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Analysis of Rebecca by Daphne
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Rebecca, composed by Daphne Maurier in 1938 is a twentieth century gothic novel that investigates the eerie story of a young lady devoured by adoration and the battle to discover her personality. The opening of the novel grandstands the storyteller imagining about the extraordinary and luxurious home of Manderley and its environment. The estate is portrayed through gothic imagery, creating a nightmare like atmosphere, making the scene more like a nightmare than a dream. The narrator has ambiguous emotions about Manderley, she adores the estate but is also afraid of the memories held within in it. Fundamental topics are presented during the initiation of the novel these are death and nostalgic memories. The opening to the novel explores the …show more content…
This is achieved through the personification of the natural world and the gothic setting of Manderley. ‘Nature has come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers.’, this citation accentuates the instability of the protagonist, she is fearing the prospect of Rebecca. ‘Stealthy, insidious fingers’ is written in a fearful context, creating a treacherous atmosphere to the scene, this causes the audience to fear the character of Rebecca. Likewise, the narrator describes the, ‘beeches with white’ as a, ‘vault above her head like an archway of a church’, depicts that it is not Rebecca who is governing her but instead her own thoughts and beliefs of Rebecca. ‘She is comparing me to Rebecca.’, ‘the shadow came between us’ displays how the protagonist lets the belief of Rebecca come between her initial relationships with others. Du Maurier successfully demonstrates the strength and power of a gothic monster by showing that it torment and horror us
The Crucible is dense with the theory of “names” and what they mean to each character. A name could mean a form of identity, or a stature within the village. There is a relation between names and reputation. However, having a good name is irrelevant compared to the truth. How one perceives oneself, and how someone can stick to their moral codes is the most important virtue. Rebecca Nurse and Abigail Williams are polar opposite of each other in the play. Nurse is the embodiment of all goodness, while Williams is the exact “devil” Salem is trying to expel. Through these models of goodness and evil, the truth, while eliciting punishment, is better than preserving a “name” that is carries no substantial meaning to oneself.
In the play, The Crucible, the principle character of John Proctor has a lot in common with Rebecca Nurse, a supporting character. Each, in their own rights, are rather different. John, being a character whose flaws are broadcasted through the entire production. Then, Rebecca, a character whom is seen as angelic with no flaws. Throughout the story comparisons happen between both characters.
Throughout her time in the room she notices the wallpaper “a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight” (514). After a couple of days in her opinion the wallpaper is starting to change. She sees “a women stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern” (518). In the daytime she sees the women outside the house “I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in those dark grapes arbors, creeping all around the garden“(521). The places where the women is creeping is where the narrator can’t go so she he creeps in the daytime “I always lock the door when I creep by daylight” (520).
Written in 1818, the latter stages of the Gothic literature movement, at face value this novel embodies all the key characteristics of the Gothic genre. It features the supernatural, ghosts and an atmosphere of horror and mystery. However a closer reading of the novel presents a multifaceted tale that explores
During the story the author often uses foreshadowing to give hints to the reader of things that will happen in the future. When the story starts, a storm is coming on a late October night. The storm symbolizes the evil approaching the town. Usually it seems a storm would resemble something dark and evil, because a stormy night is always a classic setting for something evil. At the climax of the story, Charles Halloway reads a passage ...
To set the tone in the story the author had to describe the surroundings of the characters. For example the author states, "with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit." when giving a detailed response of how he feels about the house. This helps show that the author himself feels depressed when in sight of the building and gives the reader a thought of how the house looks. Other textual evidence in the passage also shows a feeling of suspense like the quote, "There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. " which is how the author feels when he thinks about the house. The author cannot bear to imagine the house because he has a dark and negative imagination with different fears he thinks can come to life because of how unsettling the house makes him feel. While suspense is a direct indication of a depressed and dark tone, some other Gothic elements can be used indirectly to describe negative values in the story.
