The canon as kindling: Jane Eyre , Wide Sargasso Sea and the English literary canon
Daniel B
Postcolonial retellings of classical literature destabilize the authority of the canon by giving voices to those previously silenced and dismissed, as seen in Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea in relation to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre . Brontë’s heroine, famed for her progressive nature and for challenging societal structures, upon deeper reading is revealed to be often upheld by patriarchal and colonial frameworks. This is encapsulated in her treatment of Bertha Mason. The glimpse of Bertha in Brontë’s novel is not so much as a character but as a device, whose tortured state is swiftly labelled as madness through the Victorian lens of the novel which strips her of her humanity. Rhys, however, by constructing the character of Antoinette Cosway behind the name Bertha, dismantles this perception and destabilizes the authoritative account of Brontë’s novel. Wide Sargasso Sea , by reclaiming Bertha’s subjectivity as a character, converses with Jane Eyre and challenges its position as a progressive novel, with Jane explicitly problematized and Rochester an oppressive figure. However, by existing contingently on Jane Eyre it blurs the boundaries of the literary canon and allows the original text to become a platform which frames a progressive discourse within the literary canon without collapsing. This way the literary canon begins to accept that, as Edward Said observes, ‘Colonialism is not a simple matter of conquest, but a cultural imposition that defines the colonized through the lens of the colonizer.’ 1 Jane Eyre is often cited as a proto-feminist novel. 2 However, the titular character’s progressive tendencies are severely limited. Patriarchal and colonial values persist within her, revealed in her narrative entanglement with and treatment of Bertha. It is important to note that in the 19th century, ‘Hysteria operated as a way of categorizing female rebellion as madness.’ 3 Jane’s characteristic restraint, which limits her societal subversiveness, is a survival mechanism to elude punishment from the patriarchal system. Jane consistently is listening to the ‘Guiding of that still small voice which interprets the dictates of conscience,’ 4 a biblical and therefore patriarchal reference. She avoids letting ‘feelings burst away and hurry to wild chasms,’ 5 – a manifestation of her suppressed desires. As seen, a recurring lexical field of wilderness is used in the novel to describe female rebellion. Although used to describe Jane and Adèle’s behaviour at times, it is most blatantly used in the description of Bertha’s appearance. Unlike Jane, Bertha demonstrates no restraint in her rebellion and, in accordance with the patriarchal system, is suppressed. Bertha, however, is also foreign and, although racially ambiguous, is importantly non-European – being of Creole descent from Jamaica, resulting in other characters in the novel racializing her and justifying her treatment because of it. Whilst in relation to the other women the wild language is used figuratively, it is used literally in describing Bertha, described as a ‘clothed
1 Said 1978: 189. 2 Martin 1966: 58. 3 Bown 2018: Gender and Hysteria. 4 Brontë 1847: 135. 5 Ibid., 134.
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