Wide Sargasso Sea is a story about prisons and agency, as well as, how we imprison ourselves by not using that agency. Which is why the most powerful and influential character in the book is someone who controls the course of their own life. In this paper, I will argue that Christophine (ex-slave, servant, mother) is such a character because of her use of agency and status as a financially independent, culturally powerful outsider who ultimately influences both the main characters ( Mr. Rochester and Antoinette) as a result of her agency.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Agency” is defined as: “Ability or capacity to act or exert power.”Within the context of how I intend to use it, it means to “act or exert power” over your own life through decisions and actions. It is important to understand, however, that the time period Wide Sargasso Sea is set in (mid to late 1800s) limited the agency and power of women. Any property a woman owned before marriage was under the control of her husband after their marriage (Chused 1361). He could do whatever he wanted with it
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Because it can also be used to hurt people it is often compared to voodoo and was actually banned in Jamaica at one point. Christophine’s practice and belief in Obeah is one of her more powerful methods of protecting herself. She remarks to Rochester when he threatens to have her removed from the premises “, You think the men here touch me? They not damn fool like you to put their hand on me,” (Rhys 144). It’s not only the men who fear her. She gives other servants so much as a look and they cower in fear of her. Fear is one of her more considerable influences on the people around her. She is able to control the people around her and, therefore, her own life because of other people’s