Gothic Elements Employed in the Novel and Movie Rebecca
Gothic literature has had a considerable influence on fiction and society throughout history. ... Such literature contains elements of mystery, horror, and the supernatural, intending to chill and terrify the reader. The novel Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier contains all of the above gothic elements, making it a gothic adventure of psychological and supernatural intrigue. The movie Rebecca, produced by Alfred Hitchcock, retains the novel’s gothic emphasis. There are certain elements in the construction of the characters, the construction of the settings and the plot development that differ from the novel, however in most cases, the characters and setting have been constructed in the same way to maintain the horrific feeling typical of the gothic genre in the viewer. The book and the movie, Rebecca, both contain the Gothic characters of Rebecca and Mrs De Winter, the gothic physical settings of Mandalay and the Woods, and amysterious, suspenseful and therefore gothic plot, particularly the climax and the “twist”. However, they have been constructed similarly and in contrast in the movie and novel. The character construction of Rebecca and Mrs De Winter as typical Gothic characters is achieved in the same ways, and differently, in the novel and the movie. Rebecca, the dead wife, is constructed as evil and supernatural, the typical antagonist of the Gothic genre. The novel and movie both construct her as a vamp or vampire, a supernatural female with the desire to destroy. Both the novel and the movie associate Rebecca’s body with black hair, pale skin, and a voracious sexual appetite due to her numerous affairs, all of which are typically denoted to the vampiric body. In the novel, she is often symbolised by a snake. For instance, on page 396 Mrs De Winter dreams that Rebecca’s hair “twists like a snake”. ... The snake is often the symbol of evil and deceit, which constructs Rebecca’s character as evil and sly. ... However, this image is not really present in the movie.