Rebecca, A Novel With Only One Certainty: Uncertainty.
Since the dawn of time, the ideas of romance and mystery have captivated humans and transcended cultures. We desire the unknown; it’s human nature. The introduction of literature to the masses only amplified this primitive instinct. Extending from Roman theatre, to the Elizabethan Age, to the twenty-first century, the cultural phenomenon makes itself irrefutably present in literary movements and our mundane, everyday lives alike. Many have attempted to write a novel that encapsulates the masses, and many have failed. However, a few have succeeded in publishing works that draw the reader in from start to finish and ultimately change the way society thinks as a whole. Among these
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Although Manderley is the estate the de Winter’s live on, Manderley is far more than simply a house. Manderley is a feeling. Manderley is a being; Manderley, in gothic literature terms, embodies the looming presence of a castle that Mrs. de Winter has come to reside in. Only a short while ago, Manderley was the famous cover of a “picture postcard in a village shop” (63), and now, Manderley was her home. Still in shock, Mrs. de Winter is forced to command the estate as her own, even though she lacks the self-assurance to do so. Mrs. de Winter controls Manderley, however, it seems as though Manderley actually controls her. The walls mock her, as for she constantly feels “for one desperate moment, I thought that...I was seeing back into Time, and looking upon the room as it used to be, before she died” (165). In Mrs. de Winter’s mind, Manderley is a castle in which Rebecca, Mr. de Winter’s late ex-wife, is the queen of. Consequently, Mrs. de Winter feels like a gauche child, roaming the immense halls of Manderley and endlessly questioning whether or not she truly belongs there. The entire substance of the house, servants and all, looms over her. However, none of the servants antagonize her even a fraction as much as the head housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. “When I looked back at the house...I could only see...the windows in the west wing...someone was standing there...and I knew it was Mrs. Danvers. She had been watching me” …show more content…
Mrs. de Winter’s journey through her thoughts, “loneliness, and very great distress” (5) is the complete central conflict and voice of Rebecca. This simply has gothic written all over it. Subsequently, the crippling and meticulous self-doubt Mrs. de Winter experiences draws to the reader’s emotions and truly lets the reader explore within the self-doubt and childish instincts that they and we all have. “Somewhere at the back of my mind, there was a frightened furtive seed of curiosity that grew slowly and stealthily” (120). Mrs. de Winter is a slave to Rebecca’s memory, and her jealousy of Rebecca festers like an open wound in her mind. Nonetheless, the mere thought of Rebecca transforms throughout the book like a dynamic character of its own. Initially, Mrs. de Winter’s mind celebrated speaking the name “Rebecca” as a “tremendous relief” (123), as almost a form of guilty pleasure, almost. As time goes on, however, rancor forms around even the letters of the word, and a cycle of obsessive self-comparison takes over and destroys Mrs. de Winter’s life at Manderley. The simple thought of Rebecca never lets go of the reigns and dictates Mrs. de Winter’s every move as if Rebecca is a puppeteer, and Mrs. de Winter is a pathetic marionette. Mrs. de Winter continues to battle this war against Rebecca’s memory and her own cycle of silent suffering, “but the sky on the horizon was not dark at all”
In our contemporary civilization, it is evident that different people have somewhat different personalities and that novels behold essential and key roles in our daily lives; they shape and influence our world in numerous ways via the themes and messages expressed by the authors. It is so, due to the different likes of our population, that we find numerous types and genres of books on our bookshelves, each possessing its own audience of readers and fans. In this compare and contrast essay, we will be analysing and comparing two novels, The Chrysalids and Animal Farm, and demonstrating how both books target the general audience and not one specific age group or audience of readers. We will be shedding light at the themes and messages conveyed to us in both books, the point of view and the style of writing of the authors as well as the plot and the format used by the authors, in order to demonstrate how both books are targeting the general audience.
Mrs. Danvers bond with the late Mrs. De Winter is not just a typical servant/mistress relationship, nor even friendship; it is stronger and more passionate than mere companionship. In Chapter Fourteen when Mrs. Danvers finds the narrator looking in Rebecca’s room, she demonstrates adoration for everything that was Rebecca’s: “That was her bed.
An example of literature is brought up, where for no apparent reason the historical novel became a popular genre and everyone was reading and writing them despite the fact that the genre had been around for a very long time. He used this example to give a concrete example if his idea, and it appeals to the audience’s
Winter tries to do whatever she can to take care of her sister, help her mother, get her father free and everything back to the way that it use to be. Everything seems to go wrong after that happens and Winter is only worried about herself from then on. The characters in this novel all represent individuals in every urban slum in America from the lords to the workers, from the young children growing up fast in the culture of violence and moral decay
There, up high on her throne, manipulating them as game pieces on a chessboard, their fate will be decided by her; their lives are used to advantage her purposes. Before the victim is trapped, they are charmed by the seemingly heartless fiend. Then, at that point without knowing, deluded into being her follower. In the novel Rebecca, the late Mrs. de Winter, or Rebecca, had shown some qualities that could classify her as a sociopath. Throughout the novel, there are small clues that whisper the truth; they are revealed to have been hints for Rebecca’s true nature. Rebecca shows essential characteristics that expose her sociopathic disposition, such as, being manipulative and lacking the ability to feel remorse.
