The essays provided in the book are helpful when reading the novel, “Wide Sargasso Sea” for the reader to understand the character well known as Bertha Mason. Who was first introduced in the novel “ Jane Eyre”. Bertha is portrayed as mysterious and mentally unstable person in “Jane Eyre”. However the essays provide clarity to her condition and how she ended up in England as Mr. Rochester’s hidden wife who he locked away and forgot. Before she was known as Bertha Mason, she was Antoinette Cosway born to French creole parents who lived and owned land/plantation in Jamaica. Her family was white and had ownership over many African Americans before the freedom of  slaves in 1833. Therefore she faced racism and violence as a child, along with isolation and family loss. Bertha/ Antoinette is no longer just Mr. Rochester’s mentally insane wife to the reader but a victim of the Victorian era. Being born and raised in Jamaica allowed her to identify with the culture of the land. Instead of the post English colonial culture she belonged. Bertha/Antoinette unfortunately faces exclusion throughout her childhood from her parents, peers, and servants and it continues with Mr. Rochester as her husband. This book is an inside description on the economical, emotional, sexist treatment women endured from society and love ones during the 1800’s.