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| Painting of Jean Rhys and Antoinette Cosway (2006) |
Questions and ideas to consider for Thursday’s reading…
- Why does Rochester insist on calling Antoinette “Bertha” in the story? What might this change signal for him, especially in a novel where, as Antoinette herself says, “names are important”?
- Do you feel Rochester is a reliable or an unreliable narrator? Is he supposed to be sympathetic or unsympathetic? Is anything he records or presents to the reader “true”?
- What role does Daniel Cosway play in the novel? Why does Rochester ultimately agree to meet him, and what is the result of this meeting?
- Christophine says to Rochester that “You young but already you hard. You fool the girl. You make her think you can’t see the sun for looking at her” (Norton, 92). Was it Rochester’s plan to destroy her—to punish her? And if so, for what reason?
- Why does Rochester allow himself to be seduced by Amelie? Is this a simple fling, as gentlemen were expected to have, or is there something more allegorical behind this seduction?
- Is Antoinette “mad”? Does she suffer from a family illness, as evidenced in her mother and brother…or is her madness merely the result of the ‘colonial gaze,’ which sees her as alien and ‘other’? Is her ‘madness’ simply characteristics that are not valued in England?
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