Governess”. Nineteenth-Century Literature, vol. 69, no. 4, 2015, pp. 455–480. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/ncl.2015.69.4.455.

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. W. W. Norton & Co., 1982.