Research Paper on:
Medea, Wide Sargasso Sea, and Gender Roles

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Although Jean Rhyss Wide Sargasso Sea could be described as delineating a straightforward  contrast between authoritarian male and passive female figures, in actuality the novel presents a much more complex series of contrasts, drawing on cultural and ethnic differences as well as those  of gender. It is true that particularly in the latter part of the text we see Rochester as a domineering, authoritative figure with seemingly unlimited power over Antoinettes physical body,  her economic assets and, ultimately, her sanity, and from this it might reasonably be deduced that Rhys intends him to represent the domination of male over female, colonial over colonised,  rich over poor. In addition, there is constantly present in Rhyss novel the subtext of Jane Eyre: although we see Rochesters character change and develop under the influence of Caribbean  culture and his interaction with Antoinette, we are also continually aware of the way he will later relate to Jane, and his domination of her which she accepts far more  readily, due to her cultural upbringing, than does Antoinette. However, the  dynamics of the power relationship between them is more complicated than a simple balance between active and passive: at the start of their relationship, for instance, it is Antoinette who  has the greater degree of power. He sees the island as alien, whereas to her it is familiar ground; he is weakened by fever, whereas she is physically strong; he  cannot understand, and does not wish to understand, island culture, whereas despite her increasing sense of alienation (which she later articulates as feeling like a white cockroach .. a white