Morally Ambiguous Characters In Rebecca

Throughout Charlotte Brontê’s Jane Eyre and Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca, morally ambiguous characters play key roles in their respective novels. Morally ambiguous characters are able to play key roles in the novels because their moral ambiguity often creates alternate directions in which the story can progress. These characters can also make changes to the plot unbeknownst to the main characters, and propel the story into unforeseen waters. In Rebecca, Mrs. Danvers is a morally ambiguous character, and plays a pivotal role in the sequence of events that occur throughout the novel. Mrs. Danvers’s deep love and grief for Rebecca causes her to act in questionable ways towards the narrator, and creates many scenarios that play a pivotal role in

Danvers’s love and affection of Rebecca causes Mrs. Danvers to act in dubious ways towards the narrator, and creates many significant plot points of the novel. Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca were often around each other as maid and woman of the house, and they grew attached to each other. When Rebecca died and the narrator took her place, Mrs. Danvers grew resentful and wished to keep Rebecca’s name in peoples’ minds as Maxim’s best wife. Mrs. Danvers’s and Rebecca’s steadfast relationship is exhibited through Mrs. Danvers’s declaration that she “did everything for her. …‘We tried maid after maid but not one of them suited. ‘You maid me better than anyone, Danny’ she used to say, ‘I won’t have anyone but you’”. (du Maurier 171). Rebecca had many maids in her life before, but Mrs. Danvers clicked in a way that neither of them had experienced before. The strong liking towards Rebecca by Mrs. Danvers makes the transition to the narrator as Maxim’s new wife especially hard on Mrs. Danvers. She was so committed to helping, serving, and supporting Rebecca, and seeing Maxim marry a new woman like it’s no big deal enrages Mrs. Danvers. She wants to keep Rebecca’s reputation and memory alive, and wants to put down the narrator so that Rebecca can always be remembered. She suggests what the narrator should wear to the ball they are hosting, and tells the narrator that “All the pictures in the gallery would make good costumes,... especially that one of the young lady in white, with her

Rochester to act in questionable ways towards his relationship with Jane, and affects Jane’s life and her relationship with Mr. Rochester. Prior to meeting Jane, Mr. Rochester got tricked into marrying an insane woman, and the effects of that relationship on Mr. Rochester causes issues involving trust and secrecy surrounding his and Jane’s relationship. At Jane and Edward’s wedding, Mr. Mason interrupts the wedding and accuses Mr. Rochester of already having a currently living wife, and although at first he tries to deny it, he then admits that he has “been married: and the woman to whom I was married lives!...I daresay you have many a time inclined your ear to gossip about the mysterious lunatic kept there under watch and ward.” (Brontë 296). People around town who live near Thornfield had always heard rumors about a lunatic woman at the hall, and Mr. Rochester reveals at the wedding that the presumed woman is his wife. Jane is absolutely shocked and devastated, and feels as though she can no longer trust Mr. Rochester. This wild turn of events causes her to leave Mr. Rochester and she eventually meets St. John. St. John and his sisters are later revealed to be Jane’s cousins, and Jane finds this discovery a truly “Glorious discovery to a lonely wretch! This was wealth indeed! Wealth to the heart! A mine of pure, genial affections. This was a blessing, bright, vivid, and exhilarating” (Brontë