Book Report – “Rebecca” (Daphine Du Marier)
E. Yun
2/16/07
Plot Summary
Exposition – The setting is Monte Carlo. Here Mr. Maxim de Winter meets his soon-to-be new
wife. They hastily get married and set off to Manderley – Maxim’s mansion-home.
Rising Action – As the new Mrs. De Winter arrives at Manderley, she is immediately stunned by
its grandeur and immensity. The estate is served and tended by an army of servants.
The young lady’s happiness is short lived as her good fortune turns quickly into a nightmare: Her
husband’s unpredictable temper; the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers’ antagonistic hospitality; and
worst of all, the spirit of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca!
The new Mrs. De Winter feels she is rejected by her husband and snubbed by Mrs. Danvers and
that she has no place at Manderley. Ostensibly Maxim is still in love with his first wife. She
feels inferior in an unfavorable comparison to Rebecca.
Climax - Mrs. Danvers further embarrasses the new Mrs. De Winter by advising her to wear a
special dress (worn by Rebecca before) for the Masquerade Ball at Manderley. It triggers violent
anger in Maxim for apparently unknown reason.
As Mrs. Danvers entices Mrs. De Winter to leave Manderley, or to commit suicide, a series of
mysterious explosions shatter the window where they stand. The explosions turn out to be from
rockets warning that a ship has gone ashore there in the bay by Manderley. The ship is found
with Rebecca’s body tied in it.
Falling Action – Maxim confesses to his new wife that he has killed Rebecca. His unhappy and
scandalous marriage with Rebecca is revealed. The secrets of Manderley are finally uncovered.
Conclusion – With the favorable testimony of a Dr. Baker, Maxim is off the hook of being
suspected of murder. Mrs. Danvers is gone, and Manderley is engulfed by flames. The last trace
of the tragic past has now turned into ashes. Maxim and his new wife live happily ever after, or
do they?
Theme Analysis
Despite the fact that mysteries are designed primary to entertain the readers and therefore they
usually don’t have a strong theme yet “Rebecca” is an exception. The events in the story actually
reveal some truth about human life.
The story emphasizes that fear of the unknown is a basic human instinct. Fear may be evoked by
numerous situations that, either in reality or in imagination, appear threatening to one’s physical
or psychological well-being. Without the knowledge of what’s going on in a strange environment
for an individual, even something that does not exist physically would become horrifying!
The story also implies that happiness is to be loved and cared for. We feel affection for the
person whom we see as contributing to our self-assertion or to our achievement. For a man and a
woman to live happily as husband and wife, they must free themselves from the shadow of the
past, clear all secrets and suspicions.
Another theme implies that the appearance of anything can be deceptive. We must not take
anything by its face value. It is absurd to presume that all rich people are happy and perfect.
Even the information from the media must not be taken with blind faith; it must be judged with
caution and intelligence. The manipulation of words and the perspective of the observer can
easily distort the facts.
The message the author really wants to convey is that “Kindliness, sincerity, and modesty in a
woman are worth more to a man, to a husband, than all the wit and beauty in the world!”
Setting
One of the functions of setting is to create atmosphere and mood. Manderley is a very effective
choice for the setting of the novel in question. It gives us a sense of eeriness and uneasiness; it
totally captures the reader’s emotion and imagination. The author’s desired effect of suspense
could not have been replaced with a small house or a cottage.
Another important setting of the novel is the sea near manderley. The crushing waves give a
menacing atmosphere, implying that some terrible tragedy has happened there: the drowning of
Rebecca!
Characterization
Characterization in mysteries is usually relatively thin. Characters mainly serve as a vehicle to
carry out the story line without much elaboration. “Rebecca” is one exception.
The new Mrs. De Winter – Strangely enough, the heroine of the story does not have a name of
her own. She is a young working woman who meets and marries a wealthy widower, Maxim de
Winter, through a blind chance of fate.
As she follows a husband barely known to her back to manderley (maxim’s home,) she is stunted
by the grandeur of the mansion. Soon she is plunged into the abyss of fear, anxiety and despair
over the eerie events happening at Manderley: why her casual mention of certain words such as
sea, surfs, and boat angers Maxim so easily; why her wearing of a certain dress for the costume
ball causes so much commotion; why Mrs. Danvers is so cold and antagonistic; what eerie secrets
are hidden inside this grand mansion? It appears to her as if Manderley were possessed with the
spirit of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca!
She feels rejected with the thought that Maxim is still deeply in love with his late wife and he
always compares herself unfavorably to Rebecca.
