Antoinette vs Jane

 When I learned that Wide Sargasso Sea was the story of Bertha from Jane Eyre, I was very intrigued. I never enjoyed Jane Eyre  very much, so I was somewhat hesitant in my judgment of this book. After reading it, I have decided that I do enjoy it more than its sister novel, mainly because the characters strike me as more complex. The one thing that prevented this book from being one of my favorites this year was that it was too slow to gain my interest. I would only gain interest in the book at the end of a section, when I would have to start all over again with the next narrator.
What I liked about WSS  were the emotions I felt while reading it. Antoinette was a very emotional narrator, which is the main thing that differed between her and Rochester. I really sympathized with her, since she fit with the pattern begun by the previous two books of being placed in an unfortunate position through no fault of her own. However, she is the most tragic of the three of them, since she is young when her troubles begin, and she does not even comprehend what is happening. I believe that her insanity was a direct result of her childhood trauma and her rejection by the man she loved. What I cannot understand is why he went out of his way to make her life worse. If he had left Antoinette in the West Indies when he returned to England, I could have tolerated him. But no, he took Bertha with him and completely ruined her life. I wonder how she felt about him getting together with Jane. It is so reminiscent of his night with Amelie, another intolerable act on his part. As long as he was planning to mislead people, why not just leave her in Jamaica and say she died or something? No one would frown upon him for that. The other thing I got mad at Rochester for was getting rid of Christophene. I think that that was what pushed Antoinette over the line. Pheena was the one person who could keep her in reality, the only reminder of the happy moments in her childhood.
I guess I got off topic from the comparison of Jane and Antoinette, but the main point was that I sympathize with Annie much more. Even in Jane's book, I viewed Rochester as a jerk, and thought Jane should have gone to a convent from the start. Even though I was kinda scared of Bertha and thought of her as a vampire, I felt bad for her being brought to England just to be locked in the attic.