Tragedy and Redemption: The Postcolonial Interpretation of Wide Sargasso Sea

This study applies postcolonial theory to Wide Sargasso Sea, examining the construction of Antoinette as a Creole woman marginalized by both race and gender. Drawing on the works of Bhabha, Fanon, and Spivak, the study analyzes how colonial cultural hegemony, racial hybridity and patriarchal domination produce Antoinette’s fragmented identity. Through close textual analysis, the paper explores her unstable position between English colonizers and Black communities, her silencing within patriarchal marriage and her unsuccessful attempts to secure a coherent sense of self. Ultimately, this study contends that Antoinette’s final act is a radical form of redemption—a tragic but necessary reclamation of her suppressed cultural identity. The findings contribute to postcolonial feminist readings of the novel by demonstrating how Rhys reclaims the voice of the silenced “Other” within the imperial archive.