English 546
Dr. Janet Winston
15 Dec 2009
Spaces Affected by the Glorious Light of Mother England:
Reflection, Refraction and Transparency
The colonial era of England's greatness was a time when many lands far from her shores came under the dominion and alleged protection of Mother England. The motto, "The sun never sets on the British Empire" meant that all around the globe, wherever light was shining there was some piece of land, with its native inhabitants that "belonged" to England. With comparatively few natural resources on what is largely a barren pile of rock off of the coast of the European continent, England wanted the rich natural resources that were available and accessible in the New World (North America), the West Indies and Caribbean Islands, Africa, India and elsewhere.
I would like to look at England as a bearer of “light” (i.e. the light of "civilization" or religion) and view the effects that this glorious light of Mother England has had on some of her other subjects. By “other” I am referring to subjects that were ruled by the laws and formalities of Englishness, but that were not native-born, white inhabitants of England, and in the case of Tony Last of Hetton Abbey, a true Englishman who finds himself “un-Englished” when he is lost in an Amazon jungle. The varying ways that the light of England reflects, refracts and passes straight through these individuals' lives, dreams and destinies is counter productive to the concepts that we might commonly associate with light, such as clarity, goodness, purity, righteousness.
The Wide Sargasso Sea, a novel by Jean Rhyss, is a reflection of a woman’s life story. Antoinette is the author of the first and third sections of this novel, with the second section being a reflection written by her husband about his time with her and her impact on his proper English self. Reflections and light play important roles in this story and also are significant in the final scene of this novel--and of Jane Eyre, a novel by Charlotte Bronte--where Antoinette's life comes to an end.
Refraction, according to Encarta Dictionary, is “to alter the course of a wave of energy that passes into something from another medium,” and also, to “show something through a different medium: to alter the appearance of something by viewing or showing it through a different medium.” In C. L. R. James’ memoir Beyond a Boundary we can see the effects of refraction upon and surrounding the black men of the West Indies who play the stereotypically English game of cricket. In the course of English “progress” the British annihilated the original native inhabitants of these islands, thereby tragically refracting their natural human trajectory. Then, needing someone to work their newly- stolen plantations, they enslaved blacks from Africa and transplanted them into the West Indian and Caribbean islands, which of course seriously altered their original course of life. Both of these native cultures were passed through the medium of English colonialism and came out altered on the other side.
There is a specie of fish that rely on spurting water at insects outside of the fishes’ pond in order to eat and survive. These archer fish have to master the scientific concept of learning and utilizing refraction. It can be speculated that there are more people who do not have mastery of this knowledge than there are who do. Can we further speculate that, in this area, archer fishes are superior to these people? Comparatively, the West Indies cricket players eventually seemed to out-skill the British players in that region.
The space “within the boundary” of the cricket field functions almost as a pond in which the West Indies players appear to be at least equally skilled and talented at this British game as do the native Britons. However, when they move “beyond this boundary” they are refracted into something that is not what they originally were destined to be, but still is certainly not British! According to James’s recollections in Beyond a Boundary, many of the West Indian colonials learned the “game of the English” and became better at it than the originals. However, their image remained refracted and they were never a true reflection of the colonizing and patronizing country of England. Even the great "Constantine... had no theory...no abstract studies with which to square [To square something is to make it straight and right; a refraction is not square.] what he saw with his eyes or heard with his ears. He was on lunching if not on dining terms with cricketing members of the British aristocracy and big bourgeoisie."(James 111) Had he been a true reflection and not an altered refraction of them, they could have dined together.
Mother England does not appear to be complimentary or nurturing in these lights. The “jolly-good,” “cheerio” light-hearted nature that seems so English and so filled with loving-kindness and goodwill to all men cannot be found here. It seems that the bright light of the sun that never sets on the English Empire, should not be turned too directly onto the motivations and true nature of the ruling English class. Tony Last, the owner and gentleman of Hetton Abbey in England is an example of the real thing: the well-bred Englishman that could be an example of decorum, decency, temperance and honor.
In Evelyn Waugh’s novel A Handful of Dust, the very title might be reflective of the value that Waugh himself places on the concept of entitlement based on being born, bred and reared as English. After a lifetime of virtually no errors in his English gentleman persona--with no visible “chinks in his armor”--Tony Last is doomed to spend what could be the last half of his lifetime as a literal slave, trapped by the only other English speaking man in the jungles of the Amazon, rather near to the places where Antoinette started and the West Indian cricketers played out their lives of colonized otherness. Having begun life as an insider, Tony Last becomes transparent in relation to the “light” of England, as he no longer reflects it, and is not affected by or effecting it in anyway. It is as though this important English landowner gentleman has become invisible. Like so many disenfranchised workers all over the world-- in diamond mines, rubber, sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco or indigo plantations, who were enslaved by England-- Tony is only given food and comfort when he performs his task of reading to Mr. Todd. The true Englishman has been "othered." Ironically, what Tony is forced to read is the work of who is arguably the most widely recognized English author, Charles Dickens, whose stories about the downtrodden are all situated in the same England that Tony will never see again.
The first reflection in Wide Sargasso Sea is of Antoinette's mother, who "had to hope every time she passed a looking glass." Her youth and beauty seemed to be fading, but she had to remain hopeful even though her family was isolated and alone; hopeful that she might still find a man who would marry her and save them. Antoinette, although white and of British ancestry did not benefit from any blessings of England or privileged whiteness and she said of herself, "The sun couldn't warm me." (Rhyss 14) She refers to the sun in the sky, but readers of the text realize that the shining sun of Englishness would also do nothing to make the life of this Creole girl a warmer place. The sun that never sets on the English empire only warms its native sons and daughters.
