Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier Essay

Julie Taymor, a director and playwright, was the first women to a Tony Award. Her works in opera, theater, and film has gotten her many awards, including Academy awards, an Oliver award, and much more.

     Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the

I think we ought to rely on the doctor now, and good prayer.” Rebecca’s purpose in the play is to be a voice of reason and show the audience the fallacies and biased nature of the 1692 witch trials.

Hale knows that people will confess to anything to avoid being hanged, and he is deeply troubled when he learns of Abigail’s motifs for revenge. Respected people have told Hale that the trials are non-sense. He has tried to find holes in these people’s reasoning, so he can be reassured he hasn’t made a big mistake in his aiding of the conviction of these people, but their reasoning is completely logical. Hale becomes more aware of the truth near the end of Act II, when Giles Corey and Francis Nurse report that their wives have been taken away. Reverend Hale is surprised, but disturbed by the news because he thought of Rebecca as surely being innocent when he met her. He says that, ‘‘ if Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole greenworld from burning’’ (71). Hale then tries to explain her arrest by saying (in great pain) : ‘‘Man remember, until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven’’ (71).

Rebecca Nurse was one of the most respected people in town and known for being a good person. In the play, Rebecca shows good pride when she was accused of witchcraft. When Rebecca Nurse was accused of killing Putnam’s babies she said, “let us go to God for the cause of it. There is prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it, I fear it. Let us rather blame ourselves and—” (Act I 26). Rebecca prided herself in believing that Goody Putnam’s accusations of her were false. Throughout the play the accusations of witchcraft became more and more serious once they started punishing people. Though if one confessed and turned in other people, they would be safe from hanging. Goody Nurse prided herself into not giving up people’s names and lying just to save herself, “why, it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot, I cannot” (Act IV 129). Even though Rebecca Nurse was put to hang, she kept with her morals and did not give up other people’s names. She stuck with what she truly believed in even when her life was on the line. Miller showed good pride through the acts of Goody Nurse because she held pride in her beliefs and did not give up on them even when her life was at stake.

Rebecca Nurse then proves herself an honest character that is well respected through the plot of the story. She is so well respected that even male figures throughout the play respect her advice. This is shown when Rebecca gives honest advice to John Proctor saying “No, you cannot break charity with your minister. You are another kind, John. Clasp his hand, make your peace” (Miller 181). This is important to Rebecca Nurse as a character because it entails an honest opinion that John should just make peace with Reverend Parris rather than fight fire with fire against him. In addition, when Goody Nurse is convicted of witchcraft, Reverend Hale knows that Rebecca is a very honest and trustworthy person and that in the end she would not be convicted in a trial of witchcraft. This evidence is essential when analyzing Rebecca considering the fact that she was able to Justify in the short time she was with Reverend Hale the honest and trustworthy women she is. All in all, Rebecca Nurse manifests herself as an individual who is can always give her honest opinion and is well respected.

Rebecca knew that the girls were faking. Her reasoning was that she has eleven children and knows when they're faking. This factors in to why she was accused because not believing in witchcraft meant that you're a witch.

Even in the end she dies to keep her faith pure. ¨Let you fear nothing! Another judgement waits us all!¨ (Rebecca

Another example of vengeance dictating a characters' actions would be the dispute between Mrs. Putnam and Rebecca Nurse. In a scene at Parris's house, Mrs. Putnam asks Rebecca to take a look at her daughter, Ruth, who is also ill. Rebecca dismisses her anxiety and explains that she is just going through a silly season and will tire of it and wake up. Rebecca's optimistic interpretation of Ruth's condition is not favorably received by Mrs. Putnam. She comments that, "You think it God's work you should never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I bury all but one" (Miller 1249). Shortly after, one might conclude Mrs. Putnam suspects Rebecca of murder, when she asks Hale, "Is it a natural work to lose seven children before they live a day" (Miller 1256). Since every child Rebecca delivered that belonged to Goody Putnam died, she believes that Rebecca is using her spirit to kill

John Demos’s nine point portrait of a witch is one way to analysis the case of Rebecca Nurse. To do so, one must first evaluate and understand the history of Rebecca Nurse and her role in the Salem in the late 1600’s. Rebecca Nurse was the wife of Francis Nurse, a farmer who became wealthy after buying and tending a large plot of land between Salem Village and Salem Town. Together they had eight children, and as a family they were prosperous. Connecting this information to Demos’s portrait of a witch, Rebecca Nurse falls under the first four points made in his sketch. These first two points are that she was “female” and that she was of “middle age”. However, the latter point is slightly inaccurate because Nurse was older than sixty years. The final two points that Rebecca Nurse falls under in Demos’s portrait of a witch are that she was of “English” and “Puritan” descent and culture, and that she was “married”, with little or no children. Again, the latter point is not fully accurate because Rebecca Nurse, while married, had, in fact, eight children in her lifetime. The significance of these traits of Rebecca Nurse agree, for the most part, with the

p.127 Rebecca is a pillar of the church and if she is given the opportunity to speak then she will show the town what a righteous woman she is by her prayers and then the town will turn on those that have condemned these righteous and respectable people.

The biggest issue that Hollywood currently is facing is its lack of diversity both in front of and behind the camera. Very few opportunities are offered to minorities in the entertainment industry, so it needs to be celebrated when someone who lacks the same chances as a white male is able to make their voice heard. Director Ava DuVernay is one of those artist who refused to be silenced. Ava is a black female director, screenwriter, film marketer, and film distributer. The majority of her narrative films feature black female characters that are navigating their way through life and learn about themselves as they go along. She began her film career with a music documentary and worked

After Rebecca supposedly drowned, Maxim claimed a body that appeared forty miles away from Manderley as Rebecca’s corpse. Later, he admits to Mrs. de Winter that “‘The woman buried in the crypt is not Rebecca… It’s the body of some unknown woman, unclaimed, belonging nowhere’”(270). Now that DNA testing is available, the unknown body would have been identified long before Maxim could say it was Rebecca. Even if he had claimed it, a DNA test would have said otherwise and people would get suspicious. In his confessions to Mrs. de Winter, he tells her, “Rebecca was not drowned at all.

Rebecca represents the non-conformist female character, who acknowledges societies limits on women. Although she cannot be justified having laid with her many lovers, she had made it clear that she did not want a traditional marriage and Maxim was hoping to change, even control her. Along with Rebecca cheating, Maxim was also fearful of her power at Manderley, as she stated “I’ll make it the most famous showplace in England,” which represents the male dominant society of the 1920s; being fearful of gender equality. Rebecca controlled the house, which removed masculinity from Maxim simultaneously threatening him. Sympathy must be shown for Rebecca, otherwise justice is not shown for women in general. She confronted society full on, maybe not in the most practical of ways, displaying rebellion. Daphne Du Maurier’s characterization of Rebecca indicates that 1920s society idealized a stance in which the only thing that can come of a powerful woman is destruction, and that’s not true. “What Rebecca is ultimately condemned for within the text is also what makes her appealing; her transgression of the categories of class, gender, and sexuality” (Harbord, 102). She maneuvers outside of the societal rules of the day. Daphne Du Maurier juxtaposes

The conventions that Rebecca reflects of the romantic genre are those of the characteristics of the hero and heroine (as mentioned above). The heroine is