Identity Issues

Identity Issues

~Blog Post 1~

Topic D
May 4, 2015

By Teresa Fernandez

It is so frustratingly obvious how our Lady feels overshadowed by Rebecca. She is constantly comparing herself to the previous Mrs. De Winter and is quite frankly making the story revolve around this dead woman all on her own. Even the slant of Rebecca's handwriting makes our main character feel inferior. After being introduced to other characters, Lady could immediately "picture them saying to one another as they drove away, 'My dear, what a dull girl. She scarcely opened her mouth', and then the sentence [Lady] had first heard upon Beatrice's lips, haunting [her] ever since, a sentence [she] read in every eye, on every tongue - 'She's so different from Rebecca'"(Du Maurier 98) Although these conversations take place in her head, they may not be entirely far from accurate. Lady is being compared to Rebecca but she does little to establish her own person. In fact, she shows Maxim's relations very little personality because she is afraid of stepping out of line. She absolutely needs to establish her own rules--Manderley is her house too--and step out of her comfort zone. Lady cannot pretend to be someone she's not, nor can she hide herself away and pretend all her problems will sort themselves out. However, I don't have much hope for Lady; the novel is titled Rebecca, after all. Sadly, I don't think Lady will ever escape the grasp Rebecca has on her life.