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摘 要

琼·里斯的《茫茫藻海》是对《简·爱》的一种创造性改写，自上世纪六十年代出版以来，引起评论界极大关注。学界的研究多围绕《茫茫藻海》与《简·爱》的互文性关系、后殖民主义和非洲-加勒比视角展开。本文从福柯的疯癫与权力理论出发，细察琼·里斯作品《茫茫藻海》中的“权力与疯癫”这一主题。论文首先对小说主人公安托瓦内特的疯癫本质进行探究，指出她的疯癫不是生理上的疾病而是社会文明的产物；然后通过分析权力与话语、权力与规训以及权力与反抗的相互作用，剖析疯癫形成的原因，进而指出安托瓦内特的疯癫是复杂的权力机制运作的必然结果。

关键词：疯癫；权力；福柯；《茫茫藻海》

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Normality or Madness 4

3.1 Foucault’s interpretation of madness 4

3.2 The nature of Antoinette’s mandess 5

4. Interpretation of Antoinette’s Madness from Power Perspective 7

4.1 Foucault’s power theory 7

4.2 The manipulation of power in Wide Sargasso Sea 8

5. Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

Jean Rhys (1890-1979), born in Roseau, Dominica, is regarded as a great Caribbean writer in the 20th century. With striking gift and significant innovation in literary writing, Rhys gains her international reputation mainly for advocating gender equality, satirizing the merciless interracial discrimination and condemning western cultural hegemony. Wide Sargasso Sea is her last and representative work.

Her father was a Welsh doctor and her mother a white Dominican Creole. Jeans Rhys lived the there since childhood. At the age of sixteen, she left her hometown and moved to England. She had to terminate her schooling in the Royal Academic of Dramatic Art after the death of her father. In 1919, she married a French-Dutch journalist Jean Lenglet, and then they moved to Paris where they began an unsettled and impermanent life. In 1927, she published her first collection of stories The Left Bank and Other Stories. Then over the following years, she successively published some novels, such as Quartet (1928), After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1931), Voyage in the Dark (1934), Good Morning, Midnight (1939).These early works are mainly based on her own life experience and focus on those marginal women living under a cold and dark social system. These novels received some critic notice, but they did not arouse much attention. Until in the 1960s, she reappeared with her last novel Wide Sargasso Sea. In it, Jean Rhys tells a story of madwoman, Bertha, vaguely outlined in Jean Eyre. Wide Sargasso Sea is her best novel and wins her the Royal Society of Literature Award.

Wide Sargasso Sea, which is set in the 1830s, tells a story about the heroine Antoinette and her misfortune life. Antoinette is a white Creole girl in Jamaica. Her father is a slaver master and her mother a white Creole. Because of the death of her father and the abolition of slavery, poor Antoinette and her mother are hated and discriminated by local black people as well as rich white men. Finally in a great fire committed by black people, Antoinette loses her house and her mother cracks up and goes mad. A few years later, under the arrangement of her stepfather, Antoinette marries Englishman Rochester, even though she does not know him at all. Owing to race, class and cultural differences as well as the slander from Antoinette’s half brother, Rochester regards her wife as an insane woman. According to then English law, once women get married, their property would be claimed by their husbands. Without love and property, unfortunate Antoinette is sent to London and imprisoned in an attic. Finally, she sets fire to the house. She extricates herself from the cold and dark sea at the expense of her life.

2. Literature Review

Much attention from the critical world has been drawn to Jean Rhys and her works since the publication of Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966. The critical studies employed in the novel mainly include the intertextual dialogue between Wide Sargasso Sea and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, post-colonialism and African Caribbean perspectives.

As Rhys’s Antoinette is indeed a plausible re-creation and interpretation of the one character, Mason Bertha, in Jane Eyre, thus many critics explores the intertextuality between these two novels. Baer examines Antoinette’s three dreams in details and argues that the respective heroines of Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre are not rivals or antagonists but “doubles” and “sisters” (Baer 133) to one another. For Spivak, Antoinette is an autonomous subject performed by Jane Eyre itself and the emergence of Antoinette is designed to free her not only from Jane Eyre’s attic, but also from the space of the nineteenth-century colonial discourse in which she is incarcerated as madwoman (Spivak 243-261).

