Rebecca Typicality

Gothic Literature in du Maurier’s books

  • Daphne du Maurier takes inspiration from Ann Radcliffe- The Mysteries of Udolpho in Rebecca.

  • Ms Danvers- sinister character but is just a housemaid.

  • Rebecca- dominates the book without ever making a single living appearance, is a ghost only in the sense that she haunts the imaginations of the living protagonists.- AO5- Greg Buzwell

  • Psychological element contain echoes of “The Turn of the Screw”- Henry James- where ghosts seemingly haunt two children under the charge of their governess possibly only exist within the mind of the governess herself.

  • Similar to the second Mrs de Winter, is never named, casting her far into the shadow of the “Rebecca”, whose name dominates the story.

  • Du Maurier’s “The House on the Strand”- echoes Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”- with her own twists.

Cornish Gothic

  • Cornwall had certain freedom from the structures of government- during the 18th and 19th Century in particular, this freedom, combined with the extreme poverty many of the inhabitants endured, made Cornwall an ideal location for smugglers to carry out their illegal trade.

  • Led to many ships foundered on the Cornish coast- tales of wrecking ans snuggling grew larger- links to Rebecca’s death.

  • “Jamaica Inn”- highlights the way in which the Cornish landscape becomes a character in its own right.- Buzwell.

  • in Jamaica Inn, the landscape on and around Bodmin Moor serves to represent two very different types of freedom- links to the narrator, Happy Valley and Manderley itself- trying to escape her “past” identity and trying to be free from Rebecca.

  • Mary Allen (Jamaica Inn MC)- typical Gothic heroine- being held prisoner in a gloomy building full of dark shadows, menaced by a man who is physically much stronger than she is- typical of “Rebecca”- narrator trapped in Manderley, menaced by the influence of Rebecca and the power she holds over the inhabitants.

  • Daphne du Maurier uses landscape not only for dramatic effect but also as a means of reflecting the personalities of the characters who find their lives so dominated and constrained by the geographical features surrounding them.- Buzwell.

The Double- Doppelganger

  • Most well known- Jekyll and Hyde- Robert Louis Stevenson

  • Used in many of du Maurier’s stories- The scapegoat, Rebecca.

  • The introvert and the extra vert became two sides of the same coin, struggling for dominance and supremacy in “The Scapegoat”- links to Rebecca, with the Narrator struggling to “become” Rebecca and loose her insecurity.

  • Fascination with the double played a part in her own life- du Maurier wished to be a boy as a child due to boys having greater freedoms and more opportunities than girls.

  • Invented an alter ego- named Eric Avon- along with a colourful past for him in which he played rugby regularly.

  • Eric Avon was adventurous and fearless, qualities that Du Maurier had in abundance but she was never fully allowed to express due to her gender.

Cited from “Daphne du Maurier and the Gothic tradition”- article by Greg Buzwell.