Wide Sargasso Sea Part III, Section 4 Summary

  • When Antoinette wakes up, she notices that her wrists have red marks on them and doesn't know why.
  • Mrs. Poole tells her that a gentleman had come to visit her the day before, but Antoinette doesn't remember anything. She thinks there are visitors in the house, and she does remember seeing a woman during her night-time ramblings through the house. The woman was frightened and found another woman, who explained that she'd seen a ghost.
  • Mrs. Poole explains that the gentleman was her brother, Richard Mason, and when he came to visit her, Antoinette had attacked him with a knife.
  • Mrs. Poole says that she won't do anything to help Antoinette anymore. She'd convinced Mrs. Eff to let Antoinette go outside to get some fresh air, but while Mrs. Poole napped under a tree, Antoinette must have bought a knife from a passing stranger. Antoinette remembers trading her locket with a woman.
  • Mrs. Poole also reminds Antoinette that her brother, Richard Mason, had said that he could not intercede "legally" in Antoinette's marriage, and it was then that Antoinette had stabbed him.
  • Antoinette then remembers the incident, and remembers how Richard didn't seem to recognize her at first. She asks Mrs. Poole if she was wearing her red dress; Mrs. Poole says "no." Antoinette thinks that if she'd worn her red dress, her brother would have recognized her.