Patch suggested by Hannah and conceptualized, designed, and sewn by her friend Naomi Richman; writing by Hannah and Naomi

Dear Naomi,

Thank you so much for making me this beautiful and difficult patch!  I gave some people very specific instructions, but this topic was pretty much open to your interpretation.  I wanted a patch about Wide Sargasso Sea and particularly what Jean Rhys did with the novel: gave "the first Mrs. Rochester" from Jane Eyre a voice, a voice of the Caribbean that has been silenced by the voice of the European...But then you took that even further, exploring the nuances of voice and identity within Rhys's novel.  Can you talk a little bit about how and why you chose the image that you did for the patch and what it means to you?

Thanks so much,
Hannah

_____________________________

Dear Hannah,
 

The image of the mirror was a repeating one in the book that resonated really strongly with me and I liked how I could use it to pull the beginning and end of the book together.  I did know that I wanted to focus on the conflicts within those 'voices of the Caribbean' that Rhys reclaims.  You're right, Rhys gives voice to the women of the Caribbean, but I felt that it was important to represent the non-monolithic sense of those voices, for  Bertha Rochester is a Creole, one of European ancestry, but physically born and raised in the Caribbean.

As I worked on the patch some more, I realized it was about confronting and understanding the...OTHER!!! Big surprise, eh?  But for me it was a revelation.  I kept thinking of a phrase from one of Dar's songs- "I go outside to join the others/ I am the others".  Bertha, for all of the colonizer/oppressor/European status her Creole heritage imparted to her, does not operate in the binaries of us/Other.  And the readers find this deconstructionist belief most obviously in the two occurrences of the mirror image in the text.

The first time Rhys uses a mirror image is the scene which is the source of the quotation I wrote in black marker on the patch.  The setting: an angry mob of ex-plantation slaves have set fire to part of Bertha's (then Antoinetta) family's house.  Tia, a playmate and friend of Antoinetta's, acts out the high emotion of the mob and throws a rock at Antoinetta.  And Antoinetta looks at Tia, blood on her own face, tears on Tia's, and thinks "It was as if I saw myself...".  So even though Tia is black/native/mob, Antoinetta resists hating her as an Other.  Instead she sees their same humanity, intimate, necessary connection.

The second time that I could remember a mirror is at the very end of the book, and it is actually an implicit image.   Bertha, who has escaped from the attic, is walking in the hallway of Mr. Rochester's house.  She knows that a ghost lives in this house, for she has heard some of the downstairs residents mention her existence, and Bertha is afraid of meeting her.  But then , as she stops in the hallway and holds the candle up, she knows she sees the ghost- framed by a gilt frame, with her black hair streaming, dressed in white. Bertha is looking into a mirror, of course, and the ghost is herself.  Again, Rhys shows the physical confrontation of an Other- in this case, an Other which is really the self.  I felt that through both of these instances that any confrontation with the Other is a confrontation with the self.  We are the Others.  The binary cannot, does not exist, but pretending it does makes a space for oppression.  I also remembered that another woman author uses the gazing-at-other image to deconstruct it.  Eleanor Wilner, a poet actually, wrote the story of the Binding of Isaac from Sarah's viewpoint, in a poem called "Sarah's Choice."  She urges Isaac to leave with her in her search for Hagar.  Isaac asks how he should greet Ishmael and Sarah answers:

“’As you greet yourself,’ she said, ‘when you bend

over the well to draw water and see your image,

not knowing it reversed.  You must know your brother

now, or you will see your own face looking back

the day you’re at each other’s throats.’”

So maybe realizing the inherent connection and sharing of selves is a bit of women's wisdom.

Note on the fabric:

background- represent the Sargassum, the seaweed which gives the Sargasso Sea its name.  That's the sea Antoinetta sailed through to reach England.

figure on your left- Antoinetta/ Bertha Rochester- white lace- bridal, white=European.

note her 'streaming hair'  

figure on your right- Tia- red- represents one of Antoinetta's own dresses, which smells of the Caribbean.
                        purple head covering- mark of class (own invention)
                        color= exotic, sensual, Caribbean

Thanks so much for including me in this project!  Through stitching the art together, may we feel connected as a community of women.  Yashar Koach!  Mazel Tov!