Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (AQA A-Level English Literature A): Revision Notes
Context & Writer's Techniques
Context
1. Published in 1938 — interwar Britain
Daphne du Maurier wrote Rebecca during the late 1930s, a period of significant social and political tension. This historical moment was characterised by several key features that influenced the novel's themes and atmosphere.
The late 1930s in Britain was marked by widespread uncertainty about the future. Europe was experiencing political instability, and many people feared another major conflict following the devastation of the First World War. This sense of unease and foreboding permeates the novel's atmosphere.
The interwar period (1918-1939) was characterised by economic depression, political extremism across Europe, and the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. By 1938, when Rebecca was published, war seemed increasingly inevitable, creating a pervasive sense of anxiety and dread throughout British society.
The novel also reflects the changing social landscape following World War I. Gender roles were shifting as women had taken on new responsibilities during the war, yet traditional expectations persisted. Victorian and Edwardian social conventions still influenced behaviour and attitudes, particularly regarding marriage and women's roles.
Additionally, this period saw the continued popularity of Gothic fiction and romantic suspense. Readers were drawn to stories that combined mystery, psychological tension, and atmospheric settings.
The novel's atmosphere of unease, secrecy, and psychological instability directly mirrors the anxieties of the interwar period, creating a sense of impending crisis that resonates throughout the narrative.
Key terms:
- Interwar Britain: the period between World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945), characterised by social change and political uncertainty
- Gothic fiction: a genre featuring mystery, suspense, dark atmosphere, and often supernatural or threatening elements
2. The Gothic tradition
Du Maurier consciously employs established Gothic literary conventions to create tension and mystery throughout Rebecca. The Gothic tradition, which dates back to the 18th century, provides a framework of familiar elements that the novel both uses and subverts.
The novel incorporates several classic Gothic features:
- The enigmatic deceased first wife creates an oppressive presence despite being physically absent
- Manderley, the grand estate, functions as a decaying mansion filled with dark corridors and hidden secrets
- The narrative is built around secrets, confinement, and concealed crimes that slowly come to light
- The vulnerable heroine enters this threatening environment, seemingly powerless against the forces around her
These elements position Rebecca within a modern Gothic tradition, drawing clear parallels with earlier Gothic works. The novel echoes Jane Eyre, with its madwoman and brooding husband. It also recalls Wuthering Heights, particularly in its themes of haunting and obsession. The Mysteries of Udolpho provides another touchstone, with its innocent heroine uncovering dark secrets.
However, du Maurier's use of Gothic conventions is not simply imitative. She adapts these traditional elements to explore contemporary concerns about identity, gender, and power in 1930s society.
Exam tip: When discussing Gothic elements, always explain how they contribute to meaning rather than simply identifying them. Consider what psychological or social anxieties they represent.
3. Gender roles & patriarchal marriage
The novel provides a sharp critique of the restrictive gender expectations that persisted in 1930s Britain, particularly within the upper classes. Despite the social changes following World War I, traditional patriarchal structures remained firmly in place.
The social context of the 1930s enforced several key expectations on women:
- Male control in marriage was considered natural and appropriate, with husbands making all significant decisions
- Society placed pressure on women to be quiet, modest, and inexperienced, particularly young brides
- The ideal of the "good wife" demanded complete devotion to domestic duties and submission to one's husband
The unnamed narrator embodies the struggles created by these expectations. She experiences profound insecurity about her role and worthiness. Her social inferiority as a paid companion contrasts sharply with Rebecca's aristocratic confidence. Her youth and inexperience leave her ill-equipped to navigate the complex social world of Manderley.
Rebecca's Contrasting Characteristics
Rebecca, by contrast, represents everything the narrator is not:
- She possessed sexual confidence and lived according to her own desires
- She wielded social power and commanded respect
- She maintained her independence even within marriage
- Her charisma made her unforgettable to everyone who knew her
The novel explores the tension between female sexuality and patriarchal order. Rebecca's refusal to conform to the submissive wife ideal ultimately leads to her death, yet her power continues to dominate Manderley. The narrator's attempted conformity brings her no happiness or security. Through this contrast, du Maurier questions the sustainability and justice of patriarchal marriage structures.
