Rebecca

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. Why are the nettles no barrier to the narrator in Chapter 1?

2. Who is Maxim de Winter? What does Mrs. Van Hopper say about him?

3. Where do Chapters 3-6 take place?

4. How does Mr. de Winter respond whenever Mrs. Van Hopper brings Manderley into the conversation?

5. What does Maxim ask the narrator on the morning of her departure to New York?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why would Manderley come to the narrator in a dream? How does she describe Manderley, and what does this imply about the narrator’s relationship with the house?

2. Who cleans the table after the narrator spills the vase, and why is this significant regarding customs of class and etiquette?

3. How do the servants at the hotel treat the narrator after her lunch with Mr. de Winter? How does this compare or contrast with her treatment when she dined with Mrs. Van Hopper?

4. What is the significance of Mr. de Winter asking the narrator to call him “Maxim”? Why are the narrator’s feelings on this conflicted?

5. What does the narrator do to the book of poems that Maxim gives her? Why?

6. What does Mrs. Van Hopper say to the narrator when she learns of her engagement to Maxim? How does this affect the narrator?

Paired Resource

“The Sublime”

• This glossary entry from the National Galleries Scotland defines the concept of the sublime in art and provides examples of artwork that invokes “a sense of wonder, awe and astonishment that merged overwhelming beauty with life threatening fear.”
• In this section of Rebecca, Mr. de Winter takes the narrator on a stunning car ride to the top of a very high hill. He parks his car at the edge of the cliff, and although the narrator witnesses the beauty of the landscape and she is intrigued by Mr. de Winter, she is also terrified. How does this scene invoke the concept of the sublime? Given that the sublime is a frequent characteristic of Romanticism, in what way is Mr. de Winter a Romantic hero? How does he invoke feelings of both awe and terror?

Chapters 7-13

Reading Check

1. How does the narrator describe Mrs. Danvers?

2. Where is the narrator’s room in the house?

3. Which flowers adorn the morning room?

4. How does the narrator find the boathouse?

5. Where does Maxim travel in June?

6. Whom does Mrs. Danvers sneak into the house, and what does the visitor ask of the narrator?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does the narrator describe the rhododendrons? What might they foreshadow?

2. How does the narrator feel as she sits at the writing desk, and what does she say when Mrs. Danvers calls her at the desk?

3. Why does Beatrice say that the narrator is not what she expected?

4. What does the narrator learn about the boathouse from Frank Crawley, and what is Frank Cawley’s attitude as they discuss the subject?

5. What does the narrator do with the china cupid she breaks? What does this reveal about her feelings on her position at Manderley?

6. Why does the narrator say she gets along best with Clarice?

Paired Resource

“Symbolism”

• This article from the Metropolitan Museum of Art explains the historical origins of symbolism in art and literature.
• In this section of Rebecca, the narrator spends much time describing her physical environment. While the tall, red, intense rhododendrons that line the property intimidate the narrator, the pink and white rhododendrons of Happy Valley make her feel peaceful and at home. How does the narrator further describe these two natural environments? How might these flowers serve as symbols for the two Mrs. de Winters? What details from the text support your analysis?

Chapters 14-20

Reading Check

1. What does Mrs. Danvers tell the narrator to do at the end of Chapter 18, and how does the narrator respond?

2. What do the sailors discover beneath their ship?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How has Mrs. Danvers taken care of Rebecca’s room, and why is this significant?

2. Why does the narrator agree to host a ball at Manderley? What costume do Frank and Maxim suggest the narrator wear, and why is this significant?

3. What does Mrs. Danvers convince the narrator to wear to the ball, and to what effect?

4. What does Mrs. Danvers tell the narrator about Rebecca’s personality, and why is this significant?

5. Why did Maxim kill Rebecca?

Paired Resource

“How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self Confidence”

• This article discusses how gender stereotypes limit women’s success in the workplace and make them question their own abilities.
• In this section of the novel, we learn that Rebecca broke convention and behaved more like a man than a woman. Recall what you know about aristocratic rules in British society. Why would Rebecca’s behavior be particularly consequential in this aristocratic British family? Why might Mrs. Danvers, a woman whose life strictly adheres to her role as the house servant, admire Rebecca? How do these ideas connect to the theme of The Haunting: Rebecca’s Power?

Chapters 21-27

Reading Check

1. What is the narrator’s reaction when she finds out the truth about Maxim and Rebecca?

2. What does the coroner conclude about Rebecca’s death?

3. Whom did Rebecca visit before her death?

4. What advice does Colonel Julyan give Maxim?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Is Maxim a villain or a victim?

2. What does the narrator imagine as Favell sits in Manderley, reading the newspaper?

3. What does Dr. Baker reveal about Rebecca’s physical health before her death? How might this alter the reader’s interpretation of the altercation between Rebecca and Maxim before her death?

4. What is Maxim’s perspective on Rebecca’s death? Is he justified?

5. At the end of the novel, Manderley is burned down. What is this the significance of this end?

Paired Resource

“Allure of the Antihero”

• This article from Boston University explores research that seeks to explain why we root for characters who behave in immoral ways.
• In this section of Rebecca, the narrator discovers that Maxim is a murderer. However, instead of fearing him, she grows more attached to him. Why? Are her affections for Maxim understandable? Why or why not? Do you root for Maxim and the narrator, or do you hope Maxim is punished for his crimes? How might these ideas connect to the theme of The Narrator’s Journey: Childhood Innocence to the Wisdom of Adulthood?

Recommended Next Reads

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

• Wuthering Heights is a British Romantic novel written in 1847 that explores similar ideas of madness, gender, and social class.
• Connects to the theme of The Haunting: Rebecca’s Power
• Wuthering Heights on SuperSummary

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

• The Bell Jar is a semiautobiographical novel about a woman battling depression and coming of age in 1953.
• Connects to the theme of The Narrator’s Journey: Childhood Innocence to the Wisdom of Adulthood
• The Bell Jar on SuperSummary