It is really hard to pick a side in this novel. I think I'm 60% Rochester 40% Antoinette. Here is why I sort of lean towards Rochester. The only thing that Rochester did wrong is have an affair with Emile. I think that this was really not that bad of a thing. Don't get me wrong, I think that sleeping with other people when you are married is a terrible thing to do, but I think he kinda had the right to retaliate in some manner. After all it was Antoinette who started it. All she wanted was to be loved, but she went to pretty desperate measures to get it. She gave him the love potion which is just a little too far in my opinion. This made me lose a little sympathy for Antoinette.
Micheal brought up a point in class that he shouldn't fight fire with fire. I think that this is in general a pretty valid point. He did have reason to be angry though. I mean if someone gave you something like rohypnol I think you would get pretty mad. Yes I totally understand that you shouldn't sleep with other people, especially when you are married. However what did Antoinette think was gonna happen when the "poison/love potion" wore off. I think she kinda had it coming.
Another reason I sympathize with Rochester is that never had any ill intentions, he just ended up in a bad situation. I think it is similar to Meursault in a lot of ways. It says Rochester was feverish and hallucinogenic when he first arrive in Jamaica. I think it is interesting to draw a parallel between Rochester's hallucinogenic feelings when stuff happened, and Meursault's hallucinogenic feelings when he shot the Arab. Both Rochester and Meursault didn't really know what they were doing and they had to suffer the consequences because "life happens" and they couldn't control it. I feel sorry for Rochester in this sense, he sort of just got roped into a marriage that he maybe didn't think clearly about.
I also feel sorry that he got the bad end of primogeniture and has to work to get money. Those sorry feelings sort of got canceled out when he marries Antoinette and realizes that he gets all the money and that he is no longer a disappointment to his father. I understand completely why people think he is a jerk and side with Antoinette, but in my opinion I think he is a good guy that is just trying to make his way in the world. He wasn't deceptive to try to get Antoinette's money, it just sort of happened that way and he seems happy that it did.
Another reason I sympathize with Rochester is that never had any ill intentions, he just ended up in a bad situation. I think it is similar to Meursault in a lot of ways. It says Rochester was feverish and hallucinogenic when he first arrive in Jamaica. I think it is interesting to draw a parallel between Rochester's hallucinogenic feelings when stuff happened, and Meursault's hallucinogenic feelings when he shot the Arab. Both Rochester and Meursault didn't really know what they were doing and they had to suffer the consequences because "life happens" and they couldn't control it. I feel sorry for Rochester in this sense, he sort of just got roped into a marriage that he maybe didn't think clearly about.
I also feel sorry that he got the bad end of primogeniture and has to work to get money. Those sorry feelings sort of got canceled out when he marries Antoinette and realizes that he gets all the money and that he is no longer a disappointment to his father. I understand completely why people think he is a jerk and side with Antoinette, but in my opinion I think he is a good guy that is just trying to make his way in the world. He wasn't deceptive to try to get Antoinette's money, it just sort of happened that way and he seems happy that it did.
I would have to disagree with you. Rochester, while heavily influenced by his family, did choose to come to Jamaica. He walked into this situation and could easily find a way out, only at the risk of tarnishing his pride. Antoinette was born into her circumstances. There is very little she can do against the assumptions and ridicule she receives for being born into the family that she belongs to. This is also where gender roles come in. Rochester, being a somewhat wealthy man, will have infinitely more options than Antoinette because she is a woman. Rochester chose his circumstances, whereas Antoinette was born into hers, so we can't judge them on the same playing field.
ReplyDeleteAntoinette's decision to give him a love potion (which she had no idea would make him dry heave and freak out) was out of despair over a man who she loved who she felt didn't love her anymore. His retaliation to his ASSUMED poisoner is a much more devastating action against Antoinette. Though I guess you have a point that Rochester was fully under the impression that Antoinette had tried to kill him, which makes the act no less offensive and nasty but more understandable.
ReplyDeleteAlso I'm like 90% sure he married Antoinette for her money because she was inheriting a LOT of cash, and since Rochester wasn't inheriting his own family's goods, he had to take a pretty lady's goods for himself. The whole set up was weird and i may be wrong, but he does seem sort of preoccupied by his money.
I like that you bring up both perspectives here and acknowledge that sleeping with Amelie may have been going too far. Personally, I believe that Rochester doesn't deserve sympathy for a number of reasons. For example, Antoinette had a traumatic childhood, and it seems like what she wanted to get out of the marriage was someone that would love her for once. Rochester on the other hand, married Antoinette solely for money, due to the primogeniture issue. We can see a huge contrast between the motivations of each character in the marital relationship. Nonetheless, your explanation that Antoinette's poisoning was going too far makes sense, and I can now see how Rochester is not entirely in the wrong here. Antoinette's poisoning could indeed be seen as worse depending on the context with which you look at it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Antoinette got unlucky with the fact that Rochester only married her for her money and doesn't actually love her, but she dealt with this in a pretty bad way. I feel like their marriage was getting slightly better, and there was a chance that she would have been happy with it eventually, but she tried to force it to happen immediately, which is what ends up ruining the marriage.
DeleteIt's worth taking into consideration that Rochester never confirmed that it was Antoinette who "poisoned" him, he just assumed it was her and went on to cheat on her and send her away without ever actually confronting her about it. Perhaps if he had done so they would have been able to resolve their problems. Rochester also made it quite clear that he married Antoinette primarily for the money, which, at least from our perspective with our modern ideals of what marriage should be, makes his intentions seem shady.
ReplyDeleteI believe that at some points in the novel I would agree with you. I agree that Antoinette started the altercation, and so thus at the beginning of part two I would lean toward Rochester. It is after the affair that it all goes downhill. After this awful thing that Rochester does everything spirals out of control. Even if it was Antoinette's fault at first, Rochester is only blameless for a little.
ReplyDeleteI believe that at some points in the novel I would agree with you. I agree that Antoinette started the altercation, and so thus at the beginning of part two I would lean toward Rochester. It is after the affair that it all goes downhill. After this awful thing that Rochester does everything spirals out of control. Even if it was Antoinette's fault at first, Rochester is only blameless for a little.
ReplyDeleteIn a lot of ways, Rochester and Antoinette can be seen to face somewhat similar situations, but if he gets the bad end of the primogeniture rule (at least until the untimely death of his father and brother!), I'd say Antoinette gets it even worse--she inherits half her stepfather's estate (so he's basically willing an end-move around primogeniture, splitting Richard's inheritance with Antoinette), but then her step-brother sets her up with a husband who will promptly take over management and ownership of that estate. Christophine can't believe her ears when Antoinette explains this law to her--and 21st-century readers maybe can't, either.
ReplyDeleteIn my eyes, Rochester started off as a very understandable character. It is also undeniable that Rochester was put into some very unsettling and difficult situations throughout the novel. However, when faced with this pressure, Rochester rarely made the right decision to deal with it. Sleeping with Emilie, for me, made it fairly difficult to side with Rochester, although I still had a shred of pity for him when he was poisoned by Antoinette. However, I can't really think of a good reason to lock your wife in the attic, even if (especially if?) she is suffering from mental illness. It was with this action that I totally lost any pity for Rochester. Now that is not to say I am on Antoinette's side-- while we perhaps may pity her in her awful condition at the end of the novel, she too made some questionable decisions in the book.
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