PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 5 Teacher Support Programme Rebecca Daphne du Maurier Maurier disliked formal socialising and preferred a natural outdoor life. Despite her writing success, du Maurier remained humble and self-conscious about her books. She spent a large portion of her later life alone, walking the moors and cliff tops, and sailing the Cornish seas and rivers. In thunderstorms she would disappear from home, returning windswept and drenched hours later. In 1952 Daphne du Maurier was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1969 she was created a Dame of the British Empire. She lived in Cornwall until her death in 1989. About the author Summary Daphne du Maurier was born in London in 1907 into a Rebecca, published in 1938, was Daphne du Maurier’s richly artistic family. She grew up in a lively household most successful novel. In 1940, film director Alfred where famous writers often visited. She was the favourite Hitchcock won the Best Picture Oscar with his first daughter of her father, actor Gerald du Maurier, and Hollywood film, Rebecca, based on the book Rebecca led an indulged idyllic childhood with tremendous and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. freedom. However, as du Maurier and her two sisters The narrator of the story, a naïve young woman, marries became adolescents, their father became very possessive, Maxim de Winter, an aristocrat several years older than discouraging friendships with boys and demanding their herself. They return to his large country home, Manderley, attention. Du Maurier later wrote several short stories that in Cornwall, to a life that his new wife knows little about. reveal the strong influence of her dogmatic father. Inexperienced, self-conscious and lacking in confidence, When du Maurier was a young woman, her family the new Mrs de Winter finds her life dominated by bought a country home in Cornwall, in the south-west the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, Rebecca, who died at of England. Du Maurier fell in love with Cornwall’s wild Manderley a year earlier. The narrator becomes obsessed seas and isolated coves. She realised that she had found her with the presence of Rebecca. She finds her new husband spiritual home, and later she set many of her books there. distant and unapproachable. She feels the servants and Du Maurier was fiercely independent and embarrassed by friends of the family are comparing her unfavourably with her indulgent upbringing, and was determined to support his first wife, and she feels more and more inadequate. herself. In 1927 she wrote her first novel The Loving Spirit Only when a ship is blown off course at sea, does the new in Cornwall. When it was published, it brought her fame. Mrs de Winter begin to learn just how much her husband It also brought her a husband. Major Frederick Arthur needs her. Montague Browning, a war hero, was 34 years old when Chapter 1 Maxim de Winter he sailed in to Fowey harbour in Cornwall in October With the famous opening line ‘Last night I dreamed I 1931 to find the author of the book he so much admired. went to Manderley again’, an unnamed narrator of this A year later, they married. They had a quiet wedding in book recalls her past. She works as a companion to the Cornwall, after which they sailed off and moored for the aristocratic Mrs Van Hopper. While they are in Monte night in Frenchman’s Creek, which du Maurier later used Carlo, she meets a wealthy widower Maxim de Winter. as the title of one of her novels. They had two daughters They fall in love. and one son. Daphne du Maurier and her husband found it difficult Chapter 2 Manderley to share each other’s lives. They spent a lot of time apart Soon they are married, and Mr de Winter takes his new during and after the war, when her husband worked for bride to Manderley, his country manor in Cornwall, Prince Phillip at Buckingham Palace in London. Also, du England. Lacking self-confidence, the new Mrs de Winter c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Rebecca - Teacher’s notes 1 of 5 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 5 Teacher Support Programme Rebecca feels that the servants are not welcoming her, particularly Chapter 9 Favell Accuses Maxim Mrs Danvers the housekeeper. A verdict of suicide is brought at the inquiry. Then Jack Chapter 3 The Cottage in the Bay Favell claims that Rebecca wasn’t suicidal, and Maxim Maxim’s sister Beatrice tells the new Mrs de Winter that comes under suspicion of murder. It is revealed that Mrs Danvers was profoundly devoted to Rebecca, Maxim’s Rebecca had a secret visit to a London doctor. first wife. Later, Maxim and his wife go for