Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is an HKCEE text
Introduction
The narrator of this novel is the second wife of Max de Winter. He married her following the death of his first wife, Rebecca. Everyone thought that Rebecca was wonderful. He knew differently, and looked for someone completely different - like his second wife. That woman is known only as Mrs de Winter. What do we know about her?
She is servile. When we first meet Mrs de Winter, she is employed as a lady's companion to the awful Mrs Van Hopper. This means that she has to be around the rich lady, keep her company and do any little jobs and errands for her. She is servile, meaning that she acts like a servant even though that is not her actual job title. When she marries Max, she still behaves in a servile way. She does not behave as his equal, and neither does he treat her as an equal.
She is conventional. She is incapable of doing anything out of the ordinary. She is incapable of
having any kind of original thought, or of doing anything different from what people expect of her. She is happiest, as in the passage above, when she is following a routine and doing what has become a habit.
She has no name. Much of the story is told by her: she is the narrator of the book. We call this 'first-person narrative'. That is partly how Du Maurier can write the novel without ever having to reveal her first name. We only know her as 'Mrs de Winter'.