In eight pages this novel is summarized and then discussed in terms of its portrayal of gender roles and a distinct lack of feminist objectives. Four sources are cited in the bibliography.
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a most remarkable character, who has no name, and is haunted by the life of a woman she has never met: the first mistress of Manderley, named Rebecca. During a
time when feminism was beginning to show itself in literature, this Gothic romance/mystery does not pretend political overtones, or preach about a new cause. Its topic is of love, and
loss and love found. It is of love protected, and love suspected. This book is an enjoyable read, but a bastion of feminism? No. The only hint of feminism that
one can say exists within this book is the fact that the narrator has no name. One can possibly extrapolate that during this time in history, that du Maurier is
making a comment that most women had no voice and were faceless vessels of the men that surrounded them. This was not by choice, but by circumstance. Just as the
women of the day had no right to their own inheritence, so Mrs. Dewinter has no say or choice in the horrors that she inherits when she marries Maxim de
Winter. The book can be irritatingly sweet in some places as the narrator, after only knowing Maxim for a matter of a few weeks agrees to marry him. It is
implied that she marries him because he is wealthy and has much to offer her. That she is in love is made clear, but there is always that reserve that
comes through in the narrators voice. She is timid in a way that grates on ones nerves. Once at Maxims ancestral home of Manderly in England, the new Mrs.
Dewinter discovers that Maxims first wife, Rebecca, a strong willed woman, was drown only a year previously. The new Mrs. Dewinter meets the imposing housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, who loved Rebecca