Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

Incipient Female madness

she states, “I cannot be with him, it makes me so nervous”. Furthermore, her husband placed her in a room that ironically used to be a nursery which exacerbated her psychological condition. The way the protagonist is being oppressed by her husband is further seen in his repetitive commands over her, such as when she requests to “…make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia. But he said [she] wasn’t able to”. This, and his restriction on her writing along with constantly insisting that she goes to bed whenever he says so, indicates the protagonist’s lack of power and ability to voice her opinions. John’s dominant characteristics are reinforced by the Victorian’s patriarchal values, where it was widely believed that the men are to be the bread winners and women are in charge of domestic duties, if capable. However, John limits her from performing any home chores, even the task of taking care of her own child and the protagonist can see that her husband is deeply concerned about her condition, yet he expresses this in an overly controlling manner. Although, the protagonist is being controlled by her husband, she wholly relies on John for her daily needs. Hence, she is trapped as she is unable to live without him. Towards the end of the story, it can be seen that the protagonist’s condition reached a state where she hallucinated herself as the woman behind the wallpaper that she “sees”. This is the culmination of events that ultimately led her to broken mind. This ties back to the Victorian Era and the treatment of women through their powerlessness, lack of personal rights and their independence. Similarly, Jean Rhys has also implied the stereotype of strong and active males, while females are passive and weak as she takes the character of Bertha Mason in Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre and rewrites it to Antoinette Cosway’s point of view with the intention of exposing the truth behind the insanity of the ‘mad women in the attic’ in Wide Sargasso Sea . Antoinette is a young, innocent Creole who seeks love and appreciation. With naïve hopes of a happy, loving marriage, she was sold to Mr. Rochester, a young Englishman who wants to stay in control and maintain his patriarchal position of power. Furthermore, this displays an undercurrent image of slavery. The author provided the

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