Annette and Antoinette- An Exploration of “Like Mother Like Daughter”

Throughout Wide Sargasso Sea we see a strained and complicated relationship between Antoinette and her mother Annette. From the beginning of the book, we see Anette pushing away Antoinette. She does not want anything to do with Antoinette, and if this is because she does not want to hurt Antoinette or does not Antoinette to bother and hurt her is not entirely clear. Personally, I think that her motives are a combination of these two ideas. I think that Annette sees herself in Antoinette and does not like this. She does not want to make her daughter like herself because she hates herself and the life that she lives so she keeps herself away from her daughter as to not “rub off” on her. But, I also think that this is not entirely self-sacrificing. I think that it upsets her to see Antoinette because she does not like herself so anything she sees of herself in Antoinette she hates, therefore making it difficult for Annette to be around her daughter so she gives up at having a relationship with her daughter and leaves her to fend for herself.

Throughout the whole of the novel we see people saying Antoinette is just like her mother and will become just like her mother, and we do in fact see this happening. We see Antoinette start to struggle with mental illness just like her mother before her. We see Antoinette with a husband that she does not love, or even really like, and who cheats on her. We see Antoinette with the same feelings of not belonging or fitting in socially, all of which we saw with her mother.

But, how much of this is caused by her being her mother’s daughter and how much is just the circumstances they are both put in?? It is easy to argue that Antoinette might have had legitimate hereditary reasoning for her mental health deteriorating like we see in the novel. With modern studies of mental health, we do see that mental illness is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Therefore, we can see how it is possible for Antionette to have inherited the same mental illness as her mother, but I think another argument is that Annette and Antoinette have had similar struggles in their lives that could have caused mental illness. They both have a lack of sense of belonging in their environment and husbands who do not help this. As well, for her entire life Antoinette was told that she was like her mother, and no matter if this is true or not telling someone that they are crazy over and over will eventually make them start to feel crazy.

What do you think? How much is Antoinette like her mother? Are there other ways that I missed? Or, do you think that they are very different?

Meursault is the Universe

At the end of The Stranger, one line caught my attention. This line was “I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother” which was Meursault describing how he feels like he is a brother to the universe. I see this in an even more drastic case than Meursault puts it, I see that in many ways, Meursault is the same as the Universe.

For one, people hearing about Meursault’s case view Meursault’s murder of the Arab much in the way that they view someone dying from natural causes in one key way; they want to know why. The people try to give reason to the life Meursault took in the same way that they try to give reason to a life that the Universe takes, they don’t want to accept that there is really no reasoning. It is all arbitrary, but people do not find that comforting so they try to give answers. Yet, neither the universe nor Meursault have answers to offer.

As well, Meursault goes through his life mostly observing without significant opinion on what other people are doing. This is like he way that the Universe could be said to be impassive to the life of the world. Meursault is also is several times impassive towards bad things that Raymond does, for instance when he doesn’t call the police when he hears Raymond beating his girlfriend. The universe could also be impassive towards bad things that people do and are not brought to justice for the same as Meursault does in relation to Raymond.

The way that Meursault deals with his mother’s death is very similar to the way that the universe “deals with” any death; the universe just moves on without any thought. The planets still turn, the people of earth still go about their daily lives. To people who are grieving a loss like this, it might seem insensitive or incorrect how little the world stops after such a seemingly important event, but this is simply how the world operates. Comparatively, this is simply how Meursault operates. People don’t want this to be true because it seems insensitive, but Meursault and the universe do not stop their continuance for death.

I think in general the way that Meursault operates and the way the universe operates are very similar, especially in the way that people view actions not taken. Do you think this comparison is meaningful in how we view Meursault? Are there other ways in which Meursault is like the universe?