Freedom of Love
<a title="Freedom of Love" href="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/freedom-of-love/">Freedom of Love</a>
This poem by André Breton disects the female body and compares the parts to very non-bodylike things. This made me think of Breton's speaker as someone who objectifies the woman he is with, much like Rochester does to Annette in <em>Wide Sargasso Sea</em>. Rochester objectifies Annette to pieces, but does so so much that he even finds it impossible to refer to her by her own name. He begins calling his objectified wife by the name Bertha, likely because he doesn't know what else to call her. Though Breton's poem is more sexualized than Rhys's novel, the ideas expressed appear to be quite similar. Both deal with the idea of identity and how that identity is related to the body.
André Breton
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/freedom-of-love/
Edouard Rodti, translator
French, translated to English
poem
The Wonders of Nature (Les Merveilles de la nature), 1953
The Wonders of Nature (<a title="Wonders of Nature" href="http://moreart4all.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/05-rene-magratte-mca.jpg">Les Merveilles de la nature</a>), 1953
This painting by Magritte, who is one of the most well-known and influential surrealists, deals with body image and identity. As we are connecting novels to higher art forms, this particular piece made me think of <em>Orlando</em> by Virginia Woolf. One cannot actually tell if the fish people are male or female, though it is likely there is one male and one female, but regardless of this, they appear to be in love. <em>Orlando</em> deals with the importance of gender in being a part of the human experience, so these two seemed very linked.
René Magritte
1953
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago: Gifted by Joseph and Jory Shapiro, 1982
Oil on canvas