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
The gothic often presents dangling characters and plot lines, which contribute to the main point of the gothic: suspense. Brown’s works depend on the use of suspense as a literary technique and is evident in Wieland within Clara’s first person point of view narrative. Her constant reflections on how difficult it is for her to continue on with the series of events. Such actions, although they may seem trivial, persuade the reader to continue on to find out what happens
The use of imagery or personification increases the suspense in the story, ‘Shadows cower’ is a very descriptive way of showing how frightening the mansion is. It sounds as if the shadows which are linked to darkness themselves are afraid of a greater evil. We wonder what this great evil could be that makes evil itself tremble. Another personification used is ‘candles writhing’. Candles are usually associated to gothic stories, as it is only small source of light within a vast darkness of the room.
Long galleries, chambers, trap doors, and secret passages together create a maze-like interior structure that seems mysterious and full of secrets and uncertainty. Plenty of empty spaces exist in the enormous inner space of the castle, which the chasing between Manfred and Isabella to take place. The ambiguity of one’s actual location can lead to confusion, misgiving, and fear. When Isabella is trying to run away from Manfred’s grasp, she “continued her flight to the bottom of the principal staircase. There she stopped, not knowing whether to direct her steps, nor how to escape from the impetuosity of the Prince” (25). Isabella’s exposure to uncertainty challenges her remaining consciousness and rationality, which pave the way for a sense of uncanny to emerge. Later on, Isabella once again gets lost in the lower part of the castle where is “hollowed into several intricate cloisters; and it was not easy for one under so much anxiety to find the door that opened into the cavern.” (26). Isabella’s consistent lost in the castle leads readers to feel an illusion of encountering a familiar sense of anxiety repetitively. Such strange familiarly stimulates a feeling of uncanny, unsettling and unearthly. Vidler (2015) claims that “ The uncanny habit of history to repeat itself, to return at unexpected and unwanted moments” (5), and he also defines uncanny as “a significant psychoanalytical and aesthetic response to the real shock...compounded by its unthinkable repetition” (9). Repetitively getting lost in pavements creates an eerie atmosphere in the story and steadily increases readers’ trepidation and uncanny
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 conclusion the use of language is used cleverly to establish the dark miserable setting and explores each character’s features amazingly well ‘with face so distorted and pale’. The writer’s use of language manipulates the reader’s sympathies; personally in my view Nancy’s horrific murder provokes the most empathy and pity because she is the one staring into the face of her murderer.
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.
The extensive descriptions of Mrs. Dalloway’s inner thoughts and observations reveals Woolf’s “stream of consciousness” writing style, which emphasizes the complexity of Clarissa’s existential crisis. She also alludes to Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, further revealing her preoccupation with death as she quotes lines from a funeral song. She reads these lines while shopping in the commotion and joy of the streets of London, which juxtaposes with her internal conflicts regarding death. Shakespeare, a motif in the book, represents hope and solace for Mrs. Dalloway, as his lines form Cymbeline talk about the comforts found in death. From the beginning of the book, Mrs. Dalloway has shown a fear for death and experiences multiple existential crises, so her connection with Shakespeare is her way of dealing with the horrors of death. The multiple layers to this passage, including the irony, juxtaposition, and allusion, reveal Woolf’s complex writing style, which demonstrates that death is constantly present in people’s minds, affecting their everyday
The story unfolds in a rickety colonial mansion described by the narrator plainly as “a haunted house” (Gilman 1) with barred windows and rings bolted to the walls (Gilman 2). These features along with the “horrid” (Gilman 6) yellow wallpaper entrap the narrator and swaddle her in her own madness. As the “woman” (Gilman 6) in the wallpaper takes hold of the narrator’s psyche she grows sinisterly corporal, depicted through the unintelligible sporadic entries. The purpose of the narrator’s journal warps from entries assuring herself of the pettiness of her sickness to entries that confirm and act as horrendous safe haven’s for her unhinged mental condition. Entries like “I see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I see her in hose dark grape 'arbors, creeping all around the garden” (Gilman 8) juxtapose nonchalant writing style with dark subject matter in a way that creates a disturbing tone that must be uncomfortably ingested by