ENGL 3906: Methods of Literary Study

Dr. Sigler

Rebecca (1940)

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

Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Cinematography: George Barnes. Editing W. Donn Hayes (uncredited).

Screenplay by Philip MacDonald. Based upon the novel by Daphne DuMaurier

• Cast:

Maximillian "Maxim" de Winter: Laurence Olivier

The Second Mrs. de Winter: Joan Fontaine

Jack Favell: George Sanders

Mrs. Danvers: Judith Anderson

Major Giles Lacy: Nigel Bruce
Beatrice Lacy: Gladys Cooper

Frank Crawley: Reginald Denny

Colonel Julyan: C. Aubrey Smith

Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper: Florence Bates

• Structure:

1. Monte Carlo; courtship

2. Journey to Manderley; early weeks there

3. The mystery deepens; final solution(s)

• Please take notes as you are viewing the film, writing down details that will help you to discuss 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 film adapt Jane Eyre’s "Cinderella" motifs?

2. How is the unnamed heroine characterized (visually and verbally)? Does she have anything in common with Jane Eyre?

3. Why does Rebecca leave the heroine without a name? Why name the film after "Rebecca" 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 characterized 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 film. To what extent, if any, does her situation change after she marries Max?

7. How is Max de Winter characterized? What does he want from the narrator?

8. As in Jane Eyre, one of the central problems in the film is female maturation. How is the main character's childlike status visually/verbally constructed in the first two sections of the film? In what ways, and by what means, does she achieve adult status by the end of the film (or does she)?

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

10. Motifs and themes (visual/formal and verbal):

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