Double Colonization in Wide Sargasso Sea and The Color Purple

Kübra ARICAN

Introduction

The aim of this study is to analyse the ways through which double colonization functions physically and ideologically in the tragic married lives of the protagonists Antoinette/Bertha in Wide Sargasso Sea and Celie in The Color Purple. The main question to examine in this study will be how colonial and patriarchal oppressions influence the female characters and the risky choices they feel that they have to make at important crossroads in their lives.

Both novels have a lot in common in terms of colonial dominance, gender relations and gender oppressions. I argue that double colonization in these novels oppress the female protagonists both as women and colonial objects. In spite of their different backgrounds, there are interesting similarities between their lives as they both experience similar setbacks in their social relationships and marriages. Women are considered as “the other” second class citizens both by the colonial power and the patriarchal structure that surround them. They are constantly exposed to physical, psychological, and racial antagonism and abuses which can be categorized in terms of gender and race. In addition to the common denominators of colonial and gender oppression, another feature that makes the comparison of these novels intriguing is the fact that both of these novels were published quite close in time.

The Concept of Double Colonization

“Double colonization” is a postcolonial feminist term firstly introduced by Kirsten Holst Petersen and Anna Rutherford in their book A Double Colonization: Colonial and Postcolonial Women's Writing. In the ‘Foreword’ to their book, Peterson and Rutherford claim that “[t]he colonial world has no place for a woman” (9), and they discuss further the unjust approach against women by the colonial discourse. June Hannam also states that feminism takes it as a given that “women are subordinate to men and seek[s] to address imbalances of power between the sexes” (2007: 3,4). Like many other postcolonial feminists, Hannam is concerned about women’s invisibility and subjection as postcolonial texts do not represent the female voices and ignore their subjectivity as individuals with an independent will of their own. Moreover, as Loomba suggests, master narratives “had hidden women from history” (2015: 33). Women’s voices must be heard, that is, they must speak for themselves as free agents capable of self-rule. Chandra Talpade Mohanty claims that Western feminist discourse positions Third World women as “ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, religious, domesticated, family-oriented” (65). As a result, women in general are doubly repressed owing to their historical background and gender, and posited as marginal, voiceless, and lost by their oppressors.

Patriarchy is an essential partner in crime as regards double colonization. Gilligan and Richards describe it as a hierarchical structure that “elevates some men over other men and all men over women” (2018: 10). The authority changes hand from the dominant ruling system to patriarchy and from the patriarchy to the men while otherizing women. Thus, in addition to colonial discourse, it is important to deal with gender hierarchy to understand the social status of women and oppose inequity as women are degraded by both colonial and patriarchal mentality.

Introducing the novels

In the 19th century, The British colonial rule unquestionably depended on a one-sided power relationship and oppression many peoples and their territory around the world, including the Caribbean where Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea is set. Rhys is known to write this novel as a postcolonial response to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre; she wanted to make Bertha visible since she was only a “mad” ghost in Jane Eyre. So, in this colonized and diseased patriarchal society, Rhys gives voice to the silent Antoinette (Bertha) who is a “mad” Creole woman married to an English man. As Antoinette’s husband Mr. Rochester has the western idea of genetic superiority to other people, he wants Antoinette to keep silent and stay in the attic which leads to her psychological breakdown and finally death.

The Color Purple also focuses on the conditions of colonized women in the 20th century. The novel is set in South America and depicts the life of a black girl, Celie who tells the story through her letters to God and to her sister Nettie. Celie is married to a black man who desires a wife who would only take care of his home. Although Mr. _____ is black, he perpetrates the ideological patterns of the white men and exercises the patriarchal colonial authority over his black wife. One of the ways for a man to prove his power over a woman is to subject her to psychological or physical violence. He exploits Celie physically by constantly beating and sexually abusing her.

A Comparison of Double Colonization in Marriage

Both female protagonists, Antoinette and Celie are subordinated by colonial and patriarchal dominance throughout the novel, experiencing similar struggles because of their race and gender. As a white Creole, Antoinette’s situation in Wide Sargasso Sea was no different than that of many other white Creole women living in the West Indies in the 19th century while Celie’s situation in The Color Purple was no different than that of many other African American women living in the South America in the first half of the 20th century.

In fact, double colonization is a theoretical approach that usually refers to black women. However, in Antoinette’s case, she is also doubly colonized and made to feel displaced and isolated. The reason behind this situation can be understood from Jerome Branche’s explanation that Creoleness is a “mixed culture” (2008: 267) and this mixed group of people were positioned between white people (the highest) and black people (the lowest) in the racial hierarchy. Also, they were classified as white Creoles (who were born in the West Indies) and black Creoles (who were also born in the West Indies, but descendants of black Africans). Black Creoles had, as Edward Bean Underhill points out, so much rage against white population in the 1830s because they saw white Creoles as foreigners (2010: 225). Thus, white Creoles like Antoinette could neither belong to the white community nor to the black community. That’s why, Antoinette always became an outsider for her black childhood friend Tia and her white English husband Mr. Rochester.

In the first lines of the book, Antoinette’s statement “[t]hey say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. But we were not in their ranks” (5) is striking as she draws a line between “them” and “white Europeans” feeling a total sense of alienation in her own world. Also, Antoinette’s description of her mother as “without a doubt not English, but no white nigger either” (18) is another example that shows their complex racial situation of belonging nowhere. Although she was an only a child during those times, she also explains that black people hate them and call white Creoles “white cockroach” (9). Her black friend Tia’s attitude towards Antoinette and expressions “real white people, they got gold money… and black nigger better than white nigger” proves the hatred of black people against white Creoles.

