Of course this is a device by du Maurier and in real life they likely would have used her name. Indeed is the heroine’s role in the book to aid the remembrance of Rebecca, in more ways than the obvious role of new wife dealing with the affects of the old? That is surely what Mrs Danvers’s role is about, to remind the house of Rebecca through the heroine, causing the heroine to be Rebecca’s ghost somewhat, even whilst the housekeeper hates her.Īnd what is it about those who care for our heroine – they don’t use her name either. The heroine is pushed into a corner and never earns herself a name of her own we hear of Rebecca constantly. Of course the very usage of Rebecca’s name as the title emphasises who this book is about and makes it clear that in death a person can still be the strongest character. Until, perhaps, Mandeley burned down and the traces of Rebecca truly left.

And since Mrs de Winter was always Rebecca, even after the re-marriage, continuing to use that name suggests that the heroine might never quite be an individual.

The unnamed heroine does come into her own at the end of the book and yet still she is relegated to being called Mrs de Winter. But du Maurier says nothing, and it makes sense that it was a case of choice rather than a writer having no inspiration before she realised it made for an interesting style. If she had a name for her then one would believe she would’ve provided it, perhaps at the end of the book where the character finally comes into her own. Identity is so important in the novel, and the biggest sign of it is du Maurier’s decision to never name her heroine.

I haven’t edited it much because I think I’d end up losing half of what I wanted to say, but I reckon it should be coherent enough. You will find what I’ve written to be a stream of ideas. A couple of people have said there is always room for discussion, however, so I’ve decided to just post my thoughts to get them out of my mind. I’ve been wanting to discuss identity in Rebecca for some time, but as it is such an obvious theme I wasn’t sure if it was of any interest. Screen shot from Rebecca, copyright © 1940 Selznick International Pictures.

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