[Abstract] Suspense is an important element of writing. Its (3)
2013-06-12 01:03
导读：2.3.3 Rebeccas handwriting Rebeccas handwriting has given us a lot of implications. It gives us an inkling that what a person Rebecca is. She is strong, proud, independent, debauched, like a demon. Ma
2.3.3 Rebecca’s handwriting
Rebecca’s handwriting has given us a lot of implications. It gives us an inkling that what a person Rebecca is. She is strong, proud, independent, debauched, like a demon.
“‘Maxim from Rebecca 17may,’ written in a curious slanting hand. A little blob of ink marred the white page opposite, as though the writer, in impatience, had shaken her pen to make the ink flow freely. And then as it bubbled through the nib, it came a little thick, so that the name Rebecca stood out black and strong, the tall and sloping R dwarfing the other letters.”[4](P37)
“They slept in peace, the grass blew over their graves. How alive was her writing though, how full of force. Those curious, sloping letters. The blob of ink.”[4](P62.)
2.3.4The unusual rhododendron
The rhododendron, which Daphne describes in this novel, is not just a kind of flower. In some sense, it is the character of Rebecca, bloody, cruel. It has created an atmosphere of constrained and terror that shades Maxim’s second marriage.
“The nameless shrubs had disappeared, and neither side of us was a wall of color, blood-red, reaching far above our heads. We were amongst the rhododendrons. There was something bewildering, even shocking, about the suddenness of their discovery. The words had not prepared me for them. They startled me with their crimson faces, massed one upon the other in incredible profusion, showing no leaf, no turning, nothing but the slaughterhouse red, luscious and fantastic, unlike any rhododendron plant I had seen before. [4](P70)
Rebecca considers rhododendron as her favor. Bloody-red flowers are like something flowing in Rebecca’s bone. She is dying for wiping out something, especially man. She wants to conquer everything. It seems that she gets a lot of pleasure from dallying with all kinds of man; no matter he is in the upper class or a gardener! She tries all her best to satisfy her lust for sexual. But she laughs at everybody and fears nothing.
“…For to me, a rhododendron was a homely, domestic thing, strictly conventional, mauve or pink in color, standing one beside the other in a neat round bed. And these were monsters, rearing to the sky massed like a battalion, too beautiful I thought, too powerful; they were not plants at all.” [4](P70)
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Yes, those rhododendrons in Manderley are not plants at all, as Rebecca seems to be no human at all. Just as Maxim describes, she is not even normal. And Mrs. Danvers said, “she were born into the world to take what she could out of it. Rebecca had all the courage and spirit of a boy. She ought to have been a boy instead of a girl. She did what she liked; she lived as she liked. She had the strength of a little lion too. I remember her at sixteen getting up on one of her father’s horses, a big brute of an animal too, that the groom said it was too hot for her to ride. She stuck to him, all right. I can see her now, with her hair flying out behind her, slashing at him, drawing blood, digging the spurs into his side, and when she got off his back, he was trembling all over, full of froth and blood.” [4](P254)
This description suggests Rebecca well: wanton; cruel and sly.
2.3.5 Ben’s words
Besides, the idiot Ben’s action also shows Rebecca’s hoof. Ben has been frightened badly by Rebecca just because he sees her wanton in the cottage.
“(Ben) He held the fishing cline clutched to his heart like a treasure. ‘You (“I”) won’t put me to the asylum, will you?’ he said.
‘You are not like the other one,’ he said.
‘What do you mean? ’I said,‘what other one? ’
He shook his head. His eyes were sly again. He laid his finger against his nose. ‘Tall and dark she was,’ he said, ‘she gave you the feeling of a snake. I had seen her here with my own eyes. Be night she’d come. I seen her.’ He paused, watching me intently. I didn’t say anything.’ I looked in on her once.’ He said, ‘and she turn on me, she did. ‘You don’t know me, do you?’ she said. ‘You have never seen me here, and you won’t again. If I catch you looking at me through the windows here, I’ll have you put to the asylum.’ She said. ‘You wouldn’t like that, would you? They are cruel to people in the asylum.’ She said….” [4](P263)
（转载自http://zw.NSEAC.com科教作文网） 3.The second level of suspense: Rebecca’s death-- accident? Suicide? Or murder?
In the front of the novel, we get message from Mrs. Van Hopper’s mouth that Rebecca is drowned nearby the bay of Manderley. So, it is an accident? Maybe not. If only she and Maxim were an affectionate couple. And as we have analyzed the first level of suspense, the truth of Rebecca’s death is the second level. According to the position of the suspense in the whole writing, suspense can be classified to partial suspense and full-text suspense.