In addition, for Antoinette occupies a space between the binaries of master and slave, the English sources and African resources, many researchers employ post-colonialism to study this novel. For Ciolkowski, it provides a subtle commentary on nineteenth-century discourses of race and sexuality and intersections between them (Ciolkowski 339-359). Tiffin stresses that Rhys’s earlier works and final novel are closely linked. What unites them is the recurrent use of colonialism as the metaphor with which to represent gender relations. “While the implications of the colonial/imperial relation are laid bare, so too are the very real similarities between Antoinette’s fate and that of black slaves” (Tiffin 328).

During the period from the mid 1980s to mid 1990s, many critics have addressed the African Caribbean dimensions of Rhys’s novel. O’Connor sees obeah as a site of white/black struggle. In striving to conquer the “mystery and power” embodied in Christophine, Rochester becomes, in O’Connor’s phrase, “much like the [...] white colonizers and missionaries” (O’Connor 210). However, the critical focus switches from obeah to zombie, which Newman persuasively reads as a powerful trope for forms of colonial, sexual and literary domination (Newman 13-28).

Wide Sargasso Sea also attracts domestic researchers’ attention. Domestic Rhysian critics focus mainly on the research of the post-colonial features of the novel, causes for Antoinette’s madness and the feminist approach. Zhang Feng argues that the post-colonial counter-discourse is composed of the subalter’s articulation through diverse ways. “Due to differences within the liminal space, they speak with not one but multiple voices. As a whole, these voices constitute a strong Postcolonial counter-discourse” (Zhang 125). He Changyi and Ou Lin focus on the causes of gender difference, nationalities, ethnic histories, cultures, and geographical locations which have led to Antoinette’s tragedy of marginal female survival (He and Ou 42-45). With the application of feminist theories, Wu Na is concerned with the cultural representations of Wide Sargasso Sea and concludes that female discourses have been historically oppressed in the patriarchy world (Wu 55-60).

Although people are working at interpreting this novel from diverse views, critics have always concerned themselves with Antoinette’s personal tragedy, or her madness. Each character in the novel is like an isolated island separated from others by the wide sea. The Sargasso Sea becomes a symbol drawing a line between the West India and England. The large chasm between people in different cultures, class and gender leads to miscommunication and mistrust. Wei Na believes that Antoinette’s madness results from the enslavement from both females themselves and males (Wei 39-40). Chen Junqiu analyzes the causes of Antoinette’s tragedy from the uncertainty of identity, Rochester’s colonization and her own limpness (Chen 123-125). Yang Yang proposes a new cause that her craziness and her act of arson are caused by her failure to identify herself (Yang 85-87).

The above studies on Wide Sargasso Sea both in the West and in China have shown that the critics mainly concern the following aspects: the intertextuality between Wide Sargasso Sea and Jean Eyre, the post-colonial features of the novel and African Caribbean perspectives. The analyses about Antoinette’s madness mainly focus on the issues of class, race and gender, but few critics have attached enough importance to the theme of “power and insanity”. This thesis intends to explore Antoinette’s madness through Foucault’s power theory thereby trying to find a new method to interpret Wide Sargasso Sea.

The thesis consists of five parts. The first chapter introduces Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea briefly; and then the second chapter presents a critical review of Wide Sargasso Sea and the framework of the thesis. The third chapter explains Foucault’s madness theory and explores the nature of Antoinette’s madness to prove that her madness is not a pathological condition but the product of dominating power. After introducing Foucault’s interpretation of power, the fourth examines the operation of power in which Antoinette’s discourse and body are both strictly suppressed. In addition, this chapter centers on how Antoinette resist the disciplinary power at the expense of her life. The final chapter summarizes the thesis by pointing that Antoinette’s madness is produced by cruel and complex power mechanism.

3. Normality or Madness

In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys inverts sanity and insanity. “The sane (Rochester) to be insane, while the insane (Antoinette) is shown to be a kind of sanity” (Wheeler 104). In Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault analyzes the history of madness so as to reach a brand-new perspective of madness.

3.1 Foucault’s interpretation of madness

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) is a great French philosopher and social thinker. His theories have widely influenced almost all fields of liberal disciplines and challenged many conventional ideas of humanistic issues. Madness and Civilization-A History of Sanity in the Age of Reason, Foucault’s first major book, won him great reputation both at home and abroad.

Traditionally speaking, “mad” and “mentally ill” are synonymous. While in Madness and Civilization, Foucault makes an effort to research once silenced madness in its historic context, to make a vague line between reason and madness, to go back to the original condition where madness is not separated from reason, to challenge the reason’s dominance over madness. Foucault believes that there is no distinct difference between madness and reason in the real respect. Since human civilization has been ruled by reason and science, people are liable to use a kind of rational language for communication and recognition. Thus reason and madness are sharply divided. Any deviation of the reason or standard will be regarded as abnormal and punished by rational society. A band of the abnormal is called the mad men or mental patients. Dispossessed of their irrational truth, they are compelled to criminal and degeneration, for they can not obtain or maintain the power of discourse.

