SOURCE: "Mr. Rochester's First Marriage: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys," in World Literature Written in English, Vol. 17, No. 1, April, 1978, pp. 342-57.

In the following essay, Thomas examines the narrative structure and psychological dynamics of the relationship between Rochester and Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea.

Antoinette Bertha Cosway Mason is the mad wife of Mr. Rochester, imprisoned in the attics of Thornfield Hall, cared for and guarded by Grace Poole. In Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys tells her story, from her earliest memories of fear and loss as the Creole daughter of a former slave owner in Jamaica, to her final dream, after uncounted days and years in Thornfield Hall:

Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do. There must have been a draught for the flame flickered and I thought it was out. But I shielded it with my...