Leanna asked:

Do you think Mrs. Danvers was in love with Rebecca?

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10 years ago
14 answers

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Greg Gonzalez I ABSOLUTELY think she was in love with Rebecca! This was probably the closest you could get to a lesbian story line in literature at this time. It's just a shame that it falls into the usual trope of the only LGBT character being villainous. But, yes, to me it was obvious when Favell thought that Mrs. Danvers would back him up to say that Rebecca loved him and Mrs. Danvers just laughed and said that Rebecca made fun of all men.

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J R I think she may have loved her as a hybrid of a goddess a daughter. I don't know if she was in love with her as in a romantic sense; it could be read that way but the fact that Mrs. Danvers was Rebecca's maid since she was a child makes that interpretation disturbing because it begs the question of, did Mrs. Danvers molest Rebecca? After all, Rebecca seems like she was a psychopath or at least had severe mental or emotional problems. By Danvers' own admission she once beat a horse until he was trembling, frothing, and bleeding. Even if you discount Max's version of his marriage, Rebecca wasn't a mentally healthy individual. Childhood sexual abuse usually doesn't turn most people into psychopaths, but it does traumatize them. If Mrs. Danvers was "in love with" Rebecca, then when did their relationship start? If Rebecca turned out the way she was at least partially due to Mrs. Danvers? And if they were in a relationship that only started much later, isn't it still creepy that Mrs. Danvers was in a romantic relationship with someone she would have practically raised (servants of the upper class were pretty much nannies back then)? I prefer to think of it as a twisted obsession, maybe mixed up with maternal love.

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Karen Obsession more than just love, Rebecca was her whole world. Rebecca was a pampered self involved person, and she was raised that way - most likely left by her parents/guardians to do whatever she liked.
She used her charm to get her way, and since Danvers was 'hers' she got to bask in the charm 'til nothing else mattered to her. Danvers gave her what ever she want and believed all her hype, making her that much more self involved. I find it an interesting contrast between their relationship and Scarlett and Mamie in GWTW. Mamie tried to ground Scarlett, and was often the only voice in her ear questioning her, while Danver supported every one of Rebecca's whims as her due and everything else was expendable.

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Dorothy Bonett No. I think people get that idea from a twisted viewing of the Hitchcock movie. In the book it seems like she's a bizarre Miss Havisham, enjoying Rebecca being beautiful and cruel and vicariously liking her punishment of men. She did raise Rebecca and seems to have encouraged her desire to bully other people and animals and to feel superior by hurting or fooling others. She seems to like Rebecca to have sex with men and then tell her about it and mock them. I don't know what that is, and it's sick, you can decide what to call it. I'm glad DuMaurier is tastefully reticent about it and hints rather than shows.

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Lee D I love both the book and the movie and I've always wondered whether Rebecca was not Mrs Danver's daughter.

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Kenneth I am not yet finished with the book. It is already obvious Mrs. Danvers was in love with Rebecca.

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Penny I think she lived vicariously THROUGH Rebecca. How she referred to Rebecca and Jack Favell as beig quite the pair, watching them fight and so on as kids. She would never have the furs, silken undies, etc., that Rebeccca had, but she find other ways to enjoy these.

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Gayathri I think it was an unhealthy obsession for a woman who she considered ideal, especially so because Rebecca represented everything Mrs. Danvers herself wasn’t. Rebecca was influential, charming, attractive, the very opposite of the drab and slightly terrifying Mrs. Danvers. Maybe Rebecca represented to her what she herself desired to be, and so she worshipped her.

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Ellie Hill I have often considered this. I'm unsure, as this leaves a dark and sinister backdrop, considering Mrs. Danvers knew Rebecca since she was a child. As I think one of the other commenters mentioned, it implies possible childhood sexual abuse. I don't think this level of brutality was Du Maurier's intention. Then again, could Danvers have fallen in love with Rebecca later in life? Odd and highly inappropriate, and almost certainly unrequited from what we know of Rebecca's character, but not impossible - particularly as Du Maurier's main theme of the novel was jealousy. Was Danvers driven to her increasingly unhinged actions by years of anguish and rejection? Maybe. But Mrs. Danvers seems more cold, calculating and heartless than she seems desperate and passionate. Was someone like her capable of something as pure as love? I think on the whole, she saw Rebecca more as a child she never had, but again not in a pure sense. Yes, Rebecca was a purpose in her life that was otherwise empty of family or children (as far as we know). But she was also someone she could live vicariously through; Rebecca did whatever she wanted and got away with it through sheer charm. Rebecca was also the ideal - the archetypal perfect woman. Mrs. Danvers obviously had a general contempt for men and felt powerless as a woman, again Rebecca and her potential was almost liberating to her, in that sense. I think these are all more plausible reasons for her unhealthy obsession personally... but who knows.

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Amber Charde' I thought that as well! It seemed like she was slightly obessed with Rebecca. Which makes sense considering she took care of her all her life.

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