The women state in the ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’

The Women in ’Broad Sargasso Sea’: Hair and Dresses as Symbols of Desirability and Agency

The women in the ’Broad Sargasso Sea’ have hair and dresses to reflect their desirability and agency. The dress evokes the magic of the Caribbean as well as the essence of life. Antoinette has a clear identity with Caribbean communities as a result of icons such as the red dress with a delicious fragrance of tropical flowers. She is certain of the vibrant colors of her clothes. There are spice-like scents on her dress that provide warmth and comfort, representing the things Antoinette lacks in her life. Antoinette has long, flowing hair that is coiled and plaited. Some people in the West Indies covered their heads with colorful handkerchiefs. The though hair in Rhys’ ’Wide Sargasso Sea’ seems to be part of the culture, however, a closer inspection reveals that they are symbolic as they show Antoinette’s struggle with her race and identity.

Life in West Indies

Jean Rhys, a Dominican-born novelist wrote the Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966. The author had published the novel Good Morning, Midnight in 1939 but since then Rhys lived in obscurity. The author published other works but it is ’Wide Sargasso Sea’ novel that sparked a revival of interest in the author and the great works. The novel sold many copies compared to her other novels and succeeded in the feminist exploitation of the power struggle between women and men. The novel was prequel and response to the novel Jane Eyre (1847) as written by charlotte Bronte.

The Struggle for Identity in West Indies

The novel narrates the about Antoinette Cosway as a beautiful lady with flowing black hair. The author manipulates images of hair throughout the story and portrays women in Creole marginalization in the postcolonial West Indies. However, Bronte ignored women’s treatment in West Indies. After the abolition of slave trade, the novel indicates the hostilities and prejudices and the emergence of shifts in social conflicts between former colonialists English and West Indies black population. Annette and her daughter are Creole women with English Ancestry and connections to former slave owners. West Indian population was against former colonialist and other families with connected to the English society. Antoinette struggled in defining her personal identity since she had no people to relate and identify with.

The Significance of Dress in Defining Identity

Importantly, Antoinette develops interests in dressmaking as it represented her identity in Creole. The white dress implied that the person is pure and ready to conform to the societal rules. The white dress demonstrated what the English society wants women such as Antoinette to be. However, Antoinette disputes about the dress representations and is not ready to conform to the societal rules. English is not ethically pure as it rejects her family and she would prefer being identified with her Creole Heritage. The women wear a different hairstyle to express emotions and identity.

The Symbolism of Hair

Colonization formed a fractious social order in West Indies that made racial and national identity an import aspect of life. The novel Wide Sargasso Sea igniter fire of curiosity and tries to understand the questions that were not answered. Antoinette under once wondered who she was, about her country, where she belong and why she was born (Rhys 93). She experienced confused identity as politics of imperialism determined some intimate things as human and personal identity.

Hair Symbolism and Identity

Rhys equivocally orchestrated hair symbolism and imagery as the main vehicle of gender, nation, and racial identity in order to indicate the struggles Antoinette had to undergo and before she was fully incorporated in the West Indies society. The society is in its early stages after colonization and the symbolism of hair represents the racial, gender and national identity of Antoinette of all the various characters in the story. Antoinette inherited the long black hair Antoinette from her mother as it marks her sexuality, femininity, emotional and mental state.

The Role of Hair in Social Transition

Hair symbolism in the novel conveys the Creole women’s struggle by representing the redefinition of power that began to take place among the White English and the majority black West Indies population. The author focuses on the role of women in the social transition and offers criticism to the Victorian standards of womanhood perpetuated in Jane Eyre’s story as written by Bronte (Bronte 258). The hair symbols manage to define and separate the prominent populations in the novel. The Black West Indies women hair covering was mostly handkerchiefs that superficially suggested a sense of subordination inherited from the slavery era.

