“Mrs. Van Hopper said’, He looks ill, doesn’t he? They say he can’t get over his wife’s death…”[4](P15)
“…The Manderley parties were famous
when she was alive, …”[2](P64)
“The bishop’s wife said,‘…(Rebecca)she was a very lovely creature, so full of life. ’
‘She was certainly very gifted. I can see her now, standing at the foot of the stairs on the night of the ball, shaking hands with every-body, that cloud of dark hair against the very white skin, and her costume suited her too, Yes, she was very beautiful.” [4](P131)
And in Mrs. Danvers eyes, Maxim could not live without Rebecca. After her death, he can’t go to sleep; he moves away from the bedroom and travels out for a long time in order to get over it.
Even for Maxim’s grandmother, Rebecca has made a great fuss of her. The old lady has never forgotten her and asks for Rebecca all the time.
All these seems that Rebecca is a kind, generous, elegant woman, a perfect wife. People around the town know her well and all praise her even when she is dead. Rebecca has a gift of smartness; she masters her power, finances and resources to run Manderley into the most famous show place in all the country. “ She is damnably clever. No one would guess meeting her that she was not the kindest; most generous, most generous, most gifted person in the world. She knew exactly what to say to different people, how to match her mood to theirs. Had she met you, she would have walked off into the garden with you, arm in arm, calling to Jasper, chatting about flowers, music, painting, whatever she knew to be your particular hobby. And you would have been taken in, like the rest. You would have sat at her feet and worshipped her.” [4](P283-P284) This is Maxim’s description of his wife, Rebecca.
2.2Truth
And Rebecca does succeed, or we would rather say, Daphne does succeed. Daphne used people’s actions and words to set up suspense .In fact, Rebecca is just completely opposed the impression being felt. Things are that Rebecca is a debauchee. “She was vicious, damnable, rotten through and through.”[4](P283) She knows Maxim’s disadvantage and has made good use of it. She knows that Maxim will never stand in a divorce court and give her away, have fingers pointing at, mug flung…
Rebecca would curse people, using every filthy word in her particular vocabulary. Rebecca does what she likes, she lives, as she likes. She sticks a big brute of horse, slashing at him, drawing blood, and digging the spurs into the horse. She sits on the hills above Monte Carlo, laughing, and tear flowers into fragments. She is like the devil. She seduces all kinds of man, even his husband’s brother in-law. Even when she has got a cancer, she inveigles her husband into a murderer!
2.3Hints
Though we haven’t known the truth till Chapter21, the writer has set hints. When we finish reading we will become aware of it and look back the whole story.
2.3.1Maxim’s attitude
Yes, firstly, we find that Maxim doesn’t welcome topics either about Manderley or his dead wife when he first appears in Monte Carlo. When Mrs. Van Hopper praises Manderley as a fairyland, “…(Maxim) he went on smoking his cigarette, and I noticed faint as gossamer, the line between his brows. [4](P19) ‘His silence now was painful. His own words must have jolted a memory for his face clouded again and he frowned very slightly.” [4](P20) All this indicates that he has something unhappy happened in his home, Manderley, there must be some bitter memory.
On his wife, Rebecca, Maxim says as below: “All memories are bitter, and I prefer to ignore them. Something happened a year ago that altered my whole life, and I want to forget every phase in my existence up that time. Those days are finished. They are blotted out. I must begin living all over again.”[4](P43)
“ I was there some years ago, with my wife. You asked me if it was still the same, if it had changed at all. It was just the same, but I was thankful to realize oddly impersonal. There was no question of the other time. She and I had left no record.” [4](P43)
Such sentences show Maxim’s unhappy life with his first wife—Rebecca.
2.3.2 Others’ odd manner
Secondly, Frank’s odd manner when “I” talk about Rebecca; and Beatrice’s rather different negative attitude. The silence is a silence born of shame and embarrassment. Frank says, “…We none of us want to bring back the past. Maxim least of all. And it’s up to you, you know, to lead us away from it. Not to take us back again.” [4](P141)
Readers may a little hesitate when they came to this. Why does Frank say so? Well, isn’t the past good enough for them? After all, their hostess is almost perfect. Therefore, the curiosity drives us go on reading. There seems a mist. We have an egger to look through it to the core. That is what suspense skill used perfectly by Daphne. She gives us a dream, and all of us get drown in it. The great writer handles our inquisitiveness skillfully.
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