Nearly everyone in the novel, Rebecca, is obsessed with something, whether that something be a person or an ideal to strive for is up to the character. The main focus of the story is to highlight the narrator’s obsession with the late ex-wife Rebecca but mainly how the narrator is driven to be exactly like her. However, Rebecca herself was obsessed with toying with Maxim’s emotions in a way that she could live her life the way she wanted, but also act her way into the hearts of the public. This need to live two completely different lives in harmony is what led Rebecca to become distant from her husband ultimately led to her death. Rebecca was obsessed with living the life she wanted to live, as the independent woman she was, but also she wanted …show more content…
Behind the scenes, Maxim is more of an obedient servant of Rebecca’s and not her loving husband. This is because of the fact that Rebecca insists on being the person she wants to be, and she does not care about what Maxim wants, “We never loved each other, never had one moment of happiness together. Rebecca was incapable of love, of tenderness, of decency. She was not even normal” (20.374). Rebecca is so distant from her own family, so much so, that Maxim describes her as “incapable” when it comes to normal human feelings. She is an incredibly gifted actress, but that is all she will ever be. Maxim knows his marriage is a failure, but he cannot do anything about it, “I accused Rebecca of this, and she flared up at once, cursing me, using every filthy word in her particular vocabulary…She went up to London after that and stayed there for a month” (20.380). If this relationship was happy and healthy, Rebecca would not have left for a month because of a disagreement. They would have worked it out, but, as Maxim has said before, she is not normal and that includes being able to communicate like a normal person. Rebecca’s ability to act and inability to feel is what leads to her …show more content…
All this pent up rage inside of Maxim had to force its way out at some point, but Rebecca, being the self-absorbed person that she is, did not think that his rage could be directed towards her. Mrs. Danvers was an eyewitness to this, “No one got the better of her, never, never. She did what she liked, she lived as she liked” (18.336). Mrs. Danvers is the one person who knows all there is to know about Rebecca, so obviously Rebecca told Mrs. Danvers everything about her life. Rebecca was the type of person to “live as she liked” and not take anything from anyone. Maxim had thoughts about killing Rebecca before, so it was nearly obvious that Maxim would be the one to end her “perfect” life, “ ‘I nearly killed her then,’ he said. ‘It would have been so easy. One false step, one slip. You remember the precipice. I frightened you [the narrator], didn’t I? You thought I was mad. Perhaps I was. Perhaps I am. It doesn’t make for sanity, does it, living with the devil’” (20.376). Just by listening to the way Maxim words his sentences gives off an eerie feeling directed at Maxim’s mental health. Rebecca forced him to question his inner thoughts and his life decisions. To him, she was “the devil” because he actually knew the real her and not her mask. Maxim was incapable of keeping all of his madness inside of him, and he snapped. Rebecca slowly tore him down to nothingness, and, because of this, her two worlds collided
1. (T, P) You could see that the luxurious daydreams that fill her day at the beginning of the story show how ungrateful she is of what she has. She clearly does not value what she has based on the amount of time she takes to fanaticize about the amount of things, she wish she had. The price for greediness, pretention, and pride is steep, reluctance to admit the truth of her status. Maupassant purpose of writing this story is that, people
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.
His feelings of animosity and venomous hatred for his ex-wife are in direct conflict with his original self- evaluation of both being capable of understanding, and engaging in that enigma known as true love. Mel is, in many cases, the Ed to his ex-wife. Whereas Ed engaged in the violent act of dragging Terri throughout the apartment by her ankles, Mel describes, with almost childlike delight, how he has fantasized about playing the starring role in her murder. Mel does not seem like the type of man who would commit such a deed. He does, however, consider how good it would feel to seek revenge against Marjorie in retaliation for her “crimes” against his heart. Therefore, rather than fondly reminiscing, or even grieving at the lost love between him and his ex-wife, he instead resorts to anger and resentment, neither of which is characteristic of the type of “love” he so dogmatically professes to
Margot has one of the most obvious motivations to kill her husband: money. In addition, she, on the other hand, has one great asset, her beauty, ?They had a sound basis of union. Margot was too beautiful for Macomber to divorce her and Macomber had too much money for Margot ever to leave him? (Hemingway). As this sentence says, their relationship is one of selfishness on both their parts. Francis desires beauty while Margot desires wealth. Money has long been considered the root of evil especially for those who do anything to keep it. The marriage bet...
The conventions that Rebecca reflects of the romantic genre are those of the characteristics of the hero and heroine (as mentioned above). The heroine is usually innocent and vulnerable with low confidence and low self-esteem. The narrator of the novel also holds these characteristics. The first impression of the hero seems rude, arrogant and insufferable but the heroine soon realises she was wrong and sees the hero differently. This is also a convention of the Romantic genre. Rebecca also subverts certain aspects of the genre, such as the ?happily ever after? ending to most romantic novels. The gothic genre is also found in the novel, with the spirit of Rebecca haunting Maxim and the narrator?s marriage.
