We don't need no water

Current book: Wide Sargasso Sea
Pages read: 155-190 (end)

Well, in the end, Rochester drives Antoinette completely mad, separates her from all the people she's ever known and loved, and drags her to England. There, he keeps her locked on the top floor of his manor house, looked after by Grace Poole, a servant hired expressly for that purpose. She wavers in and out of a fugue state, forgetting most of her psychotic behavior after it occurs, but often screaming at or attacking those she comes into contact with. At the close of the book, she first imagines burning down the house, and then, soon after, sets out to do so.

Rhys had to fulfill the events of Jane Eyre, of course, but it was entirely believable that Antoinette would have been driven mad by Rochester's callousness. Rochester escapes with a hint of humanity, since he, too, was driven into an unsuitable and ridiculous marriage. He honestly seems to have given it a chance at first, but somehow, everything fell apart; it may have been Antoinette's history, or the forced quality of the marriage, or perhaps simply Rochester's feverish misery in the islands. It was a little Heart of Darkness, actually, in a "watch the white Englishman get corrupted by his tropical surroundings," but I believe that the blame still lies with Rochester due to his complete inability to recognize the humanity in others - both his wife and those native islanders she had chosen to love.

Tomorrow, depressing World War II novel! Nothing like the Pacific Theatre to cheer you up, I always say.