Consequences Followed by Madness

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around her, her mental health deteriorates and she slowly but surely dies her first death.

When it comes to Rochester, he is a wealthy man who is a silent rage. He reveals more of himself to the reader through his thoughts. He puts on a mask for the majority of the book. His reasons for such behavior is because he has done this since he was a young child,

“How old was I when I learned to hide what I felt? A very small boy. Six, five, even earlier . It was necessary, I was told and that view I have always accepted” (93).

His guise results to many downfalls in the relationship for him and Antoinette. It possibly is a reason for his subtle madness as well. Another time the reader sees Rochester’s madness brought to light is when he starts hearing Christophine and Richard Mason’s words echoing in his head. The red flags are up and Rochester ignore each of them.

In his defense, he had to marry a wealthy woman and Antoinette was (arguably) the perfect candidate. Not only was she blessed with wealth because of her stepfather Mr. Mason, she was very beautiful to Rochester. In a way, the reader can assume that is one of the main reasons he married Antoinette. He was sort of blinded by her beauty. Though he did not love her, her beauty always had his hands tied. A time when this theory was tested was when Christophine, who always knew that the marriage between the two was never going to work, told Rochester that she will take Antoinette out of his hands,

“...you say you don’t love her and you break her up...leave the West Indies if you don’t want her no more...You fix it up with lawyers and all those things...She marry with someone else… she forget about you and live happy” (144).

Knowing good and well that he does not want Antoinette, he refuses Christophine logical offer. For the first time Rochester takes matters into his own hands and realizes that he does not want Antoinette with another man. She very beautiful so a new husband would not be hard for her to find and Rochester realizes this. His ego and jealousy gets the best of him and he sealed his fate with turning Christophine’s suggestion down.

After studying all of these factors, one must conclude by realizing Antoinette lost her firm hold of reality because of the brutality of life and the people around her. Solitude, abandonment and maleficence from the one’s around her result in her to having a constantly broken state of mind. When she was young, Antoinette was not shown pure human feelings like love and blissfulness, therefore she psychologically declines from herself and the world (or in other words she dies). All of this leave her emotionally unprotected and undesired. This is her state of mind when she marries Rochester. Which means that when she gets married, her sanity is already gone. Anything afterwards is only to aid in her mental deterioration. So, it is not entirely Rochester’s fault that she has gone mad. Rochester is in a battle with himself not so much the society like Antoinette. Rochester’s madness was due to his own decisions. So many people waved the warning flag at Rochester to not continue with the marriage. However, his self-interests, ego and jealousy conquered over the best decision for him. Antoinette and Rochester are polar opposites and they say opposites attract. Well, for a masked man and madwoman that is not the case, which lead to both of their downfalls.

Works Cited Page

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Norton, 1982. Print. 28 October 2017