Rebecca Quotes

Chapter 2: freedom after England

I might say that we have paid for freedom

Chapter 9: picnic with Bee, Giles, Maxim and N. m is not paying much attention to her, but she is enjoying the day.

He likes me the way I like Jasper

End of chapter 1: How they feel about Manderley after England. After her dream.

We would not talk of Manderley

Chapter 2: How they lived after England

We have no secrets now from one another. All things are shared.

Chapter 1: what she says about Manderley after seeing it for the first time

There was Manderley, our Manderley

Chapter 8: First day at Manderley, she does not know how long to stay for breakfast, and she awkwardly gets up, wondering if Frith will realize she doesn’t possess important qualities

Poise, and grace, and assurance, were not inbred in me, but were to be acquired, painfully

Chapter 11: What does she feel she has done after saying ‘Rebecca’ for the first ever time to the Bishop’s wife

I had taken a purge and rid myself of an intolerable pain

Chapter 13: Her first day alone, she goes to the Happy Valley with Jasper, and then feels bad about being happy about being alone

No, I didn’t mean that. It was disloyal, wicked

Chapter 13: How she feels being alone for the first time at Manderley, she says this just after Robert tells her Maxim is safe in London

Rather like a Sunday when one was a child

Chapter 10: She is kneeling by Maxim, after she has apologized to him after their first fight, and then she says she loves him

His eyes questioned me, dark and uncertain, the eyes of a child in pain

Chapter 12: After admitting the cupid incident, and an argument about her shyness, Maxim comments on their age difference

‘I’m not much of a companion to you, … There are too many years between us.’

Chapter 14: After feeling as though she has been caught by Danvers after looking inside Rebecca’s closet, she describes her face

I shall never forget the expression on her face. Triumphant, gloating, excited in a strange unhealthy way. I felt very frightened.

Chapter 9: The first time she sees the sea in the west wing, and she is shocked at how quickly it changes

The sea changed color instantly, becoming black, and the white crests with them very pitiless suddenly, and cruel, not the gay, sparkling sea

Chapter 20: After Maxim confesses he starts kissing her and saying he loves her for the first time, repeatedly.

This is what I have wanted him to say every day and every night, … He is saying it now.

Chapter 20: After she describes to Maxim what Rebecca’s influence had on her. Maxim goes on an angry monologue about how he really felt about her and his marriage.

Our marriage was a farce from the very first. She was vicious, damnable, rotten through and through. We never loved each other … Rebecca was incapable of love, of tenderness, of decency. She was not even normal.

Chapter 20: Gran said that there were three things needed in a wife

Breeding, brains and beauty

Chapter 18: The night after the ball, when she is really regretting everything and feeling the worst about Rebecca. She feels even worse that Rebecca died young, and that she cannot confront her. She imagines what it may be like if the woman Maxim loved was alive.

One day the woman would grow old or tired or different, and Maxim would not love her any more … Anger and jealousy were things to be conquered.

Chapter 18: After imagining another girl Maxim may have loved, she compares this girl to Rebecca, and how it will be so much harder for her to deal with Rebecca.

But Rebecca would never grow old. Rebecca would always be the same. And her I could not fight. 

Chapter 18: Aftermath of the ball, where she thinks about how unsuited they are for each other, and how she does not love him like he needs to be loved.

I loved him in a sick, hurt, desperate way, like a child or a dog, did not matter. It was not the sort of love he needed

Chapter 8: The first time she goes into the morning room, and notices how it is both decorative and purposeful.

How strange it was that ths room, so lovely and so rich in colour … so business like and purposeful

Chapter 8: THe first breakfast at Manderley. Frith is surprised when she does not know what to do. She feels anxious and inadequate.

I wish I knew what to say, what to do

Chapter 18: Thinking about how unsuited she is for Maxim right after the ball. An example of how her self-worth relies on Maxim

I was too young for Maxim, too inexperienced, and, more important still, I was not of his world

Chapter 21: Just after telling the narrator about what really really happened with Rebecca, the narrator does not reply, but Maxim says this.

I shall never have any remorse for that, never. But you.

Chapter 21: The day after Maxim’s confession to the narrator, she calls Mrs Danvers in to ask about why they were served salmon cutlets. She says that she is not used to getting messages by Rodger, because that is not what Rebecca used to do.

‘I’m afraid it does not concern me very much what Mrs de Winter used to do,’ I said, ‘I am Mrs de Winter now’.