Today I thought I would explorator one of my favourite books of all time, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. In order to do so there are, in particular, three things about the book I would like to look at. It is worthy of note that little of what I say here will be original, as this is a well known book which has been analysed since it came out in 1965. Nevertheless I would like to summarise three interesting things about this book: The opening line, the protagonist, and Ben.
The Opening Line
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." Let us get one thing straight - this is, without a doubt, one of the best opening lines in literature. In these nine words, we have established so many things about the book. Also, almost every word brings something new to the sentence. Let us deconstruct it.
- Last - Immediately, this word shows us that we will learn something. If a book starts with 'The', it could go literally anywhere. With 'Last' it either means something like repetition, or narrative voice.
- Night - It now becomes clear that we are being spoken to and we have established a time-frame for our story.
- I - The story is being spoken in first person, this is their story we are being told.
- Dreamt - This sets up the theme and style for the rest of the book. It makes us frame the whole story in a dream-like way and suggests that some of the elements might be a bit fantastical or unreal.
- I - This is a personal story, whatever happened in the dream is important to the character, as we have repetition of the character uttered and there needs to be a reason we are being told.
- Went to - We are being set up for a setting, we know that the setting must be important to the story we're about to be told.
- Manderley - We don't know what this means, but we were set up to know it was a place, but because we know nothing about this place, we have our hook - now we want to know why this place is important enough for us to be told about it - particularly from a dream.
- Again - This is what brings the whole sentence together. We now know it is from a memory, it is part of this person's life, we know that at the current point of being told the story that the narrator hasn't been to Manderley in a while.
Every part of this sentence establishes the story and the hook of the book. That, on it's own, should show us that the rest of the book is going to be very well written. While it is not something that I can elaborate on to do with the lore, this was definitely worth mentioning.
Next, we have our nameless protagonist.
One of the running themes of Rebecca is our narrator's self-identity. Throughout most of the story, our narrator is young and trying to find her own identity. It is for this reason she remains anonymous throughout the book, to the reader.
At the start of the book, the narrator is not her own person, she is at the whims of a strict 'companion' who has hired her, as she is an orphan. So at this point, she doesn't have much choice in her own life. She cannot model herself off of her parents, as she has none, and she is not overly fond of her elderly companion: Mrs Van Hooper. Mrs. Van Hooper, as the person paying the narrator for her company then gets to tell the narrator to do what she likes, or interrupt her activities when she likes - so at this point the narrator's life is not her own.
Then comes Maxim, which is the first time our narrator gets a glimpse of freedom as her name is mentioned but we still do not learn it. Her name is described as "unusual and lovely", and the next moment is a whirlwind ride and Maxim asks for her hand in marriage and she accepts. However, she is not comfortable with this - while she is happy about the whole situation, and she doesn't question it too much while they are on their honeymoon, she is slightly insecure about why Maxim would want to be with her. Her identity at this point feels fragile and unfitting to her as the new Mrs. De Winter.
We then learn of Rebecca, the old Mrs. De Winter, who our narrator struggles to climb out of the shadow of. This covers the core part of the book as Rebecca's name is on the title of the book, yet the narrator who we are seeing things from the perspective of and empathising with has no name. This story is not the story of the narrator, as much as it is of Rebecca, and our narrator remains nameless as she cannot live up to the established identity of the old Mrs. De Winter.
It feels like at the very end, as we are being told the story after the event, that perhaps the character is older and settled in her identity - but the events that happen throughout the story happen while the narrator was not really anyone. So, we are not given her name. Perhaps the narrator, still, doesn't think she is important enough in this story. Either way, a very interesting literary choice my Du Maurier.
Ben
Ben is an older mentally ill man who lives on the Manderley estate, and happens to be one of my favourite characters from the novel. This is despite him not being in the story very much / often, barely says much when he is in the story, and seems wholly inconsequential to the story. However, he is not - and he serves as the greatest foreshadowing elements in the story.
It is easy for the reader to dismiss Ben, as the narrator does. The narrator talks to him when she is alone with him and we very quickly learn he either doesn't want to say anything or doesn't understand what is being said to him at any given time. We also learn he is harmless and the narrator, while not caring about him much, doesn't feel very threatened by him as she is happy to talk to him multiple times while on her own. This makes us feel like he is just there have doesn't have an important role to play. Also, because he is not very bright and appears to have some mental issues, we don't take what he says very seriously, though that is our fault and not his.
Ben, from the first time we meet him, is the first person who doesn't like (or claim to like) Rebecca. Obviously, by the end of the story we learn why, but it should have been telling that such a harmless seeming man was scared of Rebecca. This is the first time we hear negativity towards Rebecca, so stands as foreshadowing that she is not as amazing or golden as she appeared to have been when her shadow first loomed over Manderley.
While mostly we can dismiss what Ben says, it still does serve to give that underlying feeling that there is something more going on here, that things might not be as they seem early on, and what exactly the twist may be. This is because as he has seen things he shouldn't and was told not to say anything under threat. If Rebecca isn't coming back and Ben is okay with this, and was being threatened not to talk about what he saw - what is it that he saw that was so important? He is the catalyst for all the secrets in the depths of Manderley, and that is why I adore him, as such an unassuming important character.
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