Key terms:
- Patriarchal: relating to a social system where men hold primary power and authority
- Gender roles: socially constructed expectations about how men and women should behave
4. Class, status, and English country-house culture
Manderley represents more than simply a setting; it embodies the rigid class hierarchies of pre-war aristocratic England. Du Maurier examines how these traditional structures create oppression and maintain inequality.
The estate operates according to strict social codes:
- Servants obey rigid hierarchies, with clear distinctions between different levels of staff
- The mistress of the house must uphold exacting standards, performing her role with confidence and authority
- Social surveillance governs behaviour, with everyone constantly observed and judged by their peers and inferiors
Du Maurier offers a critique of this world by demonstrating its oppressive nature. Through the second Mrs de Winter's struggles, we see how these expectations create anxiety and suffering. She cannot fulfil the role Rebecca performed so effortlessly, not simply due to personal inadequacy but because the system itself is rigid and unforgiving.
The novel suggests that these traditional structures were already becoming unsustainable by the late 1930s. The burning of Manderley at the novel's conclusion can be read as the symbolic destruction of an outdated social order.
Exam tip: Consider how class and gender intersect in the novel. The narrator's lower social status compounds her difficulties as a woman trying to navigate patriarchal expectations.
5. Influence of Du Maurier's life & marriage
Biographical criticism reveals connections between du Maurier's personal experiences and the novel's central concerns. While we should be careful not to read the novel as simply autobiographical, understanding these influences enriches our interpretation.
Biographers have identified several parallels between du Maurier's life and her fiction:
- She experienced her own feelings of jealousy and insecurity in marriage, particularly regarding her husband's past relationships
- The idea of a predecessor overshadowing her resonated with her personal anxieties
- She also navigated a complex sexual identity and fascination with powerful women, which manifests in Rebecca's magnetic characterisation
Du Maurier herself described the novel as "a study in jealousy". This comment suggests she was consciously exploring these psychological states rather than simply recounting personal experience. The novel transforms personal anxiety into a broader examination of marriage, identity, and power.
Key point: Understanding biographical context can deepen interpretation, but the novel's themes extend beyond du Maurier's individual experience to address universal psychological and social concerns.
6. Modern psychological fiction
Although Rebecca employs Gothic conventions, it is fundamentally a work of modern psychological fiction. The novel's real interest lies not in supernatural horror but in the narrator's fragile mental state and the psychological dynamics of relationships.
The novel explores several distinctly modern psychological concerns:
- Identity formation is central, as the narrator struggles to establish who she is separate from Rebecca's shadow
- The text examines self-doubt and imposter syndrome, depicting how internal anxiety can be as destructive as external threats
- The unreliability of memory is constantly emphasised, with the past remaining ambiguous and contested
- Finally, the novel addresses trauma and repression, showing how the past continues to haunt the present
The narrative focus on the narrator's fragile interior life distinguishes Rebecca as a work of 1930s psychological fiction. Rather than simply recounting events, the novel immerses us in one woman's consciousness, revealing how perception shapes reality.
This psychological depth makes the novel relevant to contemporary readers, who recognise these internal struggles even as the social context has changed.
Key terms:
- Psychological fiction: literature that focuses on the interior consciousness and mental states of characters
- Interior life: the inner thoughts, feelings, and mental processes of a character
Writer's techniques
1. First-person narration & unreliable narrator
The entire novel is narrated by the unnamed second Mrs de Winter, and this narrative perspective fundamentally shapes our understanding of events. Du Maurier's choice to use first-person narration creates intimacy whilst simultaneously limiting and distorting our view of the story.
