“No Means No !”- Analysis of Wide Sargasso Sea concerning # Me Too Movement
Introduction:-
The “Me Too” movement, focuses on the experiences of sexual violence survivors, on the response of sexual harassment and sexual assault. If people are more aware of sexual harassment and how it is treated, then tolerance will decrease, and support for victims will rise.
In The Pink Movie Loyer (Amitabh Bachchan ) Explain about “No Means No” that No is Not a word but it is a statement it does not need any Explanation if someone is telling No then it means No. If the speaking Lady is Friend, Girlfriend, Sex worker or wife “ No Means No”.
It is about social change, through social media, where it’s known as #MeToo. It was founded in 2006, it became online in late 2017 when several high-profile actresses opened up about their experiences with sexual harassment in the film industry. Tarana Burke, an American social activist, began to use the phrase “Me too” on the social networking platform to highlight the sexual harassment, it targeted women. Burke argues that the Me Too movement works on empowerment through empathy by showing the world just how common sexual harassment is and by telling survivors that they aren’t alone and are supported.
Analysis of Wide Sargasso Sea concerning # Me Too Movement:-
English Literature has been studied from various angles. Yet there are more hidden aspects that need to be explored to understand this novel. This research aims at exploring the growth of the protagonist.
“It is self-evident that not all sex is rape or should be criminalized as such since the criminalization of rape for which feminists fought would lose all meaning without a rape / not rape distinction.” ( Mardorossian)
Yes, I also agree with this argument that It does not mean that “All Sex is Rape”.It derives from “individual choice ” is not criminalized. A humanist rather than a legalistic understanding of power dynamics defining that sexualized violence is to the “making of culture”.
So, Rochester's sexual play with black servants is not to be criminalized because that sexual play was not done forcefully it was done with their individual choice if that was done without concern then it might be Rape.
Rape culture was started in the 19th century. Black women being stereotyped and victimized through sexual violence was invisible and Black male body Rape was brought to the public agenda as a serious, criminal issue.
“It was a large presence but she took it with no thanks and no expression on her face” (140)) when Antoinette calls him out for the small sum his present entailed. His behavior actually prompts Antoinette to make the following link explicit “You abused the planters and made up stories about them, but you do the same thing. You send the girl away quicker, and with no money or less money, and that’s all the difference”. ( Mardorossian)
By this statement, it is clear that Rochester's stages with Amelie are not Rape but it was a mutual desire. After that Rochester gave money to Amelia but she tell him No thanks and No Expression so, which means that Amelia does not want money or No less money.
Using Fanon White Skin, Black Masks on race consciousness, this paper argues against expecting or requiring a clear stance on the issue or even posing it as a dilemma. Reading Fanon as employing an existential-phenomenological methodology allows us to see how he exposes injustice by writing about the experience and projecting a future shared community of hope and freedom without a clear indication of the role our group identities might play. (Cusick)
Fanon’s “Black skim”, “White mask ”is connected with this novel and there is the reference of “white nigger”& “ White cockroach ”in that the main protagonist is frightened after seeing a white cockroach in the novel by that it tries to say that women do not deal with the small creature. In the next part it also saw that how women look beautiful in a white dress so, his husband wanted her wife to wear a white dress because he wants her wife's pretty by that it's clear that there is no liberty of women thought or women opinion. According to a man’s mood, she has to behave.
Black criminals get punished for the same crime at a higher rate and more harshly than white. Black women have to suffer a lot from the Man and others from white people because she is Black. In society, men are getting more prevelaze than women because they are having more power. Rape is not about race .rape and race both are totally different things . White women and Black women are used and abused for the re-enactments of racial superiority. Black on white v/s White on white rape. Black on white rape is anxiety and consolidation and on the other side white on white rape is no less harsh but it is rape.
It is clear that sexual Violence is race-based rather than gender-based and white women are suffering for years in silence alongside. There is any possibility of Rape that whether the “Rape ”of white women was consensual sex or not ? and if it is consensual sex then it is not rape. Black-on-white rape was real or fabricated. It is always seen that Women have to pay the price.
Thus, the objective of the paper is not only to contrast the symbolic from the semiotic in the narratives but also to show the breakdown or over-throwing of the “symbolic” in the “social law” of the Wide Sargasso Sea in the end. ( Sarkar)
It discourses the “general Social Law” of the patriarchal, colonizing society and the multiple narratives of their expressions in the colonized society. From the Novel “Bertha” the character is the contrast between the patriarchal. In reality, this character does not exist at all but Rochester is inventing this character to fell Antoinette mad woman so, he wants to play a mind game with here wife and wanted to manipulate her mind so, she can think that what is happening with her and does not take a stand for her rights. It brings the symbolic, semiotic narrative to this paper. In this Novel when Antionetee is frightened from two rates that represent white England. Till the end, Antoinette does not submit to his authority.
