Burani

Mariela Burani
Tutor Acquarone
Literatura de las Culturas Anglfonas

The Uncanny in Wide Sargasso Sea

1. Introduction
In Wide Sargasso Sea (1967) Jean Rhys revisits Charlotte Bronts classic novel
Jane Eyre. The peculiarity of Rhyss story is that it is mainly told from the silenced
perspective of Bertha Mason, Edward Rochesters supposed mad wife. The same
woman to whom we read die in the flames has returned to tell us her side of the story.
The other main narrative voice of the novel is that of Rochester. Although he
remains ironically unnamed in this novel, his voice becomes vital to fully grasp the
events that took place in the West Indies, previous to Brontes story which was set in
England.
The world surrounding the main female character, whom we now learn her
name by birth is Antoinette Cosway, is divided into two clear extremes. On one hand,
the Caribbean world, associated to nature in its wild state, symbolizing chaos and
primitivism. On the other hand, the civilized world which is associated to colonialism
that follows the European laws and customs.
The Caribbean world, with its profusion of nature, colour and sensuality,
provides the setting for parts I and II of the novel which are narrated by Antoinette and
Rochesters voices. Part III is introduced by a new voice that belongs to Jane Eyre,
Grace Poole, who is in charge of looking after Antoinette, now Bertha, who has
eventually sunk into madness and is locked up in the attic in Thornfield, England. It is
in this instance where the novel interweaves with Bronts text. (Garcia Rayego 140141)
In Wide Sargasso Sea, nothing is what is seems: people speak different
languages or versions of English and French; they lie about identities or hide secrets;

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black magic and evil intentions are a constant threat and places can be disturbing or
hostile to the characters inhabiting this cardboard world. The polyphonic nature of
the narration leads to constant uncertainty and teases the readers interpretation.
The aim of this paper is to trace instances that show how uncertainty works in
Jean Rhyss Wide Sargasso Sea. For this purpose, the notion of the uncanny, as
proposed by Sigmund Freud in the essay Das Unheimliche (1919) will be used in order
to analyse the chosen text.

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2. Theoretical Perspective
2.1. Definition of the Uncanny
The concept of the uncanny has been used in philosophy and also in
psychoanalysis to indicate a vacuous and disturbing area. Freuds seminal essay Das
Unheimliche (1919) provides a theoretical introduction to the concept and a thorough
analysis of moments and situations which evoke this feeling. (Jackson 63) Although
Freuds ultimate aim was to apply this term to the psychoanalytic field, the concept has
also proved to be useful in Literary Criticism.
As a warning, Freud begins his work arguing that even though the uncanny is a
term which comes from the subject of Aesthetics, i.e., the theory of beauty, it is also
related to the quality of feelings or sensations and it is in this instance that both
disciplines merge. Moreover, he adds that Aesthetics has neglected the study of this
area and has been focused on studying beauty, or other more positive emotions such as
the sublime.
Freud gives a very broad definition stating that the uncanny is close to what is
terrible or disquieting:
No cabe duda que dicho concepto est prximo a los de espantable, angustiante,
espeluznante () el trmino se aplica a menudo en una acepcin un tanto
indeterminada, de modo que casi siempre coincide con lo angustiante en
general. (Freud 49)
Notwithstanding, he sustains that these characteristics are not enough to give a clear
and definable sense to the concept. He goes on to say that there must be some intrinsic
quality, within the boundaries of the fearful, which justifies the use of a special term.
Besides, there is another difficulty for the delimitation of the concept which is that
every individual may experience this feeling differently.

