Ever since Rochester has appeared in the novel, starting in part 2, I have felt that he is an emotionally confused character. I am not saying that he is sick (mentally, not physically), but rather confused. Confused because he doesn’t know what is going on in his life. In a primogeniture society, Rochester is the second son, and thus will not be inheriting any of the family estate/money (interestingly enough, primogeniture is still active, even as of today, in the case of the British Crown Hierarchy). Rochester comes to the society in which Antoinette has been residing for so long as a completely new person. Although he does feel superior and does have some self-confidence, it is not anywhere near the confidence of Mr. Mason. Rochester doesn’t understand the terms of the society and the ways that the society resides in. I guess that in this manner he is almost similar to Mr. Mason as he doesn’t understand the black community like Antoinette does. This is another way he is confused: why is Antoinette so close to these people (not sure he considers them people, but anyways), why does she feel o.k. around the company of these people? Because of his ripe and inexperienced age, he isn’t able to answer these questions, that look so easy to answer by the reader. This puts him in utmost dilemma. This dilemma, is causing issues with Antoinette. It appears that Antoinette is unhappy with the way her marriage is going. She is unable to cope up with this and is not understanding what to do with this. I feel sad because her life is just constantly full of tragedies: her real father died when she is really small, leaving the family in disgrace, her house is burned down in the fire, she loses one of her ‘best friends’ upon the burning of the fire, she loses her disabled brother in the fire, and her mother after being proclaimed mad by society is put in an asylum where she later dies. Its full of tragedies, and what's left to see is where the story takes us? Will the marriage between Antoinette and Rochester turn out in a lovey-dovey relationship or will it take a sharp Stranger/Metamorphosis tragic turn? We can only find out in a couple of days.
ReplyDelete(I looked but couldn’t find the page, it was somewhere in the 20s where there was a dream that Antoinette had that her marriage will be full of hate. That was interesting, I will try and report if I find it..)
In response to your thoughts on how Rodchester is completely new to Antionette's society…I think that his sense of superiority and self-confidence is grounded in doubts about his new role. When Rodchester marries Antionette he is a young man, fresh from England, I presume he has never really been completely independent and making his own decisions entirely. I think that when he comes to the Caribbean he is deeply unsure of how to navigate his new role--and to cover this up, turns to self-superiority and justification--part of why he begins to not be as nice to Antionette, and eventually does things that completely go against a moral code.
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