The narrator's personal characteristics directly influence what we learn and how we interpret it:
- Her profound insecurity colours every observation and interaction
- Her naivety about social conventions and human behaviour leads to misunderstandings
- Her fantasies and self-criticism blur the line between objective events and subjective interpretation
- Her misreadings of people, particularly Maxim, create dramatic irony throughout the text
The Unreliable Narrator
These qualities make her an unreliable narrator – a narrator whose perspective cannot be entirely trusted to give an accurate account. This unreliability creates several important effects.
First, the reader shares her fear and confusion, experiencing the mystery of Manderley as she does. We cannot be certain what is real and what is imagined. Second, this narrative strategy intensifies the mystery, as we see only what she notices and understands. Critical information is missed because she lacks the experience to recognise its significance. Third, the technique creates huge scope for dramatic irony, particularly regarding Maxim's true feelings and Rebecca's real character. We gradually realise the narrator has misunderstood almost everything.
The unreliable narration serves the novel's psychological focus. We are less interested in objective truth than in understanding how the narrator's mind works – how insecurity, jealousy, and fear distort perception and create suffering.
Key terms:
- First-person narration: storytelling from the "I" perspective of a character within the narrative
- Unreliable narrator: a narrator whose credibility is compromised, leading to a distorted view of events
- Dramatic irony: when the reader understands something the narrator or character does not
Exam tip: When analysing the narrator's perspective, always consider what she might be misunderstanding or misrepresenting. How does her limited viewpoint shape our interpretation?
2. Withholding information & slow revelation
Du Maurier masterfully controls the release of information throughout the novel, creating sustained suspense and gradually shifting our understanding of characters and events. This technique of strategic withholding is central to the novel's effectiveness as psychological suspense.
The author carefully manages what the reader learns and when:
- She withholds Rebecca's true nature for much of the novel, allowing both narrator and reader to believe in the perfect first wife
- She hides the circumstances of Rebecca's death, creating mystery around whether it was accident, suicide, or murder
- She gradually reveals Maxim's guilt and torment, transforming our understanding of him from romantic hero to desperate killer
Effects of Strategic Withholding
These narrative choices create several important effects:
- Suspense is maintained throughout the novel, even during quieter domestic scenes, because we sense there are crucial secrets yet to be revealed
- Ambiguity pervades the text, as we constantly question what is true. This uncertainty mirrors the narrator's own confusion
- The slow revelation ensures continual questioning of appearances, teaching us that nothing is as it first seems
This technique also reflects the novel's thematic concerns. The difficulty of knowing truth, the way the past remains hidden, and the complexity of human relationships are all embodied in the narrative structure itself.
Key terms:
- Suspense: a feeling of excited uncertainty about what will happen
- Revelation: the disclosure of previously hidden information
- Ambiguity: uncertainty or the possibility of multiple interpretations
3. Gothic setting — Manderley as a character
Manderley functions as far more than a backdrop for the action. Du Maurier uses extensive sensory detail, shifting atmospheric moods, and symbolic significance to transform the estate into a character in its own right – one that actively influences and oppresses the protagonist.
The estate is described with rich sensory detail that brings it vividly to life. The narrator notices the texture of fabrics, the smell of flowers, the sound of the sea. These details create immersion whilst revealing the narrator's state of mind. The house also exhibits shifting moods that mirror and influence events. It can seem beautiful and welcoming or oppressive and threatening depending on the narrator's emotional state and what she discovers. Finally, Manderley carries deep symbolic significance, representing multiple meanings simultaneously.
Manderley as Gothic Space
As a Gothic space, Manderley embodies several key ideas:
- It preserves Rebecca's lingering presence, with her taste and personality imprinted on every room
- It represents the stifling expectations of upper-class domestic life, where tradition and propriety rule absolutely
- It creates psychological imprisonment for the narrator, who feels trapped by duties she cannot fulfil and a past she cannot escape
The estate literally haunts the narrator long before the final fire. Her famous opening statement, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again," reveals that the house dominates her unconscious mind even years after its destruction. The physical space has become internalised as psychological trauma.
