ENGL 818l: Victorian Afterlives

Dr. Sigler

Rebecca (1936)
Daphne DuMaurier

"Last night I dreamt I went back to Manderley...."

• Structure:

1. Monte Carlo; courtship

2. Journey to Manderley; early weeks there

3. The mystery deepens; final solution(s)

• Please take notes as you read, underlining and writing down details that will help you to discuss and write about the questions below:

1. One of the ways to approach the novel is to see it in the footsteps of Jane Eyre, in which a plain and ordinary servant eventually marries that Byronic-hero-with-a-secret. In what ways do you see Rebecca as successor to Jane Eyre, in terms of plot, character, and themes? In what ways does the novel adapt Jane Eyre's "Cinderella" motifs?

2. How is the unnamed heroine characterized (via her actions, speech, what she tells readers about herself, what others say about her, etc)?

3. Why does Rebecca leave the heroine without a name? Why name the novel after a dead woman rather than after the heroine (like Bronte's Jane Eyre)?

4. What images and motifs (visual or verbal) are associated with Rebecca de Winter?

5. We never meet Rebecca, and know her only as she is described by various people. How is she is characterized by 1) the narrator, as she imagines her; 2) Mrs. Danvers; 3) Max.

6. The main character's limited existence as a lady's maid is established in the opening third of the novel. To what extent, if any, does her situation change after she marries Max?

7. How is Max de Winter characterized (via his actions, speech, what the narrator tells readers about him, what others say about him, etc)? ? What does he want from the narrator?

8. As in Jane Eyre, one of the central problems is female maturation. How is the main character's childlike status constructed and reinforced in the first two sections of the novel? In what ways, and by what means, does she achieve adult status by the end (or does she)? Does she truly ever become "Mrs. de Winter"?

9. What does the house, Manderley, represent to each of the main characters?

10. What are we to make of the novel's conclusion? How does itt compare to the ending of Jane Eyre? Does DuMaurier allow Max to get away with murder?

11. As you read, look for details that represent these motifs and themes:

• The power of the dead to affect the living
• Secrets
• The sea (also rain)
• Fire