Literary Devices in Rebecca
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Dream HouseSigh. Manderley. This fictional estate in England owned by Maxim de Winter, is basically a dream come true. (And check it out: dreams do come true! Manderley is primarily based on a real...
Narrator Point of View
Thinking it OverSorry. We don't know the name of the narrator. And neither do you! The only name she gives us is Mrs. de Winter, a name she acquires after marrying the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She...
Genre
That's a lot of genres, we know. But guess what? We didn't even list them all. How about romance? Mystery? Can you think of any others? The fact that Rebecca fits pretty snugly into to many genres...
Tone
Questions AboundDaphne du Maurier questions everything in Rebecca: relationships between different social and economic classes, the institution of marriage, romantic love, sexuality, gender roles,...
Writing Style
It's All in the DetailsBoy, does Mrs. de Winter have a good memory. The story of her courtship and first few months of marriage to Mr. de Winter is so exciting, so compelling, that she can't help o...
What's Up With the Title?
Rebecca. The entire book is named after her, so you'd think we'd at least meet this woman in the novel. Instead, we hear her story from others: people who are fascinated and kind of obsessed with h...
What's Up With the Ending?
Going Out With a BangIn some ways, Rebecca ends very differently than most murder stories. Usually, the murderer is either killed or caught, most often by some agent of justice. Here, the agent of...
Tough-o-Meter
Sure, it's a little mysterious, but there's nothing particularly tough about this one. Actually, it's pretty good beach reading. (Just be careful: there will probably be a few "gasp!" moments –...
Plot Analysis
Love, Riviera StyleRebecca opens with an unnamed narrator remembering her dream of Manderley. We know she misses this place, and that it was beautiful. Quickly, we jump into pre-Manderley flashback...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Meeting MaximMrs. de Winter is the novel's main protagonist, and her monster, in terms of a Booker analysis, is Rebecca. She's only dimly aware of Rebecca as a threat when she meets and falls in lo...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
Rebecca opens with the narrator describing a dream of Manderley and then taking a long walk down memory lane. It covers her speedy courtship and marriage to Maxim de Winter and also shows us the in...
Trivia
You already know that Alfred Hitchcock directed an acclaimed film adaptation of Rebecca. Did you also know that Hitchcock's film The Birds is adapted from a short story by Daphne du Maurier story w...
Steaminess Rating
We are tempted to bump our rating up to an R, since the sexual elements running through Rebecca always seem more or less dark and twisted on some level. But, dark and twisted alone don't an R ratin...
Allusions
Field (2.6)Francis Thompson, "The Hound of Heaven" (4.84)Alice-in-Wonderland (16.50, 16.129, 16.146)William Shakespeare, Othello (23.157)King Ethelred the Unready (3.20)Joan of Arc (9.99, 16.147)