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In order to find the peculiar characteristic that differentiates the term uncanny
from other related concepts, Freud carries out a philological tracing of the German
word unheimlich.1
The German word unheimlich is an antonym of heimlich and also of heimisch,
which means familiar, homey or belonging to home. Taking into account these
shades of meaning, Freud suggests that what is novel or unfamiliar is frightening.
Nevertheless, not everything which is not known or unfamiliar is uncanny. Therefore,
the relation cannot be inverted and as a consequence there should be something else to
turn a certain situation uncanny.
Freud quotes E. Jentsch, a psychiatrist who has also worked on this concept, as
he sustains that intellectual uncertainty is a crucial condition for an uncanny feeling to
unfold. For Jenstch, the uncanny would be the fear of the unfamiliar which is based on
this confusion, or in his own words, lo siniestro sera siempre algo en que uno se
encuentra, por as decirlo, desconcertado, perdido (Freud 51).
In order to go beyond this equation of uncanny (unheimlich) / unfamiliar,
Freud further investigates the various uses of the German word heimlich/unheimlich
(i.e., canny/homey ; uncanny/unhomey) and examines other connotative uses to these
terms. He finds out that:
() la voz heimlich posee, entre los numerosos matices de su acepcin, uno en el
cual coincide con su antnimo, unheimlich. () heimlich, no posee un sentido
nico, sino que pertenece a dos grupos de representaciones que, sin ser
precisamente antagnicas, estn sin embargo bastante alejadas entre s: se trata
de lo que es familiar, confortable, por un lado; y de lo oculto, disimulado, por el
otro. (56)
Freud concludes that the meaning of the word heimlich developed towards ambivalence
till it eventually coincided with its antithesis, unheimlich. He also adds to the
connotation Friedrich Schellings definition of the uncanny. According to the
1

NOTE: Throughout this paper the word /term uncanny will be used as the English translation of
unheimlich, literally unhomely.

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philosopher unheimlich is the name for everything that ought to have remained hidden
and secret and has become visible.

2.2. Devices That Can Create Uncanny Effects

In the second part of the essay Freud resorts to Jentschs considerations again,
the latter sustains that an apparently inanimate may be in fact animate and vice versa,
i.e., that a lifeless object could be in fact alive. As examples of this phenomenon he
mentions wax figures, artificial dolls and automatons. Jentsch also suggests that
epileptic seizures and the manifestations of insanity may create the feeling of the
uncanny as they excite in the observer the impression that automatic and mechanical
processes are at work, but are concealed beneath an ordinary appearance of animation.
(Freud 59 )
Freud extensively quotes Jentsch when he affirms that a very successful device
to create an uncanny effect in a story is to leave the reader uncertain about whether a
particular character is a human being. The writer must be very careful as to do it a in a
way that uncertainty does not become the focus of attention. It is necessary that the
reader remains doubtful and does not examine and resolve the mystery immediately as
it would dissipate the desired emotional effect.
Freud applies his thesis of the uncanny and its considerations to analyse E.T.A.
Hoffmanns short story El hombre de la arena in which, according to him, the author
has successfully used the psychological artifice of a doll that has the appearance of
being an animate creature.
However, Freud considers that this device is not the sole responsible for the
uncanny atmosphere pervading the text. The effect is achieved by the main theme of
the story, and that gives it its title, The Sandman.
El centro del cuento lo ocupa ms bien otro tema, precisamente el que le ha
dado ttulo y que siempre vuelve a ser destacado en momentos culminantes: se

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trata del tema del arenero, el hombre de la arena que arranca los ojos a las
criaturas. (60)
For Freud, the threat of eye damage or the loss of sight is a terrible childhood fear
which can persist in many adults. In psychoanalytic terms, and based on the study of
dreams, fantasies and myths, the anxiety related to the eyes or going blind is a common
substitute for the castration complex. In fact, taking out his eyes is the punishment
Oedipus inflicts on himself, which Freud sees as a mitigated form of castration. This
dread can also be extended to the anxiety of losing other organs.
Another theme that helps to create uncanniness is the theme of the double.
This consists of persons who due to their physical similarity are to be considered
identical. Moreover there is also a process of identification between the two individuals
at the level of thought, feeling and experience in common, what is sometimes called
telepathy. The person loses control of his own self and therefore places the others ego
as a substitute. Eventually, this doubling process brings about a total loss of the self:
() finalmente con el constante retorno de lo semejante, con la repeticin de los
mismos rasgos faciales, caracteres, destinos, actos criminales, aun de los
mismos nombres en varias generaciones sucesivas. (Freud 68)
Other instances that Freud considers as uncanny are what many people experience
with regard to death and corpses, the return of the dead, apparitions or spirits and
ghosts. According to Freud, in these instances the uncanny mingles with the gruesome
and it can sometimes coincide.
The fear that is experienced appears as the remains of primitive thoughts which
have been disguised and whose archaism has been preserved especially in our relation
to death. Freud compares our feelings towards this subject matter as if we were still
savages. He sustains that () no nos extrae que el primitivo temor ante los muertos
conserve su poder entre nosotros y est presto a manifestarse frente a cualquier cosa
que lo evoque (77).

