Madness in Wide Sargasso Sea

He says, "For a moment she looked very much like Amelie. Perhaps they are related, I thought. It's possible, it's even probable in this damned place" (p127). In this manner, Rochester makes it very clear how horrifying the idea of miscegenation is to him. He accuses Antoinette of being incestuous because she says, "Sandi often came to see me when that man was away" (p185). Even Antoinette is scared of miscegenation when she witnesses her mother kissing a black man. She says, "I saw his mouth fasten on hers and she went all soft and limp in his arms and he laughed. The woman laughed too, but she was angry. When I saw that I ran away" (111). In this manner, madness is equated with miscegenation. .
             Antoinette is thought mad because she is believed to have inherited the madness from her mother, who was the wife of a plantation owner. She seemingly lost her mind after the death of her disabled son. Because she was a plantation and therefore slave owner owne, she is referred to as a "white cockroach" due to slavery emancipation. She is placed outside the new English community of non-slavery. She is both economically and culturally deprived. This is also the case with Antoinette, who must try to figure out exactly where she belongs; does she have a Creole identity, or an English identity? She feels very marginalised. Rochester says,.
             When I asked her if the snakes we sometimes saw were .
             poisonous, she said, "not those. The fer de lance of course.
             but there are none here," and added, "but how can they be .
             sure? Do you think they know?" Then, "Our snakes are not.
             poisonous. Of course not." (p73).
             This uncertainty is what attracts Rochester to her, but in the end it disgusts and repels him. .
             The protagonist goes 'mad', because she is cold. It is this coldness that propels her to successfully set everything on fire in the end, nearly taking Rochester's life in the process.