Colonizing Dialectic Self-Assumed Identity

Wide Sargasso Sea Close Reading: Colonizing Self-Assumed Identity

Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea predicates the situation of a post-colonial society in the midst of confusion in the wake of slavery Emancipation. Rhys’ novel takes a close look at traditional colonial roles of hierarchy and power that the characters assume, but, at the same time, reflects much of the more contemporary post-colonial theories through the attempts to make sense of a society interlocked between slavery and colonization. The colonial ideals and practices that continue to persist have victimized, at one point or another, each of the characters whether they are acting as oppressor or oppressed. The lack of concrete self-identity can be attributed to the ambivalent environment that the characters inhabit. Ultimately, the racial and cultural identity crises that arise can be identified through the European Rochester, the Black former slaves and servants, and, most of all, the Creole Cosways. These characters articulate the continuing prevalence of hierarchies and the colonial effects on their self-image through the microcosmic power structures that they create and exist in.
Rochester is a product of the colonial mind frame. He has traveled to Jamaica in order to marry into Antoinette Cosway’s wealth despite her Creole status. Rochester is the victim of the primogeniture laws that still exist, for he is the youngest son and is, in essence, forced into this compromising position of marriage. Rochester’s position vis-a-vis slavery and colonization is never quite clear. On one hand he recognizes exalting former slave owning plantocrats as hypocrisy, but on the other hand over the course of his stay he assumes the role of Master and exerts his self-imposed power over his household. In fact, he sets himself as superior to Antoinette and claims her as one of his possessions, and powerfully proclaims that “she is mine.” In spite of Antoinette’s progressive insanity, Rochester still sees her as something to covet as a possession: only further revealing his desire to control and exert power. As the oppressor in his household, Rochester has adopted the roles of the slave owners that he scorned earlier in the novel. However, it is not until near insanity himself that he takes on such a position. Rochester’s own insanity stems from the anxieties that the twisted power structure of colonization has established. His fears of cultural miscegenation between himself and Antoinette are directly linked to a deeply embedded colonial attitude.
Under the assumed power of Rochester and what he represents, are the colonized Black servants and former slaves. The servants that continue to wait upon Antoinette Cosway and her husband Rochester are the only revelations into the condition of colonized peoples. They continue to work for the Cosway family despite their status as brutal former-slave owners. Although they are still a colonized people, slavery has fairly recently been abolished and they reflect several traits of the attempt at decolonization. The Blacks in the story fit two different profiles. There are the reluctant servants who still assume their subordinate roles, and there are the angry former slaves who are violently in opposition to their white neighbors, be they European or Creole. In one sense they are respectively the diverters and the reverters. For, the diverting servants refuse to acknowledge the power structure of the oppressor and attempt to forget the past. This is expressed best through Baptiste’s uneasiness with Rochester near Pere Lilievre house. He denies the existence of a road, as some form of European civilization, even though according to Rochester there is a very distinct road. Furthermore, the violence of the reverting ex-slave population is a clear physical demonstration against the white culture. In both cases, a sense of identity is assumed, even though it is in relation to the white inhabitants.
Finally, the situation of the Creole population finds itself without a clear concept of identity, as it is locked between two cultures. Colonization is responsible for their ambivalence, for it thrust a peoples in an unnatural setting did not allow for any adaptation. As the above two populations discussed have a distinct cultural memory to enhance their decisions and actions, the Creole, specifically the Cosways, do not. Even though they appear to have white skin the Cosways are distinctly Caribbean in cultural identity. However, they are “marooned” as Annette Cosway states, for they are neither accepted by the European society nor the Black society. In the other sense of the word they are isolated among unforgiving social forces, they are either “white niggers” or “white cockroaches.” Rochester and Antoinette are ultimately torn apart through the uncanny nature of her dual presence vis-a-vis Rochester’s apprehensions. The lack of a concrete European identity and the presence of a strong Other identity in the Cosways plays an undeniably strong role in their insanity.
The role of assumed identity is key to assessing the degree of colonial influence upon individuals directly involved with the colonial process. All characters, within the microcosmic power structure of the house, are representative of colonization in action. The identity that they assign to themselves, and therefore dialectically to others, reveals the colonization of not only bodies but of minds as well.