It also represents that how the authoritatively patriarchal society of husbands. who just wants her wife to follow his rules if she wants to do something for herself then also she needs to take permission from her family and after her marriage, she has to take permission from her husband. she is not free to put her point in the novel also same things are happening to Antoinette she is first controlled by his family his husband. When women say “I Hate u ” It proves the breakdown of the “Symbolic ”and a shift in the “White male” narration to become almost “disoriented ” and filled with silences and gaps to mimic the “” Semiotic” narration. Semiotic prevails over the symbolic. The epilogue does not belong to the girl Antoinette, with whom the novel began, it belongs to the stranger “Bertha” to whom the reader is not familiarized. “Bertha ”does not exist but when her husband was provoking him calling him Bertha then she got the power to fight against his cruel behavior and in the end, she has then her revenge and gave him the punishment that he deserve.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rochester uses his power and causes Antoinette to feel her lack of body. Rochester has regarded Antoinette as deficient and he thinks that Antoinette has to choose to become silent and stay in the attic because he has the power. Rochester sees Antoinette as unstable, dangerous, less intelligent, and inferior. Antoinette’s situation is described as an absence, like lack and incompleteness. Rochester, ignoring two women's thoughts and emotions, uses his phallus power. His phallus plays a foundational role in the roots of the difference between Rochester and Antoinette. This difference is supported by patriarchy; this patriarchy uses its own language in the world. (günenç)
This statement analyzes women’s situation, madness, and women's struggle in a patriarchal society. Madness is a result of patriarchy and male-dominated societies. Antoinette has shameful and invisible life but at the same time, her madness is a protestation against society. Antoinette loss her temper because she was portrayed as a prostitute, evil, or madwoman. On the other side, his husband was calling him by another name “Bertha”. Women should start to use their own language in the world. she should be the subject of her sentences because the subject is a function of the Language. The male role in the language is different from the of women. She fit herself in the Phallocentric world. The malady is called madness in History. Man and Women's identities are shaped in the masculine perspective. If the Women Reject oppressive structures and powers so they are called mad.
In this Novel Annette depends on her husband and follows all things which her husband is telling, if they accept tradition then they are mad. When Antoinette learns the truth and when she tried to show it to society then she is mad. so, how women can not easily put her point in front of society and when she tries to go against her husband then she has to face many problems as in this Novel When women try to rebel again his husband then she is put in Attic for ten years.
There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now.
Antoinette is locked in the attic with Grace Poole. She has lost all sense of self and everything is confused. Her isolation has caused her to lose track of time and place and her past. She exists at the moment with only fleeting and confused recollections of the past. She was locked in Attic for a long time that was a resume that she react like this and burn her house.
Everything was bright or dark. The walls, the blazing colors of the flowers in the garden, the nuns’ habits were bright, but their veils, the Crucifix hanging from their waists, the shadow of the trees, were black. That was how it was; light and dark, sun and shadow, Heaven and hell, for one of the nuns knew all about Hell, and who doesn’t? (1968: 48). ( Wickramagamage)
Here, Antoinette’s confused mood is tried to be represented using motifs as brightness/dark, sun/shadow, and heaven and hell. I mean Antoinette tries to find light, brightness just because she needs them so much however the dark or tragic side of life has already been shaped for Antoinette
Women should know their rights and use their rights in an appropriate manner not to harm people. she should be educated so, she will be aware of the things going on in the world as compared to men. She should write about their identity without being under the influence of male writers and literature this way women can struggle with patriarchal societies and their laws.
The first novel Wide Sargasso Sea contains women’s silence, madness, feminist theories, political and racial oppression against patriarchy. (Jiang)
In This Novel, Bartha is a victim of patriarchy and colonialism. women’s social reality is shaped by gender Female experience in Literature is also gender. In The world, women are getting less privileged in comparison to men. women are inferior to men and lack independence and do not have their own sense of self. Feminists view it as not only women who become oppressed but also Black, poor people who are oppressed in a patriarchal society. Feminist deals with not only gender but also race, Religion, Nationality, Culture, and Age.
In the Novel, Bartha became the victim of colonialism just because she was a white creole. Bartha's situation highlights the need for female emancipation and racial equality in patriarchal and colonial societies.
This Novel represents the voice of women in any historical period of protesting patriarchy and oppression. No matter in 19th-century women searching for independence and equality it refers to Bartha.
Conclusion:-
So, it is clear that how Antoinette was treated as badly by his Family then his Husband, and after marriage also she was not happy because his husband does not trust him he feels that she is hiding about her past but, she has already mentioned her past . Her husband put her in Attic for ten years and then she lost her passion and then at the end she burn the house. by doing that she also feels that now she is able to take revenge for all things from which she has gone throw. This Me too Movement is also about the same type of approach that if woman has faced any sexual harassment then she should take her to stand.
Works Cited
Mardorossian, Carine. "#Metoo in Wide Sargasso Sea." researchgate (2020): 23. web.
Sarkar, Ausmita. "Feminist Theory in Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea." Researchgate (2017): 7. web. 21 December 2021. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335652551_Feminist_Theory_in_Rhys's_Wide_Sargasso_Sea>.
Wickramagamage, Carmen . "An/other Side to Antoinette/Bertha: Reading ‘Race’ into Wide Sargasso Sea." Reserchgate (2000): 5. web.
Cusick, Carolyn Marie. "Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks on Race Consciousness." Reserchgate (2007): 5. web. 21 December 2021. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295683686_Fanon%27s_Black_Skin_White_Masks_on_Race_Consciousness>.
günenç, Mesut . "Against Society: Women s Language, Body and Madness in Wide Sargasso Sea and Sula." Reserchgate (2015): 7. web. 22 December 2021. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283341660_Against_Society_Women_s_Language_Body_and_Madness_in_Wide_Sargasso_Sea_and_Sula>.
Jiang, Qian. "A Comparative Study of Bertha Mason in lJane Eyrer and lWide Sargasso Sear from a Feminist Perspective." reserchgate (2018): 5. web. 23 December 2021. <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326663886_A_Comparative_Study_of_Bertha_Mason_in_lJane_Eyrer_and_lWide_Sargasso_Sear_from_a_Feminist_Perspective>.
