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  • Essay / Narrative structure and narrative manipulation in 'rebecca'

    A narrative is a spoken or written account of events and structure is the order in which the author arranges the events; Although these definitions may seem simple, much of a story's interest can come from the distortion or manipulation of key information. The narrative of the novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is in the first person and the structure is a flashback after introducing the story to the present tense as if remembering what happened to her in Manderley. As readers, we are convinced that his version of the story is precisely what happened, because there is nothing to suggest otherwise. However, the narrator's memory is subjective; for example, in his eyes, Rebecca is the villain and Maxim is the victim – even after admitting to the murder of his ex-wife. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayRebecca can be called a bildungsroman – this means that throughout the novel, the narrator matures. At the beginning of her story, she remembers what it was like when she was Mrs. van Hopper's companion: “I remember well that plate of ham and tongue. It was dry, unappetizing, sliced ​​from the outside, but I didn't have the courage to refuse it. and said "how young and inexperienced I must have looked." However, by the end of the novel, she has matured and gained more self-confidence: “I lost my distrust, my shyness, my shyness with strangers. I am very different from the man who first went to Manderley, hopeful and impatient, handicapped by a rather desperate left-handedness and filled with an intense desire to please. the name of the narrator. The lack of a name means that it does not give the narrator her own identity, especially at the beginning of the story when she is Mrs. van Hopper's companion. When she marries Maxim, her name becomes Mrs. de Winter but she is uncomfortable with this name because she does not like the idea of ​​following Rebecca. This gives a sense of competition between the narrator and Rebecca, for the right to bear the name. An advantage of writing in the first person is that we know what the narrator is thinking and feeling; the reader feels a connection with the narrator, creating a sense of reality. This also allows the narrator's point of view to come through more clearly, as it is expressed directly and describes their personality and opinions more easily. A good example of this is when she recalls her time with Mrs. van Hopper and the embarrassment she feels: "I would feel like a whip boy who has to bear his master's pains when I look at people laughing behind his back.” This is an asset to the novel because it provides a feeling of intimacy, allowing the reader to empathize with the narrator. However, a downside of the first person narrative is that any information we get is biased because it only comes from one's point of view. All the information we know about Rebecca is either what the narrator imagines about her or second-hand (what she hears from other people) and what others think of Rebecca is also filtered by their own opinions and motivations. For example, in chapter 11, she asks Frank "Was Rebecca very beautiful?" to which he replies "yes, I suppose she was the most beautiful creature I ever saw in my life" and in chapter 13, when the narrator meets Ben, he says of Rebecca: "She was tall and dark. She made you feel like a snake. I saw it here with my own eyes. At night, she came.” Therefore, we get an unfair portrayal of Rebecca because she does not speak for herself, and the image of her.