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It can also be said that a living being is uncanny or evokes this feeling when we
attribute evil intentions to him. For these intentions to be significant it is essential to
invest them with the capacity of being carried out due to the possession of special
powers.
To this long list of features which arouse uncanny feelings, Freud adds
dismembered limbs, a severed head, a hand cut off from the wrist, and feet which dance
on their own. These body parts become even uncannier when the said limbs, as in the
last example, perform the movements by themselves.
An extreme example of uncanniness is the thought of being buried alive. In
psychoanalytic terms, this would be the transformation of the fantasy of living inside
the maternal womb.

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3. Analysis
From the very beginning of Wide Sargasso Sea we are introduced to a world of
uncertainties which pervades the text. These uncertainties will intertwine at various
levels, namely: setting, characters and plot.
As a first hint, the geographical location in which the novel opens is portrayed as
an inhospitable and isolated place. Moreover, we are told that the house where the
protagonist lives is believed to be haunted and unlucky, thus the element of
fearfulness is immediately introduced leading us to the realm of the uncanny.
Live at Nelsons Rest? Not for love or money. An unlucky place. Mr Luttrells
house was left empty, shutters banging in the wind. Soon the black people said it
was haunted, they wouldnt go near it. And no one came near us. (Rhys 5)
Intellectual uncertainty is mainly present regarding Antoinettes family. Her feelings
towards her mother, especially after the fire in Coulibri, grow ambiguous. She loves her
and tries to see her many times, but her mother is devastated after Pierres death. She
does not recognize her and even rejects her. Antoinette persuades herself that her
mother has died though she has not.
When Antoinette is in the convent listening to a lesson on saints, she thinks
about her mother who used to dress in white as one of the saints mentioned: () and
my mother, whom I must forget and pray for as though she were dead, though she is
living, liked to dress in white.(31) Later in the narration, as she is praying, she quotes a
sentence from the Prayer for the Dead and immediately thinks about her mother: ()
This is for my mother, I would think, wherever her soul is wandering, for it has left her
body. (32)
Antoinette even lies to Rochester regarding the time of her mothers death. She
hides the fact that her mother has died not long ago, she needs to keep it a secret as
telling the truth would imply revealing that her mother was deranged. Moreover,
Antoinette might also fear that she herself may suffer the same fate as her mothers.
Very well, but question for question. Is your mother alive?

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No, she is dead, she died.

When?
Not long ago.
Then why did you tell me that she died when you were a child?
Because they told me to say so and because it is true. She did die when I was a
child. There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.
(81)
Pierre is another uncertain presence in the novel. We do not know exactly which illness
or condition he suffers from. He is referred to as an idiot in Daniel Cosways letter to
Rochester and he can never perform as other people. Besides, he staggered when he
walked and couldnt speak distinctly (6). Pierre is undoubtedly Annettes favourite
and his death may be one of the reasons of her madness. The fact that he sleeps all the
time without interacting with people and his fragility makes him resemble a doll.
Though his age is not stated, Antoinette points out that he still sleeps in a crib, which
may indicate he is not a baby, adding to the uncanniness of his appearance.
I went into Pierres room (). He still had a crib and he slept more and more,
nearly all the time. He was so thin that I could lift him easily. Mr Mason had
promised to take him to England later on, there he would be cured, made like
other people. And how will you like that? I thought, as I kissed him. How will
you like being made exactly like other people? (18)
Rochester is another of the characters who experiences intellectual uncertainty,
especially as he is confronted with a reality he is incapable of understanding.
Everything is novel, unfamiliar and thus threatening to him.
One of the early impressions he has about Antoinette shows his bewilderment
and perplexity towards his new condition. He notices that his wife never blinks as if
foreshadowing Antoinettes future doll-like quality and also questions the status of her
origin, i.e. her identity.

