First of all, sorry again for being such a spoiler the other day.
So we found out about all of Rebecca's dirty secrets, and the real reasons of everyone's attitude toward her image. Now the narrator knows about everything, her husband killed his first wife. But despite the fact that he is a murderer, she tells him that she loves him despite everything. Maxim was open to her just once, and she claims to love him. I believe that she doesn't really know what love is. She also doesn't understand trully the concept of marriage. She doesn't even want Maxim to love him. "I don't want you to love me. I won't ask for impossible things. I'll be your friend and your companion, a sort of boy"(269). But before that, she claims that she will "... never be a child again."(269). She has good intentions, but she is too childish to understand the situation that Maxim has gone into.
Also, corresponding with this, I think that once the narrator heard that Max never loved Rebecca, she sort of "checked out" from the conversation. It seems like the author is telling us all this detail for the reader's sake, not the narrator's. On page 284 while Max is talking about all the blood on the floor, the narrator tells us about a hole that is in the carpet under Jasper's tail.
ReplyDeleteps. of course when max is disposing of his dead wife it starts to rain...
I agree with you Pedro completely. The narrator has some really big image issues. I think her poor upbringing has deprived her of having the knowledge (we know it as common sense) on how a marriage is supposed to work. She will never see herself as more than a companion because that's what she has been all of her "adult" life (all like 2ish years of it). Her view of an "ideal man" is completely skewed. She has no male role model at all in her life. In fact, now that I think about it, Frank is one of the only men portrayed in a positive light in the story up until this point. Even so, he is portrayed as naive.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Collin. We finally see the danger of listening to the narrator through her first person narrative. She explains to Maxim how she thought he loved Rebecca more than her yet Maxim denies this allegation. This shows how nearsighted and unreliable the narrator is. I think we, as readers, read too far into what she is saying which causes us to make flawed opinions.
ReplyDeleteAlayna hit the nail on the head, I think. The narrator completely checks out when she hears what she needs: Maxim--I killed my first wife, brutally and in cold blood, and then I disposed of the body and got another body and I never loved Rebecca...."
ReplyDeleteNarrator: He never loved Rebecca! Oh lucky me.
WHAT? Does anyone else see her editing the information?