Name: Byron Morales

Id: 00125730
The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
Date: October 24, 2017
Movie: Rebecca
Reaction Paper No.5

1) A synthesis of the overall narrative of the film, including all its plot elements

Rebecca starts with a young beautiful woman that we do not know her name. This lady

is in Monte Carlo working as a paid companion, when she meets Maximilian Winter, an

aristocratic widower. They talk and after a while they fall in love and after two weeks they

are married. In this part of the history, the public know her like the second Mrs. Winter.

The second Mrs. Winter call Maxim to Maximillian, her husband. Maxim takes his new

bride back to Manderley, his Mansion in on the outskirts of London. In this mansion lives

the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. She is very cold, dominant, crazy and is obsessed with the

beauty, intelligence and attitude of Rebeca, the first wife of Maximillian. This strange lady

preserving the bedroom and all the things of Rebecca in perfect condition. The second Mrs.

Winter feel the presence very strong of Rebecca in all the rooms that she stayed. Maxim’s

best friend talk her that Rebecca was an exceptional beauty.

The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by the presence of Rebecca. She thinks that

Rebecca was a perfect woman that everyone loves her. After a while, she begins to doubt her

relationship with her husband and the idea that Maxim cannot forget Rebecca and also, she

believes that Maxim is still deeply in love with his first wife. She also discovers that her

husband sometimes becomes very angry at her for apparently insignificant actions. She also

meets Rebecca's favorite cousin, Jack Favell who visits the house while Maxim is away.
 Our protagonist trying to be the perfect wife, convinces Maxim to organize a costume

party. She wants to make her own costume, but Mrs. Danvers suggests she copy the dress of

a painting of Lady Caroline Winter, an ancestor of Maxim, our protagonist thinks it is a clever

idea and for sure Maxim will love her costume. At the party, when the costume is revealed,

Maxim is appalled and after he is very angry because Rebecca wore the same costume the

last year before her death.

The second Mrs. Winter confronts Danvers, who tells her she can never be Rebecca and

she never take her place, and Mrs. Danvers almost manages to convince her to jump to her

death. A boat flare reveals that a ship has hit the rocks. The second Mrs. Winter rushes

outside, where she hears that, during the rescue, a sunken boat has been found with Rebecca’s

body in it.

Our protagonist tries to search Maxim and she finds in a house very away from the

mansion. Maxim admits to his new wife that he had earlier misidentified another body as

Rebecca to conceal the truth. His first marriage, until now everyone viewed them as the ideal

couple, was in fact a sham. At very beginning of their marriage, Rebecca had told Maxim

she will be the perfect wife, but she will continue her life with a lots parties and mans. Maxim

hated her for this because his marriage was a lie, a fraud and Rebecca only uses him for the

money and power. One night in the same house very away from the mansion, Rebecca told

Maxim she was pregnant with a child that was not his. Laughing at Maxim dismay, Rebecca

proclaimed that the child, presumed to be a boy and legally Maxim’s son. The son of Rebecca

would thus inherit his beloved estate Manderley. After this confession Maxim start to fight

and argument with Rebecca, but she fell very bad and she hit her head and died. Maxim took

the death body out in him boat and he sunk the boat with Rebecca inside.
 With the true in the air, the second Mrs. Winter realizes that Maxim loves her, and she

loves him. Also, she believes the innocence of her husband. She starts to coach her husband

how to deal the testimony of Rebecca's death from the authorities. The conclusion of the

police investigation, deliberate that damage to the boat points to suicide. However, Jack

shows Maxim a note from Rebecca, which appears to prove that she was not suicidal. Jack

thinks that Rebecca was pregnant and tries to blackmail Maxim. Maxim tells the police, and

then he falls under suspicion of murder. Mrs. Danvers told the police that Rebecca used to

visit a doctor. The police, Maxim and Jack go to the Doctor, and he told them that Rebecca

was not pregnant, she was suffering because she had cancer

Maxim is going to the mansion, but he has a bad feeling and he was right. Manderley is

on fire. Maxim is very worry about him wife. Fortunately, the second Mrs. Winter is fine and

all the workers less Mrs. Danvers. She told her husband that Mrs. Danvers start the fire

because she does not want to see the new happy couple in the mansion.

2) A character maps

The second Mrs. Winter: She is a normal girl from London whose life changes when she

meets Maxim.

Maximilian Winter: He is aristocratic widower. He was married with Rebecca. He was

very unhappy with his first wife. He met the second Mrs. Winter in Monte Carlo and the

married. He has a strange behavior because he kills by accident Rebecca.

Rebecca: she is the most important character in the movie, but we cannot see her. She is

very beautiful, and everyone thinks that is the perfect wife. She married with Maxim for the

power and money. She makes a perfect plan to her suicide.

Mrs. Danver: She is the housekeeper of the mansion. She is very obsessed of Rebecca. She

hates the second Mrs. Winter and in the end of the movie she starts the fire in Madeley.

3) Quotes

Rebeca is a character that although we never get to see it on screen is present. It is the

center of this story that develops with a rhythm and plot twists unexpectedly that allow us to

witness the great capacity that had this genius of the cinema to create suspense and keep the

viewer attentive to every detail. Hitchcock was a master of intrigue and suspense, and today,

when watching his works, he continues to give us great cinema lessons: he knew how to

narrate stories in the least predictable way and, above all, he knew how to shape incredible

characters, more complex than it may seem at first glance. All this happens in Rebecca, a

film structured in an effective way. A film that traps, with a great development, great

soundtrack and outstanding performances, mainly by actors, very indispensable.

4) A discussion of the film

This was the first Alfred Hitchcock movie in Hollywood. The film was a incredible

success worldwide and in the prizes of the academy. Rebecca is a Gothic film that forms part

of its value as an artistic work in its slightly surreal atmosphere. Mystery and terror are pure

emotions that 'Rebecca' shakes with perverse elegance. In short, it is an almost perfect film,

an extraordinary spiritual itinerary that observes the world from the very edge of the abyss.

This is a strange history because its similar a fairytale, we have a normal girl from London

that falls in love of the prince. They married and if the movie would be normal history, we

will have a happy ending (a romantic film), but no Alfred Hitchcock shows us the after of

the history.
 The frame is majestic, superb character development, camera movements that pay

subtle attention to small details or that explore the emotions of a character who just spoke

while another out of plane gives the replica are small works of art themselves. But what is

truly subjugating is Hitchcock's ability to play the leading role in a character that does not

appear on the screen for a second, and whose knowledge by the public takes place through

the perceptions and parliaments of other characters, ranging from absolute worship, to the

greater contempt through the feelings of the other characters.