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She wore a tricorne hat which became her. At least it shadowed her eyes which
are too large and can be disconcerting. She never blinks at all it seems to me.
Long, sad, dark alien eyes. Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they
are not English or European either. And when did I begin to notice all this about
my wife Antoinette? After we left Spanish Town I suppose. Or did I notice it
before and refuse to admit what I saw? () (40)
For Rochester, not only is her wife a mystery (being a woman and a foreigner) but also
the place, the inhabitants and their customs which he cannot understand. Therefore,
fear of the unknown is construed as a menace. For instance, when going up a road
towards their honeymoon house, he feels overwhelmed by nature perceiving it as Not
only wild but menacing (42) and then expresses:
Everything is too much, I felt as I rode wearily after her. Too much blue, too
much purple, too much green. The flowers too red, the mountains too high, the
hills too near. And the woman is a stranger. Her pleading expression annoys me.
I have not bought her, she has bought me, or so she thinks. (42)
People also prove to be hostile and make him feel unsettled. In his own words, they are:
Sombre people in a sombre place. (41) For example, there is a moment in the novel
when he meets two men, one who is not from the island and a native. The foreigner is
surprised that a man like Rochester should be in that place and remarks that that is a
wild () and not civilized. (41) To show his point he challenges Rochester to guess
how old the native is. To Rochesters astonishment, the native hesitates and replies he
is fourteen when he is clearly in his fifties. The foreigner attributes this ignorance to the
natives lack of civilization, however, for Rochester this incident helps to increase his
confusion making him feel at a loss in this new and unfamiliar setting.
Rochesters anguish grows as he becomes helpless to understand his feelings,
especially towards his wife. After a night he spends with Antoinette, he wakes up
disoriented and startled by a nightmare: I woke in the dark after dreaming that I was
buried alive, and when I was awake the feeling of suffocation persisted. Something was

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lying across my mouth; hair with a sweet heavy smell. I threw it off but still I could not
breathe. (87-88) It is interesting to recall that according to Freud the thought of being
buried alive is an example of uncanniness which entails the transformation of the
fantasy of living inside the maternal womb.
The other constant presence in the novel which adds to create a whole uncanny
atmosphere is that of superstition, which includes animism and magic. As stated in the
theoretical framework, Freud attributes the fear evoked by these phenomena to
primitive thoughts which remain concealed in the unconscious. Nevertheless, it should
be borne in mind that for these islands' inhabitants superstition is a way of knowing the
world.
An interesting instance of superstitious belief is the moment when young
Antoinette comes back to Coulibri after her mothers wedding. She feels the house has
changed though she cannot say how and attributes this change to magic, more precisely
to obeah, the type of black magic practised locally.
Coulibri looked the same when I saw it again, although it was clean and tidy ()
But it didnt feel the same. () It was their [the new servants] talk about
Christophine that changed Coulibri () Their talk about Christophine and
obeah changed it. () (14)
After Antoinette perceives this strange atmosphere in her own house, she focuses on
Christophines bedroom. In the paragraph cited below we can see that in spite of the
familiarity of the setting Antoinette finds it to be disturbing and therefore uncanny. As
Freud mentions, one of the main characteristics of the uncanny lies in the ambivalence
that what is familiar, homey, can also evoke a feeling of unhomeliness.
I knew her room so well- the pictures of the Holy Family and the prayer for a
happy death. She had a bright patchwork counterpane, a broken down press for
her clothes and my mother had given her an old rocking-chair. (14)
In addition, Antoinette imagines a whole scene in which gruesome and black magic
elements mingle. Although she says that she knows what she would find hidden in the

