Wide Sargasso Sea — Part 3 Summary & Analysis

Wide Sargasso Sea — Part 3 Summary & Analysis
A close reading of Jean Rhys's final movement — confinement, fire, and the making of Bertha Mason.
Grace Poole's Perspective
The section opens with three italicized paragraphs from the point-of-view of Grace Poole, the character from Jane Eyre hired to look after the madwoman in the attic. Speaking to another servant named Leah, Grace explains that she was hired by a woman she calls "Mrs. Eff" (Jane Eyre's Mrs. Fairfax) and paid a significant amount of money to look after a "girl who lives in her own darkness."
Grace's Reasons for Staying
The Arrangement
Mrs. Eff instructs Grace that "there must be no gossip" about her charge, a Creole lady brought back to England by the master of the house.
A Shelter from the World
Grace insists she stays because the house provides "a shelter from the world outside which... can be a black and cruel world to a woman." She speculates this is why all female servants remain — but notes the woman she looks after is not content with her restricted existence.
Antoinette's Confinement
Awakening in the Attic
Antoinette takes up the narrative for the remainder of the novella, awakening as Grace lights a fire and watching the flames with great interest.
Hundreds of Days
She wonders why she has been brought to the attic and forced to stay — "nights and days and days and nights, hundreds of them."
Stealing the Key
Each night she pretends to sleep while Grace drinks and counts money; when Grace falls asleep, Antoinette steals the key and wanders the darkened house.
Disorientation and Confusion
Antoinette thinks she sees her mother in a tapestry, hears voices in her head, and refuses to believe she is in England.
She recalls the ocean voyage and asking a crew member for help; he summoned Rochester, and she had to be sedated.
She insists the ship must have gotten lost on its way to England.
Richard Mason's Visit
1
The Letter
Antoinette had written Richard a letter begging him to rescue her.
2
The Visit
One morning Antoinette awakens with no memory of the previous day; Grace tells her that her stepbrother Richard Mason came to see her.
3
The Refusal
Richard said he could not "interfere legally" between her and her husband — he will never be coming back.
4
The Attack
Antoinette evidently attacked him with a knife after his refusal to help.
The Red Dress and the Fire
Antoinette searches for the red dress she brought from Jamaica — the dress she was wearing the last time she saw Sandi, who kissed her goodbye. The sight of the dress on the floor makes her think of fire spreading across the room, which reminds her of something she must do. She says she will do it "quite soon now."
The Third Dream
Into the House
That night she dreams for the third time of stealing Grace's keys and venturing into the main house with a candle. She enters "a large room with red carpet and red curtains," lights more candles, then becomes anxious — the room suddenly turns into Aunt Cora's room.
The Flames
She knocks the candles down, fire spreads, and she goes to the battlements where scenes of her past flash before her: Jamaica, Coulibri, Coco, Tia, Christophine, and Rochester.
The Final Act
She wakes from the dream and calls out. Grace comes over but Antoinette pretends to be asleep. As soon as she hears Grace snoring again, Antoinette gets up, takes the key, lights a candle, and steps out into the passage. She is going to reenact the dream and burn down the house, thus bringing Wide Sargasso Sea to the same conclusion as Jane Eyre.
The ending closes the loop between Rhys's novel and Brontë's — Antoinette's act of destruction is simultaneously an act of reclamation.
Analysis: Grace as Unbiased Narrator
A Rare Outside View
Grace Poole's account is the only part of the narrative from the point-of-view of a relatively unbiased third party — she has never met Rochester and knows little about what happened in the Caribbean.
Money as the Root of Evil
Her monologue reiterates the work's major themes, most notably that money is the root of evil: "I don't serve the devil for no money," she says, yet Mrs. Eff insists Rochester is "gentle, generous, [and] brave."
Analysis: Rochester's Ironic Fortune
Grace explains that Rochester's father and brother have died, leaving him the entire family fortune — yet "he was a wealthy man before that."
His marriage to Antoinette, entered for purely fiscal reasons, has turned out to be unnecessary. Only by depriving Antoinette of her financial independence was Rochester able to assert his own; now that he no longer needs her money, it is far too late — Antoinette has paid with both her dowry and her sanity.
Analysis: Antoinette Becomes Bertha
Overlap with Jane Eyre
The final section overlaps for the first and only time with the storyline of Jane Eyre; by this point, Antoinette has effectively become Bertha, the madwoman originally created by Charlotte Brontë.
Rhys Reverts to Brontë
Although Rhys's portrait remains sympathetic, she reverts largely to Brontë's characterization: Antoinette no longer knows who or where she is, Richard Mason fails to recognize her, and she has become violent and unruly.
No Surprise
The conclusion — burning down the house — comes as no surprise.
Analysis: Sandi and the Incest Motif
In perhaps her most significant addition to Brontë's work, Rhys raises the possibility of an incestuous relationship between Antoinette and her half-brother Sandi in the final pages.
In one of her only lucid moments, Antoinette mentions Sandi in a way that could be construed as sexual — he visited when "that man" (Rochester) was away, and their parting involved a "life and death kiss."
The red dress she wore at their last meeting is symbolically associated with passion and lust.
Analysis: Autobiographical Elements and Jean Rhys
Rhys and Antoinette
The depiction of Antoinette retains autobiographical elements from the life of Jean Rhys, who identified strongly with the madwoman she created. At the time of publication in the 1960s, Rhys was living as a recluse in a remote corner of England, drinking heavily, and was ordered by a court to seek mental health care.
The Woman Writer in the Attic
Critics Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar have suggested the madwoman in the attic figures as an emblem of the woman writer — perhaps literally true of Rhys, who, like Antoinette, sought a haven where her imagination could run free.