The fire scene might be the most influential event in the novella that reveals black hostility against white Creoles. According to historical records, similar burning events in those times were caused by former slaves in their masters’ houses. In this fire, while they were trying to escape, Tia’s throwing a rock to Antoinette’s head becomes a tragic moment that she will never forget. Most importantly, the family’s beloved parrot Coco couldn’t survive that fire as Mr. Mason (her English stepfather) had cut his wings. I believe that Coco metaphorically symbolizes the displacement and tragic fall of Antoinette. Coco asks “Qui est la?” (22) (Who am I?), and similarly Antoinette asks herself “What am I doing in this place and who am I?” (117). We can infer that she feels her wings had been cut by her “superior” husband as she was gradually getting closer to death.

In Celie’s case, whites’ racial segregation towards African Americans was in its peak in the early to the mid 20th century that led to the Civil Rights Movements, also known as the Second Construction. During this compelling period, riots and boycotts spread throughout the South. In the shadow of these events, Celie was marginalized in Jim Crow’s racially prejudiced society, by the person whom she thought was her father and the man whom she chose to marry. That is, the cruelty she was exposed to continued during the second step of her life, her marriage.

Unfortunately, this is the case for both women protagonists. Antoinette does not learn from her mother and white stepfather’s marriage, and when she gets older, she makes a risky decision to marry Mr. Rochester in the hope of attaining better living conditions as he is English and wealthy. Antoinette is desperate to belong somewhere and she expects that Mr. Rochester will serve her fit in the society. On the other hand, Celie, with the intention of escaping from her father’s sexual abuse, offers herself to Mr. _____ even though he has declared that he wants to marry Nettie. After Celie’s marriage to Mr. _____, Nettie runs away from the house to her freedom. Compared to Celie’s life, this decision leads to a healthier life for Nettie. If Celie had walked away from the house with Nettie instead of marrying Mr. _____ to escape rape, she might not have experienced abuse and tyranny. Nevertheless, these unfortunate marriages double racial oppression with gender oppression. Both Mr. Rochester and Mr. _____ degrade their wives in numerous ways. For instance, with a colonial point of view, Mr. Rochester sees Antoinette’s Creole heritage and her culture inferior and starts to call Antoinette an English name “Bertha.” By doing so, he tries to control and silence her in a patriarchal way because names signify our origins and who we are. We can understand that Antoinette feels lost and turns into someone she cannot identify with as she states “Bertha is not my name. You are trying to make me into someone else, calling me by another name” (95).

Similarly, Mr. _____ criticizes Celie by telling “Look at you. You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, You nothing at all” (187). His insulting her as a poor black woman, although he himself is black, is a paradoxical denial of his own identity. Undoubtedly, he mimics the oppression that he has learned from white colonists, upholding not only patriarchy but also gender supremacy in his marriage. This attitude of Mr. _____ shows how racial oppression permeated through the relationships even amongst blacks themselves. Celie’s calling him “Mr.” also indicates his sovereignty. Different from Antoinette, Celie is exposed to sexual abuse and physical violence. Mr. _____ beats her often as he believes that it is the best way of controlling a wife, which is an advice he also gives to his son. Celie, in one of her letters, expresses male dominion and subjection to Nettie as “you know wherever there’s a man, there’s trouble” (186).

Both Mr. Rochester and Mr. _____ try to isolate their wives to prevent them from getting any help or protection. Mr. Rochester explains his disapproval of Antoinette’s close relationship with Christophine, who is the old and respected servant given to her mother as a wedding gift a long time ago and the only person who really supports her. And, Mr. _____ does not let Celie get in touch with her sister Nettie by hiding their letters. This is their way of making women isolated, invisible and voiceless while assuming a position of total authority because Mr. Rochester and Mr. _____ see support from families and friends as a threat to their patriarchal hegemony. This proves right for Celie’s situation: the closer she gets to Shug Avery and Sofia the more she challenges Mr. _____ ‘s dominance, and she feels no longer isolated at the end. Shug Avery, who is a singer and Mr. _____’s longtime mistress, and Sofia, who is Mr. _____’s son’s wife, are the two strong female figures that Celie becomes close friends with. In contrast to Celie, Antoinette cannot get a strong female support and tragically goes mad as she loses her self-esteem due to colonial and patriarchal repression. Her life ends locked up in the attic at her husband’s house in England. As a result, the very risky choices of husbands, which both women believe to be necessary, caused them to invite the oppression they were subjected to both racially and sexually at the center of lives.

Works Referenced

Branche, Jerome. Race, Colonialism, and Social Transformation in Latin America and the Caribbean. University Press of Florida, 2008.

Gilligan, Carol, and David A. J. Richards. Darkness Now Visible: Patriarchys Resurgence and Feminist Resistance. Cambridge University Press., 2018.

Hannam, June. Feminism. Longman, 2006.

Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. 3rd ed., Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.’ Feminist Review, no. 30, 1988, pp. 61–88. www.jstor.org/stable/1395054. Accessed 23 Feb., 2020.

Petersen, Kirsten Holst and Anna Rutherford. Foreword. A Double Colonization: Colonial and Post-Colonial Women’s Writing, by Petersen and Rutherford, Dangaroo Press, 1986, pp 9-10.

Rhys, J. Wide Sargasso Sea. London: Penguin Books, 1997.

Underhill, Edward Bean. The West Indies Their Social and Religious Condition. Cambridge University Press, 2010

Walker, A. The Color Purple.New York: Penguin Books, 2017.

Biography

Kübra ARICAN is from Turkey. Kübra ARICAN graduated from English Language and Literature in 2011, and since then has been working as an instructor at the School of Foreign Languages, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University. At the moment, Kübra ARICAN is writing their master's thesis in the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, ÇOMU.