Love in Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea In the passages presented below, both narrators solicit affection and love. For Jane, in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, her mother figure, Aunt Reed, shows absolutely no affection towards her niece. Coldly, Mrs. Reed regards Jane only as a troublesome child who was left to raise. Similarly, Antoinette, in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, is raised ignored and unloved by her mother Annette. Although shunned, Jane and Antoinette both have the passion and will to love. However, it is the paths their lives have taken that characterize how they choose to deal with life's uncertainties. My character is not as bad as you think: I am passionate, but not vindictive. Many times, as a child, I would have been happy to love you if you had let me; and I long to be reconciled to you, kiss me, aunt." I put my cheek to her lips; she would not touch it. She said I had oppressed her by leaning over the bed; and again she asked for water. As I laid her down - as I lifted her and I supported her on my arm while she drank - I covered her frozen, clammy hand with mine; the feeble fingers withdrew from my touch, the glassy eyes averted my gaze... Poor suffering woman! It was now too late for her to do so effort to change his habitual… medium of paper… not managed by his mother. He was simply incapable of attempting to accomplish it. Works Cited and Consulted: Bronte, Jane Eyre. 1991Ciolkowski, Laura E.. "Navigating the Wide Sargasso Sea" Twentieth Century Literature. Vol 43. 3. 1997:125-140. Gates, Barbara Timm, ed. Critical Essays on Charlotte Bronte , Coral Jean Rhys New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf 1991.Macpherson, Pat Reflecting on Jane Eyre London: Routledge, 1989.Wide Sargasso Sea. 1968. Wyndham, F. Introduction. The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys London: Penguin, 1996. 1-15.