Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

19 reviews

jessthanthree's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Dementia, and Gaslighting

edesia_guest's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It gives Antoinette, or bertha in jane eyre, a story. it gives information on the ignored character and does it in a beautiful and melancholic way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Abandonment, and Colonisation

jabletowns's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

autumn_oddity's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I recentl  read Jane Eyre so had to follow up and read this. I enjoyed this a bit more than Jane Eyre, purely because it was a bit faster in pace and I enjoyed having the narration being split between Antoinette and Rochester. The story was sad from the start though knowing the fate that befalls Antoinette in Jane Eyre. But I thought it gave good insight into the demise of white aristocracy within Jamaica after  the Emancipatuin act of 1833.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Racial slurs

Minor: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Infidelity

im_a_toothfairy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Definitely read this if you have read Jane Eyre.  I was not a big fan of Jane Eyre but I did enjoy this book and it also helped me understand Jane Eyre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Mental illness and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Misogyny and Slavery

alyjade's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Toxic relationship

yozhik's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, and Colonisation

caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 

You have most probably read the coming-of-age story about the second Mrs. Rochester, Jane Eyre.  But have you ever stopped to think about the first Mrs. Rochester? Who was she? What is her story? And, more importantly, was she really mad? In the original 19th century classic, Bertha Mason, the mad woman in the attic, was just a plot device. In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, Jean Rhys gives her life in this short but powerful novella that acts as a prequel, and post-colonial response, to Jane Eyre. 

 

Bertha Mason (nee Antoinette Cosway) was born in Jamaica to a British father and a Creole mother of French descent. The novel opens with Antoinette describing her childhood, and the social and political reality of Jamaica at the time – the racial violence following emancipation, the disgust bordering on hatred that the British-born society had toward whites born in the Caribbean, the trauma she endured as a child following her father’s death. We then meet the young man to whom Antoinette is married off. (We assume he is Mr. Rochester, but he is never named.) We see the demise of an arranged marriage that barely took flight, and the decline of Antoinette’s mental health. And in between, we are treated to descriptions of the lush tropical setting by an author, who unlike Mr. Rochester, loved the Caribbean. 

 

For a book that is only 177 pages long, WSS packs quite a punch. It tackles, among other themes, post-colonialism and British Victorian attitudes towards women and mental illness. As soon as I finished WSS, I ran to re-read the passages in Jane Eyre in which Jane and Mr. Rochester describe Bertha Mason and I will never again look at Jane Eyre as a strictly coming-of-age Victorian feminist novel. There is so much I didn’t see that I now do, which is exactly what Jean Rhys wanted us to do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death, Death, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Colonisation

glittergrandma's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Misogyny and Forced institutionalization