Du Maurier and Rebecca

Daphne Du Maurier was born in London in 1907, her father being the well-known actor Gerald De Maurier.  She was one of three daughters and had a close relationship with her charming and successful father.  She mixed in theatrical circles as a girl, but as she grew older, she became something of a recluse.  She married Frederick “Boy” Browning, an army officer who was much more conventional than her.  She wanted them to live together, but he could not understand this shocking suggestion and an open affair with a woman like her would have been disastrous for his army career.  He was sporty though not unintelligent, and their marriage was not always smooth sailing. (In later life, he had a post in the Princess Elizabeth’s household, but had become a heavy drinker, had affairs and ended up having to give up his work because of a nervous breakdown).

 Daphne had literary connexions, which helped her to get a start as a writer.  Her novels varied in quality, but several were considered very good “adventurous romantic fiction” and were best sellers.  These included Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, and the Scapegoat.   Her most famous and popular novel was Rebecca. Du Maurier believed that her works were serious adult fiction and she did not write light novels with happy endings.   But the fact that many of her works were so popular with the public and some were made into films, tended to obscure her more serious intentions and literary critics did not generally think of her as a "real" novelist. 

 Rebecca is perhaps the most loved of her works, but it has a complicated story and an ambivalent ending.  Some critics have noticed that Maxim De Winter’s two wives, Rebecca, his first wife and “Mrs De Winter” the shy unnamed narrator are polar opposites as women and that they may reflect different aspects of Daphne herself.  Rebecca is beautiful, sophisticated and clever, and probably bisexual, but cold and morally lacking.  The second wife is awkward, shy and reclusive, but good and decent... a “good woman” in conventional terms.  

Daphne herself struggled with a division in her nature.  She tried to be a good wife to Browning, but she hated social events, which were expected of middle class professional wives at the time.  She was not the most affectionate of mothers, being awkward and stiff with her children, and preferred to write or sail in Cornwall.   She thought of herself in some ways as masculine and there have been rumours that she had infatuations with other women.   So in many ways she was more like the selfish and sexually adventurous Rebecca than the dutiful young Mrs De Winter.   She was inspired to write Rebecca partly because of her own jealousy about an earlier girlfriend of Boy Browning’s.  The girlfriend seemed so “perfect” that it made her feel inferior and envious.   And it is not uncommon for second wives to be intimidated and upset by hearing about a predecessor who is always “more fascinating”  or more perfect than they feel themselves to be.  

The best character in the book is the young Mrs De Winter, but even so, the ending is very ambiguous as to whether she is rewarded for her good behaviour.

She wins Maxim’s love and learns that he hated Rebecca for her horrible nature… but at the end of the novel, Manderley is destroyed by fire... and there has been talk that possibly he killed Rebecca...   (which he did –but he avoids prosecution).   However because of the gossip and the loss of Manderley, the De Winters feel they have to go abroad to live for some years to let the talk die down.  They end up  living in a rather sad continental exile, longing for home and the English countryside... But they are forced to stay in Europe and wander around, avoiding spots where the British visit because it is uncomfortable. 

 While they love each other, they both desperately miss their homeland... It seems like a very ambivalent ending for the couple.  Their marriage, which got off to a shaky start has become successful, but they have lost their home, and their country and chances of a stable life with friendships or children.    In this novel, certainly there is a great deal of complexity of character and ambiguities. 

The De Winters are “good” compared with Rebecca and her lover Jack Favell… but still, although Rebecca provoked him, Maxim did kill her.  And their “happy ending” is very muted…

Rebecca was also inspired of course by Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre... where Jane, the humble governess wins the love of an aristocrat, Edward Rochester – who has previously been married.  He and Jane marry, but again their marital happiness is somewhat muted by the fact that Edward has lost a hand and become blind…

 The personal elements in the novel probably explain why it has proved the most enduringly popular of Du Maurier’s works.