Project on Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Post by Ryleigh Simmons

“Then one day, very early, I saw her horse lying down under the frangipani tree (16).”

In this painting, I painted the frangipani tree in Antoinette’s backyard.

“To wreaths of frangipani lay on the bed… It fell on the floor and as I went torwads the window I stepped on it (67).”

For this picture, instead of painting a direct scene, I wanted to capture both Antoinette’s and Rochester’s wreaths. This is why I attempted to paint one perfect wreath (Antoinette’s) and one crushed wreath (Rochester’s).

More frangipani quotes:

“‘I send the girl to clear up the mess you make with frangipani, it bring cockroach in the house. Take care not to slip on the flowers, young master (77).'”

“The smell of vetivert and frangipani… (166)”

What I Did:

For my unessay project, I decided to paint two pictures of frangipanis to represent different scenes in the book Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Before I get into why I decided to paint these, I wanted to talk a little about my inspiration and what I did to complete this project. Before I even started the painting, I went through the entire book, scanning the pages for the word frangipani. Above, I included all of the quotes I found that mentioned the flower. After finding the four places where these flowers are mentioned, I decided to paint two different scenes. The first is the tree that Antoinette finds her mother’s poisoned horse under, and the other is the crushed headpiece that Rochester stepped on. Thus, the painting process began. I love painting, but I am horrible at it if I don’t have a reference or inspiration, so my next step in the process was to head to Pinterest. For the first piece of the frangipani tree, I took inspiration from Sharon Crocilla’s painting. I will include a link to her piece at the end of this post, and I would highly recommend checking out her other works; her color work is amazing. I used her work to get the shape of the tree down and the background, which shows the similarities between the two pieces. For my second piece, I looked up a picture of a frangipani headpiece and crushed flowers to somewhat capture the aftermath of Rochester stepping on the flowers. 

Why I Did It:

I really wanted to paint these two pictures because when I was reading, I found the frangipani flower sticking out to me for some reason, which was weird because it only came up four times in the book. However, I felt like all of the scenes that they came up in were important. For some background, I did some research on the meanings and usages of the frangipani flower. From there, I was able to find out that frangipanis can be taken as a sign of immortality as they “can flower and produce leaves even after they are uprooted (Johnson-Roehr).” This was an interesting idea because I feel like this says something about Antoinette’s character. Throughout the book, Antoinette is faced with hardship after hardship, and even though she wishes for it all to be over or for herself to die, she pushes past and keeps going. No matter how many times her life is uprooted, she goes on and tries to live. Thus, I think the addition of Antoinette finding the dead horse under a frangipani tree was significant because that was when her mother lost her way of getting out. This was when her mother fell into a more depressive state, therefore uprooting Anttoinette’s life in a way. Causing her to need to find a way to move on or cope.

Furthermore, the last quote that mentions the flowers is when she is shut in a room in Thornfield by Rochester, and she smells her dress, which she says has the faint scent of frangipanis. This is right before she decides to burn down the house, which can be taken as her escaping her prison or taking control of her life. Even though it leads to her death, it is her way of getting back to Rochester and moving forward. To me, this seems like a strong example of someone blooming or being strong even though they have been taken out of their home. 

Although immortality is a really important symbol of the flower, it is not the only one. While doing more research, I was able to find out more about the meaning of the flower in different cultures, which a lot has to do with things like love, purity, and devotion (Bloomeroo). Furthermore, frangipanis are used in weddings to show loyalty and, on other occasions, to show long love even in times of absence (“About Frangipanis & Plumerias – Facts, History and Myths and Legends.”). I thought these meanings were interesting when looking into the scene where Antoinette and Rochester just showed up for their honeymoon. When they find the frangipani wreaths on the bed, Rochester tries one on and then drops it to the floor and steps on it when he goes to the window, which is the scene I tried to capture with my second painting. When looking at this scene and knowing the meaning behind the flower, it truly shows how their relationship is going to turn out. Antoinette’s, who wants to fall in love with Rochester and arguably does at one point, wreath stays in tack, whereas Rochester’s, who says he never loved her and ends up ruining her life, wreath is crushed. This shows a physical example of Rochester crushing any opportunity to have love and devotion for his wife. It’s a great example of foreshadowing, and on a side note, he’s essentially just stepping on what may be a cultural tradition of hers. 

Another interesting quote that mentions the flowers is when Chrisotphine states, “Take care not to slip on the flowers, young masters (79).” I found this to be such an interesting line because it almost felt like a warning to me. It seems like Christophine is telling him not to slip up in their relationship and do something bad to Antionette, which we know he eventually does. I’m not sure how to take this in terms of connecting it to the meaning of the flower, but I felt like it could be another great example of foreshadowing. 

Finally, one last honorable mention I had in terms of frangipani meaning or history is that I read on Allthingsfragipani that when thinking about “magical properties,” the flowers have a place in love and love spells. This site states that this fact originally came from Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, but I had a hard time finding further evidence. However, I felt like it was an interesting fact, considering there is a use of some sort of “love spell” in the book. 

Why Does My Response Matter? 

I chose to do these paintings and research more on the frangipani flower because I felt like it was an important symbol of the book. I was a little surprised when I went back to check where it was used in the book, and it only showed up four times. However, there must have been something about it that made it stick out to me. Thus, I felt like my response showed why this flower was chosen in the story and how it connects to Antoinette and her life. Furthermore, my response shows that if there is something that sticks out to you in a text, there is most likely a good reason for it and that you should look into it because it may be an easter egg of information that helps you understand a character or dynamic more. In the end, I believe my paintings and written response matter because it calls to attention the work the author put into their book and how dedicated they are to telling this an accurate and meaningful story. 

Works Cited

“About Frangipanis & Plumerias – Facts, History and Myths and Legends.” Allthingsfrangipani.com, 2016, http://www.allthingsfrangipani.com/frangipanis.html. Accessed 1 May 2024.

Bloomeroo. “Frangipani: The Ultimate Flower Guide.” Bloomeroo, 2021, http://www.bloomeroo.com.au/blogs/guide/frangipani-flower-meaning-guide#:~:text=In%20Southeast%20Asia%2C%20frangipani%20is,its%20use%20in%20religious%20practices. Accessed 1 May 2024.

Johnson-Roehr, S N. “Plant of the Month: Frangipani – JSTOR Daily.” JSTOR Daily, 16 Feb. 2023, daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-frangipani/. Accessed 1 May 2024.

Photo References:

Sharon Crocilla Frangipani Tree: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/76/cc/fc/76ccfc0d9caeeac0e0da5aa0645d2417.jpg

Frangipani Headpiece: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51r8RFz-LwL.jpg