“How would you like to be made exactly like the others? » » is a question that resonates in Antoinette's mind at the beginning of Jean Rhys's reactive and revisionist text, Wide Sargasso Sea (Rhys 22). By constructing his protagonist from Charlotte Brontë's mad Bertha Mason, Rhys aims to write the story, the preface, of one of the most discussed feminist figures in the literary canon. Giving voice to the voiceless, Rhys reconsiders the circumstances that culminated in Bertha's (here Antoinette's) descent into madness. However, one character in particular – Antoinette's former slave and surrogate guardian, Christophine – maintains a refusal to subscribe to this question of erased identity that shapes the novel. A character “embedded in multiple hierarchies” (Hai 494), Christophine challenges the subordination and assimilation of other, more powerful characters within the text whose actions aim to reduce her to the demeaning role of “other.” While her race, color, and gender leave her open to the discrimination and marginalization typical of members of these social groups, she subtly undermines these stereotypes not through overtly militant proclamations, but through her silence and outing. a novel dominated by two white narrators. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Throughout the novel, Rhys illustrates Christophine's narrative as one of dual enslavement and subversion in order to depict her defiance of patriarchal colonial powers and to illustrate resistance. power of subtle and marginal actions. The opening of the novel presents a tone of colonial hegemony par excellence, immediately characterizing Christophine as an “other” in the text. However, what is perhaps most notable – and uncharacteristic of colonial discourse – is that Christophine opens the novel as the reader's first named woman. Rhys opens his text: "They say that when trouble comes close, that's what the white people did... Jamaican ladies had never approved of my mother, 'because she likes herself,' said Christophine" (Rhys 9). By allowing Christophine to open the novel, great power is infused into both her voice and her narrative; however, this power to be the first to speak is blurred by Christophine's inability to speak for herself. While his words open the story, Antoinette's words end up telling it. This action of speaking for herself illustrates the authority that colonial and slave traditions hold over Christophine, as she is unable to speak for herself despite having an insightful and quotable opinion. The language of Christophine's opinion particularly distinguishes her as an ignorant other. By proclaiming that Annette is "pretty as herself", in her familiar Caribbean dialect, Christophine's voice is inherently seen as less educated and less insightful. The juxtaposition of this native language with Rhys's eloquent opening prose about "close ranks", crafted in a long and complex syntax, further marginalizes Christophine and her voice as a subsidiary. Repeatedly analyzed as the indigenous trope of the other, Christophine's role is often reduced by postcolonial critic Gayatri Spivak's observation that "she is simply cast out of the story, without narrative, characterological explanation, or justice" (Spivák 246). However, it is this strange and confusing openness that both empowers and takes away from Christophine, presenting the character as one with complex motivations, histories, and means. Additionally, Rhys's narrative structureimplies the ownership – both legal and informal – that Antoinette holds over Christophine. Her role as slave, then servant, in the novel immediately marks her as a dominated woman, but coupled with the statement of "bringing together" illuminates a characterization as a member of an inferior and excluded group - a characterization which she is assigned from the beginning. opening the text. Christophine, despite her initial assignment to this place of marginalization, repeatedly threatens the powers and people who aim to subjugate her. Throughout the novel, Christophine maintains an undoubtedly complex relationship with Antoinette and Rochester, questioning one of the main forms of her marginalization, servitude. To tackle Black feminist bell hooks' exploration of what it means to be oppressed, Christophine undermines those who aim to dominate her while remaining in her place of servitude. While hooks recognizes that the concept of marginalization generally has a rather negative and oppressive connotation, she turns this construction on its head, uniquely defining the margin as the primary "space for counter-hegemonic discourse... not just... in words but in habits of being and the way we live” (hooks 206). Using this perspective, it becomes clear that Christophine's actions – although sometimes from a place of submission – alter the forms of oppression imposed on her. For example, when Christophine is cleaning and serving the couple coffee, Rochester harshly criticizes: “I can't say I like her language…And she looks so lazy that she's hanging around” (Rhys 50 -51). Although it takes place at a time when Christophine is working and she repeatedly refers to them as "master" (Rhys 50), Rochester chooses to single her out as primarily a "lazy girl." This depiction overtly references, not his work ethic, but his blackness, equating his performance to his race. The idea