Chapter Part Two of Wide Sargasso Sea - Study Guide by Jean Rhys

driven into the madness that all assumed of her and the oppression which psychologically damaged her (p.129-30).

We see a similar treatment in store for Antoinette, when the situation is distressing enough he begins to call her Bertha despite her pleas not to "on this night of all nights, you must be Bertha" (p.112). The tragedy is drawn taut by Rhys at this point as Rochester shows sincere desire for Antoinette, but the potion must essentially ruin that trust and longing "she need not have done it" (p.113). It makes him ill and he begins to hate her and eye her coldly. The mirrors to the past are laid on thick as Rochester notices the frown between her eyebrows, "s if it had been cut with a knife" (p.114) just as the younger Antoinette had noticed on her own mother; it is a sign of pain, misery and disturbance - he covers her "s if I covered a dead girl" (p.114). Perhaps this is recognition in him of the first death which has begun; that of her spirit.

He betrays her sexually when he sleeps with Amelie and gives little care that she can hear them. This not only disturbs and traumatises Antoinette, but also the cook storms out and Baptiste begins to treat him with contempt and coldness. Another letter stirs trouble as Mr Fraser warns against Christophine and her jail history. It is with this that he confronts his wife and the old matriarch. Antoinette is in tears as she explains how he has made her hate the countryside that she has loved. He has polluted her one security and her upset turns to bitterness and hatred against him: "before I die I will show you how much I hate you" (p.121). He tells her calmly that he does not love her, which tightens her already highly strung mood; singing a nonsense song amid recounting memories and then biting him when he tries to hold her and the cursing him vehemently. Christophine intervenes. She accuses him of marrying for money and 'breaking her up': "You are a damn hard man for a young man" (p.128) - it is Christophine alone whom Rhys allows to offer a hard analysis of Rochester's actions and challenge him; he makes him fearful and as such he forces himself to be "alert and wary, ready to defend myself"(p.130). He threatens her equally with Mr Fraser's letter, which wields power and civil oppression despite Christophine's earlier proud statement which cannot hold true in a world of financial and imperialist power: "No chain gang, no tread machine, no dark jail either. This is a free country and I am free woman" (p.131).

Leaving: Whilst he writes his letter of betrayal the cock crows again. He is plagued by the memory of Christophine's pleas to love her. But instead he watches the trees being battered whilst he thinks of revenge - "I could not touch her. Excepting as the hurricane will touch that tree" (p.136) Symbolically the weather is changing, "No sun" (p.136) as similarly Rochester will take the sun from her, her spirit and her love as he seeks to own and punish her "my lunatic... If she smiles or weeps or both. For me" (p.136). He contrasts her past enthusiastic babbling and tales (p137-9) with the present blank indifference. His feelings swing giddily between regret and sadness to hate and resentment and bitter proud wish for revenge as he remembers Daniel Cosway's words(p.140) - his hate conquers hers - all that is left of her is "a ghost in the grey daylight". There is little pity but only paranoia and hatred in him which he sees as "Sane" (p.141). The sobbing child who follows them, Baptiste's contempt, the expectation of rain all serve to heighten the sadness and grimness of the situation.