How the Novel Rebecca Reflects and Subverts the Conventions of the Romance Genre

The Romance Narrative is rife with traditional literary tropes. If you’ve read such tales as swashbuckling wandering knights facing magic dragons and other such impossible odds, then you have an idea of what this genre is about. The tradition dates back to the epic, and can be seen in early mythological tales such as the Illiad, or the Odyssey, and early English stories like Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or the Arthurian tales. They include adventure and fantastical elements; heroes battle villains to determine if good can triumph over evil.

James' manipulation of appearances in Daisy Miller as well as other character's notions of these appearances provides us with a novella of enigmatic and fascinating characters. Daisy, the most complicated of these ambiguities, is as mysterious as she is flirtatious. James gives her a carefully constructed enigmatic quality that leaves the reader wondering what her motivations were and who she truly was. He structures the novella in such a way as to stress the insights that the supporting characters provide into Daisy's character, weather accurate or erroneous. Despite their questionable reliability, they allow James to make commentary on both European and American cultures and social class.

In contrast, by appearance of a horny sexual character, Joyce, viewers are positioned to see the danger of a woman as she rallies support which turns into a mob after she fails to proceed what she wants – sexual intercourse. However, the actions of main character, Edward, and the clothes worn him and more importantly, an awkward looks of him with scissors for hands positions the viewers to see him as a person who can't and never will fit in ordinary suburbia. Burton’s use of these characters is to convince viewer that whether conformity is good or bad, distinct individual is always to be left behind.

As a result of the narrator not possessing any desirable traits found in an ideal woman, she doubts that she would ever marry. She is shy, insecure, and she is not the most beautiful of women. As a result, she willingly became

In Henry James's “Daisy Miller,” the main character Frederick Winterbourne masks Daisy Miller’s personality with his own imagination. Told from a limited narration point of view, this novel solely emphasizes Mr. Winterbourne’s perception of the world around him, focusing most on Ms. Daisy’s character. Mr. Winterbourne aims to unravel Ms. Miller’s character make-up throughout chapter one, using only his and his aunt’s preconceived notions of women in American society. By being too introspective and imaginative, Mr. Winterbourne is unable to see Ms. Miller as anything more but a conquest, and therefore he is unable to empathize with her as another human being.

An Ivy League girl who has no daddy issues and a rich family is no better than any other woman because she has never taken her clothes off for money. A girl is no better than a woman who allows people to caress her, or escorts on the side based on her boundaries. Different things work for different people. Free a woman to live the life in which she is more than the way she looks, what she buys or what she has to sell, and she will amount beyond what society could have even imagined for her. Compromise for the sake of being accepted is insolent. Once the boundaries set by society are broken, society does everything within its power to contain the beasts again. Daphne Du Maurier felt the restraints 1920s

The way an individual is seen and the impression that person makes upon others determines the way that person is treated. If one has charisma and self confidence in one's own abilities, those around unconsciously recognise this trait and are inclined to respond with respect. In Daphne du Maurier's novel "Rebecca", the narrator Mrs de Winter's lack of self confidence and assertion are responsible for the lack of respect she receives from others. In comparison, when a character, such as Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre has self confidence, she earns the respect of both other characters and herself.

On the surface Rebecca appears to demonstrate the conventions of the romantic genre. The storyline includes a heroine, who is thinks herself to be very plain “with straight, bobbed hair and youthful, unpowdered face, dressed in an ill-fitting coat and skirt…”, as well as a hero, who the heroine believes is

Taking Daisy with appreciation and without alarm, we also re-read her character and re-evaluate her moral status. We (the readers) seem to meet James’ sophistication with out own, by agreeing on a mixed interpretation of Daisy: she is literally innocent, but she is also ignorant and incautious. (1)

When you look at an example like this one, you start to think whether or not these upper class people believed in their own morals and if they even had any. But one thing is for sure, such arrogant actions only go a short way until they come back to haunt you. Because Mrs. Van Hopper was so blinded by her own self and worried so much about what was going on in other people's lives, she had lost her attention from her companion friend, which let to a love affair between the narrator and Mr. Maxim de Winter.

Romanticism is the involvement of emotion, fantasy, and intuition in a story. It happens to be the opposite of rationalism which involves logic, reason, and rationality in a story. There happens to be five romantic elements to choose from. They include: dissatisfaction with city life, desire to connect with nature, concern of individualism, nostalgia for the past, and supernatural interest. Of the six stories we could choose from all of them have some part of romanticism in them in one way or another. I chose to express a desire to connect with nature in “Rip Van Winkle”, “Thanatopsis”, and Walden.

Manderly is a site of mystery, charm, and uncertainty for the narrator. It hold a similar feeling for the reader who experience Rebecca, a novel by Daphne du Maurier, through her. Furthermore, it gives readers a sense of just how important setting is for plot. If it were to be smaller living space, like a cottage, Manderly’s significance would lessen, depriving Rebecca of it’s plot. As the novel proceeds, the house flourishes, no longer illustrating a house, but a character that affects the actions and events going on behind the magnificent doors. Although throughout England Manderly is adored, and its annual festivities are praised upon by the whole town, its mountainous size and elegant appearance causes the narrator to act beside herself.

This body of work has been written subsequent to viewing both Rebecca and Far From Heaven. My aim is to analyze the films while using them as representatives for both gothic and melodrama genres. To the uncritical eye, the primary distinctions between the two films are established in the noticeable stylistic differences. I am of course, referring to the visual characteristics first for the reason that it is what is most noticeable when analyzing the genres. Far From Heaven is shot in colour and Rebecca, made in the nineteen forties does not, but opts for the creative use of negative space and sharp shadows that are common in gothic and film noir. Aside from the aesthetic features and the obvious fact that both films were made generations apart,

~ Maxim, a very rich man, meets the future Mrs. de Winter in a hotel in

While Mrs. Mallard remembers Mr. Mallard as a kind and tender man who loved her, she also viewed him as the oppression that marriage put upon women and men. While Mr. Mallard was kind and loving to his wife, he was also controlling and overbearing. Josephine, Mrs. Mallard’s sister and Richards, Mr. Mallard’s friend is there to break the news of Mr. Mallard’s death. Richards has learned of Mr. Mallard’s death at the newspaper office, not wanting to believe the information that was received, Richards waited for the new to be delivered for a second time before enlisting the help of Josephine. They are both there to support Mrs. Mallard and their support shows that they care for Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.