What's in a Name?

In Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, the names of the characters can reveal a lot about the plot and their own personalities or motives. Antoinette’s name gives meaning to her own character and also reveals some of Rochester’s feelings towards her. Antoinette’s name is very similar to her mother’s name, Annette. I feel like Antoinette sees her name as part of who she is, it shows her culture and place where she grew up which could give her a sense of at least somewhat belonging to a group of people.

The name also connects her to her mother, which is a positive thing in Antoinette’s view but a negative thing for everyone else looking at her (including Rochester). Antoinette might appreciate this connection to her mother, since Annette herself didn’t show any love towards Antoinette it could give Antoinette a sense of belonging to the family that she wouldn’t have otherwise. Other people see Antoinette as following in her mother’s footsteps and eventually going off with an Englishman and going mad, so the name just adds to that idea that Antoinette will eventually become Annette since they are such similar names.

Rochester sees the name Antoinette as connecting her to this history and location that he doesn’t appreciate and also as further evidence that Antoinette is in fact on the same path as Annette and going crazy. He begins to call her Bertha, which sounds much simpler than French-sounding name of Antoinette, it seems like a “proper” name for an English woman. At first when I read that, I saw it as Rochester trying to avoid calling Antoinette any name that resembled Annette (which clearly wouldn’t hurt or help her being driven to madness but it seems almost like a good-luck-charm just to make him feel better about the situation), but it also shows him disregarding her past and stripping it away from her by renaming her to essentially turn Antoinette into the new, English woman that he wants her to be. Without the name of Antoinette, it could be hard for her to hold onto her identity.

Comments

  1. AnikaNovember 17, 2017 at 5:04 PM

    This is a really interesting post. I never really thought about what how Antoinette's name affected the story. I like your point that Antoinette's name is something positive to her but negative to Rochester. It's weird that Antoinette appreciates her name because her mother was never nurturing towards her and pretty much shunned her. Whenever she was young and with her family she never seemed to feel safe so it's interesting that she still embraces her name despite the connotations that it has.

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  2. TinaNovember 17, 2017 at 8:07 PM

    Yeah, I definitely agree about how names hold so much weight in Wide Sargasso Sea. For one, just think of how Rochester's own name isn't revealed. It not only keeps readers of Jane Eyre in the dark for a little while, but also (possibly) hints at Rochester's insecurities about his own identity and how out of place he feels in Jamaica. When he tries to impose the name Bertha onto Antoinette, like you said, he's trying to turn her into this English woman and fundamentally change who she is. Like we discussed in class, and like you mentioned, "Antoinette" is way more lyrical and French-y than Bertha (which is pretty plain and unimpressive). Perhaps along with wanting Antoinette to be more English, Rochester also wishes she were more submissive and less vibrant (more dull?)? Since in Jamaica, she's way more confident and at ease, and able to express her feelings and sexuality?

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  3. Tim ChoNovember 18, 2017 at 7:37 PM

    I definitely saw Rochester calling Antoinette Bertha as an effort by Rochester to control Antoinette, which is one of the big reasons for their failed relationship. In addition to stripping away her past and her identity, this action shows how cold-hearted Rochester is about how Antoinette feels. By calling Antoinette Bertha, Rochester shows an unwillingness to cooperate with Antoinette or his new environment which may have to do with his English pride. This seemingly simple action of changing her name certainly has big implications like you outlined in your post.

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  4. Abraham HanNovember 18, 2017 at 9:44 PM

    The significance of the name Antoinette was quite surprising to me as I didn't realize just how much it had to do with her identity until Rochester started calling her Bertha. I also didn't think about how Antoinette would associate her name to her mother, and is also her way of holding onto her lost family. I think that the conflict between Rochester and Antoinette over her name was quite intense as I think that's when the real larger conflicts between the two began to occur. It was quite scary to see how Rochester was trying to shape Antoinette into something else.

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  5. Annemily HogansonNovember 18, 2017 at 9:54 PM

    I definitely agree that Antoinette's name is really important to the story both because of the connection to her mother and because Rochester tries to control her by changing it. I also think that Antoinette doesn't have a lot of things in her life to help support her identity because she doesn't have any really supportive group of people. That makes her name even more important because it is a key part of her fairly shaky sense of self.

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  6. CatalinNovember 30, 2017 at 8:33 AM

    This is an interesting point. I definitely agree that Antoinette's name is a big part of her identity. It connects her with her mother, who she has difficulty connecting with even though everyone else associates them. Antoinette's name could also be a sign of class, with the name Antoinette often being associated with Marie Antoinette, a Queen of France. This sign of class could definitely come into play with Antoinette's relations with others in Jamaica that don't have the same social standing as she does, such as Christophine and Tia.

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