The Thematic Significance Of The Floral Images In Wide Sargasso Sea. :: essays research papers

     Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress who grew up in the West Indies on a decaying plantation. When she comes of age she is married off to an Englishman, and he takes her away from the only start she has known--a house with a tend where "the paths were surpass and a smell of exsanguine flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green. Orchids flourished out of reach or for most reason not to be touched."(p.16).Floral Images are central to the stem in the novel Wide Sargasso Sea. They are present throughout the entire novel and also have an effect on the atmosphere. in that location are several examples.The first and most prominent floral determine in the novel is of the garden at Coulibri, "But it had gone wild. The paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell." (p.16). Antoinette describes the gard en as being full of feeling but now everything is dead, this symbolizes something that is splendiferous but gone back or is not going to prevail long. The garden is also compared to the garden of Eden, "Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible-the tree of life grew there"(p.16). When she refers to the "tree of life growing there" it is as though she is looking back and relating to the spring slave owners. She also says "The scent was very sweet and strong. I neer went near it."(p.16). This excerpt is symbolizing her constant fear to ever be close to giving love.     Another floral image is that of pink roses, "thither where two pink rosestouched it the petals dropped."(p.72), "have all beautiful things no-count destinies."(p.72). These quotes are referring that Antoinette is beautiful like her mother but look at their destinies.     Another image is that of a falling flower, & quotOne morning a small flower felllooked like snow.