One of the most controversial elements of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 classic novel Jane Eyre was its racist depiction of Mr.
One of the most controversial elements of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 classic novel Jane Eyre was its racist depiction of Mr. Rochester’s first wife, a Creole heiress from the Caribbean whom he eventually moved to England, declared mad and kept locked up in his attic. Jean Rhys wrote Wide Sargasso Sea as the feminist and postcolonial response to the “madwoman in the attic” trope, telling the story from Antoinette Cosway’s necessary perspective instead. As educators increasingly make efforts to teach wider perspectives, Wide Sargasso Sea has become a classic text in its own right.