a walk, and she Chapter 10 The Visit to Dr Baker finds a cottage in the bay; this causes the couple to have a Dr Baker, the doctor who Rebecca saw shortly before her little argument. death, reveals that Rebecca wasn’t pregnant, but suffering Chapter 4 The Shadow of Rebecca from a serious illness and would have died within a few Mrs de Winter finds out that the cottage was used by months. Maxim thinks Rebecca wanted him to kill her. Rebecca who drowned off the coast. Despite her death, On returning to Manderley, Maxim and his wife find it her aura seems to pervade Manderley. on fire. Chapter 5 Rebecca’s Room Background and themes Rebecca’s cousin Jack Favell appears at Manderley when In 1937–8, when Daphne du Maurier wrote Rebecca, Maxim is away. He seems to know Mrs Danvers very Europe was on the brink of war. Many contemporary well. Mrs de Winter accidentally goes into Rebecca’s room writers were concerned with subjects such as poverty, where everything was preserved as it used to be. psychology, war, fascism and religion. Authors like Chapter 6 The Fancy-Dress Dance James Joyce, were exploring the ‘stream of consciousness’ There is a fancy dress party at Manderley, and Mrs technique to illustrate the human condition. de Winter has no idea what to wear. Mrs Danvers is Daphne du Maurier ignored the modern trends and wrote unusually kind to her and suggests that she wear a costume straightforward stories that gripped the imagination of her replica of one of the former inhabitants of Manderley. The readers. She recognised early on in her career, that it was same costume, in fact, had been worn by Rebecca at the mainly women who read her books. She fed her audience’s previous fancy dress party. Maxim gets very angry. desire for adventure, romance, sexuality and mystery Chapter 7 The Sunken Boat with stories that transported them into the world of their Overwhelmed and intimidated, Mrs de Winter begins to fantasies. doubt her relationship with her husband; she thinks that First wife versus second wife: Only after the second Maxim is still in love with the perfect Rebecca. Things, Mrs de Winter arrives at Manderley, does she realise how however, change dramatically when the sunken boat is difficult it will be to live there, continuously competing discovered. Rebecca’s body is found in the boat at the with the memory of the first Mrs de Winter, Rebecca. bottom of the sea, and this leads Maxim to confess the Inadequacy: Daphne de Maurier hated social events, truth to his new wife. He and Rebecca hated each other. feeling self-conscious, shy, out of her depth and Rebecca had series of love affairs, and then she claimed inadequate. These are the feelings she gives the character to be pregnant by another man and threatened to burden of the second Mrs de Winter, who is lost and awkward Maxim with the responsibility of raising the child. Maxim in her new life as mistress of Manderley. The second Mrs killed her and took the body out in the boat, which he de Winter has never known the life of aristocracy and sank at sea. Instead of being scared of the murderer, Mrs struggles with the social demands. Du Maurier emphasises de Winter is relieved to hear that Maxim didn’t and doesn’t her sense of inadequacy by not even giving her a name. love Rebecca. The balance of power in marriage: The story shows a Chapter 8 The Inquiry relationship between a powerful man and his intimidated There is an inquest, and the boat builder makes a wife. When the husband tells the truth of his past, the statement about three holes hammered through the young, naïve wife suddenly grows up. The balance of bottom of the boat. When Maxim is asked if he and power in their marriage changes at that moment. Rebecca had a happy relationship, Mrs de Winter gets faint. c Pearson Education Limited 2008 Rebecca - Teacher’s notes 2 of 5 PENGUIN READERS Teacher’s notes LEVEL 5 Teacher Support Programme Rebecca Jealousy: This story is a study of how jealousy motivates • How do you think Mrs Danvers feels towards the new people. Manderley’s housekeeper, Mrs Danvers admired Mrs de Winter? Rebecca so much that she cannot accept the second Mrs • Why do you think she feels like this? 5 Write: Have students write a diary as the protagonist. de Winter. Her domineering acts showing scorn towards You are the new Mrs de Winter. You’ve been married for the second Mrs de Winter has made Mrs Danvers one of a few weeks now. This is your first night at Manderley. literature’s most infamous female villains. Write in your diary and describe what has happened during the day, how you feel about it and what you Guilt and innocence: The story makes you wonder who think you are going to do the next day.