Rebecca Du Maurier Techniques

Du Maurier creates a sinister and unsettling impression of the grounds surrounding Manderley through the narrator’s perception of the way in which the landscape has changed in her dream visit.
Rebecca conveys a sense of isolation as we get the impression the house is hostile and creepy, a place where people wouldn’t want to be around. In the first paragraph we already know that no one is at the lodge and there is a mysterious setting. “There was a padlock and a chain upon the gate”, this is showing that the house seems very unwelcoming. We know that the lodge is remote, we see this when Rebecca describes the place as “uninhabited.” We get the impression being alive will come back to haunt the narrator time and time again when she uses the quote “passed like a spirit,” the use of this simile is very effective because it adds to the secluded effect.
Rebecca uses references to nature to present the setting as mysterious and sinister, many aspects of nature shown in this extract could be perceived as unnatural. The drive is overrun with grass and moss and the rhododendrons have overtaken

The place is not as she remembered, it’s lonely and abandoned “the lodge was uninhabited,” showing that the place was completely isolated again, “not the drive that we had known” showing this place is nothing like she remembered. The writer uses alliteration to describe the windows as abandoned, “little lattice windows gaped forlorn.” The drive way was mentioned a lot, “twisting and turning,” almost as if it was hiding all the secrets, unanswered questions of the house. She then goes on to reference the road again as a ribbon using the metaphor “the drive was a ribbon now” twisting and flowing, “as it had always done” however she continues to say that she had noticed a change come about, “narrow” and “unkept” small like a ribbon is, this adds to the whole sense of