Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca as Gothic
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, rebound first edition 1847
Dr Serena Trowbridge is Reader in Victorian Literature at the School of English, Birmingham City University. She teaches a module on Gothic Literature to her final-year students. In the module, they consider novels spanning several centuries, all in the Gothic genre, including The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764), The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne by Ann Radcliffe (1789), The Monk by Matthew Lewis (1796), Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847), Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938) and The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009).
The Monk by Matthew Lewis 1796
This is the third year that Serena and her students have agreed to share with us some of the excellent essays they have written as a result of this study. We are delighted to bring you the work of three of Serena’s students, each of whom produced an excellent essay, with the writers achieving the highest marks within the study group.
Each of the essays we shared with you in previous years and the three that we are bringing you today look at the Gothic from different viewpoints, providing a wide-ranging and fascinating group of pieces of work.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 1938
This year, each essay takes a Gothic novel and compares aspects of it with Rebecca. Both Abigail Price and Jasmeen Kaur wrote about Jane Eyre and Rebecca, and Nate Gray-Roberts wrote about The Monk and Rebecca. To read these superb essays and to learn more about the Gothic in literature, please click on the following links.
To what extent do Charlotte Bronte and Daphne du Maurier use Gothic mansions as sites in which female gender roles are explored and challenged in their texts Jane Eyre and Rebecca?
By Abigail Price
Download Abigail’s essay here
Untamed Women and Innocent Girls: How Are Issues of Gender Explored in The Monk and Rebecca?
By Nate Gray-Roberts
Download Nate’s essay here
How is the exploration of female sexuality in Jane Eyre and Rebecca shaped by Gothic conventions?
by Jasmeen Kaur
Download Jasmeen’s essay here
To read the essays from 2022 and 2023, please go to - Gothic Literature and the place that Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca takes in the genre https://www.dumaurier.org/menu_page.php?id=195 and - Reading Rebecca as Gothic https://www.dumaurier.org/menu_page.php?id=216
March 2024.