Debashmita

Debashmita asked:

I would really like to know from the readers of this book (Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier), what do you think of the narrator of the book? Where do you think she went wrong or should have acted otherwise?

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11 years ago
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Aksana Rudovich

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Paula Vince She was a typical shy person, self-conscious to the point of awkwardness, both brave and cowardly, as we shy folk are. I think her biggest flaw was her blind love for Maxim, who never struck me as very heroic at all. Frank Crawley was a far nicer person.

Lila Wayne Personally I love her very much. She's so much like me - simple, socially awkward, weird, untalkative, shy.
I only wished that she hadn't been so much in love with maxim to even support him in Rebecca's murder. She should've reported him to the court, and.............I would've really wanted the narrator and Frank Crawley to get married afterwards.
I mean, somehow they'd make the best lovers' combination ever - after maxim is given a death sentence and stuff,

Robin

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Wendy Anderson The narrator of the book was truly a victim of Max De Winter. Aside from that I have little patience with the woman. However, that aside -- I was all about Rebecca! She is the heroine for me. Probably because I am more like Rebecca - If I put myself in the narrator's shoes, the first thing I would have done after sitting in the morning room at the desk would have been to snatch up the house phone to buzz that old bat "Danny" and give her instructions to remove EVERYTHING that belonged from Rebecca and pack it up. EVERYTHING. If old Danny had given me one moment of trouble, I would have given her the sack right there and then. Next I would have studied what was good about Manderly and then started about making it my own. In otherwords, the narrator should have grown a set immediately.

Pauline Everyone is going to hate me for this, but I don't think we're supposed to sympathize with the narrator. She's a weak person who allows herself to be taken over by a controlling man because it's easier than developing her own character. We don't actually know anything bad about Rebecca--it's all hearsay--nearly everyone except Maxim loved Rebecca. I think Rebecca was maligned and the narrator is so weak-willed that she lets herself be manipulated into siding with him against another woman.

Mary When considering this novel, one has to consider the year in which it was written. Women were seemingly only two types...the modest shy "good" girl type(our un named heroine) or the wanton , wild, "bad" girl (Rebecca). It seems as though there were no in between types. . Oh. except Beatrice, but she is a, "matron", so not really of these categories.
So there would be expectations for behaviour. If she suddenly became very assertive, people would "talk" and she , the shy good girl couldn't handle that.
Also, our heroine has suddenly been put into a luxurious lifestyle and and I really think she is staying quiet about things because she has no other resources(by her own admission; no family, and seemingly , no friends). If things go wrong or if Maxim kicks her out , she will have to go back to being a lady's companion again, and what a prospect...

GracieKat I would have to add the part Beth mentioned. In general, although she annoys me, I do sympathize with her but how on earth she could have trusted Mrs. Danvers about the dress is beyond fathoming.

Beth

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Nancy Wilson Her greatest weakness and annoyance for me was her pretense. She assumed too much and it made her weak and too fearful to find out the truth. It almost made me quit reading, but I was glad I stuck with it. She is a good mirror to what is a natural default for many people who are too fearful to confront the truth and as a result don't live in reality. Sometimes all it takes is to turn around and ask instead of turning your back and assuming the worst.

Lynn I think she did everything right. The narrator could only do so much as a newcomer without having everyone at Manderley look at her in a suspicious manner. The person who should have done something different is Maxim. Why didn't Maxim visit the old bedroom and see that Mrs. Danvers was preserving a shrine? Maxim should have fired crazy Mrs. Danvers long before the new Mrs. De Winters would have encountered her.

Stephanie Her fear and insecurity bothered me, though I understand how that's how she might act with her history. Even after she changed I didn't like her any better. She wasn't more compassionate for anyone else, she just reveled in the fact that Maxim loved her and not her predecessor. She went from a mousy and self-interested young woman utterly dependent on others, mostly her husband, for her self-worth to a furtive, self-centered, still dependent young woman who just wants to protect the thing she most depends on...her morally questionable husband. When Mrs. Danvers found her in Rebecca's room and acted like a real creep, I can't understand how she didn't tell the old bat to leave her alone out of sheer revulsion.

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Alexandra Slomko Hm. So after reading this book and this thread and processing it all, my thoughts are that -- the narrator is possibly an unreliable narrator. I understand her personality, that she is very young, self-conscious, not of the same class as Maxim, and has no support system to fall back on. I empathize with her and understand why she thinks and feels certain things and acts certain ways. HOWEVER, I did find myself beginning to dislike Maxim little by little... and, this is where it gets confusing for me. Maxim's admission of what he did to Rebecca isn't what made me ultimately dislike him in the end. I feel like after he admitted his action to the narrator and we all finally understand that he was a victim of Rebecca himself and was living in a kind of prison for all those years, their marriage still felt bizarre to me. Since there had been such little intimacy between Maxim and the narrator throughout the whole book, it just felt too hard to suddenly see them as this in-love couple for the second half of the book. Look, you have to read this book for the time period it was written in, 1938. There are several questionable remarks/moments that are unacceptable and that made me raise my eyebrows. This is a time period where women were expected to fit into neat little boxes, ticking off certain characteristics -- subservient and devoted, or charming and alluring, or naive and submissive...etc. So I can see how Maxim would possibly want such a young, earnest, unfussy, wide-eyed wife like the narrator...but I also have a hard time excusing a lot of his behavior (his cold, transactional demeanor, his criticism) even after empathizing with what he went through with Rebecca. So, perhaps it was the intention of du Maurier to leave her audience feeling puzzled, like "who should we side with?!" which is great! But I empathize with the narrator because I feel like she made the wrong choice in life. Maxim has A LOT of drama and baggage and I wonder if they eventually settle down someplace new and they have their happy ending....