Therefore, Foucault argues that “madness” is not a psychiatric concept but only the result of the rational discourse, which means, the biased judgment made by reasonable people. After an array of victories against madness, reason succeeds its power.

3.2 The nature of Antoinette’s madness

In Wide Sargasso Sea, “madness/normality” is described fully through two characters: Antoinette and Antoinette’s husband (Rochester in Jean Eyre). If Rochester stands for reason, Antoinette does for madness. However, Christophine, the black servant does not believe that Antoinette is mad. She affirms that the so-called “madness” is only a dreadful and well-designed conspiracy woven by Rochester. “You think you fool me? You want her money but you don’t want her. It is in your mind to pretend she is mad. I know it. I know” (Rhys 127). Rochester certainly disagrees with Christophine’s censure and he even believes that “she’s as mad as the other” (Rhys 127). So who is normal, who is mad?

According to Foucault, people are apt to establish their own behaviors as criterion and regard others who deviate from this norm as “mad persons”. Antoinette is suggested to be insane because she behaves abnormally. Violence is her typical abnormal behavior. When Rochester holds her wrist and grasps the rum, Antoinette bites his arm and “she [smashes] another bottle against the wall and [stands] with the broken glass in her hand and murder in her eyes” (Rhys 116). In Antoinette’s deep heart exists extreme anger and hatred toward her husband. She curses Rochester comprehensively with her red eyes and wild hair. She tipples larges amount of rum and weeps all day away. All those unusual behaviors make Rochester regard Antoinette as a mental patient. Most unfortunately, after Antoinette leaves West Indians for England, her abnormal mental situation is finally decided and judged by these civilized Englishmen. All people believe she is mad and confine her to an isolated room.

But is Antoinette really a mental patient? It is true that she gives readers an impression that she is mad in mental disorder and she talks aloud and always in a trance, but these are false impressions. In fact, she keeps sober-minded. She yearns for love and happy life. Jean Rhys intends to criticize the society through the eyes of Antoinette whose idea can not be accepted by other people. The proof turns out to be a satire and adds the realistic significance of the novel. Fearing that readers really take Antoinette as a mental patient, Jean Rhys provides readers with a great many of hints and evidence in the hope of leaving a clear idea on Antoinette. First, Antoinette has a kind heart. From her childhood, she was a considerate daughter and deeply loved her mother. Without warm maternal lover from her mother, Antoinette never disturbed her mother because she understood what mother had been through. She trusted Christophine and treated this black maid as her family member. She had never been bumptious as a white person and always remained polite to Baptiste and other black servants. In addition, Antoinette desires for happiness and cherishes true love. When she said her prayers in convent, she hoped that “happiness” would appear in the prayer. “But what about happiness, I thought at first, is there no happiness? There must be. Oh, happiness of course, happiness, well” (Rhys 37). For Antoinette, “happiness” means true love. Before the wedding ceremony, she hesitated about marring Rochester because she really desired for true love and feared to be cheated by the Englishman. Hence one can see that Antoinette is a noble woman with kind heart and elegant politeness. She does not care about money and longs for happiness and true love.

As for Rochester, readers can find that he is a greedy and cunning hypocrite. As the second son in his family, he has no right to inherit money from his father, which means he has to seek a wife to get property. According to then English law, once women get married, their property would be claimed by their husbands. He does not love Antoinette from very beginning. “It was all very brightly colored, very strange, but it meat nothing to me. Nor did she, the girl I was to marry” (Rhys 55). The so-called spokesman of rational and civilized society deceives Antoinette by pretending to love her. After he gets Antoinette’s property, he tortures and abuses her by means of making love with Amelie, a black servant. He is simply paranoia. It is Rochester who is really abnormal.

From what have been discussed above, it can be concluded that it is the society that forces Antoinette to lose her sense step by step. It is not Antoinette who is mad but Rochester, the civilized man.

According to Michel Foucault, madness is not a natural phenomenon but the product of social civilization. Then how does the social civilization create madness? Foucault proposes his power theory and supposes that madness as well as other social phenomena is merely the result of the manipulation of power.

