Class Disrupting The Social Order In Rebecca

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Midterm: Gender and Class Disrupting the Social Order in Rebecca Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is a novel that shook the foundations of the patriarchy. The character Rebecca tore apart the very social fabrics that held together society using nothing but her controversial version of femininity, and was therefore criminalized to the point that her murder was deemed justifiable. The novel illustrates the contrast between different types of femininity, and how the feminine values of the narrator ultimately triumph in the end. The narrator’s view of herself is attached entirely to the idea that…show more content…
She had sexual relations with her cousin, Favell, which is extremely taboo. She also had sexual relations with working class men, which was forbidden. It is interesting to note that on top of Rebecca’s relationships with men outside of her social class, she was also possibly in a relationship with Mrs. Danvers. Du Maurier herself was rumored to have been bisexual and possibly gender fluid, as described in “History Today” by Richard Cavendish. Cavendish describes du Maurier as “Wishing she was a boy, because her father had always longed for one, she hated dressing as a girl, mostly wore boy’s clothes and convinced herself that she was actually a boy” and also mentioned that “She later had a mixed hetersosexual and lesbian love life” (61). Du Maurier may have been trying to portray Rebecca as bisexual, and Rebecca broke gender boundaries with her interest in boating and sports. Mrs. Danvers relationship with Rebecca is questionable, and her obsession with Rebecca could easily be explained if they had been in a same-sex relationship. In the article “Did Mrs. Danvers Warm Rebecca’s Pearls?” Nicky Hallett describes the significance of pearls in same-sex love and in Rebecca: “Pearls have a special significance in the literature of love. In lesbian language of passion, they occupy a particular place, where eroticism intersects with ideas of class and fantasy”
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