Death And Violence In Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…” (du Maurier 1) is the opening line of one of the best gothic romance novels, Rebecca. From beginning to end, Daphne du Maurier exhibits the gothic genre perfectly through the thrilling and suspenseful tone and atmosphere, while still telling the love story of Maxim de Winter and his second wife as the narrator of the book. The young and insecure second Mrs. de Winter is constantly compared to the late Mrs. Rebecca de Winter, who was stunning and beautiful just as her name sounds. The narrator searches for secrets of the past life at Manderley, Maxim’s large estate, when Rebecca lived there, and she will find the truth behind things she never saw possible. Rebecca is considered one of the best

Mrs. Danvers described the first body to the narrator; the one that was thought to be Rebecca’s, which was falsely identified by Maxim to cover up the truth: “‘There was nothing on the body when it was found, all those weeks afterwards.’ Her fingers tightened on my arm. She bent down to me, her skull’s face close, her dark eyes searching mine. ‘The rocks had battered her to bits, you know,’ she whispered, ‘her beautiful face unrecognizable, both arms gone’” (173). The common images of both death and somewhat violence are illustrated in the quote with the description of the body that was essentially destroyed in the sea where Rebecca was thought to have drowned. Mrs. Danvers is illustrated as this very threatening and dark person as she grabs onto the arm of the narrator and stares deeply into her eyes, almost as if she were searching for something within the narrator. She represents Rebecca and her presence now that Rebecca is dead. When Captain Searle had delivered the news to Maxim and the narrator that a dead body was found locked in Rebecca’s boat, the feeling of suspense and thrill is clear. “There was a body in there, lying on the cabin floor … It was dissolved, of

Shortly after arriving at Manderley for the first time, the narrator was asked if she would like to see her new suite in which she would share with Maxim. “Have you been making alterations?” I asked. “Oh, nothing much,” said Maxim briefly, “only redecorating and painting the suite in the east wing, which I thought we would use for ours … it’s much more cheerful on that side of the house, and it has a lovely view of the rose-garden…” (71). Throughout the novel, the common metaphors between the east wing and the narrator versus the west wing and Rebecca show a great divide within the house at Manderley. The east wing looks out of the rose-garden and represents a lively and peaceful side, while the west wing represents the dark, more mysterious side of Manderley that has a view of the sea where Rebecca was found dead. As the new couple reaches Manderley for the first time in their marriage, the narrator is overcome by the large bushes of rhododendrons: “…and on either side of us was a wall of colour, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery … nothing but the slaughterous red, luscious and fantastic, unlike any rhododendron plant I had seen before” (66). The bushes are a constant representation of