Lit Commentary: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Chapter 1
Literary Commentary: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Chapter 1
In which I review the book, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, as I re-read it.
Recently, I’ve been in a bit of a Rebecca mood. I don’t know – I just felt like watching the movies, reading the book, and having a satisfying chat with someone about it. I suppose I’ve already started – yesterday I shared a blog post where I wrote some thoughts that I had about the 1940 and 1997 screen adaptations. But today’s a book day, and I’m excited to get reading!
I’m going to start with Chapter One, and as I make any observations or notice
interesting points, I’ll jot them down in bullet points below. I’ll probably
end up having to go through and cutting out a great deal, but such is the life
of a writer, in any case.
Here we go.
🔖
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.”
The iconic first line! For those who have read this book before, this line just completely sets the mood for the story all over again. As an author, I can only hope to have such a well-remembered opening line.
🌳
“Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive.”
I had noticed this before, but this entire dream sequence where the protagonist returns to Manderley really is filled with dark and foreboding imagery, signaling to the reader that something bad happened here, and that the protagonist’s memories of the place have been forever tainted by it.
🏡
“There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been, the grey stone shining in the moonlight of my dream, the mullioned windows reflecting the green lawns and the terrace.”
This struck me as an interesting description. It’s intriguing to me that during this dream the protagonist finds everything unrecognizable and strange, ominous and dangerous to her now, but as soon as she comes upon the house it is “our Manderley” - unchanged. It is secretive and silent – this, of course, refers to the secrets that were housed within the walls of the castle, not just Maxim’s secrets, but those of Danvers and Rebecca. Manderley holds the secrets of those within it, but doesn’t ever divulge them. And the windows – reflecting the green lawns, picturesque and lovely – a mirror of happy visions is what she sees as she looks at the windows of the house, the objects that are meant to let us see within. Instead, they hide the dangerous secrets of the household and present us with a mirage of perfect happiness.
⚰️
“The house was a sepulchre, our fear and suffering lay buried in the ruins. There would be no resurrection.”
I think it’s quite an experience to go back and read the first chapter having read the book and understanding how it finished. It of course makes all of these parts more understandable, but for new readers this sense of foreboding about Manderley, and the fact that it is a place of fear and suffering, will most definitely intrigue. It does also provide one comfort: we know that Manderley and the fear and suffering the protagonist experienced there will never be resurrected – an interesting choice of words because in a way, Rebecca was resurrected, and with her the fear, anxiety, guilt, and horror that has scarred the protagonist and Maxim de Winter.
🌅
“We would not talk of Manderley, I would not tell my dream. For Manderley was ours no longer. Manderley was no more.”
And here we have the ending sentences of Chapter One, where after such beautiful description of this estate called Manderley, we learn that it is ‘no more’, and that the protagonist and her husband are now in another country altogether, living out the rest of their days in uneventful peace. But always – always the looming presence of Manderley, which disturbs their fragile peace, as we will see in Chapter Two.
🔖
If you enjoyed this, please let me know in the comments below or via social media, and feel free to pitch in with any ideas, comments, or thoughts you might have.
~⭐~
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