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room, she does not dare to do it. Were she to do so, she might unveil a secret. It is
important to mention that in the novel, Christophine is said to be an obeah practitioner
and evil intentions are attributed to her.
Yet one day when I was waiting there I was suddenly very much afraid. The door
was open to the sunlight, someone was whistling near the stables, but I was
afraid. I was certain that hidden in the room (behind the old black press?) there
was a dead mans dried hand, white chicken feathers, a cock with its throat cut,
dying slowly, slowly. Drop by drop the blood was falling into a red basin and I
imagined I could hear it. No one had ever spoken to me about obeah but I
knew what I would find if I dared to look. () Nothing alarming ever happened
and I forgot, or told myself I had forgotten (14-15).
Animism entails another instance that evokes uncanniness. In order to seek a security
that neither her mother nor anyone close to Antoinette can provide, she attributes
special powers to ordinary objects, such as the stick she is fond of. Antoinette needs to
mitigate her anguish and she does so through magic thought.
() for then I believed in my stick. It was not a stick, but a long narrow piece of
wood, () I picked it up soon after they killed our horse and I thought I can fight
with this, if the worst comes to the worst I can fight to the end ()
I believed that no one could harm me when it was near me, to lose it would be a
great misfortune. All this was long ago, when I was still babyish and sure that
everything was alive, not only the river or the rain, but chairs, looking-glass,
cups, saucers, everything. (19)
As we mentioned before, Obeah is the kind of magic practised in the geographical area
the novel is set and it is a constant presence throughout the work. According to Angela
Smith in the Penguin introduction to the novel, obeah is spirit theft, and it can reduce
human beings to the state of puppets, dolls or zombis. (xii). In order to widen this
definition, in the general notes of the mentioned edition, it is argued that: Originally
obeah practitioners cast spells and used witchcraft against their victims, harming them

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through psychic powers and the use of the kinds of magical objects listed in the
law(136). Spirit theft also links to coexistence of animate/inanimate: the person
becomes an object once she has lost her spirit.
There are many instances where the characters accuse each other of exercising
obeah. An interesting example takes place when, after a violent episode between
Rochester and Antoinette, she argues that calling her by different names is a type of
obeah. Although the husbands motives to change her name can be attributed to other
purposes, such as a desire for psychological domination or the fact that he considers
her an object of his own property thus having the right of naming her at his will,
Antoinette, naively considers this as an act of obeah, in the sense of spirit theft.
Bertha, I said.
Bertha is not my name. You are trying to make me into someone else, calling
me by another name. I know, thats obeah too.
Later on in the novel, Christophine blames Rochester for trying to destroy Antoinette
and force her to cry and speak.
But you dont love. All you want is to break her up. And it help you break her
up.
(Break her up.)
She tell me in the middle of all this you start calling her names. Marionette.
Some word so.
Yes, I remember I did.
(Marionette, Antoinette, Marionetta, Antoinetta.)
That word mean doll, eh? Because she dont speak. You want to force her to cry
and to speak. (99)
It is worth mentioning that for Rochester, obeah constitutes one of the many enigmas
he encounters in the Caribbean culture. He represents the rational European order, in
contrast to the chaotic lack of order of the West Indies, as a consequence, on one

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hand, he feels repulsion towards this practice, but on the other hand it lures him as far
as he starts to read a book on the topic.
Antoinette begins to gradually acquire a doll-like quality. Although this image
can be interpreted as a metaphor of the violence committed against her by her husband
in order to diminish her thus forcing her to take refuge in silence and immobility, it also
evokes the psychological artifice of the doll whom the reader is uncertain whether she is
in fact an inanimate being.
As the narration proceeds, Antoinettes countenance dramatically deteriorates
into the lifeless person who eventually becomes the madwoman we encounter locked in
the attic in Jane Eyre. Rochester fears this transformation, which, paradoxically is the
image he himself has helped to build up. The following quotes show these changings as
perceived by her husband:
I could see Antoinette stretched on the bed quite still. Like a doll. Even when
she threatened me with the bottle she had a marionette quality. (96)

