Mother's Madness

In class we had a review of the characters in Wide Sargasso Sea to orient ourselves in the story. One of the characters we discussed was Annette, Antoinette's mother. In the story, Annette is thought of as "mad" or "crazy". She talks to herself, coldly brushes Antoinette off, and screams at Mr. Mason about how she is going to kill him. However, as we got to know Annette more, I wondered if she truly was crazy or if the people around her were just misinterpreting her actions. Closer to her death, I do believe that she may have started developing a mental disorder, but certainly before Coulibri was burned down I think an argument could be made about how she was not crazy, but simply suffering in multiple ways.
One of the ways that really stuck out to me in how she was struggling was as a mother. We are told a few times about Pierre, who probably has both mental and physical disabilities. With this hovering over Annette, it's no wonder that she is worried and stressed a lot of the time. Her pushing Antoinette away can be attributed to this. After all, Antoinette can mostly take care of herself, at least so it seems on the surface. It is only natural for Annette to worry and care more for Pierre than Antoinette in that sense. I don't think this was the best way for Annette to handle parenting her children, but I think it's a much more reasonable way to describe Annette than simply mad.
Another way that she is struggling is that she has been removed from society. We are told that before Mr. Mason arrived she was used to having guests, but around the time Antoinette was born or even before, she stopped having guests. She is described as talking to herself on the glacis, which could point to madness. However, I think it more likely points to loneliness. After all, she was used to having people around her to talk to, but with no one else, it's natural for her to want to speak aloud to herself. Hell, even I talk to myself outloud, and I do have social interactions.
Almost as a final tipping point for Annette was the burning of Coulibri. She loses her son in the fire, and the fire is directly Mr. Mason's fault. She threatens Mr. Mason, her husband, that she is going to kill him, and make him pay for what he has done. Of course this seems insane to outsiders, a kind of final puzzle piece to their suspicions of her madness. But this, out of all the symptoms of her so-called madness is the most understandable. She lost her baby, her son who she had tended to so much. She risked her own life without a second thought to try and bring him back from the fire. Of course she is going to be absolutely furious with whoever is to blame for his death, and as we discussed in class, Mr. Mason is that person. On this point, I think she is completely justified. No mother would be able to forgive the person who killed her child.
At the center of all of Annette's "madness" is everyone else's hatred of her. If she were surrounded by more supportive people, people who she could talk to and understood, she probably wouldn't be portrayed to the wider society as mad. She would probably be spoken of in a more sympathetic fashion, one that painted her in a more understanding way. She is a mother who is just trying to get by. But because of her social context, she is portrayed rather unfairly in my opinion as a madwoman.

Marie's Love

Throughout The Stranger, we get accounts of Meursault's relationships with others, including that with Marie. Marie and him seem to have a slightly complicated relationship, in that Marie clearly loves Meursault, and he recognizes that he does not feel the same way. Yet they stay together. Or more specifically, Marie still stays. It's unclear just how much Meursault is holding onto Marie, whereas it's obvious how much effort Marie needs to put into the relationship to continue it. In this way, Marie almost perfectly portrays how some women feel obligated to stay in relationships that may not be healthy to "save the man". In Marie and Meursault's case, the unhealthy relationship is characterized by how uneven the give-and-take is: Marie gives so much more to it than Meursault does.
The first example I immediately think of is how Marie asks multiple times whether or not Meursault loves her. His answer of not knowing, but probably not obviously is not what Marie wants to hear. After all, she herself had just told him she loves him, which implies that she wants to hear that he feels the same way. Though it's not explicitly said, this answer probably hurt Marie, and yet she continues to go back to Meursault afterward, and even talks about marrying him. Meursault seems indifferent to the prospect of marriage, saying they'll get married if she wants to. To me, it seems like Meursault would be indifferent to Marie staying or leaving, and it is up to Marie really to keep the relationship going.
Another example of this is when Marie comes to Meursault's trial. At first, she is just observing the trial, almost acting as an emotional support. Then she actively becomes a witness and defends Meursault, even crying on stand for him; crying because of how the court is twisting her words against Meursault. She tries to protect him, to save him, and the court is working against her. Still, she has hope for him, and even says that they'll get married once he gets out. She writes him letters fora  while as well, obviously showing how she is trying to keep contact and maintain a relationship, maybe even to give him something to look forward to when he gets out. Yet after she stops writing and visiting, the only thing he thinks about her is that he didn't really care if she was dead or a live. Granted, he was in a situation where it wouldn't ultimately matter to him objectively, but this is still a cold kind of statement to make.
Marie obviously doesn't like the current relationship the two of them have, yet she continuously comes back and tries to change it, and essentially change Meursault, for the better. This in the end only brings her sadness as she watches the man she thought she loved get condemned to death. To me, it seems evident that Marie would have been much happier if she had let Meursault go early on and found someone who could reciprocate her feelings, but because of the obligation she felt she had to defend Meursault and stand by him, she caused herself suffering.