Wide Sargasso Sea Lesson Plan

Powerless Women, Powerful Women

Kind of Activity:

Classwide Discussion

Objective:

Students will be able to discuss and analyze the systemic oppression of women in Wide Sargasso Sea.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2

Structure:

How can we see Wide Sargasso Sea as a story about oppressed women? Students should be able to recognize the predatory and controlling nature of most of the men in the text, especially Mason and Rochester. What do these two men have in common? How and why do they both ruin the lives of their wives? Is it out of deliberate cruelty, carelessness, or something else?

As a class, look at the ways in which...