Characters Discussed
Maximilian (Maxim) de Winter
Maximilian (Maxim) de Winter, middle-aged owner of Manderley. He is detached, moody, mysterious, at times gracious, friendly, and apologetic for his seeming rudeness, only to return unaccountably to his reserve. This reserve is finally removed with the lifting of the burden on his conscience.
Mrs. de Winter
Mrs. de Winter, Maxim’s young wife, the narrator. A shy, sensitive orphan, she first meets Maxim through her older traveling companion, Mrs. Van Hopper. Deeply in love with him, she happily accepts his proposal and marries him. Puzzled and troubled by Maxim’s strange shifts of mood and his abstracted manner and by Mrs. Danvers’ obvious dislike of her, she thinks herself unwelcome, an inferior successor to Rebecca at Manderley. Desiring Maxim’s love, she yet remains aloof because of her brooding insecurity and thus hinders his revealing his painful memories to her.
Rebecca de Winter
Rebecca de Winter, Maxim’s dead wife, a very beautiful woman who charmed many people but who tortured her husband with flagrant infidelities. When she learned that she would soon die of cancer, she taunted her husband with a false story of her unborn child by another man until she drove him to murder her.
Mrs. Danvers
Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper at Manderley. Tall, gaunt, with a face like a death’s head, she is cold, formal, and resentful of the new Mrs. de Winter, who has replaced the Rebecca she adored. She is the first to reveal to Mrs. de Winter what Rebecca really was like with men. After the closing of the inquiry into Rebecca’s death, Mrs. Danvers apparently sets fire to Manderley and disappears.
Frank Crawley
Frank Crawley, estate manager at Manderley. A thin, colorless bachelor, he is a devoted friend of Maxim.
Jack Favell
Jack Favell, Rebecca’s cousin, tanned and good looking, but flashy, with hot, blue eyes and a loose mouth. He is a heavy drinker who attempts to blackmail Maxim after the discovery of Rebecca’s sunken boat.
Colonel Julyan
Colonel Julyan, a magistrate who suspects the truth about Rebecca’s death but keeps it to himself.
Mrs. Van Hopper
Mrs. Van Hopper, an overbearing American social climber who forces herself upon Maxim at Monte Carlo.
Beatrice Lacy
Beatrice Lacy, Maxim’s sister, tall, broad-shouldered, handsome, tweedy, inquisitive, blunt, and chatty.
Major Giles Lacy
Major Giles Lacy, Beatrice’s fat and genial husband.
Dr. Baker
Dr. Baker, a London physician visited by Rebecca (under Mrs. Danvers’ name) the day of her death. He reports that she was dying of cancer, though she appeared in good health.
Frith
Frith, Maxim’s elderly butler.
Clarice
Clarice, Mrs. de Winter’s young maid.
Ben
Ben, a simple-minded old man.
Themes and Characters
In Rebecca, du Maurier explores the relationship between past and present. For Maxim and his second wife, the past and the present are inextricably linked. The wife's insecure past leads her to feel insecure in her new marriage, and Maxim's past relationship with Rebecca damages his relationship with his new wife. Manderley, Maxim's family home, most clearly symbolizes the relationship between the past and present. Because Rebecca made Manderley beautiful, Maxim endured a marriage he hated. Ironically, his obsession with glorifying his heritage leads to Manderley's destruction. The novel suggests that either clinging to the past or trying to escape it is equally dangerous. As Maxim's wife learns, one achieves an uneasy truce with time only by remembering the past while living firmly in the present.
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. The novel also depicts the battle between good, represented by Maxim and his...
(This entire section contains 397 words.)
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new wife, and evil, embodied by Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers. Good emerges triumphant in the end, but Maxim and his wife carry permanent scars as a result of their encounter with evil. Interestingly, du Maurier shows that passive, naive goodness cannot defeat evil. When the wife is timid and guileless, she unwittingly helps the forces of evil. It is only when she herself becomes strong that she can help Maxim defeat Rebecca. This theme is complicated by the narrator's motivation. She eagerly helps Maxim defeat Rebecca, not because Rebecca represents evil, but because she discovers that he never loved his first wife.
Rebecca, the title character, is dead before the novel opens; her presence, however, pervades the entire story. She is responsible for Maxim's disquiet, much of his wife's insecurity, and Mrs. Danvers's revenge. While Rebecca is portrayed as completely malevolent, her character remains believable because the reader is given only glimpses of her from the perspectives of other characters. The evil nature of her servant, Mrs. Danvers, is also credible because du Maurier convincingly shows how Mrs. Danvers, a plain woman, could be dazzled by the power and beauty of Rebecca. The narrator is excessively timid and innocent while Maxim is portrayed as sophisticated and jaded. Maxim is also the most elusive of the four major characters, revealing little of himself to anyone. This elusiveness enhances the ambiguities of the novel since the reader never knows for certain whether Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers have completely crushed his spirit.
Characters
Rebecca, the title character, is dead before the novel opens but her presence pervades the entire work. She is responsible for Maxim's disquiet, much of his second wife's insecurity, and Mrs. Danvers's revenge. While Rebecca is portrayed as completely malevolent, her character remains believable, partly because the reader is given only glimpses of her and partly because these glimpses are always through the eyes of another character. The evil of her servant, Mrs. Danvers, is also believable because du Maurier convincingly shows how Mrs. Danvers, a plain woman, could be dazzled by the power and beauty of someone like Rebecca. The second wife is portrayed as excessively timid and innocent while her husband is portrayed as sophisticated and jaded. Maxim is also the most elusive of the four major characters, revealing little of himself to anyone. This elusiveness enhances the novel since the reader never knows for certain if Rebecca and Mrs. Danvers have ultimately crushed his spirit.