Exam tip: When discussing setting in Rebecca, always consider its psychological dimension. How does the physical environment reflect and influence the narrator's mental state?
4. Atmosphere & imagery
Du Maurier creates the novel's distinctive atmosphere through carefully chosen imagery that establishes mood, foreshadows events, and reveals the narrator's psychological state. Several recurring image patterns shape our experience of the text.
Storm imagery appears throughout the novel, particularly at moments of crisis or revelation. Storms create tension and suggest emotional turbulence. Shadows are constantly mentioned, representing secrets, the past, and Rebecca's lingering influence. The narrator often feels she is living in Rebecca's shadow.
The sea functions as a symbol of danger and secrecy. Its beauty is always threatening, and it literally holds Rebecca's body and the truth of her death. The boathouse, where Rebecca died, sits at the boundary between land and sea, between the known and the concealed.
Seasonal changes provide structure and symbolism. The novel moves from spring, associated with the narrator's marriage and initial hope, through tension in summer, to autumn, when truths begin emerging, and finally to fire that destroys Manderley. This progression mirrors the narrative arc from innocence to destruction.
Finally, claustrophobic interiors throughout Manderley create a sense of confinement. The narrator often describes feeling trapped in rooms, unable to breathe, overwhelmed by furnishings and décor. These descriptions externalise her internal sense of suffocation.
Collectively, this imagery enhances suspense whilst revealing the narrator's psychological state. Her perception of her environment is always coloured by her emotional condition, making description inseparable from psychology.
Key terms:
- Imagery: descriptive language that appeals to the senses
- Atmosphere: the emotional tone or mood of a literary work
- Foreshadowing: hints or clues about future events
5. Character contrasts (foils)
Du Maurier structures the novel around several key character contrasts that highlight the central themes of identity, jealousy, and power. These character foils – contrasting characters that illuminate each other's qualities – provide insight into the novel's exploration of gender and marriage.
Rebecca vs second Mrs de Winter
The most important contrast in the novel is between the two Mrs de Winters.
The Central Contrast
Rebecca is presented (at least initially) as glamorous, sexually experienced, socially dominant, and confident. The narrator is shy, inexperienced, uncertain, and socially inferior. This contrast drives the narrator's jealousy and insecurity. She believes she can never match Rebecca's perfection, unaware that Rebecca's apparent perfection masked cruelty and immorality.
Ironically, the revelation of Rebecca's true nature does not free the narrator from this comparison. Even when she learns Rebecca was manipulative and unfaithful, Rebecca's power and confidence remain enviable.
Maxim vs Jack Favell
The male characters also form a significant contrast. Maxim represents aristocratic restraint, social respectability, and repressed emotion. Favell embodies vulgar sexuality, disrespect for social conventions, and open displays of desire.
This contrast explores different models of masculinity and different threats to female autonomy. Maxim's refined exterior conceals violence and control. Favell's obvious crudeness makes him recognisably dangerous, yet arguably less threatening than Maxim's hidden capacity for murder.
Mrs Danvers vs the heroine
The contrast between Mrs Danvers and the narrator highlights themes of loyalty, power, and belonging. Danvers demonstrates absolute loyalty to the dead Rebecca, maintaining her rooms and memory as a shrine. The narrator is an insecure outsider, unable to command loyalty or establish authority.
Danvers' devotion to Rebecca borders on obsession, suggesting complex emotional and possibly romantic attachment. This intensity makes the narrator's conventional marriage to Maxim seem pale and unsatisfying by comparison.
These character foils emphasise the novel's key themes: identity, jealousy, and power. Through contrast, du Maurier reveals the complexity of human relationships and the inadequacy of simple moral categories.
