In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys explored the origins of Bertha Antoinetta Rochester, the madwoman in the attic of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Reimagined by Rhys as Antoinette Cosway Mason, Sargasso Sea documents Antoinette's troubled adolescence and her eventual descent into apparent madness. Rhys's choice to investigate the life of a character already doomed to a tragic end focuses the discerning reader on the evolution of Antoinette's madness and a potential explanation for her inevitable fate. In this essay, I will examine a key aspect of Antoinette's fragile state, the complex ethnic identity she forms during her adolescence, particularly in relation to her childhood friendship with Tia, and the link between this confused identity and its tragic end. The victim of numerous circumstances beyond her control, Antoinette's identification with black and white culture fractures her self-esteem, alienates her from both, and is a significant factor in the way she is degraded by her husband. Between the upheavals of post-emancipation Jamaica and her own evolving social position, Antoinette finds herself “caught between two cultures…but never able to fully identify with either.” (Kadhim 2011) This sense of incomplete self is incompatible with the world she has lived in and, in combination with her inability to control her own destiny, it influences her disastrous marriage and the eventual abuse and imprisonment she experiences at the hands of of her husband, leading to madness and her tragic fate. [Author's Note - I don't want the above to be read as if Antoinette is in any way responsible for Rochester's abusive behavior, only that he is more capable of it because of the way he perceives her as “other” and that she is not worthy of it. Tip...... middle of paper ...... an announcement has occurred. And even though it never did, I tried again. Dear God, let me be black” (Rhys 1981). Living and writing more than a century after constructing the character of Antoinette, there is certainly an aspect of self-exploration in the way Rhys chooses to tell Antoinette's story, perhaps reflecting his struggles with self-identity in one's own youth. To conclude, although Antoinette Cosway Mason's tragic life is full of unfortunate circumstances, nothing is more critical to her eventual end than the racial identity she forms as a lonely and isolated child. The short-lived success of Antoinette's arranged marriage to Rochester can be attributed to his view of her as "foreign" and "other." By identifying so strongly with the culture of her servants and former slaves, Antoinette finds herself torn between two cultures, and neither accepted nor respected by either..