Antoinette’s time at the convent were months of seeing the beauty of other young women while never seeing a reflection of herself, as there was no looking glass. (Rhyss 32) This was also the time that she learned Catholic scriptures and about “the perpetual light” [of God] which will “shine now and at the hour of our death.” She reflects at this time, comparatively, that her mother “hated strong light” and “loved shade.” Throughout the book Antoinette is typecast as being like her mother, in beauty, passions, and following the same path of madness. It may be that, like her mother, Antoinette also preferred shade over strong light--even that "perpetual light" of European religion.
The final references of light and reflection in Wide Sargasso Sea are when Antoinette is confined to the tower and guarded by Grace Poole in England. From her personal reflections:
In this room I lie awake shivering, for it is very cold...There is no looking glass here and I don’t know what I am like now...Their world, as I always knew, [is] made of cardboard and everything is coloured brown or dark red or yellow that has no light in it.
On the last escape from her confinement, Antoinette is attracted by the light and warmth of a candle burning and she is reminded of the sunshine that came through the window of her Aunt Cora’s room in Jamaica. She knocks over the candles, starting a fire and by that eerie light she finally sees “the ghost of a woman who they say haunts this place."
"She [the woman] was surrounded by a gilt frame” and is of course her own reflection in a mirror as she was going up to the roof to get away from the scorching fire. Finally able to see herself, as the wife of an English gentleman, she should see the reflection of an English Lady. However, Antoinette's image is so altered by her time of captivity in England that she does not know herself. By a simple twisting of words I think that the frame in which she is reflected could be called a “guilt frame.” Being “framed” or imprisoned by English standards, to which she should not be held, beautiful Antoinette of the island has been transformed into a disparate and desperate ghoul. The guilt that Rochester should feel from his “framing” of this girl and condemning her to England is great! The final reflection that she sees before she jumps is in a vision of the pool of Calibri from her childhood.
The colonials of the British West Indies, as represented in Beyond a Boundary also were not allowed to truly reflect Englishness, although they were ruled by England until the decolonization and abolishment of slavery. In his article on refraction, entitled "Watch and Learn: Benchwarming pays off for the archer fish" Chris Brody makes most of his illustrations about the skill of learning refraction as compares to sports. In his opening sentence Brody mentions basketball, baseball and throwing darts as skills that compare well to the talent of the archer fish. The comparison between fish and people may seem absurd; however, for much of history the people of England did not believe black people of the West Indian/Jamaican area to be quite as human as whites.
Of special interest to the scientific world, this skill of the archer fish is not instinctual, but is acquired and the fish can learn it simply by watching others. This serves well in this comparison to West Indian cricketers and their refracted status. Instant thought and calculation are essential to a cricket player. In seconds--from the moment the cricket ball is bowled until the batsman strikes it--he must observe, calculate, predict and act upon his prediction for what kind of a ball it is and what type of strike will be most effective in attempting to send it beyond the boundary. Doing this well will assure his survival as a cricket player in the same way that learning refraction assures the survival of the archer fish.
When the English colonizers brought their traditionally British game with them to the West Indies, the men of the island first watched them play, then began to imitate them, and eventually became better than the Brits at their own game. Not only is refraction a part of any game which has moving objects, goals and potential angles, it also represents what happened to the lives of these West Indian players because of their relationship to Mother England. If a black player was the best on his team and would logically be moving toward becoming the captain, he would find his path altered or turned aside--refracted--as a white captain of lesser skill would be appointed. According to James (James 70) this was because the white authorities of cricket "believed (or pretended to, it does not matter) that cricket would fall into chaos and anarchy if a black man were appointed captain." This reflects the Euro/white belief that blacks do not have the civilizing capacity of whites.
In the case of Tony Last, gentleman from Waugh's Handful of Dust, his decision to go beyond the boundary of the English sun, is what cast his fate and future into transparency. At the time that Tony himself was deep in the jungle and beyond the help of England, his friend and fellow gentleman, Jock Mendez back in England was assuring Tony's wife "Oh, I imagine [that Tony is absolutely safe]. The whole world is civilized now, isn't it--charabancs and Cook's offices everywhere." From their focal point in jolly old England, they could not imagine a place where Englishness had no effect and made no impression. Outside of the sunshine of the English Empire, Tony will remain transparent: invisible, offering nothing to and taking nothing from his native land.
For the non-native children of Mother England who are represented in this paper, the place that they hold in the British empire is unclear. They are treated with the regard of bastard children at best, and at the worst--as intruders on the land that was originally their own, but is now owned by England. If the veil is removed from this proper, righteous and dignified mothering country the underlying motivation for conquest and colonization of foreign lands is not as benevolent as she would like it to seem. The idea of spreading the good light of civilization and Christianity, is overshadowed by the desire for goods and the same politics of world domination that has driven every empire in history.
James states in Beyond a Boundary that “political passion easily submits all other values to its purposes." (James 111) This is the conclusive statement of this paper. A mother who wants to take care of her children will legally adopt more if she wants them. She will not steal or kidnap them from their original soil, or worse yet simply move in uninvited and displace their own mother. Any historical myths of England’s benevolent desire to spread civilization and light to the dark and savage regions of the world should be put to rest and the truth of a once powerful country selfishly trying to submit all other countries to its greedy purposes, but ultimately failing, should be understood.
Texts Cited:
James, C. L. R. Beyond a Boundary 1983 Robert Lypsite
Rhyss, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea 1999 Norton and Company, Inc.
Waugh, Evelyn. A Handful of Dust 1934 Little Brown and Company
Other works cited:
Brody, Chris. "Watch and Learn: Benchwarming pays off for the archer fish" American Scientist/Sigma XI Science Research Society
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation.