The young lady matures through her constant exposure to the threats of the unknown. With her
shyness and inferiority complex overcome, she finally decides to confront Mrs. Danvers. She
wants to draw the line clearly on who is the mistress of the house! “I am Mrs. De Winter now!”
She immediately realizes how these few words have added courage to her. From now, what Mrs.
Danvers says doesn’t matter any more.
Maxim de Winter – Apparently he is a despondent man who can’t get over his first wife’s death.
It appears as if he were living in his world of past glory and happiness. Actually he is a fugitive
of his past! He lives in anxiety and fear of his secrets being uncovered. He is moody and
unpredictably tempestuous. As soon as he is freed from the bondage of his past, his explosive
temper disappears.
Mrs. Danvers – The creation of such a character is mainly for adding suspense to the story and to
enhance the eerie atmosphere of Manderley. It is hard to believe that such a character could exist
in real life, because no housekeeper or servant could have the commanding power in the house of
her master she has. Mrs. Danvers should have been dismissed after Rebecca’s death. The
reasons for her continued existence at Manderley are not very convincing. Nevertheless, she
plays a very important role as a vehicle to carry out the suspenseful plot.
Mrs. Danvers is described as a servant who is till loyal to a mistress who is already dead and
gone. She tries everything within her power to stop anyone taking the place of her late mistress.
Rebecca – She is already dead when the story begins. Her character is revealed through the
words of Maxim and Mrs. Danvers. She was apparently a beautiful and elegant woman, yet, in
fact she was both physically and psychologically ill. She despised all man and took love-making
as an amusement. She only lived for her whims and took no responsibility for her own actions.
When she discovered she had terminal cancer, she planned to drag her husband down and destroy
him. Rebecca was a character that is difficult to comprehend. Why would a woman who had
everything (wealth, beauty, and fame) in the world act so viciously?
Style
“Last night I dreamt I went to manderley again……..we would not talk of Manderley, I would not
tell my dream. For Manderley was ours no longer. Manderley was no more!” Manderley!
Manderley! What is Manderley! Where is Manderley! Right away, we wonder what has
happened!
From the very beginning of the first chapter, the author slickly uses Manderley as a clue to tell us
at once that something mysterious had happened there. A firm hook the author has made for the
plot. The curiosity of the readers is aroused immediately; we wait impatiently for the plot to
unfold successive events with mounting suspense.
As we follow the new Mrs. De Winter home to Manderley, the author deliberately builds up the
suspense: the appearance of the sinister and terrifying Mrs. Danvers and the idiot, Ben; of the
cottage at the beach; the apparent return of the shadow of a past tragedy (Rebecca’s death) to
Manderley; and the introduction of a new twist – the mysterious visit of Jack Favell to manderley
during Maxim’s absence. All these culminate in the explosive climax, when Rebecca’s body is
found at the bottom of the sea together with the sunken boat. The author apparently has an
incredible descriptive style that makes things suspenseful, forcing the reader to keep turning the
pages in order to get to the source of the terrifying suspense.
Another success of the author’s style is the use of rains and thunderstorms to create atmospheric
effects.
The first-person-narration style is perfect for the story. It puts the reader right into the shoes of
the new Mrs. de Winter, making us feel what she feels, fear what she fears.
Other than the excellent intriguing plot, the story is spotted with words of wisdoms, words for
thoughts:
“This has been ours, however brief the time. Though two nights only have been spent beneath a
roof, yet we leave something of ourselves behind…..a moment of our lives, a thought, and a
mood.” (Ch. 6.) This reveals the author’s sentimental view of life.
“Those roof tops and that sea were mine no more. They belonged to yesterday, to the past.” (Ch.
6.) This emphasizes the fleeting experience of time and the transient nature of life.
“The knowledge of this chilled me; how narrow a chance had stood between me and what mighthave-been.”
“I leant back in my chair, glancing about the room, trying to instill into myself some measure of
confidence, some genuine realization that I was here, at manderley, the house of the picture post
card. I had to teach myself that all this was mine now.” (Ch. 7.) These two paragraphs show the
blind chances of fate, that a decision we make in a split second could put us into a twisted reality
and lead us to a different destiny!
Opinion
In most mysteries, the plot is the story’s main feature. The actual journey into fear and suspense
dominate the story. The plot often overshadows all the other elements.
Mysteries impress us as having been created primarily to entertain the reader without any long
lasting literary value. The hair-raising events and eerie suspense in “Rebecca” also grip the
attention of the reader, but, unlike other suspense, this thriller-suspense offers more than
entertainment. It has the literary value of a classic by having good themes and characterization.
For this reason, I enjoyed reading “Rebecca” a lot more than Agatha Christie’s “whodunit” type
mysteries.
********************************* The End ***********************************