More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis of Rebecca by Daphne
Critical essay on daphne du mauriers rebecca
Critical essay on daphne du mauriers rebecca
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Steve Jobs once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice” (Hudspeth). This applies to anyone who is trying to find who they are or their identity but is too influenced by what other’s say to do so. In the book Rebecca, the author Daphne du Maurier uses the gothic doppelganger pair between the narrator and Rebecca, to show the journey for the heroine to find her identity. A doppelganger is, “the alter ego or identical double of a protagonist who seems to be either a victim of an identity theft perpetrated by a mimicking supernatural presence or subject to a paranoid hallucination” (Faurholt). With the existence and constant comparison amongst the heroine and the transcendental Rebecca from both other’s opinions and internal thoughts, the narrator cannot find her identity until she sees that she is not the same person as her supernormal doppelganger.
With the mere existence of the narrator’s gothic doppelganger, Rebecca, the heroine is not able to find her true identity. Initially, the narrator cannot cope with the existence of Rebecca being involved with her husband. When she finds a book to, “Max from Rebecca,” she burns the book until, “the letter R was the last to go [twisting] in the flame” (57). The narrator tries to destroy the past as well as the only presence of Rebecca at the time because she does not want to think that the husband was in love with anyone else prior to her. She turns to becoming paranoid with the idea that she will have to share Maxim’s love between her doppelganger and herself. So rather than finding her own identi...
... middle of paper ...
...ce the supernatural presence of Rebecca is gone.
With the presence of Rebecca as well as the comparison between the two doppelgangers, it is difficult for the narrator to realize who she is because she is in a, “paradox of encountering oneself as another,” through the late Mrs. de Winter (Faurholt). However once the narrator overcomes Rebecca’s existence, she is able to find who she is as well as her identity. Because the narrator was greatly influenced by other’s opinions of her doppelganger and did not listen to the only thing that mattered: what she thought, she did not find her identity. Like the great Steve Jobs once said, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice” (Hudspeth).
...was a desperate act of a lonely, insane woman who could not bear to loose him. The structure of this story, however, is such that the important details are delivered in almost random order, without a clear road map that connects events. The ending comes as a morbid shock, until a second reading of the story reveals the carefully hidden details that foreshadow the logical conclusion.
...seems to have endured the most in his life. Not only did he spend his youth caring for his sick mother and then wife, but he now must live in the painful memory of how his life could have been if the accident never happened. The end of the book leaves the readers saddened and frustrated. Though the novella began with a plotline seemingly leading to an ending as cheery as that of Snow White, in the end, this beautiful maiden turned sour. In this storybook tragedy, “the lovers do not live happily ever after. The witch wins” (Ammons 1).
The construct of a fictional doppelgänger lacks restraints of a definitive denotation, as it has often been familiarized and integrated into literature as a condition limited to the male gender, fortified by the demarcation of a gendered identity. Through the manipulation of the male lens, the feminine personality is subjugated to a classification of sheer obligation and domestication to man. Within doppelgänger narratives, such as Ligeia and Der Sandmann, the incorporation of the uncanny often institutes thematic elements concerning the anonymity of identity and the ambiguity of reality. Though the juxtaposition of the uncanny and the fallibility of vision, relative to the castration complex, denunciates femininity as the absence of the male standard, consequential of a phallocentric society, the doppelgänger’s influence as a femme fatale has revolutionized and transcended societal perceptions of femininity and womanhood.
All three writers explore self-deception using specific characters, none of whom have the same world-view as the other characters in their respective texts. The
Have you ever heard of the term “doppelgănger”? If not, it means “double” in German. To say that the character, Joan Gilling, is Esther Greenwoods “double” in the novel “The Bell Jar”, by Sylvia Plath, would be an understatement. Esther and Joan are one in the same. Joan and Esther endure many of the same obstacles throughout the novel. Joan’s actions to these struggles ultimately make Esther come to terms with reality. Either change her ways, and move on with her life, or end up like Joan, dead.
