GREAT LITERARY LADY: The Second Mrs de Winter
‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’ – the famous opening line of Daphne du Maurier’s gothic novel suggests a dark air of mystery lurking behind the de Winters’ imposing marital home. We don’t know the protagonist’s first name, or anything about her background, except that she was once the long-suffering companion to an elderly American lady.
It is while accompanying the old tyrant on a trip to Monte Carlo that she meets Maxim de Winter, a brusque widower twice her age. Although a meek and somewhat naive character, she has enough gumption to marry him two weeks later, thus elevating her financial and social standing.
Adjusting to her new role as mistress of the house, the young Mrs de Winter is pitted against Mrs Danvers, the sinister housekeeper. The haunting memory of Maxim’s first wife, perversely preserved by Danvers, is a constant, disturbing presence in the house: the beautiful and sophisticated Rebecca is the new Mrs de Winter’s ghostly rival in love.
After a disastrous power struggle with the servants, and nervous attempts to appease her husband, Mrs de Winter is pushed to the brink. She wishes she ‘was a woman of about thirty-six dressed in black satin with a string of pearls’. But, as we find out, it is her simplicity that Maxim adores, and it inspires him to confess that his marriage to Rebecca was a sham.
With her confidence restored, and her goodness of spirit, Mrs de Winter triumphs over adversity by remaining true to herself.
It is while accompanying the old tyrant on a trip to Monte Carlo that she meets Maxim de Winter, a brusque widower twice her age. Although a meek and somewhat naive character, she has enough gumption to marry him two weeks later, thus elevating her financial and social standing.
Adjusting to her new role as mistress of the house, the young Mrs de Winter is pitted against Mrs Danvers, the sinister housekeeper. The haunting memory of Maxim’s first wife, perversely preserved by Danvers, is a constant, disturbing presence in the house: the beautiful and sophisticated Rebecca is the new Mrs de Winter’s ghostly rival in love.
After a disastrous power struggle with the servants, and nervous attempts to appease her husband, Mrs de Winter is pushed to the brink. She wishes she ‘was a woman of about thirty-six dressed in black satin with a string of pearls’. But, as we find out, it is her simplicity that Maxim adores, and it inspires him to confess that his marriage to Rebecca was a sham.
With her confidence restored, and her goodness of spirit, Mrs de Winter triumphs over adversity by remaining true to herself.