Trauma With Identity Issue In Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys'masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea, apparently a prequel to the British canon Jane Eyre by Bronte, got a great deal of attention since publication. Some critics have took notice of the traumatic experience of the heroine Antoinette, and others have paid some attention to her identity crisis; but few of them have noticed that it is just the trauma that results in her identity crisis. This thesis will make a textual analysis of the novel with the trauma theory and argue that the heroine has experienced different kinds of trauma in her lifetime and that in her recovery process she finally constructs herself a definite and true identity and recovers from her trauma.Antoinette's traumata can be divided into three kinds, namely: her trauma from racism as a white Creole girl; her trauma from her mother and her trauma from marriage. To get over her trauma, she starts a process of recovery. While each trauma results in her identity crisis and thus in her recovery process she embarks on searching for a real identity to get through her trauma. Her traumata make her confused about her original Creole identity in one way or another and in order to recover from her trauma, she makes great efforts and finally works through her trauma by constructing a black identity and connecting with the black people. In this sense, Rhys also writes about the collective trauma of the white Creoles and expresses the unutterable the historical trauma of the white Creoles who deserve far more attention than they already did.