忻日子 by Sheena

最近又把這小說翻了出來；闔上書，淚痕還殘留臉上。


As an answer to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of the first Mrs. Rochester -- the terrible secret of Rochester.

Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress who grew up in the West Indies on a decaying plantation, is Rhys' imaginings of that locked-up madwoman in the attic.


1993年電影的改編，激情地處理了Rochester對Antoinette的慾望；1966年小說的初版，淺白含蓄的字句裡卻蘊藏了讓人喘不過氣的窒息。

Christophine跟Rochester說了這麼一段話：
"She is Creole girl, and she have the sun in her. Tell the truth now. She don't come to your house in this place England they tell me about,
 No, it's you come all the way to her house -- it's you beg her to marry. And she love you and she give you all she have.
 Now you say you don't love her and you break her up. What you do with her money, eh?"

愛情是蹺蹺板。
當一方帶著好意全心投入，另一方卻充滿敵意滿心計算，這其中必定有很大的誤會；而這誤會，極有可能是個解不開也無從解起的結。

即使不想嫁給Rochester，Antoinette還是在他軟語中選擇了相信；可是I'll trust you if you'll trust me卻是Rochester沒能兌現的支票。
就算把Antoinette喊作Bertha，我想在Antoinette心深處永遠都不會是Rochester要的那個doll...