that “she hangs around” intrinsically reduces her to the rank of an entity responsible only for serving and subject to the judgments of her “masters”. This moment, conversely, gives way to the power that Christophine cedes over language, once again complicating her submission. Although clearly not Rochester's preferred rhetoric, Christophine's rhetoric creates a dialogue that disrupts expectations of submission and silence. It is through her language – even in a role of servitude – that Christophine asserts her power, aligning her margin with hooks' “site of radical possibility, [and] space of resistance”. (hooks 206). Christophine further dismantles her subservient role when she refuses Antoinette's money for a love potion obeah. Repeatedly begging Christophine to repair her marriage and love with Rochester, Antoinette, by participating in the obeah trade, legitimizes both Christophine's practice and her knowledge of the culture. In an effort to dominate the trade and by extension Christophine, she attempts to throw her “purse from [her] wallet” (Rhys 70), claiming control of capital over her former slave. However, Christophine subverts this capitalist hegemony by simply refusing the money, retaliating: “You don’t have to give me money. I do this stupid thing because you beg me, not for money” (Rhys 70). By directly rejecting Antoinette's money, Christophine escapes a capitalist interaction aimed at dominating her. She further extends her claim to power over the situation, calling Antoinette's desires for the obeah potion "madness". Although this is Christophine's own cultural practice, it aligns with the dominant rhetoric that obeah is stupid, not to demean herself, butto embarrass Antoinette. In this moment, Christophine aims to redefine the power dynamic present between the two women, simply by moving away from the traditional interaction of money trading. By withdrawing from this capitalist practice, Christophine voluntarily departs from the mainstream and, undoubtedly, places herself on the margins. The occupation of this space, although traditionally undesirable, breaks down the oppressive expectations that Christophine must maintain on the periphery. It is here that it becomes clear that Christophine's marginalization maintains Hooks' ideal resistance "where we can say no to the colonizer, no to the one who depresses" (hooks 207), allowing her to deny and rebel against Antoinette's standards, often dismantling capitalist ideals. associated with colonialismHegemony. Perhaps the most powerful moment that Christophine commands in the novel is when she confronts Rochester's treatment of Antoinette, in a sense, verbally castrating him. While Christophine's rebellion against Antoinette's expectations is powerful in its corrosion of master/servant and black/white dichotomies, her affirmation of Rochester is arguably far more powerful because it also addresses the patriarchal authority he holds over her as a man. Hated by his treatment of Antoinette, she accuses "all you want to do is break her...you've made her worse" (Rhys 92-93), culminating in the sharp insult: "But you are evil like Satan himself! (Rhys 96). This proclamation that Rochester lives to see Antoinette deteriorate verbally attacks the treatment of his wife. The harsh accusation that he made his wife "worse" is particularly crude and rather inappropriate coming from a servant, which makes Christophine's words all the more cutting. Portraying Rochester in the "evil as Satan" simile not only imposes Christophine's immense disgust on him, but also parallels him with an evil so grotesque that the only image she can conjure up is that of the devil. This degradation risks not only diminishing Rochester, but also attributing power to Christophine and her language for which he has already expressed his contempt. His assertive speech, directly intended to challenge his patriarchal authority as Antoinette's husband, calls into question his decisions and command over a servant over whom he presumably should exercise great colonial domination. Thus, Christophine's verbal attack subverts Rochester's position of authority, allowing him to combat the colonial norms that target his submission. Despite her rather dramatic proclamations of power against Antoinette and Rochester, Christophine disappears from the novel in a rather abrupt exit. In the same way that Christophine reverses the subordination of the coupled narrators, she refuses to leave the physical periphery to enter the center: England. At the climax of her fight with Rochester, Christophine proclaims: “'To read and write, I don't know. Other Things I Know,” to which her arc in the novel concludes, “She walked away without looking back” (Rhys 97). Christophine's categorical statement about her lack of literacy – something often attributed to intelligence and knowledge – does not reflect her ignorance, but rather reveals a knowledge of her own limitations. By admitting her deficit, Christophine claims her incomprehension and instead propels her assertion of “other things that I know”. This brief but poignant moment establishes Christophine's certainty in her role throughout the novel, while the short syntax resonates "know" at the end of the sentence, solidifying Christophine's rebellious confidence. Additionally, it affirms a sense of wisdom and understanding regarding one's.