Narrative Voice in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea Anonymous 12th Grade

In a first-person narrative reflecting on the past, like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or Jean Rhys’ expansion thereof, Wide Sargasso Sea, the presentation of the memories which constitute the story immensely affects the thematic impact of the work by reflecting the narrator's feelings about their experiences. In the aforementioned novels, both narrators’ memories are colored by their own impressions of particular times in their lives; thus, the tone that each speaker uses reflects their circumstances at the time, and their respective fates as a whole. Specifically, it reflects Jane’s eventual happiness with Rochester, Antoinette’s perpetual isolation, and Rochester’s entrapment in his marriage.

Both novels begin when the narrator is a child trapped in an unaccepting, isolating environment. As children, they both naturally have an imperfect grasp on their surroundings. Both accounts give a somewhat disjointed, distorted narrative, which the reader understands is not entirely trustworthy; however, it is important to distinguish that Antoinette’s narration is far more so than Jane’s. Her narrative skips suddenly from one event to another, and from specific instances to generalizations of her life and descriptions of the scenery...