Antoinettes story begins when she is a young girl in early nineteenth- century Jamaica. The white daughter of ex-slave owners, she lives on a run-down plantation called Coulibri Estate. Five years have passed since her father, Mr. Cosway, reportedly drunk himself to death, his finances in ruins after the passage of the Emancipation Act of …
Summary Antoinette and her family do not fit in with the white people in Spanish Town. According to Christophine, the Jamaican ladies do not approve of Antoinettes mother, Annette, because she is too beautiful and young for her husband, and because she comes from Martinique (which was then a French colony, whereas Jamaica was an …
Summary The main figures in Antoinettes life are her mother, Pierre, Christophine, Godfrey, and the servant boy, Sass, who does, indeed leave them as Antoinettes mother had predicted. One day, a little girl follows Antoinette, calling her a “white cockroach” and singing “go away.” Antoinette seeks refuge near the old wall at the end of …
Summary Antoinette serves as bridesmaid when her mother weds Mr. Mason in Spanish Town. She sees smiling white guests, whom she has overheard earlier at Coulibri Estate condemning Mr. Masons choice of bride. These guests called Antoinettes mother a penniless widow, whose first husband was a drunken lecher and whose children are either odd or …
Summary Antoinette wakes from a six-week long fever and finds herself in Spanish Town, under Aunt Coras care. Antoinettes brother, Pierre, has died from the fire, and her mother is living in the country. When Antoinette visits her mother with Christophine, Antoinette can barely recognize her. When Antoinette approaches her mother, Annette violently thrusts her …
Summary Immediately after their wedding in Jamaica, Rochester and Antoinette spend several weeks in the Windward Islands at a small estate that belonged to Antoinettes mother, Annette, located near a town called Massacre. As they travel from Massacre to the honeymoon, they are caught in a downpour, driving Rochester, Antoinette, and a half-caste servant named …
Summary Rochester recalls his brief courtship with Antoinette, when he played the part of an admiring suitor although he felt no love at all. No one seemed to detect the falsehood except the black servants. Rochester remembers little of the actual wedding ceremony except for the cold marble of the church and the corresponding chill …
Summary Rochester receives a note from a man named Daniel Cosway, one of Alexander Cosways bastard children. The note informs Rochester of Antoinettes depraved background: her father was a detestable, wicked slave owner and her mother a spoilt woman who died a dangerous lunatic. Daniel Cosway writes that he considers it his Christian duty to …
Summary Antoinette rides her horse past the “Mounes Mors” rocks—the “Dead Ones”—to Christophines new house. Feeling that Rochester has become cold and angry, Antoinette seeks Christophines advice on how to win him back. Christophine tells Antoinette to leave her husband, but Antoinette refuses. Believing that women are fools to rely on their husbands, Christophine herself …
Summary Rochester receives a second letter from Daniel Cosway, ordering him to come visit at once. Annoyed, Rochester questions Amelie about Daniels intentions. Amelie says, in Daniels defense, that “he lives like white people” and that he reads the Bible. A moment later, however, she contradicts herself, saying that Daniel is “a bad man” who …