1. Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier

2. Rebecca: Overview
Rebecca is presented by an unnamed narrater and takes the form of flashbacks as she travels Europe with her husband Maxim de Winter. The story begins years previous when she met him in a Monte Carlo Hotel working as a companion to a wealthy American lady. It is here that Maxim first meets and proposes to the narrator.
However, a dark secret disturbs their marriage, Maxim’s first wife Rebecca who drowned in a cove near the Maxim’s stately home Manderly, a traditional Gothic setting. It is left ambiguous whether it is the mere memory of Rebecca, or her ghost that haunts the newly-weds.
This memory is upheld by the sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers, who intimidates the unnamed narrator and patronises her in the everyday running of the house. Despite the encouragement of others, the heroine struggles with her new life at mannerly and feels constantly compared to the beautiful and accomplished Rebecca, who was brilliant and talented - or so everyone says.
This sense of claustrophobia hits its pinnacle at the yearly costume ball, where unbeknown to the narrator, she dresses in the same costume as Rebecca the previous year. Maxim is horrified and she becomes convinced that he will never love her; all an evil trick influenced by Mrs Danvers whom afterwards attempts to convince the narrator to commit suicide.
By chance a ship runs aground, snapping the narrator out of Danvers’ trance, and it is now that Rebecca’s body is discovered in a sunken boat that becomes unearthed. Upon the discovery, Maxim tells the narrator of his hatred towards Rebecca who was pregnant with another man’s baby, and consequently, Maxim murdered her. This rejuvenates his relationship with the narrator, and they couple are able to shake off Rebecca’s ghost.
However, the pressure increases on Maxim as a formal inquest is made into the death, and it is deemed suspicious by the local magistrate. After consulting Rebecca’s doctor, it is revealed that she was lying about the pregnancy, and was in fact dying of cancer; this provides the court with a motive for suicide and Maxim is cleared of charges.
They return home to Manderly only to find it is flames.

3. Rebecca: key themes and links
Marriage
Female power and social class
Male and female relationships
The politics of marriage
Motherhood
Consider possible links to other coursework texts via…
gender politics and women’s rights
social class
motherhood and marriage
sex, ideology and society
narrative viewpoint and voice
structure
dystopia
Via possible texts like Jane Eyre, 1984 and The Great Gatsby

4. Rebecca: sample extract
Longer extract available to pad lesson – give to students to actually annotate, but could model using this opening.

5. Critical material
What questions do you need to ask to understand this passage? Highlight words, phrases and terminology you would need to investigate further before you can apply it.

6. Rebecca: critical commentary

7. What relevance does the critical material have to the passage we annotated?
How might you apply the concept of the ‘male gaze’? How does this affect our interpretation of a female narrative voice?
What can the extract show us about ‘binary power structures’ based on gender or other factors?
Does the extract from the novel seem radical in its treatment of gender? Does it suggest to you that the novel will deal with interesting questions to do with gender?
What would you look out for, if you watched the film adaptation? How might the film ‘reinstate social boundaries’ which the writer argues the novel breaks down?
Teacher models how to do some of this depending on the class – explain male gaze, hegemony etc.

8. https://www. youtube. com/watch. v=7Ry2aSwBqX0 What do you think
What do you think? Can you see what the critical passage is asserting?
First 5-10 minutes allows a look at the way the female character is framed/differences in the opening description of Manderley. Might want to skip credits!

9. What challenges do we face when analysing a text in the light of critical material?
Understanding of difficult viewpoints, including movements of critical thought
Evaluating the viewpoint after returning to the text
Balancing our own views with critical views
Shaping research into a coherent argument
Discussion of how this is relevant to coursework – importance of the critical material being genuinely evaluated and integrated etc.