Deconstruction And Reconstruction Of Self-identity: A Post-colonial And Feminist Study Of Self And Other In Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys’ s masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea is regarded as a prequel to Jane Eyre.The novel endows the silenced Other Bertha’s right to speak,drawing widespread attention to the madwoman locked in the attic.This thesis intends to use post-colonial and feminist theories of the Other to analyze the loss and construction of identities of Rochester and Antoinette,revealing that the self and the Other are not in a fixed relationship,and can transform into each other.As a white male,Rochester is an outsider of the primogeniture system and the Other of patriarchal society.On the other hand,he breaks race-based boundaries to marry a white Creole for money.Terrified and disturbed by the colonial environment,his master’s authority is challenged.He is reduced to the Other in the colony and flees back to England.In opposition to Rochester,Antoinette,who is both a racial Other and a patriarchal Other,has awakened.She can neither overcome historical grievances to identify with black people,nor be assimilated by European culture.Eventually,she employs madness and violence as vehicles to establish a complex identity of white Creole who lives in a middle space.This thesis finally concludes that the binary opposition between self and Other is broken.Through writing back,Rhys subverts the binary opposition behind the colonial order and dismantles discourse power and colonial authority.