4. Interpretation of Antoinette’s Madness from Power Perspective

4.1 Foucault’s power theory

After studying the theory of madness, Foucault turns to explain the causes of the madness. As mentioned above, madness is not born but produced by civilization. How does civilization operate? Foucault proposes his brand-new power theory.

What is power? Foucault has his distinctive appreciation of it. According to him, power is not the traditional power of institutions and leaders, but the mechanism by which power affects people’s actions and attitudes, their discourse and learning process. Without force or violence, power affects the body physically in some inconspicuous or invisible ways. It restricts and remolds someone’s will.

After redefining the nature of power, Foucault proposes the way in which power operates. First, the mechanism and operation of power create discourse. Different from the conception used in linguistic specialty, Michel Foucault endows “discourse” with a different meaning. For him, discourse is language in practice which restricts what can be said or heard and what can not be. That is, discourse is controlled in terms of its objects (what can be spoken of), ritual (where and how one can speak), and the privilege to speak of certain subjects (who may speak). Discourse is produced by power and controlled by it and, in return, discourse sustains and strengthens power.

In addition, power with discourse is endorsed with disciplinary function. Discipline is a serious of techniques by which the body’s operation can be manipulated. Discipline works by compelling and arranging the individual’s movement and his involvement in space and time. Modern prison is a perfect embodiment of disciplinary power where popular behavior is marginalized and controlled. Discipline power is achieved in three ways: supervision, normalizing judgment and examination.

4.2 The manipulation of power in Wide Sargasso Sea

4.2.1 The suppression of Antoinette’s discourse

Antoinette in Wide Sargasso Sea is considered to be marginal who can not possess her own voice in the rational society. One tread of the novel is the transition in which Antoinette loses her discourse little by little. To some degree, Antoinette’ tragedy can be seen a shift of discourse power between Antoinette and Rochester. Through analyzing discourses generated by Antoinette and Rochester, the researcher aims to explore the manipulation of power hidden in discourse and investigate the source of power.

In effect, Antoinette possesses her own discourse before she marries to Rochester. This point can be found from the description of Rochester’s inner activities when he first knows Antoinette. When Antoinette asks him if he would like to shelter in Carlo’s house, Rochester thinks that “[this] was Antoinette. She spoke hesitatingly as if she expected me to refuse, so it was easy to do so” (Rhys 47). Here, readers can clearly see that Rochester is conjecturing Antoinette’s intention and submits to her decision. The tendency that Rochester caters to Antoinette’s wish is also presented in the scene when Antoinette is not willing to marry to him, Rochester “kissed her fervently, promising her peace, happiness, safety” (Rhys 57). According to Foucault, the operation of power integrates itself into the practice of the discourse. Discourse contains, demonstrates, maintains and exercises the power. Based on the above examples, readers can easily find that before marriage, Antoinette has leading force when she faces Rochester.

However, the situation of power is reversed dramatically after Antoinette gets married to Rochester, which means Rochester gets Antoinette’s all property. Thereafter Antoinette does not have her discourse any more. Her grievous situation can be found from Antoinette’s compliant to Christophine about Rochester’s coldness. “ If I get angry he is scornful and silent, sometimes he does not speak to me for hours and I cannot endure it any more” (Rhys 82). Here, Antoinette is powerless and conquered by the dominating powerful discourse. In order to keep definite advantages in binary gender opposition, males produce discourses in their favor to suppress females. Although Rochester knows the aim of Daniel Cosway is to get money, he still distrusts his wife and labels her as madness. Daniel Cosway’s malicious prosecution against Antoinette is a “fallacy”, but it is exploited by Rochester who has ruling power, which causes “fallacy” to turn into “truth”. No matter how Antoinette explains her childhood experience and her mother’s unfortunate encounter, Rochester still thinks that she is lying. Therefore, no matter how right Antoinette’s discourse is, it is doomed to be neglected and silenced, because it is the rational discourse that occupies the dominating power. But where is Rochester’s power from? As mentioned above, the source of his power is money, which he gets from Antoinette. When Rochester possesses money, he obtains power. Jean Rhys bitterly satirizes those so-called respectable members of the society who shamelessly pursue money through lowest and dirties means. It is noteworthy that the law that married women must give up their own property is a kind of extremely unequal discourse. . Women are dispossessed of their money by their husbands in this patriarchy society. Foucault reveals the in-depth relationships of power, laws and truth. Power creates and produces truth and truth enacts laws. In return, laws and truth strengthen power. Besides suppression from males, Antoinette is silenced by colonial power. As an Englishman, Rochester represents the colonist, while Antoinette the colonizer. Initially engaged by her beauty and sensuality, Rochester becomes increasingly annoyed by his failure to reach into her inner world. He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Victorian ideals. In taking away her identity he is destroying his wife as well as pushing her towards madness. Rochester imposes the name of Antoinette’s mad mother “Bertha” on his wife. “… on this of all nights, you must be Bertha” (Rhys 106). Through changing Antoinette’s name, Rochester is trying to deprive his wife of her last discourse power.

