The relationship between men and women, and the differences in their role in society, are central considerations in many works of literature. Discuss the part they plan in Wide Sargasso Sea.

Thesis- Through rhetoric, setting, and the characterization of Rochester, author Jean Rhys brings to light the struggles of her protagonist Antoinette, and by extension womankind. In doing so, Rhys draws attention to the injustices of a patriarchal society and a world in which men would dominate, dictate societal norms, and be allowed to enforce them.

Body 1- With the aid of rhetoric, Rhys establishes the matter of gender equality, educating readers on Antoinette's history on the subject and its generational implications. 

·      The profusion of analepses in Wide Sargasso Sea demonstrates the longevity of the gender struggle as it reveals that Annette was beset similar life occurrences to that of Antoinette.

Body 2- Through the character of Rochester, Rhys into question the patriarchal assumptions that define her society, paradoxically presenting Rochester as a victimizer and victim of the patriarchal order.

·      Rochester’s relationship with his father.

·      The imaginary and actual letter he sends his father.

·      Adds further spatial dimension to the conflict, alternate perspective- that of a man looking in.

·      In spite of being at a disadvantage, he does not question the law (primogeniture) that deprived him of the rights of his name. On the contrary he easily fits in the role assigned to him by patriarchal society and reenacts the power in the relationship of his own wife. He had been raised under this ideology and responded blindly to the deadly mechanism. 

Body 3- The power struggle develops against the backdrop of a natural setting which both enchanting embodies the hidden, essentially unconquerable core of the oppressed land/ women.

·      Rochester’s attitude to his married conditions as well as to his new environment is shown by the carful choice of lexical and structural elements. Lexical items with negative conations

·      Verbless sentences for the description of an environment with which character does not interact//Point to a stasis an arrest of movement, a focus on the paradigm in preference over the mobility of syntagm.

·      Classification of verbal processes in Roches narrative (chapter 1) allow define main trait of narrator mental picture of his reality the way in which he make sense of what happens around him and what role he assumes in the circumstances.

·      Not concerned action rather thinking, feeling and perceiving. He observes and describes environment as well as action and reactions of other characters. The kind of verbs sued help build his figure as passive observer of the action that takes place in environment

·      This attitude of non-committal and detachment summarized in the sentences “ I had agreed, as I had agreed to everything else.” Passive voice highlights characters estrangement from circumstances in which find involved.

·      Lack of rapport between him and the environment, highlighted by the use of contrast- he can’t think of a positive quality without mentioning a negative one.

Conclusion- The mingling of these mingling perspectives serves as a means of avoiding a narrow, intolerant vision of life, shows that the white middle-class male experience is not the truth against which one can measure reaction but only a partial viewpoint enforced by power constructions// Thus Rhys's use of gender equality deconstructs the aforementioned ethnocentric viewpoint with the aim of reestablishing a sense of proportion.