The Strength and Power of Hair Coverings

The handkerchief hair style was used to characterize women as was a symbol of strength, power, and autonomy. The women derived strength from the ability to remain concealed and independent from English colonization. For instance, the white-colored handkerchief meant religious extremist who could not hurt a fly (32). It was natural to relate personality traits to the appearance of one’s hair. Mr. Mason referred to Antoinette as English that reflected colonist interests in plantation economies and would not recognize the human dignity of the local West Indians.

Christophine: The Symbol of Strength and Independence

The novel portrays Christophine as a strong and strong woman is an important contribution to the poignancy of the symbol of hair handkerchiefs. Rhys assess hair image to relate qualities of personality, identity and social status to Christophine. “She wore a black dress, heavy gold earrings and a yellow handkerchief carefully tied with the two high points in front”(61). In the story, no other black woman dressed in black or tried to tie her handkerchief using the Martinique fashion (19). Christophine’s hair and the handkerchief fashion make her different from other women. Therefore, the style of dressing emphasizes that she is influential and very important. The community feared Christophine for her obeah practices. Her strength does not come from the husband rather her skills in obeah empowered her and her status in the community. Christophine criticized her white masters, Annette and Rochester. She castigated Annette for the lack of concern and care for Antoinette. The strong woman was not frightened and confronted Rochester for abusing Antoinette emotionally (136).

The Colonial Mentality: Misinterpretation of Hair Covering

Rochester misinterpreted the Christophine hair covering and its meaning because of his colonial mentality. Rochester ignored the social dynamics extending beyond his white population and describes Christophine as insignificant. Rochester had the prejudice and imperialist way of looking at things from a different perspective made ignore subservience of a hair covering and deemed it insignificant (60). The hair covering by Christophine was a clear indication that she had the ability to conceal her intellect and strength from Rochester. The yellow-colored Martinique handkerchief style captured Christophine’s character.

Hair and Mental State

The opposing hair of the white English women helped women in West India to promote their hair covering symbol in the novel as the sign of strength power and independence. Aunt Cora, Annette, and Antoinette did not wear the handkerchiefs like the West Indian women. The women had long and flowing, styled and plaited, or wild and tangled. The hair symbols corresponded to their emotional and mental state. The brushed, coiled and plaited hair symbolized women’s ability to conform to social standards and have positive mental composure. The unruly, unmanaged, or undone hair symbolized defiant and mentally unstable women incapable of conforming to the social standard behavior. The appearance of the hair, according to the author was associated with her sexuality. The long and flowing hair connote desire and sensuality. Similarly, the loose hair demonstrates loosened mental status and sexual freedom.

The Expression of Women’s Desires and Autonomy

The exposure of women’s hair is associated with their desires, motivations and emotions. The black women in West Indies expressed autonomy from the dominant Victorian patriarchal society. In Victorian standards, it was scandalous and criminal to express emotions and sexual desires. Such women were labeled as insane and were confined to stop their behavior. In the novel, the patriarchal society, women expressing their desires led to their objectification and exploitation by the dominating men in their lives especially the husbands. The pattern is replicated and manifested in both Annette and Antoinette who had unique hairstyles.

Conclusion

Rhys uses the hair symbolism technique to portray the social complexities face by women in Creole. In combination with mirroring images, the author created vivid and purposeful symbols of hair and varying types of hair covering to demonstrate the Antoinette struggling with identity issues in her life. Also, the symbols mirror the racial, gender, and national identity of the various characters she came across. Therefore, hair in Wide Sargasso Sea is a literary symbol used to show how Antoinette pursed her identity. At the same time, the novel conveys a sketch of West Indies’ social milieu after the colonial era. The Black West Indies women hair covering was mostly handkerchiefs that superficially suggested a sense of subordination inherited from the slavery era. The handkerchief hair style was used to characterize women as was a symbol of strength, power, and autonomy.

Works Cited

Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Judith L. Raiskin. New York: Norton, 1999. Print