It can be concluded that Antoinette’s madness is merely the result of operation between power and discourse. On the one hand, she is silenced and marginalized because she lacks power in the rational world; while on the other hand, discourse which is controlled by power produces greater power.

4.2.2 Antoinette’s suffering in disciplinary society

Foucault believes there is a kind of power that is neither rude nor cruel, finally controlling the bodies according to its will by applying to bodies repeatedly. This type of power is nominated as discipline power. For Foucault, the prison plays the role of training, taming, and constraining individuals. Actually, prison is the miniature of the whole society. All the people in the society live in the prison because every member of the society has to be strictly surveilled, disciplined and manipulated.

In Wide Sargasso Sea, from her childhood, Antoinette is the subject to be surveilled. As a white Creole, Antoinette used to live on plantation. Her father is a former slave-owner. After the emancipation of slaves, her family becomes a target for hatred by those former black slaves. More unfortunately, after the death of her father, she and her mother are derided by native black people because of their poverty. Therefore, just like prisoners, she and her family are always surveilled by native people. Many details in this novel deal with surveillance. “Standing by the bamboo, she had a clear view to the sea, but anyone passing could stare at her. They stared, sometimes they laughed” (Rhys 5). Mother complains to Mr. Mason that “[they] try to find out what we eat every day” (Rhys 16). As Foucault points out that the discipline power is carried out by enforcing strict observation which is the technology that can not be observed easily. As the decline of slavery, Antoinette and her family have to live under the observation of power. This kind of chilling and stifling environment is a contributing factor to Antoinette’s tragedy. After Antoinette had married Rochester, such kind of monitoring does not disappear, but becomes serious. Her married life is closely monitored by her half brother Daniel who arranges Amelie around Antoinette. The “coincidence” that letters are sent to Rochester when Antoinette is far away indicates that Amelie is always watching Antoinette all of the time.

The more powerful way of discipline should be normalizing judgment. It is the technology to make normalizing judgments and to punish those who contravene the standards. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rochester who serves as a judge possesses the principal disciplinary power. Rochester’s ingrained superiority complex as an Englishman can be found clearly in many details. When he is attracted by Antoinette, he thinks that “[looking] smiling, she might have been a pretty English girl” (Rhys 50). For Rochester, no matter how beautiful Antoinette is, she still cannot meet his standard requirement, that is, an English girl. The cruel nature of normalizing judgment can be found when Antoinette is confined to a room in England. She has no right to do anything she wants, and even what she can dress is determined by Rochester. “Here is your grey wrapper. Why they can’t give you anything better is more than I can understand. They’re rich enough” (Rhys 149). Here, the grey wrapper is almost prison garb. Of course, Rochester does not care about money, but he uses “grey wrapper” to discipline Antoinette and makes her submit to his authority.

The use of examination, according to Foucault, helps to observe and to make normalizing judgments about them. First, Antoinette suffers strict examinations in words. After receiving Daniel Cosway’ letter, Rochester makes a detailed inquiry about Antoinette’s mad mother. Antoinette fails to earn his trust even if she explains it and makes a full confession again and again. Under such a harsh examination, Antoinette can not preserve any dignity or secrets. In addition, Antoinette’s body is also examined. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Grace Poole acts as an examiner to give Antoinette a normalizing gaze. Her strict examination to Antoinette is presented when she blames Antoinette for her attack to Richard. “And where did you get that knife? I told them you stole me but I am much too careful” (Rhys 146). It can be seen that Antoinette can not go outside and all her personal things are examined carefully by Mrs. Poole. Actually, Antoinette has no freedom and is like a prisoner living in a “cardboard house”.

“…a tendency towards a more finely tuned justice, towards a closer penal mapping of the social body…become more premature and numerous” (Foucault Discipline 78). A series of power discipline measures (supervision, normalizing judgment and examination) are imposed on Antoinette and further control her independence and freedom. Under such an oppressive environment, Antoinette is trapped into the edge of madness.

