I would want to argue that one of the strongest themes
that emerges from this excellent Gothic classic comes through the character of Maxim de
Winter, the "hero" of the piece, who is shown in a shocking twist of events to have
never loved his wife and to have murdered her in a fit of rage after years of
psychological torture adminstered on him by Rebecca. What is interesting about this is
the way that the narrative is structured so that we implicitly want to support the
anonymous heroine and Maxim in their attempt to escape the consequences of his actions
in murdering Rebecca. He is described in a sympathetic and pitiful way as he tells the
narrator his story and how he was manipulated an abused by
Rebecca:
"She
knew I would sacrifice pride, honour, personal feelings, every damned quality on earth,
rather than stand before our little world after a week of marriage and have them know
the things about her that she had told me
then."
As we find ourselves
supporting the narrator and her husband, we want Maxim to escape punishment for what he
has done and the murder he has committed. However, it is highly significant, that
although another twist in the plot revealed that Rebecca was dying from a terminal
illness and thus gives the motive for suicide, Maxim is not allowed to escape so easily,
and as they return they see his beloved Mandeley being burnt to the ground and he and
his new wife are plunged into a European exile. Every crime has its punishment somewhere
along the line, and even twists of fate cannot change that, the novel seems to
suggest.
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