did you know that when daphne was a little girl she used to go to this mansion where even children were waited on by footmen and the place had a rather scary and overbearing housekeeper. then later on she used to sneak to an abandoned mansion called menabilly and it became her home and was with the other what manderly became.
I knew she lived at menabilly but I didnt know that she used to visit it as a child
She must have liked the place a lot
menabilly is Manderley I read somewhere...
she was in love with it and it exactly fitted the description that the book starts with including the view of the sea and the gardens. and it is where she was most creative. another thing she admits to being the new mrs. her handsome husband tommy was in love with a gorgeous woman before her and she was nothing like her. she said she was jealous felt inferior.
really?
That is really interesting
She sort of felt like our jane Doe, then?
trying to live up to some image she cannot replace?
absolutely and in fact when tommy was stationed in egypt with the grenadiers she left flavia and tessa in cornwall to be cared for and went with him, scared he would be with someone else. and she never truly believed he loved her the way he loved his former. i wonder too if it is open
Very interesting
to find about her insecurities... So much resembles the narrator
What i don't get is that max tells jane that he never loved rebecca and just stayed with her and she with him for appearances sake and for manderly. but who made the guy marry her, was he also so weak willed and whimpy in most areas of his life he just married her without love?
I think Max did like R at least initially... I mean let's be honest... from her description, it seems like it is impossible not to like her... at least for men... However, later on, Max realised that R was not all she seemed
Maybe after their wedding?
But still, I don't see why he had to stay married to her
I don't like Max and I think the fact that he carried on with marriage makes a bad case for him
And all his defence is 'Manderley'...
Sacrificed himself for 'Manderley'...
Not buying it
saving face is everything.
i also cannot take max. he was a murderer and took a young girl to live the residue of his lie. what a jerk.
Well put!
He didnt mind using women in his life
first Rebecca and then our Jane Doe
as long as it suited him
and he decided to do something about Rebecca only because he thought her affairs were going to cause him trouble
absolutely. and truthfully if one really studies jane she is selfish in a way also. when rebeccas body comes forth all she worries is that max won't love or want her anymore. and she's okay with his murdering the woman. yikes. i would be on the first bike out of manderly!
I agree
throughout the novel, she did nothing but thought herself
even her love and dedication to max
I was puzzled over this
All that humbleness and humility about herself but she did not hesitate, for example, to go to max's room to inform him that she was leaving the next day
that was my first clue to her little grey cells. she obviously had no fam that really cared, that american was snooty employer. she had about three things to wear and she saw her chance and leapt at it not thinking about consequences.
Also, the fact that she had seen a postcard of Maderley and loved it as a child make me wonder
Like she was determined to get it or something
or maybe I am reading too much into things
i completely forgot about that. well if she were a poor child and admired wealth and was a dreamer and if she had perhaps been ignored and looked down upon by peers she would of course go for this unforseen gold mine to be elevated in all their eyes. only she didn't have the class to pull it off. and
did it never strike you as strange that she never thought about her family, missed them , wondered what they would think, never thought of or missed prior friends. it is as if she never existed before she worked for the american lady.
I was wondering about that actually
that what happened to her family
No mention, no invitations
Feels like she wanted it all and with Max she got the chance... and once she got it, she didnt want to let it go, at whatever cost
I mean... she is willing to live with a killer
abroad as an exile
and I found it very ironic at the end that she was doing the same things she used to for the american lady
she was still a travel companion
but this time for max
i never thought of that
what do you think about sex between Max and jane?
it seems like it is non-existant
it feels like they mostly sleep in seperate rooms
and there is only one reference that they woke up together
of course i dont expect daphne to write explicit things but i got the impression that during the honeymoon they marriage was not consumated
I am wondering if that arrangement suited both of them
jane looking for some stable father figure
Max some kind of dominion
if dominion is the right word there
it doenst matter really but I think it is just another thing to show that their marriage is not the healthiest one or not what it should be
i always thought that maybe they did have sex once but he did it only out of duty and then being trapped in his nightmare and always seeing r's face and remembering her scorn and then knowing she cut him off and he was humilated. he just left jane to be a little school girl trying to run a home. i think she wanted to be a sex siren but knew the reality that she could never be like rebecca so she settled for child. and he maybe had some nice feelings toward her because of her practically worshipping him but i think there was a great age difference not only in years but in mind. he did kill someone, you must age after that
Yes, I agree with you there... He did not want a wife in the traditional sense of the word
of course some might claim that because of R, he didnt want to settle with another mature woman but he didnt have to go from one extreme to the other
surely?
He brought in someone inexperienced but he refused to offer her any support and help
I just cant imagine why he would let Mrs D keep R's room as it is for example
why did he want another part of the house to be arranged for J?
If I hated someone enough to kill them, I wouldnt like to keep any of their belongings
And J didnt have enough guts to question all these things...
i think he let danny do that because he had a secret fear that somehow she knew the truth and just to be on the safe side he let her do as she wished although i am sure he would have loved to destroy all of it. the other part of the house was over the garden where all was pretty and pristine and still not like the sea where rebecca lay at the bottom of it.
You think he wanted to keep playing the role of devoted husband who wants to keep the memory of his dead wife alive?
More cunning!
So not liking Max!
it makes me incredibly sad how much we women and some men will sacrifice ourselves our hopes and dreams and integrity for the mere physical presence of someone who if we had more self esteem wouldn't give the time of day to
what are your thoughts on frank?
I am puzzled over Frank
I am wondering if he was in love with R
but I still like the fact that he did not let this interfere with his integrity
however, I am not so keen on the fact that even though he knew that Max killed R, he kept quiet
but then again, he couldnt prove much I guess
i quite like frank he would have been a better husband, simple honest loyal. i don't know why he kept quiet either unless it was that he didn't want anyone to know rebecca's secret, perhaps somehow he knew and loved her enough to respect her wish for secrecy. it certainly couldn't have been for max's sake. i really don't know.
did you like beatrice?
I quite liked her
She seemed much nicer than max
but wished she had more tact
she was rather a combination of princess anne and camilla i think and tact is not in the aristocracy in everyday life. they say what they mean and that's that but mainly they don't wish to offend. they are just used to being up there and are tactless in certain ways. but i liked her and felt had jane tried harder she could have had a true and honest friend there. her husband i don't know about.
Yes, I also felt that J did not do enought to befriend B... but then again, she was happy with Max and did not care about the rest
I think in couple of places in the novel J mentions how nice it was being alone with him
he stroking her like he does it with the dog
and that they didnt like their 'peace' being interrupted by others
which included B and her husband
yes in that room she somehow knew she was mistress if only for as long as they stayed by the fire.
but don't you think that behaviour of not wanting to be bugged was just like a very young girl who wants to be alone and secluded with her hearthrob even if to others he is an icky creep?
When they were alone, she could pretend that she was the superior woman she wanted to be but when others were there she had to come down and face the facts
It is true if you are having occasional meetings with your boyfriend maybe but I thought after getting married, it would be just natural to spend time with others as well
But as I said she had to come down to earth whenever they were with others
face the fact that she is lacking in so many ways
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Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I already finished reading the book; although I loved the book, I could not care for the leading characters (I think there is more discussion on this in the later posts in the thread).
