REBECCA

"I dreamt I went to Manderley again." (Dumarier 2) is the famous opening line to the classic novel Rebecca. Right from the beginning Dumaurier builds up the mystery of Manderley by showing a conflict between the way the main characters live now verses how they remember the tragic events of the past. The narrator is an inexperienced young girl who is overwhelmed when she moves into Manderley. The husband, Maxim, is still troubled by the death …

…Instead of living happily ever after, the characters are shown many years later still being haunted by their experiences at Manderley. As the story evolves from a Gothic Romance to a mystery, the narrator also evolves. By including all of these elements Dumaurier creates even more than a simple thriller or mystery. She creates a "profound and fascinating study of an obsessive personality, of human identity, and of the liberation of the hidden self." (Kelly 54).