Monday, October 7, 2013
Kind of Immature
So I noticed a few things during these chapters.
The narrator is a grown up women, but her relationship with Mrs Van Hopper is more the relationship between a 12 year old daughter and her mother. She secretly drives with Max, visits Montecarlo, but when she has to lie to Mrs Van Hopper about it she tells her "...false words, bringing me to panic, even as I spoke,..."(35). Her relationship with Max reminds me of that one of a young girl avoiding her parents to see some other boy just for the sake of doing something foolish, unexpected. In fact, she admits that Max "... was a stranger. I wonder why I was sitting beside him in the car"(39). But despite this, she falls in love with him. To me this is more like a childish crush. It seems like Max is a way to escape from the boring life as a companion of Mrs Van Hopper. But even though Mrs Van Hopper is arrogant and ignorant, I agree with her when she declares the whole point of the marriage is that "He just can't go on living there alone..."(61).
So far, the narrator has got rid of the obstacles that prevented her from returning to her life as a companion, but there is an obstacle that seems impossible for her to overcome, and that is the very alive memory of Rebecca. She is still present in the thoughts of everyone at Manderley, such as Max, and Mrs Danvers. When Mrs Danvers welcomes the narrator, she states that "...she bade me welcome to Manderley, in the name of herself and the staff, a stiff, conventional speech rehearsed for the occasion, spoken in a voice as cold and lifeless as her hand had been"(68).
How was Rebecca? Why did Max chose the narrator as his new wife just a year after her death?
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I hadn't realized how childish it really was until you laid it out like that and now i totally agree that this all seems very immature. It especially is emphasized when the narrator pulls back from this story telling for a little just to acknowledge how different she was then compared how she is currently. it's also interesting to me that we read here that she was accepted into manderley quickly and the iron gates were wide open, but in her dream the gates were locked shut. Im very curious as to what occurred that created a sudden contrast.
ReplyDeleteI think Mrs. Van Hopper is jealous of the narrator and is simply trying to bring the narrator down because she wishes she was in her place.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Pedro and Callie that the entire ordeal seems childish and rushed. I noticed that the narrator constantly uses her age an excuse throughout the book until Mr. De Winter asks her to marry him. Then she claims that she is "old for her age" so I don't know what to think of her age and how it affects what is going on in the book so far.
The narrator is SO childish and immature. It's actually quite sad how oblivious the narrator is to Mr. de Winter's lack of mutual feelings, but at the same time I don't think she's oblivious to the facts, but more tries to ignore them (for example she realizes he never said he loved her when he so called proposed, but she still went with it because she is so obsessed with having the name Mrs. de Winter)
ReplyDeleteI also think that the reason she calls his former wife, Rebecca, is because she considers herself to be Mrs. de Winter
To add on to the narrator being childish, I found it strange when the narrator was in the car with Mr. de Winter. He tells the narrator to get out of the car and the narrator mentions: "Had I been a year or two younger I think I should have cried. Children's tears are very near the surface" (39). This seems like strange wording to me. I'm starting to believe that the narrator is actually young; she described her relationship with Mr. de Winter, saying: "I was like a little scrubby schoolboy with a passion for a sixth-form prefect, and he kinder, and far more inaccessible" (35). So basically, the narrator has a funny way of depicting herself.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I want to throw in the idea that we can't be certain of what is ever said in the car. Remember, the narrator is reporting; Mr. de Winter doesn't get his voice, like the Lisbon girls in The Virgin Suicides.