She was there in her ajoupa; () but her face blank, no expression at all. Tears?
Theres not a tear in her. (107-108)

She had followed me and she answered. I scarcely recognized her voice. No
warmth, no sweetness. The doll had a dolls voice, a breathless but curiously
indifferent voice. (110)

() I saw the hate go out of her eyes. I forced it out. And with the hate her
beauty. She was only a ghost. A ghost in the grey daylight. Nothing left but
hopelessness. () (110)

She lifted her eyes. Blank lovely eyes. Mad eyes. A mad girl. (110)
() No, the dolls smile came back nailed to her face. () (111)

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As mentioned in the theoretical perspective, the theme of the double helps to create
uncanniness and adds to build up an unsettling atmosphere. In the novel, Antoinette is
constantly haunted by her mothers madness and the threat of becoming herself mad.
For instance, people in the village harass and provoke Antoinette with comparisons to
her mother.
() The girl said, Look the crazy girl, you crazy like your mother. Your aunt
frightened to have you in the house. She send you for the nuns to lock up. Your
mother walk about with no shoes and stockings on her feet, she sans culottes.
She try to kill her husband and she try to kill you too that day you go to see her.
She have eyes like zombi and you have eyes like zombi too. Why you wont look
at me. () (27)
Whether there is genetic predisposition to insanity or if it is Antoinettes re-enactment
of her mothers experience -namely marrying an Englishman and trying to live up to
this mans expectations- is difficult to decide. What can be deduced is that, when
Antoinette finally gives up and completely identifies with Annette -in a doubling
process understood in Freuds terms, she undergoes a total loss of the self as she
expresses when she is finally locked up in the attic in England:
There is no looking-glass here and I dont know what I am like now. () The girl
I saw was myself yet not quite myself. () Now they have taken everything
away. What am I doing in this place and who am I? (117) 2

As we gather from these examples, elements of a fearful quality such as superstition,

black magic, animism and characters whose status as animate beings is call into
question are mingled and intertwined in the narrative structure of the novel.
Uncertainty lies at the very core of the novel constantly evoking uncanny feelings at the
many levels of the text.
2

If names matter as it is mentioned in the novel, it is interesting to point out that in Antoinettes name,
the very name of her mother, Annette, is inscribed as if foreshadowing her destiny.

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4. Conclusion
() Only the magic and the dream are true all the rests a lie.
Let it go. Here is the secret. Here.
(But it is lost, that secret, and those who know it cannot tell it.) (Rhys, 108)
This paper has attempted to explore how the novel operates on a ground of constant
intellectual uncertainty, being the use of uncanny devices one of the main contributors
to this effect.
The highly polyphonic structure of Wide Sargasso Sea implies that versions of
what actually takes place can be distorted or that each character may experience them
differently. In the case of Antoinette and Rochester their dissimilar ways of
understanding each others perspectives become irreconcilable.
It can also be argued that the whole novel turns uncanny if we accept Schellings
definition of the term: everything that ought to have remained hidden and secret and
has become visible. In a subversive movement, what Jean Rhys does in this text is to
unveil the story of Bertha Mason which is kept secret in Jane Eyre or, to assert as
Antoinette expresses that Theres always the other side, always. (Rhys 82)

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Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. Lo siniestro. Trans. Luis Lopez-Ballesteros y de Torres. Buenos Aires:
2013. Fondo de Cultura Econmica. Print.
Garca Rayego, Rosa. Jean Rhys: una vida para la ficcin. Cartografas del Yo
Coords. J.Salemern A. Zamorano. Madrid: 2006. Editorial Complutense de
Madrid. Print.
Jackson, Rosemary. Fantasy: Literatura y Subversion. Buenos Aires: 2005. Catlogos.
Print
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Angela Smith. London: 2000. Penguin. Print.