J R

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Marion I totally agree Paula Vince's opinion : she is shy and this shyness prevents her from being more combative, especially to face Mrs Danvers. The passivity she demonstrated can be explained by her youth and, as you said, her blind love for Maxim. In this house where Rebecca's ghost is constantly present, the narrator prefers to let Manderley run its old and conventional rules and become, in turn, the ghost.
But she is deeply a good woman, sensitive and full of compassion. Her humanity and her fragility make her loveable and charming.

Monika I really didn't like how she indulged herself in the flights of fantasy and imagined things that weren't there. That is just asking for trouble. Like when Maxim went to London and she imagined him dead. Also, I understand one can be shy, but I find her to be obsessively second guessing herself, over analyzing every single reaction from the people she talks to, and her lack of self-confidence seems to be something a good psychologist should look into. I think it was partly her husband's fault for not making sure she understood she had a right to make changes if she wished to. Instead, he assumed she would do as she pleased forgetting she was so young and inexperienced.

Simona She was very real.

Ayesha I think it wasn't her fault. She was brought up in a way that she trusted too much and hence didn't see the results .
Where Mr.De Winter was already done for by his own guilt.

Julia

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713tess As someone who deals with shyness, I felt very connected to this narrator. I personally do not feel like she went wrong anywhere besides not standing up for herself sooner. From the moment Maxim asked her to marry him, she should have questioned him about his first wife.

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Phoenix J. I relate to her so much. Her constant anxiety, her inability to trust herself, her insecurity, and her shyness in social situations. I see a lot of myself in her and seeing her grow from “shy, naive young woman” to “strong and assertive heroine” gives me comfort that I’ll eventually get to the place I want to be mentally after years of trying but not really getting anywhere. The only time I wanted to jump into the book and shake her was during the Cupid situation, that was stupid even for a mess of anxiety like me. If it were me I would’ve found the nearest servant (because at this point I wouldn’t be comfortable around Danvers) and told them to get the damn thing fixed. But aside from that moment (and her “Oh my god he didn’t love Rebecca” reaction when Maxim told her he killed her) I don’t have a problem with her.

Tiffany I can understand why she was so insecure, but she really should have fired the housekeeper after she was shown Rebecca's old room.

xoSammiDxo She was too inward, too afraid - fearful of things that didn't exist. Had she spoken out, been brave - much could have been avoided, re-routed. Remember, she is a product of her time, her Country. Perhaps her understandable notion to simply exist was her largest downfall, we who blend in, go unnoticed and will inevitably be swept away and forgotten.

Penny She should have stood up to Maxim about the fancy dress ball costume, and then explained that it was Mrs. Danvers's idea. Her not doing this was her worst move. And as someone who had a lot in common with the narrator at 21, I have to say I would have thrown a furious fit had someone spoken to her that way Maxim does when he sees her.

Eileen Stayner I felt very impatient with her insecurities and her obsessive thoughts about how “Maxim couldn’t really love me” and “everyone is talking about how unlike Rebecca I am, etc…” Really, I wanted to smack her and say, “Buck up! Get a backbone!” However, I also found myself struggling to have any respect for Maxim for throwing her into that situation with absolutely no sympathy or understanding about how difficult it might be for her. I think he is very selfish and unsupportive. I love the part when she finally stands up to Mrs. Danvers. As for the fact that Maxim is a murderer and she didn’t seem to have a problem with that, I really don’t know what to say. It’s puzzling.

Ananya Aparajita I read a comment that says it was the only way women behaved at that time, or at least the 'good' women did. I understand how the women were different then. That would explain some of her behaviour especially how she tolerated Maxim. But never forget Rebecca and Danver were women of that time and even though Rebecca was unique this girl could not even stand up to Danver and other maids and relatives. That's not real for any time period even if the girl is from humble background. Not dismissing the companion of your husband's late wife was not something women were scared to do at any point in history. The husband, no matter how patriarchal, wouldn't stand the staff humiliating his wife as it is a direct offense to him and his family status. We can learn how not to be an idiot, how not to judge a book by its cover, how not to feel defeated when the whole world is against you, how not to assume how everyone hates you when in fact they don't and how not to be a cowardly loser towards your own wife. But none of the characters in the book deserve praise for their conduct. The novel is called Rebecca. She is the central character. She had the world fooled. We should not allow ourselves to be fooled by narcissists. That's the lesson, that is if we accept that version of the story. The modern interpretation would be, the guy was a murderer. Rebecca was a free woman who was forced to remain in a marriage because of her family background and the narrator is a man panderer.

Robin She is corrupted by the malignant presence of Rebecca at Manderley. Once she knows the truth about Rebecca's death, it's impossible for her to be the young innocent she was when Maxim met her. I wonder what their relationship will be like, say, 10 years after the end of the novel? They are bound together by this secret. Perhaps if she had a close friend or family member she could escape. She wants to stay, but I don't see that she has any other option.

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by Daphne du Maurier

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