A Comparative Study On Female As The ’Other’ In Jane Eyre And Wide Sargasso Sea

Jane Eyre (1847), Charlotte Bronte’s masterpiece, is considered as one of the greatestrealistic novels of the19thcentury. Jane Eyre presents feminist ideas of women’s fight fortheir own rights that were considered indecent and rebellious in Victorian age. Wide SargassoSea (1966), Jean Rhys’s most successful novel, written as a ‘prequel’ to Charlotte Bronte’sJane Eyre, explores the history of the ‘mad woman’ of Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason. Rhys bringsup the feminist issues of men’s oppression on women, as well as women’s identity crisis. Bothnovels have been studied from various perspectives in literary criticism. But most studies onJane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea focus on the post-colonialism, feminism and comparativestudies of the two novels’ writing techniques, themes and female characters. A comparativestudy on Jane Eyre’s and Antoinette’s different fate as the ‘Other’ hopes to shed new light onthe feminist ideas of these two novels by bringing out how otherness marginalizes women in ahierarchal society and how women respond differently to it.Taking Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea as the object of a comparative study, this thesistries to analyze how economy, patriarchy and personality have greatly influenced the differentdestiny of women as the ‘Other’ in light of Simone de Beauvoir’s feminist theory of the‘Other’. In The Second Sex, Beauvoir clearly points out the fact that women are considered asthe ‘second sex’ who is inferior, submissive to men. She also analyzes how women becomethe ‘Other’ and gives suggestions for women’s final liberation from being the ‘Other’.Therefore, this thesis, based on Beauvoir’s theory of the ‘Other’, points out that economy,patriarchy and personality are closely related to women’s fate in becoming the ‘Other’ bycomparing Jane Eyre’s transcendence from otherness with Antoinette’s failure in getting outof otherness.Economic factors lay a solid foundation for the establishment of patriarchy. Patriarchalvalues set strict regulations that confine women’s thoughts and actions. Beauvoir explainshow economic factors and patriarchal values keep women from independent autonomousindividuals, and find women as submissive ‘Other’ as well as inferiors in household from the perspectives of biology and historical materialism. Jane’s achievement of economicindependence marks the first step for her future transcendence from otherness whileAntoinette’s lack of economic support signifies the beginning of her tragic destiny as the‘Other’. In fighting against patriarchal oppression, Jane’s rebellious personality such asindependence and audacity help her achieve self-identity while Antoinette’s submissivepersonality such as dependence and cowardice makes her lose her self-identity thoroughly.Through the analysis of Jane Eyre’s and Antoinette’s different circumstances in fightingagainst otherness, this thesis concludes that exterior factors such as economy and patriarchyhave greatly affected women’s destiny as the ‘Other’; besides, interior factors such asdifferent personalities can also influence women’s destiny as the ‘Other’.