If you enjoy Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", you should not miss "Wide Sargasso Sea" written by Jean Rhys.

This novel reveals the past of Mr. Rochester before meeting Jane Eyre and the story of his mysterious ex-wife, Bertha Rochester, the madwoman in the attic who is not portrayed directly in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre".

People who have read Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" would see Bertha Rochester as a wicked mad woman who destroys Jane Eyre's happiness, ruins Thornfield Manor, hurts Rochester, and is finally buried in the fire she sets.

However, "Wide Sargasso Sea" introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, the former name of Bertha Rochester, a protected Jamaican young woman who is sold into marriage to an Englishman, Mr. Rochester. Rochester is very attracted by her beauty, but his deeply rooted racial superiority makes him believe that everything in the colony is full of weirdness and eventually makes him hate his wife. Antoinette is not accepted by blacks, and at the same time, discriminated against by whites. The disappointment of her unhappy marriage causes her mental breakdown. Rochester takes her back to England in the name of treatment and locks her in the attic of the manor, isolating her from the outside world. Facing the ruthless husband, Antoinette chooses to set fire to the manor and end her life as an option of freedom from life, which denounces the unfair system set for women in the colonies at that time.

"Wide Sargasso Sea" explores the unequal power between men and women, and draws attention to racism and colonialism.