This creates sinister predators within her short stories through the use of empowering and dangerous women. in ‘The Snow Child’, the use of subversion turns the traditional fable of Snow White’s existence from maternal desire into a child who is the product of paternal desire and sexual fantasy. The original tale of Snow White explores a queen who is driven by her desire for beauty and youth, this is similar within ‘The Snow Child’ as the Countess becomes jealous of the child as the Count begins to favour her. The countess and the child are portrayed as binary opposites throughout the story; as one is clothed, the other is naked. This could reflect the importance of appearance within society, and explain the Countess’ antagonistic response to the child and acts of neglect due to her jealousy of the child’s beauty. Carter’s description of the Countess’ clothing leaves the reader with an idea of her dangerous nature; she wears “pelts of black foxes”, an association suggesting a predatory and cunning nature. She also wears “scarlet heels, and spurs” and it may be that the colour of the heels comes from the actions of the spurs, which adds to this idea of violence. We see this nature when she is threatened by the child regarding the Count’s affections, “wife” becoming “the Countess” in a shift emphasised by finally having her own thoughts and feelings in the
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights share similarities in many aspects, perhaps most plainly seen in the plots: just as Clarissa marries Richard rather than Peter Walsh in order to secure a comfortable life for herself, Catherine chooses Edgar Linton over Heathcliff in an attempt to wrest both herself and Heathcliff from the squalid lifestyle of Wuthering Heights. However, these two novels also overlap in thematic elements in that both are concerned with the opposing forces of civilization or order and chaos or madness. The recurring image of the house is an important symbol used to illustrate both authors’ order versus chaos themes. Though Woolf and Bronte use the house as a symbol in very different ways, the existing similarities create striking resonances between the two novels at certain critical scenes.
Works Cited Henderson, Gloria Mason, Anna Dunlap Higgins, Bill Day, Sandra Stevenson Waller. Literature and ourselves. 6th ed. of the book. New York: Publishing Services, Inc., 2009.
Many features of the setting, a winter's day at a home for elderly women, suggests coldness, neglect, and dehumanization. Instead of evergreens or other vegetation that might lend softness or beauty to the place, the city has landscaped it with "prickly dark shrubs."1 Behind the shrubs the whitewashed walls of the Old Ladies' Home reflect "the winter sunlight like a block of ice."2 Welty also implies that the cold appearance of the nurse is due to the coolness in the building as well as to the stark, impersonal, white uniform she is wearing. In the inner parts of the building, the "loose, bulging linoleum on the floor"3 indicates that the place is cheaply built and poorly cared for. The halls that "smell like the interior of a clock"4 suggest a used, unfeeling machine. Perhaps the clearest evidence of dehumanization is the small, crowded rooms, each inhabited by two older women. The room that Marian visits is dark,...
L’Engle, L'Engle. “Focus On The Story, Not Readers…” Writer Apr 2010: p. 24-25. MAS Ultra-School Edition. EBSCOhost. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Few people can grow up within today's society without knowing the tale of Snow White. From the Grimm Brothers to Disney, it has been told and retold to children throughout the ages. However, what is often overlooked are the true meanings within the story. Fairytales typically have underlying messages that can be found written between the lines, generally in terms of the key themes. Snow White discusses the themes of envy and beauty, and shows how humans' obsessions can lead to their own downfall as well as the harm of others. When focusing on the relationship between Snow White and her step-mother the Queen, it is evident that the combination of these two themes results in a power struggle in which beauty is seen as a commodity and is the basis for the step-mother?s envy towards Snow White.
In the novel Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier tells the uncommon, suspenseful love story using a small range of characters with many different personality traits. The reader begins to feel as though they truly know these characters only to discover the unseen truth as their masks fall off. As these personalities develop throughout the novel one can discover that the narrator, Mrs. de Winter, strives to please people and feels very insecure in her identity. She tries to stick up for herself, but her words have no effect on her cruel, manipulative, controlling husband, Mr. de Winter. Mr. de Winter appears as a gentleman in the very early chapters of the book; however, the reader soon discovers that Mr. de Winter seems not to care about other people’s feelings, and that he contains controlling characteristics. Besides being controlling, he also verbally abuses his wife. In simple and plain terms, Mr. de Winter is a jerk. Later in the book, another malevolent and controlling character becomes introduced, Mrs. Danvers. Mr. de Winter’s controlling, abusive ways and Mrs. Danvers malevolent tendencies collide together as the new Mrs. de Winter strives to please them.
Rebecca Wordsworth was, as many writers have pointed out, distressed at Wordsworth’s refusal to hold a full-time job—like many a youth after him, Wordsworth was living the carefree life of the artist. Rebecca wanted him put to rights. He should become an adult now. “Tintern Abbey” is Wordsworth’s attempt to explain himself to Rebecca, but also, in crucial ways, to himself.
In the book, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, there exist a big emphasis on social class and position during the time of this story. When we are introduced to the main character of the story, the narrator, we are right away exposed to a society in which different privileges are bestowed upon various groups. Social place, along with the ever present factor of power and money are evident throughout the story to show how lower to middle class groups were treated and mislead by people on a higher level in society. When we are introduced to the narrator, we are told that she is traveling with an old American woman; vulgar, gossipy, and wealthy, Mrs. Van Hopper travels across Europe, but her travels are lonely and require an employee that gives her warm company. This simple companion (the narrator) is shy and self-conscious, and comes from a lower-middle class background which sets up perfect for a rich man to sweep her off her feet. The narrator faced difficulties adapting to first, the Monte Carlo aristocratic environment, and second, to her new found position as Mrs. De Winter, the new found mistress of Manderley.