Key terms:
- Character foils: contrasting characters who highlight each other's qualities through their differences
- Characterisation: the methods used to create and develop characters
6. Intertextuality with Jane Eyre
Rebecca deliberately evokes Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), establishing numerous parallels that create expectations before systematically subverting them. This intertextuality – the relationship between different texts – enriches meaning by inviting comparison.
Several clear parallels link the two novels:
- Both feature an older husband with a secret related to his first wife
- Both include a grand house with a hidden past that threatens the present
- Both present an oppressive female presence associated with the first wife
- Both use fire as purification and destruction, burning away the past to allow a new future
These similarities initially position Rebecca as a modern retelling of Jane Eyre. However, du Maurier significantly subverts this framework, creating a darker and more ambiguous narrative.
The most important subversion concerns the identification of the threatening female. In Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason is literally the madwoman in the attic – imprisoned, animalistic, and ultimately destroyed. She represents the threat that must be eliminated for Jane's happiness.
The Key Reversal
In Rebecca, however, the supposedly threatening figure is not the madwoman but the powerful one. Rebecca is not the "madwoman" – she is the powerful one. The narrator is the frightened, unstable figure, more comparable to Bertha in her lack of agency and near-hysteria.
This reversal fundamentally changes the meaning. Du Maurier questions whether female power is inherently threatening or whether patriarchal society constructs it as such. Rebecca's sexuality and independence led to her murder, suggesting that the real threat comes not from powerful women but from men who cannot tolerate female autonomy.
Exam tip: When discussing intertextuality, always explain how the relationship between texts creates meaning. Don't simply identify parallels; analyse how they are used and what they suggest.
Key terms:
- Intertextuality: the relationship between texts through references, allusions, or parallels
- Subversion: undermining or challenging conventions or expectations
7. Symbolism
Du Maurier employs recurring symbols throughout the novel to represent complex ideas and emotions. These symbols gain meaning through repetition and association, creating layers of significance beyond their literal function.
The sea
The sea is perhaps the novel's most important symbol, representing multiple interconnected ideas:
- It signifies danger, with its treacherous currents and storms threatening those who venture onto it
- It represents secrets, as it literally conceals Rebecca's body and the truth of her death
- It symbolises death, both Rebecca's actual death and the constant threat of destruction
- Finally, it embodies Rebecca's power, as she was at home on the water in ways the narrator never could be
The sea's ambiguous beauty – simultaneously attractive and threatening – mirrors the dual nature of many elements in the novel.
Manderley
The estate functions symbolically as well as literally:
- It represents the rigid class hierarchy of aristocratic England, with its elaborate rooms and army of servants
- It embodies memory, preserving the past in physical form
- Most importantly, it symbolises Rebecca's dominance, as her taste and personality have shaped every aspect of the house
The destruction of Manderley in the fire suggests that Rebecca's power can only be escaped through complete annihilation of her domain.
Clothing & appearance
Clothes carry symbolic weight throughout the novel:
- The white dress at the ball that the narrator wears, copying a portrait, reveals her complete submission to Rebecca's influence. She literally becomes a ghost of Rebecca
- Rebecca's old wardrobe, maintained by Mrs Danvers, represents how Rebecca's presence pervades the present. The expensive garments embody her sophistication and confidence
- These items of clothing function as "uniforms" of social expectation, showing how gender and class roles are performed through appearance
The boat & boathouse
The boat called Je Reviens (French for "I return") and the boathouse where Rebecca died carry obvious symbolic significance:
- They represent the site of truth, where the secrets of Rebecca's death are finally revealed
- The boat name suggests Rebecca's double life, spent partly in London away from Maxim
- The boathouse becomes associated with Maxim's moral collapse, as it is where he murdered his wife
The discovery of Rebecca's body in the boat, which then leads to revelations about her cancer and her goading of Maxim, makes this location the physical centre of the mystery.
Exam tip: When discussing symbolism, always explain what the symbol represents and how this adds to the novel's meaning. Avoid simply stating that something is "symbolic" without analysis.
