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Wide Sargasso Sea Essay

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Ideological cultural dominance demonstrates the perceived superiority between contrasting societies. In Wide Sargasso Sea, this supremacist sense is taken to an extreme. Antoinette and Rochester’s relationship ultimately ends in disaster due to the lack of acceptance to each other’s way of life. Raised in a prejudiced community, Antoinette lives in a constant state of doubt about herself and others , which only distances her further from Rochester. Their relationship’s destruction incites the conflicts resulting from racial and cultural supremacy. Through a postcolonial lens, the belief of cultural dominance and colonialist ideology, exemplified through Rochester and Antoinette, demonstrates the disempowerment and rejection between contrasting …show more content…

Both of their pasts significantly contribute to the lack of cultural acceptance between them. Rochester grew up in a large family, and being the youngest, developed a competitive nature. This trailed him through his entire life, however as Rochester matured, his competitiveness quickly transformed to prejudice, putting his relationship at great risk. This character provides insight to the societal norms of this period through his pedantic, critical comments. “...but her language is horrible and she might hold her dress up” (Rhys 77). Exemplified in his attitude towards Christophine, Rochester reveals his true beliefs on the “inferior society”. He lives through a colonialist ideology that stems his future prejudices and assumptions about the Creoles, therefore alienating Antoinette, terminating any hope for a successful relationship.

The English and the Jamaicans have very different opinions on what is “proper” or “civil”. These contrasts in society induce the inevitable conflicts that Antoinette and Rochester have in their relationship. Even though Antoinette and her family are from Jamaica, they are still sepatated from the black natives because they are Creoles “Go away white cockroach, go away” (20), a person born of the West Indies but also has European descent. The unhomliness that Antoinette feels stems her future sense of constant rejection that ruins her relationship with

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