Rebecca: Alliteration 1 key example

The countryside is not actually alive and cannot really be watching Maxim and the narrator. By personifying it, the narrator conveys the sense that things are out of sorts: she is having a devastating emotional experience inside, and yet the outside world remains unchanged. It seems to her that the countryside should adapt to her inner world. Instead, it is "callous" and "indifferent." Not only does this indifference feel unfair to her in the moment, but it also sullies her earlier enjoyment of her drive with Maxim. The countryside wasn't beautiful earlier for its own sake. It was beautiful because their new relationship is special.

As an artist, the narrator often projects meaning onto her surroundings. This habit comes into full force at Manderley, where she sees reasons everywhere to feel insecure about her relationship with Maxim. This moment demonstrates that she has always projected meaning onto her surroundings, even before Manderley. In this case, the countryside seems to stand in for Maxim as a target of the narrator's anger and contempt. Her alliteration, "callous countryside," suggests that she is mentally spitting out her harsh words. While Maxim has spoiled the outing by losing his own temper, the narrator has been unable to express this kind of anger back to him. Instead, she draws into herself, asks to go home, and begins looking out the car window. It is Maxim who drives too fast, Maxim who has been callous, and Maxim whom she so desperately wants to look at her without indifference. Because she is already so dependent on him for her self-worth, she struggles to tell him all this. She redirects her anger instead to her inanimate environment, as though it and not Maxim is responsible for nearly making her cry.