With reference to the following quotations, discuss the ways in which Daphne Du Maurier moves between realism and romance in Rebecca.

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

Jennine Akbar

P03170788

Eng1004

Jane Dowson

21/05/04

Assignment B-Takeaway Exam Paper

Section B

1) With reference to the following quotations, discuss the ways in which Daphne Du Maurier moves between realism and romance in Rebecca.

‘I thought of all those heroines of fiction who looked pretty when they cried, and what a contrast I must make with blotched and swollen, and red rims round my eyes. It was a dismal finish to my morning and the day that stretched ahead of me was long.’(Rebecca, Ch.5 p.44)

‘It is not real and rounded individuals who are being presented and the endings are known to be a foregone conclusion. Romance offers instead of closure a postponement of fulfilment.’(Alison Light, “Returning to Manderlay”:romance fiction, female sexuality and class’, Feminist Review, no. 16 (Summer 1984)

Daphne Du Mauriers novel Rebecca is very much related to the above quotations because the story moves between romance and realism. The first quotation has been taken from Daphne Du Maurier’s novel where she uses the girl to portray to readers that heroines in romantic fiction look attractive even if they go through harsh conditions, the girl then describes herself as unlike these heroines because she looks unattractive when she cries and says ‘it was a dismal finish to my morning and the day ahead of me was long’ this tells the audience that her life is unlike the heroines. Daphne Du Maurier uses this girl as the heroine of her novel and reflects her against the fictional character of Rebecca to tell the audience that the girl is a symbol of reality. Quite often in this story Maurier uses the two characters which contrast each other because one defines romance and the other defines reality. This both indulges and scrutinises female desires as they are mediated in romantic fiction. The second quotation describes the elements of romantic fiction and this will be discussed further in relation to the novel.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Rebecca was written in the 19th century when the most famous founders of romantic fiction emerged. Mills and Boons started in the 1930’s and had over two hundred authors writing the same sort of novels. They would indulge female desires through ideal fictional characters and story lines. Romantic fiction meant having a tall, handsome and powerful hero and a young, beautiful heroine, they would both fall in love with the predictable ending of living happily ever after. All of their books were written through the third person narrative as this added to the fairy tale theme. This idea of romantic fiction is related to the second quotation above as it says ‘it is not real and rounded individuals who are presented and the ending is known to be a foregone conclusion’, this tells us that the elements of a true romance novel are very familiar to all and that they are very much fictional and do not relate to reality. Du Maurier takes the idea of the fictional heroine and uses her as Rebecca in her story to add to the element of romance however she switches to reality quite often throughout the novel because she has introduced the young girl and portrayed her in a very different light.

This girl is a symbol of realism because she marries Mr De Winter who is a lot older than her and represents middle age marriage as well as her youthful idealism which goes against the conventions of a romance novel. Du Maurier does this to represent realism in 19th century England as middle age marriages were very common and were very hard for youthful girls to adapt to. Du Maurier switches between realism and romance as she starts by introducing Manderlay as a dark and mysterious place. She then switches to romance in her next chapter as this is where De Winter and the girl meet and fall in love, however she still holds on to the element of reality because the girl is not described as a typical heroine of fiction and De Winter does not whisk her off her feet like a true hero would. Rebecca holds on to romantic ideal as the new Mrs de Winter is excited about going to Manderlay which is renowned for it’s beauty however, she is not so happy as she is greeted by Mrs Danvers, the sinister housekeeper of Manderlay and the former devoted maid to Rebecca. Throughout the story from this moment onwards the new Mrs de Winter imagines her wonderful future with her husband which is similar to most romance novels, however this is disrupted by Mrs Danvers who throws reality in her face by constantly comparing her to Rebecca, which in turn makes her feel inferior to this character who is dead. Towards the end the genre develops into a gothic mysterious suspense novel when it is found out that Rebecca was murdered which Du Maurier portrays to readers to remind them of the grim reality of ‘fallen women’ which is what Rebecca was, thus portraying realism. However this soon turns back into a romantic fiction as the hero and heroine fall deeper in love and live happily ever after when it was discovered that Du Winter was the murderer and did not love Rebecca at all.

In evaluation, throughout this story line one can see that many switches have been made between realism and romance. It is a retrospective story and the popular romance that keeps intervening builds it up. It does contain elements of a fictional romance novel as because there is a meddling with this type of formula from the start where they fall in love, have problems, overcome them and live happily ever after in the end. Rebecca’s character conforms more to romantic ideal, all of this is represented in the quote above which mentions that real individuals are not portrayed and endings are predictable. Realism is represented by the youthful girl who does not have a name even though she is the main heroine, thus portraying that in real life these romantic characters do not exist and women are usually the non existent being. This story is also different from the conventional romance novels because it has been written in the 1st person, which allows us to develop more of a real life perception of the story. The use of dream and symbolism is also related to Freud in the 1930’s where psychology was developing. This is related to the first quote because it mentions that her experiences of life are different from those of fiction. All in all this novel has introduced a new type of fictional genre.

To conclude, ‘women’s writing ‘is simultaneously a historical record their oppression and a definitive mark of their defiance’ (Kaplan). This could be the reason why Du Maurier used the contrast of the romance and the realism. It helped to portray to society what women wan t and what they actually get.

Kaplan. Nineteenth Century Women Poets and the Poetic Tradition. Module Reading Handbook.