Rebecca

What objects or ideas does the author use to help us understand the narrator?

(consider references to Manderley, rhododendrons, daydreams, etc)

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There is always the sense of the surreal in this story. Manderley, Rebecca, the ocean, the housekeeper always have a sense of otherness about them to the narrator. She crosses the threshold into the unknown of Maxim de Winter's world. She barely knows herself let alone all the secrets that lie behind her new life. The house/mansion itself is large and imbedded with the identity of REbecca. This isolates the narrator even more. Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, keeps Rebecca's room intact and we wonder how much of Mrs. Danvers herself is an extension of Rebecca. The narrator struggles to define herself and piece together the mysteries in order to claim her own identity.