Jamaica According to Jean Rhys: Establishing Setting and a Sense of Place Early in the Novel Anonymous 11th Grade

Place is of great significance within Wide Sargasso sea, present even within its title, which takes the name of a coastless sea within the Northern Atlantic ocean. Jean Rhys establishes a sense of place at the start of the novel through vivid description, integration of local vocabulary and the opinions of the inhabitants. These are accompanied by the relationship Antoinette holds with her surroundings, and the position of Christophine within her life, culminating to give a sense of what it means to live in Jamaica at this time.

Vivid description is employed by Jean Rhys to establish a sense of place within the opening pages of the novel. Antoinette’s account of the ‘octopus orchids’ is particularly notable, as it flowers the ‘long thin brown tentacles bare of leaves hanging from a twisted root’ becoming obscured by a ‘bell-shaped mass of white, mauve, deep purples’, the scent ‘very sweet and strong’. By using four adjectives and a metaphor to illustrate the ‘tentacles’, whilst simultaneously describing the root from which they hang, Rhys creates a sense of complete sensory saturation. The use of colour and smell to describe the flowers, specifically the use of words ‘deep’ and ‘strong’ create a sense of depth, whilst the ‘mass...