Wide Sargasso Sea
...le the gossiping in the wider community. “…but how could she stop them talking? If you ask me the whole county knows. The rumours I’ve heard – very far from the truth. But I don’t contradict, I know better than to say a word.” The lady of the house Mrs Eff binds Antoinette’s fate when she divulges: “Don’t ask me to pity anyone who had a hand in that.” She is sympathetic to Edward Rochester alone and feels that Antoinette is the source of his unhappiness. She is more than willing to keep Antoinette locked in the attic to rot. As Grace contemplates in the last paragraph of this section, she reveals some of herself to us – the readers. “After all the house is big and safe, a shelter from the world outside which, say what you like, can be a black and cruel world to a woman. Maybe that’s why I stayed on.” “But above all the thick walls, keeping away all the things that you have fought till you can fight no more. Yes, maybe that’s why we all stay – Mrs Eff and Leah and me. She parallels herself (Leah and Mrs Eff) with Antoinette through these words. Like Antoinette she yearns for safety and escape. She is also a broken woman. Antoinette, in her narrative, alludes to Grace Poole’s drinking problem: “She drinks from a bottle on the table then she goes to bed.” Readers who are acquainted with Jane Eyre know about this in more detail. But as Grace (and Leah and Mrs Eff) seemed to have withdrawn from the outside world, which has burnt them, Antoinette has not. “All of us except that girl who lives in her own darkness. I’ll say one thing for her, she hasn’t lost her spirit. She’s still fierce. I don’t turn my back on her when her eyes have that look. I know it.” Perhaps because of Grace Poole’s similarity to Antoinette (and other Jean Rhys heroines) is why Part 3 begins with her narrative. Rochester is unable to provide a narrative due to his absence. Antoinette cannot narrate because she can only give us a Limited Omniscient Perspective which is contained in the attic. Grace offers a wider and objective view of Antoinette’s situation. She is best for the role as she is Antoinette’s caretaker. The introduction of a new narrator, someone who is oblivious as ...