4.2.3 Antoinette’s Resistance to Power

Foucault thinks that where there is power, there is resistance. On the one hand power is sustained by discourse, on the other hand power produces discourse. But this does not mean that discourse is always in good terms with power. Although the mainstream discourse supports the overwhelming power in society, the reverse discourse is also active in Wide Sargasso Sea.

Although Rochester with his authorized discourse maintains the dominating power, Antoinette is not totally suppressed. Antoinette refuses to be called “Bertha”, the name of her mother. She clearly knows Rochester is “trying to make [her] into someone else, calling [her] by another one” (Rhys 115). Her screams, shrieks with laughter and wail, are all her resistance to the cruel and hypocritical world. She attacks manically Richard with knife when Richard visits her in England because she cannot bear his irresponsibility and chicanery any more. When Richard declares that he cannot interfere legally between Antoinette and Rochester, Antoinette is completely irritated by his hypocrisy and falsity. She “rushed at him with a knife” and “bit his arm” (Rhys 146). Readers can see that although Antoinette has lost her sense, she still hates the sordid and hideous real life. She is like a warrior springing up with a weapon in hand to fight against evils in life. She is not mad and she is defending righteousness.

Antoinette commits suicide in the end. Some readers may suppose that Antoinette’s death is the success of the authorized power; the silenced, marginalized woman like Antoinette is doomed to die. However, according to Foucault’s theory that where there is power, where is resistance, Antoinette’s death cannot be merely regarded as failure but resistance. On the contrary, it can be understood as a special strategy of resistance to Rochester’s dominance. It is Antoinette’s way of fighting back to avoid being controlled. Before she jumps into the fire, she has hallucination, in which she sees all kinds of things cherished in her deep memory and she is longing for love, freedom and dignity.

Antoinette’s death not only helps people realize the voices of those like Rochester who represents the ruling class, but also encourages people not to fear any evil forces so as to build a new ideal world. According to Foucault, power is not merely repressive but productive. Here, resistance to the manipulating power produces a kind of new power, which helps to build new ideals and new power relations. Maybe when more and more people realize the necessity of building a world with universal love, Antoinette will gain the dominating power and her ideal life will come true.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, Foucault’s theories about madness and power are applied into analyzing the madness of Antoinette. According to Foucault, madness is not a kind of illness but a judgment or a discourse which is named and signified by the dominating power. Instead of a natural phenomenon, madness is a result of social civilization. Antoinette loves Rochester, but when she loses her property and is slandered, her husband labels madness to her. Struck by the cruel fact, Antoinette gradually loses her sense. It is the society that forces Antoinette to lose her sense gradually. Rochester does not love his wife. After getting property from Antoinette, he drops the guise of gentle husband and becomes cruel and harsh. It is not Antoinette who is mad but Rochester, the civilized man.

Foucault further points out that madness is the result of invisible power operation. Discourse is generated and controlled by power. In return, power through generating and controlling discourse forces the less powerful little man into madness. On the one hand, her silenced and marginalized situation is due to her lack of power in the rational world; on the other hand, discourse which is controlled by power produces greater power. Suppressed by male discourse and colonial discourse, Antoinette loses her own voice and then has to be increasingly marginalized further. What’s more, there is disciplinary power everywhere to discipline and normalize people. The disciplinary power is omnipresent; Antoinette cannot escape the surveillance, normalizing judgment and examination. Through a series of disciplinary measures, Rochester cruelly controls Antoinette’s body and forces her to submit to his dominating authority. Antoinette is deprived of both property and freedom. As Foucault argues, where there is power, there is resistance. Antoinette would rather die than being normalized. Antoinette’s death is not negative but, contrary to popular perception, her death is particular resistance to the suppression and mistreatment, through which she preserves her dignity and independence.

The tragedy of Antoinette arouses people’s righteous attitude and sympathy towards madness. Also, through her brave resistance, Antoinette inspires people to defeat the stereotyped prejudices, standards and regulations and to build a world with universal love.

Works Cited

Baer, Elizabeth R. “The Sisterhood of Jean Rhys and Antoinette Cosway.” The Voyage in: Fictions of Female Development (1983): 131-148.

Ciolkowski, Laura E. “Navigating the Wide Sargasso Sea: Colonial History, English Fiction, and British Empire.” Twentieth Century Literature 43 (1977): 339-359.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.

---. Madness and Civilization. New York: Vintage Books, 1988.

Newman, Judie. The Ballistic Bard: Postcolonial Fictions. London: Edward Arnold, 1995.

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