Character Sketch

Berry Boeckman

Mrs. Danvers was a cranky, devious, lady who had been Rebecca’s best friend and helper. When the new Mrs. De Winter arrived at Manderley, it seemed that she already decided that she did not like her even before they had met. When they finally met, Mrs. De Winter saw, “someone advance from the sea of faces, someone tall and gaunt, dressed in deep black, whose prominent cheek-bones and great hollow eyes gave her a skull’s face, parchment-white, set on a skeleton’s frame” (66). Mrs. Danvers had adored Rebecca and resented the new Mrs. De Winter with all her heart, mind, and soul.

The first impression of Mrs. Danvers was a mean, stern elderly lady who had worried and grieved much, for her health seemed to lack just by appearance. The black dress she was wearing was for mourning the death of Rebecca. When Rebecca had died, a part of herself had gone with her, leaving her only a skeleton like body without a heart and without a soul.

Before she even said hello to the new Mrs. De Winter, one could already tell that she was planning how to get rid of her. No matter what it took, she would never let the memory of Rebecca die, and she would constantly remind Mrs. De Winter of that.

Explore Feelings

Berry Boeckman

spoiler

Mr. De Winter and his new wife had an awkward relationship. He had a major secret and she had no idea about it. She knew that his late wife had died and that this event had devastated him, or so she thought. But then their relationship changed dramatically, Mrs. De Winter would finally know the truth.

The late Mrs. De Winter’s ship had been found in the cove a year after it had “sunk”. Mr. De Winter and Mrs. De Winter were sitting together in the library when she asked if they could start over and have a happy marriage. This was when Maxim told her that they “lost their chance of happiness,” (265) and then told her that Rebecca’s boat had not sunk and that he had killed her and sunk the boat himself.

Mrs. De Winter was not sad, for now she knew that he never loved Rebecca but loved her. “[Her] heart was light like a feather floating in the air. [Maxim] had never loved Rebecca”(274). This news was like the destruction of a brick wall that had been in between them. She was no longer intimidated by the memory of Rebecca.

Theme

Berry Boeckman

spoiler

In Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier, the author teaches us that bad things we do will come back to haunt us. When Mr. De Winter shows little affection for his new wife, it is not because he does not love her but because he is haunted by a horrid memory. The memory of the late Mrs. De Winter, his first wife, whom he had murdered.

The late Mrs. De Winter had been elegant, graceful and beautiful. She was thought to be the perfect person, but Maxim (Mr. De Winter) soon found out after their marriage that that was entirely wrong. She cared about no one and had to have every man fall in love with her, it was a sort of trick. Mr. De Winter would often think about ways to get rid of her. One time he thought about pushing her off a cliff even, for he could not divorce her because it would look bad, so he was stuck and the only way to get out of his horrible marriage was the death of either of them.

One night, Maxim went down to Rebecca’s boathouse with a gun. He had one intention, and that was to kill Rebecca. He shot her and dragged her body to her boat, and sunk the boat. Everyone had thought she had drowned and Mr. De Winter was mourning over her loss, but in reality he was fretting over the thought about someone finding out his secret, that he was responsible for the death of his wife, not the ocean.

A year after Rebecca’s death, a boat got stuck in the cove where Rebecca’s boat lay. In order to get it out, I diver had to swim down and inspect the bottom of the ship, not only did he find the problem, he also found a small sailboat with a body in it, this was the body that had belonged to Rebecca.

It was very hard for anyone to believe that Rebecca would have let her ship sink because she was an excellent sailor and knew what she was doing and the boat was made very well, so Mr. De Winter was put on trial, and got away with it. Then, as he drove home to Manderley, his beautiful, romantic, fairy tale like estate he and Mrs. De Winter notice that, “The sky above [their] heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards [them] with the salt wind from the sea” (380). Mrs. Danvers, the women who helped the late Mrs. De Winter with everything since she was a child, had burned the entire estate down. The late Mrs. De Winters was dead, and took with her the life of Manderley. Maxim had been punished for a murder, with another one.