In life, there are at least two sides to every story.  Rarely, is one either all right or all wrong.  Instead what becomes important is the narrator's perspective ("landscape").  This technique is the one Jean Rhys utilizes in Wide Sargasso Sea.  We are given two very separate and different views of the life and death of Antoinette Cosway.  Through Rochester's portrayal, we see the greed and neglect that he imposes on Antoinette, contributing to her later insanity.  Yet, from Antoinette's viewpoint, we understand her desire to live outside of the shadow of her mother's insanity.  Individually, we see only each character's personal desire and despair, their individual take on the situation.  With both views, the reader is given an overall picture of how personal each portrayal of reality is, of how ideosyncratically each character experiences the world.

Antoinette's insanity had...