The floral symbols in ``Wide Sargasso Sea``

The first and most important floral symbol in the novel is the garden at the estate of Coulibri. “But it had gone wild. The paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green” (p.6). Antoinette describes

But this is only one part of the garden’s significance for the story. The garden at Coulibri is also compared to the biblical garden of Eden with its excess in luxury. “Our garden was large and beautiful as that garden in the Bible – the tree of life grew there” (p.6). In the Bible, the garden of Eden and especially the tree of life are connected with sin, trouble and problems, which symbolizes exactly Antoinette’s mental state that is also problematic and worrisome at this point in the novel.

To summarize, the state of the garden at Coulibri, its comparison to the garden of Eden at the beginning of the novel, the fact that Antoinette describes one orchid as snaky looking and the recurring image of the tree of life at the end of the story all symbolize Antoinette’s mental condition at each point in the novel. Jean Rhys uses symbols of every kind to a fairly great extent in her novel, though, the floral symbols play a major role. They support the novel’s high literal quality as well as its excellent reflection of the social situation in Jamaica at this time.

Finally, the image of the tree of life recurs at the end of the novel in one of Antoinette’s dreams that show already her madness. “Then I turned round and saw the

Some topics in this essay:
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