Sample Response to Viewing Journal 2:  Rebecca

Question

The writer is responding to the following question from the journal assignment: What connections do you see between Rebecca and The Lady Vanishes?  Potential connections could be the issue of appearances, the mystery and romance plots, the heroine’s search for a particular woman, or the presenting of causes before effects.  In your response, you may address one or more of the connections identified in this question or describe other connections. 

Response

The similarities between The Lady Vanishes and Rebecca are primarily demonstrated by the leading ladies, Iris and the 2nd Mrs. De Winter. Superficially, they are both young and beautiful.  Both of their stories take place while they are away from home.  Iris is on her way home to marry when The Lady Vanishes takes place and the 2nd Mrs. De Winter is courted and made a bride during Rebecca.  These surface parallels cover deeper similarities.

Both women are in over their head dealing with the situation of a missing woman. The Lady Vanishes and Rebecca are both titled after absent characters who the story is about.  While Iris searches for the physical Miss Froy, the 2nd Mrs. De Winter seeks information about Rebecca.  The 2nd Mrs. De Winter speaks to Jack and Beatrice trying to glean information.  She even confides to Jack that she feels behind the group, everyone knows the stories of Rebecca but her.  This is  very similar to Iris’s conspiracy situation.  The 2nd Mrs. De Winter enters a household that keeps as many secrets as international spies.

Another similarity between Iris’s and the 2nd Mrs. De Winter is that they both fall in love during the course of their story.  Both are engaged or married to one man in the first act of the films and fall in love during the course of the film with another man.  In Iris’s case, literally with Gilbert, but also in the 2nd Mrs. De Winter’s.  The love between Maxim and his new wife changes and strengthens significantly through the film.  Their relationship is stale in the second act as she focuses on uncovering Rebecca’s story and trying to run a household.  We don’t see Maxim often during this act and when we do he’s very distant.  After the scene at the boathouse where Maxim confesses his secret to the 2nd Mrs. De Winter the screen between them is lifted and a new relationship begins. During the third act they are so in love that they can’t be parted even for Maxim to attend the trial in London.
 

Perhaps the most interesting likeness between Iris and the 2nd Mrs. De Winter is that both are encouraged that they are insane.  The doctor and Mrs.Danvers, the villains, try to convince the heroines that they are unstable.  These wicked characters also attempt to kill the women, the Doctor by inviting Iris off the train at his stop for some “rest” and Mrs. Danvers more obviously by opening a window and giving a very convincing argument why the 2nd Mrs. De Winter should leap out.  Hitchcock also leads the audience into believing the women are mad by letting them see through the women’s eyes and shooting extreme close ups of them while their faces struggle in upset confusion.

 There are other similarities between The Lady Vanishes and Rebecca, the plots opening in foreign countries with British characters on holiday and the importance of lying, but the most significant and important are the parallels between Hitchcock’s two leading ladies, Iris and the 2nd Mrs. De Winter.