Ezra Nugiel
Ms. Rocchino
English 2H, Period C
Rebecca Study Guide: Chapters 1-3
Chapter 1
1. Describe the setting of the narrator’s dream: the house, the drive, the plant life, the general atmosphere. The narrator opens the novel with the line “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” At Manderley, there is an “iron gate leading to the drive”. Upon this gate there is a “padlock and chain”. The gate’s spokes are “rusted” and the lodge further down the drive is “uninhabited”. There is “no smoke” coming from the chimney of the lodge and the “little lattice” windows are open and abandoned. The drive winds, twists, and turns, however it is different than the narrator remembers. It is now “narrow and unkempt”. The drive’s “gravel
He talked “quickly and eagerly about nothing at all”. He believes that “men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering”. Maxim is clearly a troubled man. He has a dark past that he tries to conceal. He is a very mysterious and intriguing man.
3. What is your impression of the narrator as she reveals herself in these lines: “We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end. We have conquered ours, or so we believe.” What questions about her as a credible narrator do these lines create for you?
The impression that is formed after the narrator reveals herself is one of a strong person who has gone through hardships in her life. I think she is alluding to the fact that although she has faced this great hardship, the pain still lingers within her, haunting her every day. Questions such as: What was this battle that she went through? Who is ‘we’? Why is that the narrator unsure as to whether or not she had conquered this ‘devil’?
4. Compare these lines: “We have no secrets now from one another,” and “In the future [I’ll] keep the things that hurt to myself alone.” What questions about her as a credible narrator do these lines create for you?
These statements contradict one another. How can she have no secrets, yet keep things to herself? Maybe she feels as though that the things she keeps to herself are no secret and that they are her personal feelings. Perhaps she also feels as though some things are