Feminist Visions

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Feminist Visions

Discusses the feminist vision in literature within the context of "Jane Eyre", by Charlotte Bronte, and "Wide Sargasso Sea", by Jean Rhys.

1,283 words () | 7 sources | MLA | 2003 United States

Paper Summary:

Jean Rhys extends far past Charlotte Bronte's limitations, not only in the feminist vision, but also in her opinions of the post-colonial experience. Through "Jane Eyre", Bronte has a feminist vision, but in the 19th century, she was unable to view some of her patriarchal constraints. Jean Rhys, in "Wide Sargasso Sea", pulls back and stands apart, making her able to pick up where Bronte and other feminist writers have left off, and gives the readers a clear, uncensored vision. This paper states how Bronte is able to undermine part of her patriarchal constraints, but ends up falling short of her goal. It also shows how Rhys, who picks up the same storyline as Bronte, is able to overcome that patriarchy and truly have feminist visions.

From the Paper:

"Rhys, now, takes up the feminist torch from Bronte and runs with it. Woolf seems surprised in A Room of One's Own when a female author remarks that one woman likes another woman (82). Females always seem to be portrayed in relation to a man, but in Woolf's instance it's a woman-woman relationship. Rhys accomplishes multiple relationships between Antoinette and various female, and male, characters. It could be argued that the main relationship observed is Antoinette and Rochester's, however I believe that she delves much deeper in female relations than Bronte achieves."