Many things in the gothic novel Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and the adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock differ greatly but the opening is not one of them. Both the film and novel start off with the famous opening line, “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” by the narrator. Although the opening is the same, the tone of voice when saying it is quite different to how I imagined the narrator would say it in the novel, the tone of voice when saying it in the movie was a bit happy whereas in the book, the narrator would have said it sadly and dreamily. I think the novel’s opening has a greater impact on the audience because of the way it sets the tone for the novel, for example the way that the narrator is speaking in the first chapter, one can tell that something bad happened and so that led to the events happening that she is talking about.…show more content… However, whilst the adaptation sticks quite close to the novel in terms of the plot or the storyline, there are many key scenes that are skipped over. It is nonetheless the biggest reason that a film can lose its impact because with Rebecca the film, even small details, such as the guests’ costumes at the grand ball, are altered. Such small tweaks may not mean much to the typical viewer, but it’s scenes like these that Du Maurier describes so well in the novel that she manages to already paint the picture for the audience, making these alterations in the film by Hitchcock, therefore, seem very careless and quite lazy. The scenes that the movie skip that are in the novel are: the scene at the Happy Valley, the lunch with the bishop’s wife, the meeting with Maxim’s grandmother and the scene in Chapter 18 where Mrs Danvers gives the audience an insight into Rebecca’s character, personality and her life before Manderley. They are all very important scenes, which would have given the film a lot, more context and made it more in depth to the audience, particularly the ones who have read the