摘 要

达芙妮·杜穆里埃是英国最伟大的女作家和剧作家之一，另一位著名的英国作家E.M.福斯特高度评价她时说没有人能复制达芙妮·杜穆里埃的成功-- 即打破通俗小说和纯文学之间的界限，让他的作品同时满足这两种文学的所有需求。 《丽贝卡》出版于1938年，是杜穆里埃最成功的作品之一。本书中女二号丽贝卡长久以来被视为“蛇蝎女性”的代表并一直为评论家所批判。然而本文认为就像每个硬币都有两面一样，每个人都有他的优点和缺点，因此丽贝卡不会完全是一个反面角色。本文将抛弃对丽贝卡的陈见，从德温特夫人的叙述中分析丽贝卡的行为和思想,以此挖掘出这个像幽灵一样徘徊在曼多丽庄园的女人更真实的一面。

关键词： 达芙妮•杜穆里,《丽贝卡》, 人物形象分析, 肖像描写，行为分析

Abstract

Daphne du Maurier, one of the greatest female English authors and playwrights, was highly valued by another famous English writer E.M.Foster. He praised that no one else can repeat the success of Daphne du Maurier , that is to say, she breaks the line between popular fiction and pure literature, and makes her works meet all demands of these two kinds of literature at the same time. Du Maurier’s work Rebecca was published in 1938 and it is one of Du Maurier's most successful works. For a long time critics see a female character Rebecca in this book as an evil who is wearing human skin. However, just as every coin has its both sides, every human has his virtues and blemishes. Thus Rebecca will not be a totally villain. This paper focuses on Mrs. De Winter’s narration to analyze Rebecca’s actions and thoughts, in order to dig up a more real characteristic of this woman who is hovering around Manderley like a ghost, and attempts to abandon the stereotype about Rebecca and analyzes her image in a new way.

Keywords:　Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca, character analysis, protrait description, behavior analysis

Contents

摘要 I

Abstract II

1. Introduction 1

1.1. The Author and Her Works 1

1.2 Literature Review 3

2. Rebecca’s Bright Side 5

2.1. Destructive Beauty 5

2.2. Unapproachable Capacity 6

2.3. The Courage of Resisting 7

3. Rebecca’s Dark Side 8

3.1 Unbearable Arrogance 8

3.2 Frivolous Behavior 8

3.3 Calculation at All Times 9

4. Conclusion 10

4.1 Summary 10

4.2 Further Study 10

References 11

Acknowledgements 13

Analysis of Rebecca in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca

1. Introduction

1.1. The Author and Her Works

Daphne du Maurier is one of the greatest female English authors and playwrights. Born on May 13, 1907 in London, Du Maurier lived in a family with a strong atmosphere of art from then on. Her grandfather, George Du Maurier, was a cartoonist and novelist, and her father, Gerard Du Maurier, was a famous British performance artist and theatre manager. Du Maurier was brought up in art.He began writing poetry and literature at the age of 15. She published The Apple Tree, a collection of short stories, in 1925, and the first full-length novel, Endearment, in 1931. At first her works are not taken seriously by critics, but her passion for literature has never waned. In less than a decade, she produced a string of captivating works. later she gets a chance to earn an enduring reputation. In 1936 her novel Jamaica Inn which writes about the adventures of smugglers on the coast first made her and her works famous. Many of her works have been successfully adapted into films and TV series. Here some of her famous works include the novels: Rebecca, My Cousin Rache, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories : The Birds, Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight.

Du Maurier is famous for writing novels, especially love stories. Although she is usually described as a romantic novelist, her stories have been judged as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. Her novels are mostly set in the county of carver where she lives, are so well known as "Cornish novels" for their portrayal of the rugged landscape of this remote and desolate seaside region. The book mentioned above named Jamaica Inn is one of the representative works of this style.