Rebecca is humanized by Scott in this novel by Scott creating her to be smart and kind especially in the instances of: defending herself when in the face of danger with Brian de Bois, “a predicament from which she … rescued herself by her own courage and quick wits” (Mitchell n.p.); nursing Ivanhoe back to health, showing how she is amiable; and giving Gurth money out of generosity. Characterization is a technique used by authors to create a certain type of personality within characters in a novel to allow readers to fully understand them ("Characterization - Examples and Definition"). Scott uses this technique to create social change with Rebecca, a Jew, to be intelligent and kind. These personality traits in Rebecca cause the reader - just like with Isaac - to rethink previous negative attitudes and opinions on the Jewish people. By characterizing Rebecca the way he did and making her a crucial character to the novel, Scott correctly advocates changes in social
When Zora Hurston wrote this novel, she wanted to explain how a young women search for her own identity. This young woman would go through three relationships that took her to the end of the journey of a secure sense of independence. She wanted to find her own voice while in a relationship, but she also witnessed hate, pain, and love through the journey. When Logan Killicks came she witnessed the hate because he never connected physically or emotionally to her. Jody Starks, to what she assumed, as the ticket to freedom. What she did not know was the relationship came with control and pain. When she finally meets Tea Cake she was in love, but had to choose life over love in the end.
woman she once knew. Both women only see the figure they imagine to be as the setting shows us this, in the end making them believe there is freedom through perseverance but ends in only despair.
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
In Joyce Carol Oates's short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" the protagonist introduced is Connie, who is an interesting and strong character. Just like every other teenager, she is searching for a purpose and trying to find her place in society. Although Connie seems to be an incredibly self absorbed teenage girl, there is a part of her personality that is different than the rest. She lives a double life, having one personality around her house, with her family, and the other when she is hanging out with friends in public. Due to this double personality, the reader can't help but become intrigued and question which girl she truly is.
...a new identity with her new emotion with that one hour. The story tells highlights the connection between her eyes and her emotions, “the vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright,” (Chopin 338). Mrs. Mallard is not constrained anymore to patriarchal culture as she finally figures out that she can “live for herself” instead of the life her husband planned for her (Jamil 219).
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, a major motif running throughout the novel is doppelgänger, which means double. Doppelgänger is a counterpart of a living person, meaning a mirror image of each other, and plays a prominent role in Frankenstein. Victor Frankenstein creates a creature, by lingering around graveyards consisting of old body parts. The creature is brought to life and Victor is frightened by what he has created. The creature is the counterpart to his maker, Victor Frankenstein. Victor and the creature resemble each other in more ways than one, exhibited throughout the novel such as their relationship with nature, or desires for family.
It is easy to accept one character’s version of reality as true and Woolf periodically warns us, through the confusion of her characters...
Illusion vs. reality has been a major running theme in all the plays we have read in class. By interpretation, the idea of illusion is a way to build an alternate fantasy world for oneself where he/she can escape from reality. From all the characters analyzed in class, Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire would definitely be the one character who is so steadfast on illusion that she lets it shape her life as she believes it is her only way towards a happier life. As seen in the above quote, Blanche chooses to dwell in illusion, for it is her primary defense against the troubles in her life. Illusion has had a freeing enchantment that protects her from the tragedies she has had to endure. However, Blanche is not the only character with this fixation on illusion. In this paper, I will be analyzing other characters like Nora from A Doll’s House, Eliza from Pygmalion and Mrs. Hale from Trifles, who just like Blanche have also succumbed to the world of illusion as opposed to reality.
In actuality, she was defiant, and ate macaroons secretly when her husband had forbidden her to do so. She was quite wise and resourceful. While her husband was gravely ill she forged her father’s signature and borrowed money without her father or husband’s permission to do so and then boastfully related the story of doing so to her friend, Mrs. Linde. She was proud of the sacrifices she made for her husband, but her perceptions of what her husband truly thought of her would become clear. She had realized that the childlike and submissive role she was playing for her husband was no longer a role she wanted to play. She defied the normal roles of the nineteenth century and chose to find her true self, leaving her husband and children