Rebecca: Similes 5 key examples

The narrator earlier expressed the wish that she could bottle up a pleasant memory to uncork and experience again whenever she wished. Maxim describes his memories as something he has shoved inside bottles so that he doesn't have to re-experience them. Trying to keep corks in these bottles, so that the memories don't spill out, is a maddening process. Being at Monte Carlo instead of Manderley has allowed him to keep the bottles closed, for the most part. Maxim likes spending time with the narrator not in spite of, but because of her youth and naïvety. She is so unlike Rebecca. She helps him to keep his memories bottled up by distracting him from the past.

The simile Maxim introduces next is a bit complicated, but it is important to understanding the way he thinks about the narrator. He says that sometimes "the devil" in a bottle tries to take the cork out "like a furtive Peeping Tom." The phrase "Peeping Tom" originally comes from the legend of Lady Godiva, a woman who rode naked through town so that her husband would lower the taxes; "Peeping Tom" watched. Here, Maxim uses the allusion in a more general sense to describe voyeurism. It is clear that Maxim is upset with the narrator because in asking about his past, she has acted like a "Peeping Tom" trying to get a look at something that is not meant for her to see. But it is not the narrator, but rather "the devil in one" that Maxim compares to a Peeping Tom. This is an ambiguous phrase. Does he mean the devil in a memory? In a bottle? In a person?

The simile makes sense if we interpret Max to mean that the narrator herself is a bottle for his memories. Her very existence makes space for him to bottle everything up. As long as she remains naïve, the cork stays in the bottle. But the narrator is a more complex person than Maxim accounts for. Her voyeurism is "the devil in one [of these bottles]," trying to take the cork out to understand the trauma Maxim has poured into her. He is angry because she is less placidly naïve than he thought, and his own strategy of forgetting is working against him.

The narrator has been feeling self-conscious for Beatrice's whole visit. She did not have time to prepare to receive visitors, only just having arrived at Manderley herself. Beatrice has been nice enough but has already commented that the narrator is nothing like Rebecca. This comment sticks with the narrator and makes her feel as though she may not be good enough for Maxim. Sitting with both Beatrice and Maxim, she does not have much to add to the conversation about the grandmother she has never met. She touches Maxim affectionately, hoping to convey to him, Beatrice, and herself that she is his wife even if she is quiet. It seems that she is both trying to give him attention and asking for attention in return to affirm that he is including her in the social interaction with his sister. He complies, but the way he touches her is not what she expects. Instead of caressing her like she imagines he would a wife he considers his equal partner, he instead pats her "like Jasper," the dog. Her attempt to get affirmation completely backfires, making her feel like a dog desperate for love.

For the narrator, who has been desperately trying to become both more adult and more sophisticated as she enters Maxim's middle-aged, aristocratic world, this is a devastating blow. She can never hope to fill Rebecca's shoes if she is on the same level to Maxim as Rebecca's dog. The narrator spends the next 10 chapters flailing to prove that there is more to her than this.

The narrator has felt insecure about her marriage to Maxim since the first morning she woke up at Manderley. She has been going through the motions of making social calls, entertaining visitors, and trying to run the household. She still does not feel like Maxim really loves her or appreciates her. They have not communicated very directly with one another, which has exacerbated her insecurity. In this scene, her insecurity has redoubled because she has learned that the little statue she broke in the morning room was valuable. Her attempt to conceal it made her look like a fool who doesn't know the first thing about running an aristocratic household. She finally gets to a breaking point and asks Maxim to tell her that they are happy together. The resultant suspense when he doesn't respond really does seem like it could be a cliffhanger at the end of a play about a couple realizing that they don't know why they are married.

The simile also suggests that the narrator feels like she is playing pretend. Maxim has chosen her to play the role of his wife, but in reality they are not the characters they play on the social stage. In reality, they are actors who barely know each other. The separate dressing rooms the narrator mentions gesture at the separate beds she and Maxim sleep in. In private, she isn't sure they are really a couple after all. The way they must keep performing their married roles every day for a new audience is even more painful than it would be to give it all up. This way, the narrator must keep falling in love with Maxim all over again before the curtain falls and she remembers who she really is.

The narrator compares herself and Maxim to "guilty lovers" who are eager to finally kiss each other for the first time. Their "feverish" desperation seems connected to the fact that they are complicit in covering up Rebecca's murder together. It also seems connected to the fact that they are the only two people who are part of this conspiracy. They have been dealing all day with the inquest and with Favell's accusations after the fact. Favell, Frank, and Colonel Julyan have finally left, and the narrator has just gotten Beatrice off the phone. In the morning they will have to go see Dr. Baker, who may reveal Maxim's motive for murder. For now, though, the "guilty lovers" can take pleasure in ignoring the phone. They can enjoy being together against the outside world. This is especially exciting for the narrator, who usually feels like the odd one out when she is in a room with Maxim and others.

Even though the two of them are glad to be alone together, it is ironic that this is the moment when they finally feel like lovers. It has been a draining day, during which the narrator has watched Maxim be grilled by the coroner about Rebecca's death. Beatrice and the rest of the world are shocked to hear the death ruled a suicide. Meanwhile, it seems oh-so-likely that Maxim will be arrested tomorrow, after the visit to Dr. Baker. On top of all of these reasons to feel overwhelmed, the narrator is alone with a man who murdered his last wife. She ought to be terrified of him, and yet she finds him more attractive than ever. This irony demonstrates that the narrator has grown from a seemingly innocent young woman into a woman who relishes being a "guilty lover."

Maxim and the narrator have been under pressure ever since Rebecca's body was found. The narrator was on edge long before that as well, constantly worried that she was not measuring up to Maxim's first wife. The initial verdict of the inquest brought short-lived relief, as Rebecca's death was ruled a suicide. Almost immediately, though, the pressure redoubled as Jack Favell accused Maxim of murder and insisted that they all go with Colonel Julyan to meet the doctor Rebecca saw on her last day alive. Maxim and the narrator have been practically sick with dread, believing that the doctor will confirm that Rebecca was pregnant. This, combined with Favell's admission that he was having an affair with Rebecca, would give Maxim obvious motive to have killed her.

Instead, the doctor has told them that Rebecca found out that day that she was terminally ill with cancer. This diagnosis gives her motive for suicide more than it gives Maxim motive for murder. No matter what Colonel Julyan believes, he has indicated that Maxim and the narrator no longer have anything to worry about: the case is closed. The narrator compares the sensation of relief to the feeling of an abscess bursting. Suddenly all the infected pus is released, and there is no longer a throbbing growth drawing constant attention to itself.

This simile is also a vivid and repellent image. Not only is an abscess uncomfortable, but most people consider it unsightly. It likely smells very bad when it bursts as well, because of the pus inside. By using this image, the narrator captures a mixed sense of relief, satisfaction, and disgust over the whole matter. The cancer, the murder, and the abuse in Rebecca and Maxim's relationship built up over time until it became necessary to prod them. The process of busting the abscess involved a slough of unpleasant sensations, but now the narrator feels nearly euphoric that it is done.