Coming of age - Narrator about Rebecca

‘I realise, every day, that things I lack, confidence, grace, beauty, intelligence, wit – Oh, all the qualities that mean most in a woman – she possessed.’

Maxim about the narrators lost youth

‘It’s gone forever, that funny, young, lost look that I loved.’

About Rebecca's continued power and influence

‘She is still mistress here, even if she is dead.’

Mrs Danvers using the narrator's imposter syndrome to attack her.

‘She is the real Mrs de Winter, not you. Why don't you leave Manderley to her?’

Narrator about why she thinks Mrs Danvers despises her.

‘I could see she despised me, marking with all the snobbery of her class that I was no great lady, that I was humble, shy, and diffident.’

Maxim about Rebecca

The normal part is Rebecca is seen as the villain dehumanises her, however if Maxim is seen as the villain it could also be seen that to Maxim Rebecca was not "normal" because she refused to go along with the oppressive societal norms of that time.

‘Rebecca was incapable of love, of tenderness, of decency. She was not even normal.’

Narrator about how she feels Maxim feels about her.

‘He likes me in the way I like Jasper.’

Maxim about his views on husbands and fathers.

‘A husband is not so different from a father after all… So that's that. And now eat up your peaches and don’t ask me any more questions or i shall put you in a corner.’

Society's views on the three things that matter in a wife.

‘She got the three things that really matter in a wife, everyone said. Breeding, brains and beauty.’

How Maxim asks the narrator to marry him.

‘No, im asking you to marry me, you little fool.’

Maxim about his memories on the hill.

"You have blotted out the past for me, far more effectively than all the bright lights of Monte Carlo"

Narrator to Maxim about memories.

‘If only there could be an invention,” I said impulsively, “that bottled up a memory, like scent.’

Narrator about the memory of Rebecca in the house.

‘She was in the house still... she was in that room in the west wing, she was in the library, in the morning-room, in the gallery above the hall.’

Mrs Danvers question to the narrator about Rebecca.

‘Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?’

Famous first line of the book.

‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.’

The narrator about the ball after her and Maxim's argument. About feeling like all the receptions she had to do in the upperclass society was like a play in which she was a performer.

‘We were like two performers in a play, but we were divided, we were not acting with one another.'

From the narrators dream. A foresight of the hauntings of Manderley as it suggest it used to be haunted. How it and Rebecca haunted her and Maxim.

‘I looked upon a desolate shell, soulless at last, unhaunted...'

A description of the eternality and power of Manderley. Foresight of its importance in the book.

‘Time could not wreck the perfect symmetry of those walls, nor the site itself, a jewel in the hollow of a hand.’

Narrator on Mrs Danvers previous power over her with Rebecca.

‘She can't frighten me any more, I thought. She has lost her power with Rebecca.’

Narrator wishing she could be older for Maxim.

‘I did not want to be a child. I wanted to be his wife, his mother. I wanted to be old.’

Narrator on how Maxim treats her.

'Patted on the shoulder and told to run away and play.'

Narrator on Maxim's mysteries and distance from her.

'His own moods that I did not share, his secret troubles that I did not know?’

Personification and imagery in the description of Manderley - chapter 1

References to sexuality with trees. The church references, marriage and religion which is present as Maxim is like the narrators religion. Skeleton claws references goth and death.

‘The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church.’

‘gnarled roots looked like skeleton claws’

Mysterious description of Manderley

‘There was Manderley, our Manderley, secretive and silent as it had always been.’

Narrator's description of love

‘I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love.'

Gothic description of Mrs Danvers, which presents her as the villain but also shows her being an extension of Rebecca as she lacks life and looks like a corpse.

'Tall and gaunt in deepest black, her face a white skull with dark eye sockets,'

Maxim telling the narrator that he murdered Rebecca.

‘There was never an accident. Rebecca was not drowned at all. I killed her.'

Clue about the narrators name being unusual or foreign.

‘My name was on the envelope and spelt correctly, an unusual thing.’

Narrator is insecure and doesn't believe Maxim married her for any positive attributes.

‘I suppose that's why you married me, You knew I was dull and quiet and inexperienced, so there would never be any gossip about me.’

Narrators "schoolgirl" phrases that show her lack of social skill and her trying to impress whoever she is talking to by using language that she would never use.

‘Oh yes, rather,’

‘Oh, ripping,’

Narrators inability to see the truth

'I had built up false pictures in my mind and sat before them. I had never had the courage to demand the truth.’

