Rochester or Antoinette?
In class, we had a prompt in which Mr.Mitchell asked us to write if we felt more sympathy for Rochester or Antoinette. I definitely felt more with Antoinette. I've been with her from her childhood until now, and I've seen all she's went through. She's always been rejected of love from the beginning from her own mother. Her identity has always been in question for her, and the only person she's actually established a meaningful and mentoring relationship with is Christophine. Her friendships never worked out, like Tia, and she's never had a successful fatherly relationship with her biological father or Mr.Masson. She just wants to be able to have a loving relationship, so when she has a husband she pours all she has into the marriage and really wants to make it work, no matter the costs. Even Antoinettes narrative voice affected me with its sad yet poetic beauty.
Rochester was introduced to me when he was already a grown young man. I felt sorry for him that he missed home, but I felt like he was a little too negative about his new home and marriage. It's true that he didn 't really get the full picture of the background of his wife and the society, but that doesn't give him the right to completely block everything Antoinette tries to clear up to him and then impose on her identity by calling her Bertha. He also knows how sad her life has been, and yet doesn't give her the love and attention she needs. He cheats on her with her servant. Behind a thin partition. Then he admits to her multiple times that he doesn't love her, and just watches as she suffers as he blocks off the only mother figure in her life who's every truly cared about her (Christophine). I understand that he didn't like how Antoinette used Christophines magic to temper with their relationship, but he was ignoring her and avoiding her, and it doesn't excuse all the rest of his actions.
When I weigh the pros and cons, I definitely side more with Antoinette. What do you guys think?
I definitely agree with you. Rochester sort of set himself up in a way because he was already ignoring his wife without reason and wasn't listening to her so of course she was going to try to find help because she cares about the marriage (unlike Rochester who only married her because of the money.)
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I definitely agree with you and would gladly be the first to fight for Antoinette any day. But while reading your post, I started thinking about perspective and surprisingly The Stranger. I though about if our loyalties would be different if we had first read about Rochester’s childhood and then were later introduced to Antoinette. Just like in The Stranger, we are looking through the eyes of the murderer who we end up sympathizing with. I wonder if we would sympathize with Rochester over Antoinette if the roles were reversed. Just some food for thought ๐
ReplyDeleteI also sided with Antoinette, for all the reasons that you listed and more! She is just searching for compassion from someone else in her life, because she's been missing that since her childhood. This reminds me a lot of Ruth from Song of Solomon. Ruth told us, when she was walking with Milkman after he found her visiting her father's grave, that her father was the only person who ever cared about her, and continues to be the only person who truly ever did. In this way, I see Christophine and Dr. Foster as similar characters showing compassion towards a character who is empty and seeking for love (Antoinette and Ruth, respectively). I kind of digressed haha but thank you for sparking ideas with this great blog post!
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