Tension And Stress In Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca

Intro: How we view a situation greatly effects how we deal with it and the outcome. Our minds are great at helping us overcome difficult problems by making it smaller and taking it piece by piece so we don't feel overwhelmed. However it can also hinder us by making the problem bigger that it really is. This creates more tension and stress ultimately making the problem more complicated. Our decisions are also made by what we believe that is important and what we fear. This is the theme of Daphne du Maurier's book Rebecca. Many of the characters have an obstacle that plagues their thoughts, ranging from ideal goal that some wish to accomplish, weigh our responsibility in jobs and relationships, then there are others that just trying to get

threw daily life. "Rebecca" displays a good example of mind over matter.
Scope 1:Rebecca's presence after death. In the novel Rebecca has been dead from the very beginning of the novel and all we know about her is what we are told from the narrator. However it feels as if she's still and very relevant to both the narrator and the reader. In life and in death Rebecca always found a way to be the in the spot light. Keeping her in the minds of everyone whether in love or hate, who couldn't help but almost be obsess with her. The more the characters thought of her the more control she had over you. It was because Mrs. De Winter thought about Rebecca a so much that she stayed relevant in the story. In fact Rebecca was the embodiment of Mrs. De Winter's dreams.
Similarly to how people have the urge to set goals for them.

Ranging from primal instinct to have enough food and water in order to survive, to getting a promotion in your career, or to become the fastest person in the world records. In Rebecca our narrator's goal was the same that may children dream of. She wished to grow up. She wish to have elegant, confident, and mature personality. She is aware and knows of some social ques that will show others of her mature understanding, however she is to shy to perform those actions. In situations such as when she accompanied Mrs. Van Hopper to lunch with Maxim and upon Mrs.Van Hopper making a fool of herself the narrator thought "Had I been older I would have caught his eye and smile,"(16 Maurier). We see her constantly uses "if only I had been older" then she would be treated differently. She wouldn't be a shy, timid, caring, school girl that everyone saw as a young child that needed to be guided, protected or blatantly ignored. When she married Maxim, she was quickly exposed to the greatness her predecessor, Rebecca. Rebecca is everything the Narrator is not. Rebecca is elegant, coning, clever and mature. Rebecca was older and had years of preparing and experience with living an upper class lifestyle and dealing with people of type of people. The difference between them is visible as night and day, and everyone had no problem comparing the

two.
Where the Narrator find it difficult to participate in meeting or have lunch alone with strangers, Rebecca knew exactly what to say to different people and how to match her mood with theirs. As the Narrator did not know how to arrange the flowers in a vase let alone know which vase they belong in, Rebecca was the reason Manderley's yard and Happy Valley is a gorgeous garden, along with the fact the Rebecca a ranged all table flowers herself for every party she hosted. Ms. Danvers said that Rebecca "did what she liked, she lived as she liked.She had the strength of a little lion too." Rebecca ran the hold estate; she redecorated most of the rooms, she approved of all the meals they eat, she schedule all the parties and wrote all the invitations. Rebecca controlled everything in Manderley, while our narrator barely changed anything. When asked if she would change anything since her beginning as the new mistress of the house, she left the staff to run the schedule as they usually do. She doesn't even find much reason in any opinion of the food menu. She won't even bother the staff to a fire in the room that she is in and will either wait for the time they usually light that room's fireplace or for one of the other rooms' fireplace to be light. She acted more like a between-maid as Maxim had put it instead of the mistress of the house (Maurier 143). It was against her humble personality and urge to please others. Sense being introduced to Rebecca and directly connected to her she began to image being Rebecca instead of an older version of her self. She began to imagen What Rebecca would or had done when in the same situations. Weather it be an average diner with Maxim or actually help plan out the party. She so absorbed in fantasizing being Rebecca and thought so little of herself that she never acts upon her dreams.
It was the fact that Mrs.De Winter was a bit of a push over that Rebecca contained as much control over Manderley in death as in life."But the second Mrs.

de Winter's insecurity lies at the heart of the novel. It is vital the narrator should have a shy, introspective nature, other wise she would not be intimidated and awed by this dead Rebecca"( Towend 3). If the narrator had put her foot down a few time with simple thing like asking for to break the schedule and light the fire place in a room when she feels cold, or arrange the flower in the morning room the way she wants to instead of following tradition and being overly worried of pleasing everyone else but herself then she would truly fell like her own person. Something she hadn't realized until after Maxim had revealed Rebecca had no place in his heart, but he loved the Narrator. Those words gave her confidence and maturity. Even though she was staid humble, kind, and sincere, she gained the strength of confidence and finally broke Rebecca's chain. She began making changes in the menu to her liking and stud her ground against Ms. Danvers. "I was not changed. But something new had come upon me that had not been before. My heart, for all its anxiety and doubt, was light and free. I knew then that I was no longer afraid of Rebecca...She could not hurt me."(Maurier 284-285). However sometimes our dreams and responsibilities come with a high

price.
Scope 2: Indeed, Maxim had to pay the high price of staying married to a woman he did not love and even grew to hate over the years. Only for the continued success of Manderley. When Rebecca revealed her cruel nature and immoral behavior, ones that Maxim won't even repeat, Maxim wonted to call their marriage off. What was even more concerning was the fact he felt the urge to kill her on the spot from the amount of disgusted he felt. So if he felt that way he why go through the pain of staying married to this woman. Why would he fake his happiness and deal with the worry of covering for Rebecca? He could have saved himself years worth of anxiety, fear, hate, and trouble if he had simply divorced Rebecca. However to him Manderley was worth all of the trouble.
Maxim had the sense of being responsible for Manderley's success. Sure he knew how to run the house efficiently and what business needed to be attend to in order keep things moving. In contrast Maxim did not really know of how to make Manderley any more popular then it was. Which is why Rebecca's bargain to do it for him was appealing. Even on the downside he would be forced to stay with a woman he didn't love, it meant the increase success of his estate. It wasn't entirely for his own gain. He sacrificed that in order to keep his name the house being ridiculed for the also for Manderley he would sacrifice pride, honour, personal feeling, every d*** quality on earth, rather then divorce Rebecca and have all those terrible things she has done become tied with Manderley, ( Maurier 273). Rebecca used that against him to secure their marriage.