Comparison between Jane Eyre and the Great Sargasso SeaJean Rhys obviously had Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre in mind when writing The Great Sargasso Sea. Each novel contains events that echo other events or themes in the other. The destruction of Coulibri at the beginning of Wide Sargasso Sea reminds the reader of the burning of Thornfield near the end of Jane Eyre. Although each scene refers to the events of its own book and clarifies the events of its companion, it cannot be concluded that Rhys simply reconstructed Thornfield's fall into that of Coulibri. While they bear some similarities, directly comparing these two scenes without considering their impact on the novels as entire works would be ridiculous. Each scene's primary importance, and contribution to the overall intertextual meaning, lies elsewhere in the two works, not simply within the confines of the scenes themselves. The similarities between the two fire scenes might lead one to suspect that they are somehow parallel, however their differences belie this oversimplified view. Both fires were started by arsonists described as crazy. Bronte's Bertha is "the mad one, cunning as a witch" (Bronte 435). Rhys's Antoinette recalls that "a horrible noise arose" from the attacking freedmen, "like howling animals, but worse" (Rhys 38). This madness, however, serves different purposes for each scene. Bronte uses madness to further degrade Bertha to the level of bestiality and madness, a theme she develops from the moment the character is introduced until her fiery death in the destruction of Thornfield. By reducing Bertha to a single dimension, Bronte uses Bertha not as a character but as a tool with which to manipulate the flow of the plot. Rhys, however, uses madness towards a different...... middle of paper......cott. “Fire and Eyre: The War of the Earthly Elements by Charlotte Bronte.” The Brontes: a collection of critical essays. Ed. Ian Gregor. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1970. 110-36.Macpherson, Pat. Reflecting on Jane Eyre. London: Routledge, 1989.McLaughlin, MB “Past or Future Mindscapes: Images in Jane Eyre.” Victorian Newsletter 41 (1972): 22-24.Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. London: Penguin, 1968. Sarvan, Charles. "Escape, Entrapment and Madness in Jean Rhys" The Wide Sargasso Sea. The International Fiction Review. Vol 26.1&2:1999:82-96.Solomon, Eric. "Jane Eyre: Fire and Water." College English 25 (1964): 215-217. Staley, F. Thomas. "Jean Rhys." Dictionary of Literary Biography, British Novelists, 1890-1929: Modernists. Detroit: Gale, 1985. Wyndham, F. Introduction. Wide Sargasso Sea. By Jean Rhys. London: Penguin, 1996. 1-15.