Control and Punishment of Women -Wide Sargasso Sea

Control and Punishment of Women -Wide Sargasso Sea

Purpose: With the focus on Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, the author shows how women were possessed by men as objects, what was expected of women as men's property, and the punishment imposed on women who do not meet those expectations in the Victorian era. Following the Industrial Revolution, women also had a desire to live by choosing what they wanted with their own free will, not as the property of men, but society only gave them the role of the angels in the house obeying men and taking care of the family and if this expectation is not met, they were portrayed as madwomen and discarded by men. Method: First, it will be discussed how women at the time, represented as Annette and Antoinette, married men as objects, and what men expected of women as wives. Second, it will be discussed how women were pun-ished when they did not act as submissive wives deviating from what the society of the time expected of women, such as yelling, swearing, drinking, or expressing sexual desire; and why they were treated as madwomen and imprisoned like Annette and Antoinette who were chosen and later discarded by Mason and Rochester. Third, it will be examined how Annette and Antoinette discarded by Mason and Rochester were judged as madwomen and imprisoned, and how they were punished for behavior beyond what the society of the time expected of women. Results: Annette shouted, criticized, and ridiculed Mason when her son died because Mason ignored her thought of leaving Coulibri. In return, she was sexually harassed by black people; her daughter Antoinette was portrayed as a madwoman to an extent that she even thought, 'This is not my mother'; and Antoinette was portrayed as a madwoman who laughed out loud like crazy and hit stones with her fists for the reason that she expressed her sexual desire and lost her chastity before marriage, and were imprisoned by Mason and Rochester respectively. Conclusion: Victorian English society made women men’s property and never tolerated women who were not obedient to men or invaded men's domains and tried to dominate them. Seeing that the thoughts, desires, and wills of women at that time represented as Annette and Antoinette through the “Wide Sargasso Sea”, the author thinks that even in our present day, it is worth considering whether our society make someone's thoughts, desires, and will crazy and punish them for reasons of order maintenance or public interest.