However, she avoids simplistic relationships:. As representatives of the white planter class, these two characters display some similarities, but they contrast in their relative histories :. Antoinette's suitors form another contrasted pair, although one has his own substantial narrative and the other remains a shadowy figure whose relationship to Antoinette is never fully disclosed. Racial tensions as well as differences in the emotional bond between Antoinette and these two men are examined through this particular opposition.
As the most strongly contrasted pair of characters in the novel, their relationship acts as a focus for the story's key themes. Antoinette and Rochester represent one of the most basic of oppositions, man versus woman. A conventional set of oppositions around gender could look something like this:. Gender is always affected by cultural and historical circumstances and this is also made evident in Jean Rhys' representation of these two characters.
She shows how gendered oppositions are complicated by issues around cultural and racial difference in nineteenth century Caribbean society. Characters in the novel can also be fitted into this overall pattern and related to the novel's themes: Gender Race Identity Jean Rhys ensures that these oppositions are not simplistic by making some of them into mirror opposites, in which similarity co-exists with difference.
By Jean Rhys. Previous Next. Tia With friends like Tia, who needs enemies? What's Up With the Ending? Tired of ads? Join today and never see them again. Mason's son by his first marriage. After studying for several years in the Barbados, Richard moves to Spanish Town, where he negotiates Antoinette's marriage arrangements after his father's death.
Later, Richard visits the couple in England and hardly recognizes Antoinette as the madwoman locked in the attic. She flies at him in a delusional rage, cutting him with a secretly obtained knife. Maillotte's daughter and Antoinette's only childhood friend. At the water pool, Tia betrays Antoinette by taking her pennies and stealing her clothes.
Tia's disloyalty manifests the allure and corrupting power of money in the text. Like Mr. Mason and Mr. Rochester, she appears to covet money more than a loving relationship, whether it be a childhood friendship or a marriage. Antoinette's mentally and physically disabled younger brother.
While not explicitly stated, it is suggested that Pierre's illness is a result of inbreeding and physical decline in the Cosway family.
When the house at Coulibri is set on fire, Pierre is trapped in his burning room for some time, and he dies soon after. One of Annette Cosway's only friends after the death of her husband. Luttrell lives at Nelson's Rest, the estate that neighbors the Cosway home. Suffering financial hardship in the wake of the Emancipation Act, in sudden desperation he shoots his dog and swims out to sea, never to be seen again.
Distant relatives finally reclaim Mr. Luttrell's abandoned estate. One of servants at Granbois, the overseer of the mansion. Baptiste is a dignified man of advanced age.
One of the old Cosway servants who stays on after the master's death. Godfrey is considered a greedy and untrustworthy "rascal," at least in Annette's view.
He makes constant allusions to death and damnation. One of the servants who has been at Coulibri for several years, ever since his mother abandoned him there as a child. Sass leaves the estate when Annette's money runs out, but he returns when Mr.
Mason arrives. Annette distrusts Sass, believing him to be greedy and self-serving. A woman who answers an advertisement placed by Mrs. Eff for a servant to look after the deranged Antoinette. Grace is promised twice as much as the other household servants as long as she keeps her mouth shut and guards Antoinette well.
Sharing the same garret space with Antoinette, Grace drinks frequently, often falling asleep with the garret key in plain view of her captor and charge. The cook employed by Antoinette's husband. Leah is one of only three servants who know about the woman in the attic. An incarnation of Mrs. Fairfax and the head housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. While Mrs. Eff never appears in the novel, Grace mentions her in her conversation with Leah. The head instructor at the convent school. Mother St. Justine tells the girls about the lives of female saints, instructs them on manners and cleanliness, and teaches them how to be proper Christian ladies.
Like Christophine, a black servant who distinguishes herself by not being Jamaican. Maillotte is Tia's mother and Christophine's only friend.
SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Character List Antoinette Christophine Mr.
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