The Setting Of Manderley In Jane Austen's Rebecca

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In the novel Rebecca, the narrator decides to marry Maxim deWinter, owner of Manderley. She is excited until she actually arrives at Manderley, and is faced with many conflicts including trying to fit in among all of the townspeople and servants and living up to their expectations after Rebecca, Maxim’s late wife passed away. Although we are taken on a roller coaster of events, it is useful to look back at the functions of Manderley, and how they impacted the reader’s perspective of the story, the plot, and the characters within the story. The setting of Manderley serves many functions, which include reminding the narrator of Rebecca and her place in Maxim’s life, creating mystery for both the reader and the narrator, and showing its beauty and elegance.
One function of the setting of Manderley was to continuously remind the narrator about Rebecca and her place in Maxim’s life. The library was the first place where we saw how insecure the narrator was, as she was suddenly being placed into …show more content…

By knowing the settings and what kind of purpose they served in the novel, we can better understand why the characters acted the way they did. Daphne du Maurier did a great job in describing these settings, which enabled us to get a taste of what it was like living in this house for each character. We learned that Manderley was huge, and thus mysterious, which caused the narrator to get nervous when navigating around this house. However, although the house extremely mysterious, we also learned that the building was elegant, beautiful, and as graceful as possible. Finally, we learned that the narrator felt that Rebecca’s spirit was still alive, and which is why she felt guilty for taking her spot. Because of all of these reasons, Rebecca is an incredible

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