Key terms:
- Symbol: an object, person, or place that represents abstract ideas or concepts beyond its literal meaning
- Symbolic significance: the deeper meaning associated with a symbol
8. Dream framing & circular structure
The novel's opening line is one of the most famous in English literature:
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."
This beginning establishes a dream framework that shapes the entire narrative, whilst the novel's circular structure reinforces key themes.
The narrative begins after the destruction of Manderley, with the narrator looking back on events. The opening dream of returning to the ruined estate establishes that Manderley is gone but continues to haunt her. The novel then flashes back to recount how this situation came about. The ending returns to the dream's image, with Manderley literally going up in flames.
Effects of Circular Structure
This circular structure creates several important effects:
- It suggests psychological haunting, as the narrator cannot escape the past even years later. Manderley dominates her dreams and thoughts
- It shows how past trauma dominates the narrator's life, preventing her from fully inhabiting the present
- It blurs boundaries between dream and memory, making us question the reliability of the narrative. Is the entire story filtered through dream-like distortion? Has the narrator's memory reconstructed events to fit her psychological needs?
The dream frame also establishes the elegiac, melancholic tone from the beginning. We know from the start that Manderley is lost, that the narrator's life has been fundamentally shaped by the events she recounts. This creates pathos – we are reading a narrative of trauma and loss rather than a straightforward romance or mystery.
Key terms:
- Circular structure: a narrative that ends where it began, creating a sense of completion or entrapment
- Dream framing: using a dream or dream-like state to frame or introduce a narrative
- Elegiac: mournful or expressing loss
9. Realism + Gothic hybrid
Rebecca achieves its distinctive effect by combining elements of different literary traditions. Du Maurier blends realistic domestic detail, emotional psychology, Gothic mystery, detective-fiction elements, and romantic suspense into a hybrid form that helped define modern popular fiction.
The novel includes realistic domestic detail about running a large household, managing servants, and navigating social obligations. These mundane concerns ground the narrative in recognisable reality. It explores emotional psychology with sophisticated attention to the narrator's interior life, examining jealousy, insecurity, and self-doubt with modern psychological insight.
At the same time, the novel employs Gothic mystery through its atmospheric setting, dark secrets, and sense of supernatural presence. It incorporates detective-fiction elements as characters investigate Rebecca's death and uncover evidence. Finally, it maintains romantic suspense, keeping readers uncertain about Maxim's feelings and the fate of the marriage.
The Power of the Hybrid Form
This hybrid approach is key to the novel's enduring popularity and significant literary status. It offers the pleasures of multiple genres simultaneously, appealing to readers interested in psychological realism as well as those seeking suspenseful entertainment. The combination allows du Maurier to explore serious themes of gender, power, and identity whilst maintaining narrative drive and emotional engagement.
The novel demonstrates that genre fiction can achieve literary sophistication and that popular appeal need not preclude psychological depth.
Key terms:
- Hybrid: combining elements from different genres or traditions
- Genre: a category of literature characterised by particular forms and conventions
- Realism: a literary approach emphasising accurate, detailed representation of everyday life
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
-
Rebecca was published in 1938 during the interwar period, reflecting anxieties about war, changing gender roles, and class hierarchies whilst drawing on the popular Gothic tradition
-
The novel critiques patriarchal marriage by contrasting the inexperienced, insecure narrator with the confident, sexually autonomous Rebecca, exposing how restrictive gender expectations create suffering
-
Du Maurier employs an unreliable first-person narrator whose insecurity and naivety shape our understanding of events, creating dramatic irony and psychological depth
-
The novel uses Gothic conventions (mysterious dead first wife, grand decaying mansion, secrets and crimes) but subverts them by making Rebecca the powerful figure rather than the madwoman
-
Key techniques include withholding information for suspense, using Manderley as an oppressive Gothic character, employing rich atmospheric imagery, and creating a circular structure framed by dreams that blur memory and reality