The Tragedy of the Vast Sargasso Sea In Jean Rhys' novel The Vast Sargasso Sea, the question of whether Antoinette Cosway really ends up becoming crazy is debatable. However, it is clear that his life is tragic. The tragedy comes from his many quests for love and belonging, and the failure of each of these attempts. As a child, Antoinette is deprived of parental love. His father is a drunkard and has many mistresses and illegitimate children. According to Daniel Cosway's account, old Cosway is cruel to his own son. However, even if Daniel was not really a Cosway and his descriptions were made out of malice, or if old Cosway had cared more about his legitimate children than his bastards, his alcoholism is real and he would therefore not have could not be a loving man. father of Antoinette. His mother, Annette, doesn't show him much maternal affection either. Antoinette needs and wants her mother's love, but Annette is indifferent to her. One day, Antoinette sees her mother frowning, and she tries to smooth the frown with her hand. But she pushed me away, not brutally but calmly, coldly, without a word, as if she had decided once and for all that I was useless. her. She wanted to sit with Pierre or walk wherever she wanted without being harassed, she wanted peace and quiet.…. “Oh, leave me alone,” she said, “leave me alone” (13; part 1). One night, when Antoinette had a nightmare, she woke up and saw her mother in her bed. This makes her feel safe, but even then, her mother has not come to care for her, but to care for Pierre, frightened by her noise. When her needs for love and belonging are neglected by her parents, Antoinette seeks to fulfill her needs. them elsewhere. She's looking for love with a newcomer... in the middle of paper... she, if there ever was one, is completely gone, and all that's left is destructive hatred: If I I was destined for hell, let it be hell. No more false skies. No more damn music. You hate me and I hate you. We'll see who hates it the most. But first, I will destroy your hatred first. Now my hatred is colder, stronger, and you will no longer have hatred to warm you. You will get nothing (110; part 2). He thus murders her last hope of love and security, and takes her to England to lock her in his attic. This is his second dislocation, this time not only removed from his own familiar world, but completely isolated from the wider world. Here, her tragedy is complete, for her heart and soul are killed, and she is left only a ghost, with “nothing left but despair” (110; part 2). Work cited Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Ed. Angela Smith. London: Penguin, 1997.