摘 要

达芙妮•杜•穆里埃是英国皇家文学会会员，其代表作《蝴蝶梦》于1938年问世，且于当年进入“畅销书排行榜”之列。小说的主线是叙述者的个人经历，同时伴有悬疑的气氛。因此，《蝴蝶梦》不仅是一本哥特式悬疑小说，还是叙述者的成长故事。本文将运用创伤理论从职业生涯,上流社会生活以及爱情经历三个方面，分别诠释叙述者成长过程中与生活阴影的抗争。作为女仆，叙述者摆脱了职业阴影，压抑得以抒解；作为贵妇，她在压力下成长为庄园女主人；作为爱人，她从软弱的妻子转变为强大的后盾。最后，她在与阴影的抗争中成为了独立的新女性。综上所述，叙述者的人生中存在阴影，而阴影又促使她积极抗争并最终得以成长。

关键词：《蝴蝶梦》；阴影；抗争；成长；创伤理论

Abstract  

Daphne Du Maurier is a member of Royal Society of Literature in England. Released in 1938, Rebecca as her masterpiece was among the bestseller lists in the year. The main thread of Rebecca is the narrator’s personal experiences, simultaneously accompanied with a mysterious air. Hence, it is not only a gothic suspense novel but also the narrator’s story of growth. The paper will utilize trauma theory to respectively elucidate the narrator’s rebellion against the shadow in life of growth from：the working career, the upper-class life and the love experiences. As a maid, the narrator gets rid of the working shadow; she gets her depress relieved. As a lady, she becomes the hostess of the manor under pressure. As a lover, she transfers her role as a vulnerable wife to a strong backing. At last, she grows up as an independent new female during the rebellion against the shadow in life. All in all, the shadow exists in the narrator’s life; it impels her to positively rebel as well as to grow up.

Key Words: Rebecca; shadow; rebellion; growth; trauma theory

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Daphne Du Maurier and Rebecca 1

1.2 Trauma theory and literature review 2

1.3 Framework of the paper 3

2 Elaborations of Traumatic Shadow in Growth 4

2.1 Role as a maid: disdain and censure 4

2.2 Role as a lady: uneasy experiences 5

2.3 Role as a lover: love and hurt 6

3 Reasons for Traumatic Shadow in Growth 8

3.1 Recklessness and inferiority: traumatic shadow from working career 8

3.2 Pressure and scare: traumatic shadow from upper-class life 9

3.3 Vulnerability and dependence: traumatic shadow from love 10

4 Rebellion against Traumatic Shadow in Growth 12

4.1Farewell to maid: rebellion in working career 12

4.2 Road to power : rebellion in upper-class life 13

4.3 Pursuit of equality: rebellion in love 14

5 Conclusion 16

References 17

Acknowledgements 18

Rebellion against the Shadow in Life: Interpretation of the Narrator’s Growth in Rebecca from Trauma Theory

1 Introduction

The first chapter focuses on the background information about the author Daphne Du Maurier and briefly introduces Rebecca. Additionally, the development of the studies on trauma theory and Rebecca will be presented as well. Lastly, the paper’s framework will be provided in order.

1.1 Daphne Du Maurier and Rebecca

Born into an illustrious family in which her grandfather a celebrated artist and novelist and her father was a famous actor-manager, Daphne Du Maurier lived in a lively London household where friends like Edgar Wallace and J.M. Barrie visited frequently. Inspired to be a talented girl, she began to be engaged in writing at the age of fifteen. The Bronte Sisters’ works were her favorite so that Du Maurier devoted herself to investigating and imitating their literary style. Her first collected stories published in 1925. After that, she continually explored the world of literature. Additionally, her dramatized works including Jamaica Inn and Rebecca were highly favored by film and TV industry. She was entitled as a Dame of the British Empire in 1969 for her devotion to the mainstream literary creation. In her novels, the visible features are as follows: the charming plot twists, the vivid description of the characters especially of the heroine and an air of mystery set in Cornwall. Unlike the exciting content of her novels, Du Maurier led a blithe life without tumult in Cornwell with her families. In addition, there were three significant factors that mainly influenced her life: her relations with her three children; her great love for Gertrude Lawrence; and her writing, particularly Rebecca. Writing not only allowed Du Maurier to be the family bread-winner, but more importantly, also gave her release from her great fear of reality. She lived to write, for the biography of the most exemplary kind, and, in her own way to haunt an evocation of a troubled woman as Rebecca itself.

Her novels are characterized by gothic suspense happening in the coastal area, so is Rebecca. As the best-selling work published in 1938, it established Daphne Du Maurier’s fame as a writer. In 1930s, the time when women’s social status came to a dilemma, it wisely roused the self-consciousness of those lost females. Though it has been around for eighty years, its cultural value and practical significance constantly maintain vitality. In the plots, the narrator shifts her role in different stages. At the beginning, she serves as a maid accompanying an old lady. During the trip in Monte Carlo, she falls in love with Maxim, and then she becomes a married woman and a lady of the upper class. After rebelling against the shadow in life, she successfully helps her husband solve troubling issues and grows up as an independent female in the end.