Wide Sargasso Sea

Antoinette’s unnamed husband narrates the first third of Part Two. The second third is narrated by Antoinette. The husband resumes as narrator in the final third.

At the start of Part Two, the husband and Antoinette are on their honeymoon in Massacre, a village north of Roseau, Dominica. They ride horses up a mountain toward a small estate that Antoinette’s family once owned. The husband finds the landscape lurid, lush, and too colorful. Antoinette dismounts from her horse and points out that they’ve arrived at a small river that forms the boundary of Granbois—the location of the estate. She finds “a large shamrock-shaped leaf,” holds it under water that pours from a bamboo spout in the cliff and drinks, then invites the husband to drink the “mountain water” (42).

When they arrive at “a shabby white house” sitting at the far end of a “course-grained lawn,” Antoinette announces that they have arrived at Granbois (42). She introduces the husband to the servants, including the mixed-race Amélie and Christophine, Antoinette’s elderly former nurse. The husband quietly suspects that Christophine disapproves of him.

The newlyweds enter the house and drink rum punch, toasting to their happiness.