Christophine as a Tangential Character

OR: The critical voice of WSS

The issue I found the most compelling in Spivak's essay is the characterization of Christophine. According to Spivak, "She [Christophine] cannot be contained by a novel which rewrites a canonical English text within the European novelistic tradition in the interest of the white Creole rather than the native." (246) In summary, since Christophine lies outside the conventions of European literature, even though she is a very important character, she exists, figuratively, outside of the realm of the novel. Thus, Spivak concludes, Christophine exists to be a critical voice. Though I find the logic in concluding that Christophine is not privy to the rules of the narrative (because she is an outlier to European literature) to be a bit stretched, I do like the idea of Christophine being a tool with which to display criticism.

Spivak cites Christophine's confrontation with Rochester as an example of this narrative criticism offered by Christophine. I admit that it is a very good example, and I also saw it mirrored in her advice to Antoinette. While Christophine confronts Rochester to display her concerns, Antoinette's criticism comes in the form of advice: "You ask me a hard thing, I tell you a hard thing, pack up and go." (65). Christophine's sound advice seems indeed to lie outside of European convention, as Antoinette dismisses the advice of "this ignorant, obstinate old negro woman, who is not certain if there is such a place as England." (67). In my opinion, and I think most of today's contemporary readers would agree, all parties would have ended up happier if Antoinette would have indeed left Rochester (especially Antoinette). In this sense, tangential Christophine has the most common sense, because she is not encumbered by 19th century European concepts of marriage and shame in letting that marriage end. Antoinette and Rochester, as Europeans, would rather manipulate each other and wallow in unhappiness than simply admit the marriage wasn't going to work and end it.

I would like to reword Spivak's argument to be a little more concrete: "since Christophine does not share the European values of the white characters in WSS, she is allowed to be critical of them. And since today's contemporary reader can relate to Christophine, Christophine can be seen as an external, critical voice in the novel." I certainly agree with this evaluation. Christophine's criticism of England, "Why you want to go to this cold, thief place?" (67), allows the reader to be critical as well.

Christophine is a very unique and useful character, in the sense that her criticisms within the novel contain instances of feminist, postcolonial, and uniquely West Indian ideals. I see Christophine as the most relatable character to today's WSS audience.