Notes on the Evolution of Point of View in Jean Rhys's Fiction: Wide Sargasso Sea

Abstract

This paper introduces Jean Rhys's fiction and surveys the circumstances of the edition and reception given to her work. Later, it concentrates on point of view in her novels as the most important technical device Rhys uses in order to achieve the atmosphere of «humiliation and victimization» that pervades her fiction. It goes on reviewing some aspects concerning point of view in her novels of the thirties and finally it focuses on Wide Sargasso Sea. Wide Sargasso Sea, the last of Rhys's novel, shows a more extended treatment of male/female relationships achieved through a better-controlled and much more distanced point of view.