'built up a great distorted wall'

Perfect picture created of Rebecca.

‘It's not often you get someone who is clever and beautiful and fond of sport,’

Maxim is introduced to the reader in a conversation with Mrs Van Hopper. They are both upperclass people so that isn't used to compare them, their personalities are still very different and they are still foil characters. Her personality emphasises Maxim's by contrasting so greatly.

‘His face clouded again,’ while, ‘she babbled on, impervious.’

Beatrice about how different the narrator is from Rebecca. First time directly compared.

‘You see, you are so very different from Rebecca.’

Narrator about how comfortable Beatrice is in the aristocratic society, emphasising her foreignness.

‘She had been born here … she belonged here more than I should ever do.’

Maxim's misogynistic pet names.

‘Poor lamb,’

‘My sweet child.’

Describes the freedom the narrator felt when Maxim left.

‘It was rather like Saturday when one was a child,’

How we meet narrator as a servant and her meek character is showed.

‘She always spoke in that tone when she wished to be impressive … that abruptness showed I was safe to be ignored.’

Maxim about the minds of men and women.

“Men are simpler than you imagine my sweet child. But what goes on in the twisted, tortuous minds of women would baffle anyone.”

Narrator about suffering and strength.

“I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering.'

Narrator about youth

“What degradation lay in being young.”

Makes it sound like there is something evil in Manderley, which is added to by the rhododendron which symbolise danger

"The drive twisted and turned like a serpent"

"blood-red and luscious"

Shows Maxim's insecurity and guilt.

"Will you look into my eyes and tell me you love me now"

Shows Rebecca's manipulation as she knew that Maxim valued status and his family's reputation more than anything so she used this against him.

"She knew I would never stand in a divorce court"

Narrator feels her femininity is inferior to Rebecca's so diminishes it.

"I was like a scrubby little schoolboy"

Rebecca has a masculine presence and flips the gender roles as she is the one who is in control of Maxim, sleeps with who she wants, and is the classical tyrannical male figure in gothic literature.

"She ought to have been a boy"

This mirrors how Rebecca presented herself as kind but she was, in reality, manipulative and evil. Halo = angel. Black = evil

"halo of black hair"

Shows the narrators strength and coming of age as she refers to herself as Mrs Dewinter. Made more powerful as not only did she beat her feelings of inferiority but also the villain of Mrs Danvers.

"It doesn't concern me what Mrs Dewinter used to do..I am Mrs de Winter now"

The narrators jealousy towards Rebecca

"She called him Max and I had to call him Maxim"

Highlights how powerful and manipulative Rebecca was as she wanted to have power over Maxim even after her death.

"She wanted me to kill her, she foresaw the whole thing."

Contrast of the words loving and hated emphasise how deep his feelings of hatred were. It also sounds like Maxim is hurt that the narrator thought he could kill someone he loved.

"You thought I killed her loving her? I hated her."

This showed how the roles flipped in their relationship and how the narrator had now taken on the more parental role and how she suddenly had more control in the relationship. This is also shown by the clear parallel between Maxim telling her to "eat her peaches" earlier in the book and the narrator later telling him to "eat his fish".

"I held out my arm to him and he came to me like a child"

Shows the narrator has grown up.

"I would never be a child again."

Shows that the narrator feels like a big burden off her shoulders which is ironic as she just found out her husband committed a murder and could be hanged. This shows she cares more about her personal fulfilment and beating Rebecca than Maxim or any moral code.

"My heart was like a feather floating in the air. He had never loved Rebecca"

Shows how Mrs Danvers constant silent judgment effected the narrator and made her insecure.

"She would have looked at me in scorn, smiling that freezing, superior smile of hers.'

Mrs Van Hopper was the first one to question whether or not the marriage is a good idea, which is something the reader may already be wondering but she said it out loud in a direct statement, perhaps foreshadowing the narrators future struggles in the marriage, as well as highlighting her insecurities as she has quite a strong reaction to this so maybe was doubting it herself. "didn't want this sort of honesty"

"And personally I think you are making a big mistake—one you will bitterly regret."

Shows that she feels alone and out of place at Manderely and the only people who she feels more comfortable with are the employees. She also trusts him and is more open with him then with her own husband.

"I've got you for my friend whatever happens, haven't I, Frank?"

The narrator shares a car actor flaw but this can also be seen as her growing up and doing things for herself and her own dignity, not just to please Maxim.

"I had come for my own sake, my own poor personal pride."