Deception In Rebecca By Daphne Du Maurier

Deception is portrayed in many forms in life. Through family, friends, strangers, and even government, it is hard to trust anyone. The novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, tells the story of how a lower-middle class woman navigates her new, fancier life filled with deception and mystery. Deception is a huge theme in Rebecca because there are many instances of it throughout. Rebecca deceives everyone into thinking she is innocent and pure, while Max and she deceive everyone into thinking that they have a happy marriage are the ideal couple. Another theme is justice and how to decide what is morally right. The plot and character development of Rebecca and Maxim show this because Max needs justification in his murder of Rebecca. The character

The Narrator’s character also develops from a shy and quiet girl to a strong-willed young woman. The Narrator’s point of view can also be examined as she is retelling the story from a number of years later, so it may not all be accurate. The setting, and possibly characterization, of the home, Manderley, is very significant because it was the scene of many of the most important events hat transpired throughout the story. Notably, the title character of Rebecca is the character that is the most fascinating. She is already deceased when the story starts, so her development cannot be changed or stopped, because it has already happened it just needs to be revealed. After Max admits to killing Rebecca, he tells the story of how she tricked everyone she met, “’No one would guess meeting her that she was not the kindest, most generous, most gifted person in the world”(du Maurier 271). Anyone who had ever met Rebecca would immediately fall in love with her and think that she was just the most wonderful person. She was very smart in how she acted to make people think that she was truly this kind and welcoming, and knew exactly how to talk to everyone so

It could be argued that since Rebecca was so horrible to him that she deserved it, and that is what the Narrator makes it seem like. After it is found out that Rebecca could have been suicidal, because she only had a couple months to live, Jack Favell is visibly devastated and remarks “The law can get you yet, and so can I, in a different way…”(370). Since Rebecca’s death was ruled a suicide, Max will face no legal consequences for his actions, only a semi-guilty conscious. Max seems above the law because he is upper class, and he covered up his mistakes very well. However, it is inferred that Julyan, the Colonel who was investigating this case, most likely knew that Max killed Rebecca, ”’He knew,’ said Maxim slowly, ‘of course he knew’”(374). If Julyan did know that Max killed Rebecca, he chose to ignore the law wither for lack of evidence against Max, Max’s social class, or he felt like Rebecca deserved it. Due to the fact that only Max, Frank, and the Narrator were some of the only people who knew about Rebecca’s manipulation, it would be left that he did not accuse Max because of lack of evidence and Max’s social class. The judge had also already decided that Rebecca committed suicide, and there was a great deal of evidence that supported this theory, so there would be no point in trying to dispute that at this point in time. Another huge theme is