- maroonedadjectiveChapter 1 →
Cut off and abandoned in an isolated place with no easy way to leave or get help, as if stranded on a deserted island.
“We were marooned, my mother said, when she was in a temper, and I thought I understood why she said it.”
- crumple upphraseChapter 1 →
To collapse suddenly into an expression of grief or distress, the way a face twists and folds when a person is about to cry.
“I looked at her and I saw her face crumple up as she began to cry.”
- in a temperphraseChapter 1 →
In a state of angry irritation or bad mood, speaking or acting out of frustration rather than calm reflection.
“We were marooned, my mother said, when she was in a temper, and I thought I understood why she said it.”
- alightadjectiveChapter 3 →
On fire; burning with flames, used here to describe feathers that have caught and are blazing.
“Coco was on fire. I watched him fall, all the feathers alight.”
- wearilyadverbChapter 4 →
In a way that shows exhaustion and lack of energy, moving or acting as though drained of strength and spirit.
“Everything is too much, I felt as I rode wearily after her.”
- alienadjectiveChapter 4 →
Deeply foreign and strange, belonging to a world or nature that feels utterly unlike one's own experience or expectations.
“Long, sad, dark alien eyes. Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European either.”
- CreoleadjectiveChapter 4 →
Describing a person of European ancestry born and raised in the Caribbean colonies, belonging fully to neither the European nor the local Black community.
“Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European either.”
- descentnounChapter 4 →
Family ancestry or lineage; the ethnic or national background inherited from one's parents and ancestors.
“Creole of pure English descent she may be, but they are not English or European either.”
- thirsty forphraseChapter 4 →
Feeling an intense, consuming physical desire or craving for someone, distinct from genuine emotional love or tenderness.
“I did not love her. I was thirsty for her, but that is not love.”
- tendernessnounChapter 4 →
Gentle, warm affection and care felt toward another person, going beyond physical attraction to genuine emotional closeness.
“I felt very little tenderness for her, she was a stranger to me, a stranger who did not think or feel as I did.”
- obeahadjective
Relating to a system of folk magic and spiritual practice rooted in West African traditions and practiced in the Caribbean, often involving charms, potions, and rituals.
- békénounChapter 10 →
A Caribbean Creole term for a white person of European origin living in the West Indies, used here to mark racial and social identity in the colonial hierarchy.
“She is not béké like you, but she is béké, and not like us either.”
- in betweenphraseChapter 10 →
Occupying an uncertain social and racial position that belongs fully to neither one group nor the other, leaving a person without a clear community or identity.
“She is in between, and that is the trouble.”
- looking glassnounChapter 11 →
A mirror; a reflective glass surface used to see one's own face and appearance.
“There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now.”
- shut awayphraseChapter 7 →
Confined or locked up in a place apart from society, typically because someone has been deemed mentally ill or dangerous.
“Ask her what happened to her mother, and what happened to her brother who is now shut away.”
- poisonedverbChapter 8 →
Given a harmful or toxic substance secretly, here referring to a love potion added to a drink that causes violent illness.
“I thought, I have been poisoned. But why? For love? Is it possible?”
- slavenounChapter 9 →
Used here not in its literal historical sense but as an expression of total, selfless devotion — willing to surrender all personal freedom for another person's sake.
“I would have died for you. I would have been your slave.”
- post-Emancipationadjective
Referring to the period in the Caribbean after the legal abolition of slavery in 1834, when formerly enslaved people were freed but deep social and economic inequalities remained.
- dowrynoun
Property, money, or an estate that a woman brings to her husband at marriage, here including the Granbois estate that passes to Rochester's control.
- love potionnounChapter 9 →
A magical liquid or mixture believed to make a person fall in love with whoever gives it to them, obtained here through obeah practice.
- daylightnounChapter 8 →
Used here to mark the boundary of a secret, shameful arrangement — she came at night and was gone before the light of day could expose her presence.
“She came to me every night and left before daylight.”
- not quite myselfphraseChapter 12 →
A sense of being slightly estranged from one's own identity, recognizing one's reflection yet feeling it belongs to someone subtly different.
“The girl I saw was myself yet not quite myself.”
Wide Sargasso SeaNovel by Jean Rhys