For example, Ruth May is usually very objective in her descriptions of things and enjoys people viewing her that way. For example, she says that her parents “won’t talk about the bad things in front of my sisters, but me I can listen all the livelong day while I’m getting me a banana in the kitchen house and peeling it” (Kingsolver 51). Not only does Ruth May remain objective, but the majority of her views come from her parents and sisters rather than directly from herself since she is immersed in their life and everyone else around believes that she is too young to have a view or opinion on anything. On the contrary, Rachel is very subjective in the novel and tries to involve herself in a variety of situations. For example, she is very self-centered and focused on what will happen to her. This is still the case when she says “the instant we get back to Georgia I am filing for an adoption” (Kingsolver 268). So not only does Rachel put herself directly in the middle of a situation, she declares it and wants everyone to know. Rachel has a difficult time remaining objective throughout the novel and therefore often loses her unreliability as a narrator. Each of the other characters have differing narrative perspectives than Rachel and Ruth May. However, it is this that shapes the novel and its structure as a circular
In view fact she was brilliant in manipulating people and fooling them into thinking she was exceedingly delightful. In one scene, Maxim is describing how Rebecca would get to you. “She knew exactly what to say to different people, how to match her mood to theirs. Had she met you, she would have walked off into the garden with you, arm-in-arm, calling to Jasper, chatting about flowers, music, painting, whatever she knew to be your particular hobby; and you would have been taken in, like the rest. You would have sat at her feet and worshipped her (Pg. 271-272)”. Rebecca knew just what to say to everyone to get them to adore her. She did this to have more followers to gain power. Mrs. Danvers had given the narrator two other examples of Rebecca’s ruthless manipulation. Mrs. Danvers said, “She twisted her father round
Her ability to lie, her outspokenness and developing sexuality, is unlawful against the Puritan views and deemed as evil. If convicted of the acts she has committed, including her apparent interaction with the Devil, she would face severe consequences. But to avoid this, Abigail realizes that through deceiving innocence she can control and manipulate murderous acts to save herself and her reputation. This was a new opportunity for her to expand her rule over the town. Controlling the young girls around her, Abigail uses her newfound sense of power to manipulate the group in fear. Driving them to aid her accusations, she uses them in the court to prove her claims. Abigail quickly strikes fear into the girls when she begins to hit and threaten the girls screaming, “And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring you a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 19). By threatening the girls, Abigail easily frightens them enough to do her bidding. Using fear to her advantage is evil and this act of manipulation only furthers her antagonism. Abigail now has the ability to use facades and delusion with the loyalty of the other girls, to convince the people that it is not her conjuring spirits, but others in the town attacking
The situation that aroused is clearly due to Rochelle’s actions, and inability to listen to her husband calmly.
...e but that she is also sad and very lonely. Nevertheless, the scene at the end of the movie, showing Rebecca’s death, was inevitable that left me feeling empty, and empathetic towards Rebecca. However, from a clinical view, I am a bit insulted in how the media depicted her disorder as being inhumane and monstrous. On the same note, it disappointed me to see that many viewers would get a misguided impression of the people who suffer from bipolar disorder.
If a guy tried to do anything to them, he ended up…” this could have been a large factor in why she decided to kill Chris. In some other cultures such as Greek mythology, in which she also studied, one of the main reasons that they sacrificed was to request a favor from the gods. With this request, she wanted to make everything better between the girls. From the way, the author writes the scene it feels as though that Rebecca possible thinks that she is the chosen one, the person that has to do this which could be a reason as to why she never felt scared when the detectives were around or questioning them. She believed that what she was doing was the right thing she stated “So that has to mean I did the wrong thing. I don’t know how, because I was sure, I was
Terri, in particular, has a unique perspective on love. This is exemplified in the beginning of the story, when Terri is introduced: “Terri said the main she lived with before she lived with Mel loved her so much he tried to kill her,” (Carver 170). Terri’s dominant impression is that she is an easily influenced and manipulated character that is the most convinced and clear about her definition of love, especially when it comes to her relationship with Ed. Time and time again, she asserts to Mel that Ed’s love for her was genuine: “‘It may sound crazy to you, but it’s true just the same.
Both the protagonists, Jane and Mrs De Winter in Rebecca are characterised as naïve females who have encountered traumatic and demoralising events in their early years. Through the subsequence events of the plot, these females undertake a bildungsroman journey to adjust to high class society. The heroine in Rebecca has been constantly haunted by the ghost and ‘femme fatale’ figure of Maximillian’s deceased wife (Rebecca) and is unable to live up to society’s expectations. In contrast, Jane can appear to be left demoralised by her extended family, her Aunt and cousins, where she was abused, from a very young age, for standing up for herself. However, her punishment can be seen as a blessing because the time spent in the ‘red-room’ was the
He convinces the women that their place in society is to be helpless and at his mercy. This is especially apparent through Tom Buchanan's wife Daisy. Daisy believes, “that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (Gatsby 21)
An ideal person is an earnest person, and ideals are another theme of the play. Mrs. Marchmont and Lady Basildon are two married ladies who, while talking about their "hopelessly faultless" husbands expose earnestness (an "admirable" quality) as 'unendurable' and "tragic". These ladies, through dramatic irony, expose the earnestness of searching for an ideal husband as laughably pretentious and hypocritical. This is because many women at the time were searching for an earnest husband to spend their lives with when there is, as Mrs. Marchmont puts it "not the smallest element of excitement in knowing him." Yet they keep searching for an earnest and ideal husband.