Rochester’s Madness:


While Rochester spends much of his time accusing or suspecting others of insanity, it is actually he who acts insane throughout the book. While he has clearly lost it completely but he end of Part II, Rochester actually begins to go mad much earlier in the book, perhaps as a result of his severe illness. Rochester’s mistrust of the West Indies develops rapidly into severe paranoia, and possible hallucinations. 
Rochester does not quite understand the West Indies, which is understandable for someone who has just arrived there, and does not quite trust them either, which is also understandable for someone who immediately got a fever so bad he was confined for 3 weeks. However, this initial mistrust and understanding opens up an avenue for Rochester to to manifest all of his worst character tendencies, culminating in his state-endorsed kidnapping and false imprisonment of his wife. 
Rochester’s mistrust begins to grow increasingly paranoid, believing that people are hiding secrets from him, and that they are laughing at him behind his back. His firm conviction that essentially everything Amelie and others are saying is a hint at things concealed is evidence of this paranoia. This is not helped by Amelie, in fact, repeatedly saying “I feel sorry for you” possibly out a belief that Antoinette is in fact insane. 
Rochester’s paranoia is worsened substantially when he begins to receive letters from Daniel, which seem to exist only to confirm his worst fears about Antoinette. These letters describe a secret which could destroy their marriage, and strongly imply that Rochester has been suckered into something that he doesn’t understand in any way. 
In this understanding, Rochester begins to hallucinate experiences as he stays in the West Indies. He goes on a walk, and discovers a path which no one else has ever found? One which contains large numbers of obeah artifacts at the house of a man who is fairly important to local tradition? This seems relatively unlikely. Instead, I believe that Rochester goes on a walk and hallucinates the experience of finding the clearing, which is filled with artifacts he has heard vague reference to, but nothing definitive about. The girl that he sees is either another figment of Rochester’s paranoid belief system, or a real human, seeing a crazed man wandering the jungles of the Windward Isles. Rochester returns home from his walk and his hallucination, and begins to browse his books on Obeah, confirming what he believes happened to him. 

Rochester continues down the path of paranoia, increasingly angry with his wife whom he perceives as having betrayed him. When talking to Christophine, he becomes convinced that she is after his money, and, in another paranoid fit, refuses to allow Christophine to leave with Antoinette and let him return to England. Instead, he elects to use his legal power to drag Antoinette to England, spending the final portion of Part II shouting about how Antoinette is his and how he wants to punish her, the ravings of a madman, albeit a madman fully in control of his actions. His madness lies not in his ability to control his actions, but in his ability to reason out those actions. 

Comments

  1. Jenna LeeNovember 16, 2018 at 1:28 PM

    I really like this analysis of Rochester's madness, as in the narrative we only see people analyzing Annette and Antoinette's madness. I also would argue though that his madness does lie in his inability to control his actions in that he constantly raves about his need to have Antoinette and to possess her. He is unable to control his urges for that, and therefore is unable to control his actions in sending Christophine away and taking Antoinette away.

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  2. Dominick LongNovember 16, 2018 at 4:20 PM

    I think Rochester's belief in some grand conspiracy, as analysed in this, mirrors much more modern conspiracy theories today. Rochester's ability to seemingly invent evidence for something that isn't actually happening, and trying to force something most likely meaningless, Amelie's apology, to have some grand meaning, can also be seen today in things like the Flat Earth conspiracy theory.

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    Replies
    1. SashaNovember 17, 2018 at 7:27 PM

      The comparison to a more modern conspiracy theorist is interesting, and definitely there. Like a conspiracy nut, he's convinced everyone else is in on the big secret, which he spends his hours poring through old books about mystical practices to "research", as opposed to asking a few simple questions of people with actual knowledge on the subject.

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  3. ErinNovember 16, 2018 at 7:53 PM

    This is an interesting point because as much as I spent time thinking about Rochester's jealousy and possessiveness, I never really thought about his paranoia. However, he does talk about getting the sense that he was missing out on a lot of information. Perhaps this was just because he felt out of place in a new environment where it was mostly unfamiliar or maybe he just had a good hunch that there was something he was missing. However, I do think it is interesting to look at how this paranoia about something being kept from him impacted his decisions toward the end of the book.

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  4. SashaNovember 16, 2018 at 8:10 PM

    Testing in Chrome now

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  5. BettyNovember 17, 2018 at 4:29 PM

    I agree that by the end of the book, Rochester's decisions were not motivated by logic alone and seemed a little irrational and he is overly paranoid. I find it interesting how from Antoinette's point of view, even though she experienced horrible things in her life, I don't feel the same sense of paranoia I feel from her as I feel from Rochester.

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  6. AnnaNovember 17, 2018 at 5:03 PM

    I find this examination of Rochester's paranoia interesting. When I was reading Wide Sargasso Sea I saw it more of Rochester's natural personality. Pointing it out, he does seems to have a lot of paranoia. However I do think that a large part of it his just his personality. He has a very possessive and superior nature. He doesn't understand the West Indies but he thinks he's superior to that environment. However when he is with Antionette and in the West Indies he's in an unfamiliar environment. I think his actions are a result of him feeling inferior but I definitely see your point about his paranoia.

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  7. Sparsh S.November 17, 2018 at 9:59 PM

    I am beginning to see a common trend in Rochester's deteriorating mental state. His increasing paranoia can be attributed to outside influences more so than himself detecting these symptoms. A combination of constant under-talk from his servants, David's letters, and his belief in Obeah all contribute to Rochester's distrust and hatred of Antoinette. From this he becomes delusional, scrutinizing her every action as an indication of insanity. He can not bear that Antoinette does not conform to his visions of an ideal Englishwomen. I agree that he had numerous chances to reason against these hallucinations, but unfortunately he lets the madness overcome him, leading Antoinette resist and avenge herself in the way she did.

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  8. Massive PeanutbrainDecember 1, 2018 at 6:34 PM

    Although Rochester did indeed become mad due to the potion that backfired, I completely agree with you in the fact that he is completely bonkers throughout the book

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