Power and position: exploring the post-colonial women and men in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea

Abstract

Women have always been the object of oppression from the very beginning. Due to men and women having different natural biological structures, it is believed that they are assigned with different roles in society. As colonization took place, it only added to women’s misery. Not only were women colonized by the imperial power but also by the male-dominated society. Thus, they became victims of double colonization. In the name of civilization, the West were abusing and destroying the East. It was as if the people of the East were not human beings at all and rather an inferior breed of humanity. Women were now triply colonized, with the burden of not only colonization and gender discrimination, but also due to their race. It was power which dictated the position of women in the society. My thesis will explore the two contrapuntal Post-Colonial novels, Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. The different nature and personalities of Jane and Antoinette, being in the same society as well as Rochester’s character showing two different types of male in the patriarchal society, is evident in these novels. My thesis aims to investigate and explore if the characters Jane and Antoinette represent the notion of typical subjugated females in a patriarchal society or if they show a rebellion against societal norms and be able to change their position in the society. It will also help to reveal, if the character of Rochester represents a typical patriarchal dominating male of the society or not.