Repetition

I found many examples of repetition in WSS.  From the many references to looking-glasses to the end, where she dreams about what is about to happen, such examples defined the book for me. In class we talked about how she seems to be repeating the steps her mother took on the road to insanity. I agree, but think that it was harder to Antoinette to deal with this, since she also had to deal with the expectations that she would go crazy, even when she was young. As I mentioned in my last post, one example of repetition is how Rochester sleeps with Amelie while Antoinette is in the house, just as he will with Jane in JE. The fires at the beginning and end of the novel are another example. I personally think that Antoinette is planning to start a fire at the end because her strange logic tells her that her only hope for a return to her old life is to light a fire, to undo in a way the damage done by the fire that served as the start of her misery. That first fire served as the her last interaction with Tia, who was the most important person in her youth other than Christophene. This second fire would serve to separate her from Rochester, the reason she lost Pheena. I won't dwell on the use of mirrors in WSS,  but I think one of the reasons they are mentioned often is because they represent how life could have been for Antoinette was all the racial tension nonexistant. This is most prominent in her comparison to Tia as if through a looking glass, since the two could have been inseperable.
Using the repetition instances as guidance, I have reached the conclusion that the real culprits for Antoinette's tragic life were the people surrounding her as a child and throughout her entire life, not Rochester in particular. Yes, he was what made her go crazy when he could have saved her, but he was influenced by Cosway, the secret he assumed everyone but him was in on, and society's treatment of Antoinette and Cristophene in general.