Why Manderley had to burn

A theological interpretation of Daphne du Maurier’s gothic thriller Rebecca (contains spoilers).

This article is me doing what I love most. Reading and interpreting what I have read. Last night I finished Daphne du Maurier’s most famous novel, Rebecca (1938), and its open, not-so-open ending left me quite speechless. The story begins in medias res with the protagonist relating her flashbacks and memories of a not-so-distant past when she was still living in the coastal mansion Manderley with her husband, Maxim de Winter. From the very beginning, the reader learns that Manderley is no more, but still, the ending of the book, the burning of their home, Manderley, is shocking. At the same time, the fiery destruction of the house is the only possible way for the couple to start anew. Let me elaborate.

Let’s give a summary of the novel, shall we? The protagonist of the novel is a young, innocent, sweet and naive girl. Throughout the entire book, we never learn her first name, nor her maiden name. The girl works as a sort of escort for a rich, insufferable lady who takes her to Monte Carlo, where her life takes a sharp turn. In the fancy hotel, the young girl encounters Maxim de Winter, a rich Englishman, who is much older than she is and has recently lost his wife. It is the beginning of a wonderful love story, except for the fact that Maxim de Winter appears very secretive, very distant at times and very hasty to make this young girl, whom he has only just met, his new Mrs de Winter. The young girl is swept away by the handsome gentleman and soon finds herself in a strange old mansion with creepy house staff, closed off rooms, dark wooden paths and the ever looming presence of the first Mrs de Winter, who died only a year earlier.

In the course of the novel, we follow the new Mrs de Winter on her quest to find out what truly happened to her predecessor and why the housekeeper Mrs Danvers seems to hate her so much. As a reader, your imagination runs wild, which makes reading this book such a great experience. Du Maurier hints at many different possibilities throughout the novel and leaves it to her readers to guess what secrets Manderley carries in its old stony walls. Is Rebecca still alive? Is her ghost haunting the grounds of the mansion? Was she killed by her husband? By her jealous lover, Jack Favell? By Maxim’s closest companion, Frank Crawley? By the odd, deranged guy walking up and down the beach? Does Mrs Danvers have something to do with Rebecca’s disappearance? Everything and nothing is possible.

Just as the new Mrs de Winter is slowly losing her mind, tortured by the presence of Rebecca, who is still everywhere to be found in Manderley, and scared not to be able to compete with her beauty and ferocity, the shipwreck of the old Mrs de Winter reviens and is discovered in the bay of Manderley. After her disappearance, people thought her to be dead because her ship was gone, and her husband identified her body months later, found many miles away, washed ashore in another coastal town. In the cabin of the shipwreck, however, the actual body of the old Mrs de Winter is found, and our dear gentleman Maxim is in trouble. After all, he identified the wrong body months prior.

The new Mrs de Winter finally confronts her husband about what happened last year, and he breaks down and confesses his deeds, showering her with kisses in the process. Their first kiss happens right after he tells her that he murdered Rebecca last year on a stormy night. Turns out Rebecca was indeed beautiful and ferocious, but just as cruel and evil. She tortured Maxim year after year, took as many lovers as she liked and provoked her dear husband until he lost his head. In front of others, she acted the graceful, lovely lady, in front of him, she became the devil and seduced him to his biggest sin: killing her with the gun, hiding her body in her ship and putting it out to sea after having tampered with it, making it look like she had an accident.

The last third of the novel reads like a 10/10 detective story, with multiple plot twists, new revelations, phone calls and investigations turning Maxim and his new sweet wife into an English gentleman and lady version of Bonnie and Clyde. As soon as the new Mrs de Winter learns that Maxim never loved Rebecca but hated her, she is free from all the tormenting thoughts of comparing herself to a woman who still seems to control the narrative. The new Mrs de Winter sheds her innocent and naive self to become a strong-willed wife who fights for her criminal husband in the hopes of starting anew.

By taking the side of her husband, the new Mrs de Winter kills Rebecca as well. She becomes a sinner as she helps to cover up what he did. By doing so, she is claiming her power over Mrs Danvers and the house. She helps Maxim through the investigative process that follows. In the end, it is a gynaecologist in London who can help clear Maxim’s name. He confirms that Rebecca saw him on the day she died. He told her that she had a late stage of uterine cancer, which was killing her rather sooner than later and might explain why Rebecca provoked Maxim that evening so much that he would lose his temper and pull the trigger. The detective decides that Rebecca must have killed herself once she returned to Manderley because of the diagnosis.

It is not true, and besides Maxim and his new wife, only two more people know that. Mrs Danvers and Rebecca’s lover, Jack Favell. They are convinced, rightly so, that Maxim killed Rebecca. As Maxim and his new wife leave London to return to Manderley, it seems as if they have won. Their new life awaits them, without the ghost and memory of Rebecca haunting their marriage at Manderley. Nearing Manderley, they watch their former home engulfed by the flames, slowly burn to the ground. Due to suspicious behaviour by Mrs Danvers, it is believed that she started the fire and, by doing so, showed that when Manderley does not belong to her beloved Rebecca, it shouldn’t belong to anyone. On their way back to Manderley, Maxim and his new wife stop at a small inn to refresh. The owner of the place already foreshadows what is about to happen: “It’s the last of the heat waves for this summer. We shall be thinking of fires soon” (425). And he shall be right. Because after a few more miles of driving, the following events unfold:

He did not answer and I went on watching the sky. It seemed to get lighter even as I stared. Like the first red streak of sunrise. Little by little it spread across the sky.

‘It’s in winter you see the northern lights, isn’t it?’ I said. ‘Not in summer?’

‘That’s not the northern lights,’ he said. ‘That’s Manderley.’

I glanced at him and saw his face. I saw his eyes.

‘Maxim,’ I said. ‘Maxim, what is it?’

He drove faster, much faster. We topped the hill before us and saw Lanyon lying in a hollow at our feet. There to the left of us was the silver streak of the river. widening to the estuary at Kerrith six miles away. The road to Manderley lay ahead. There was no moon. The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashed blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.

page 427-428

Why did the novel end with the burning of Manderley? Why did Maxim get away with murder, but Manderley had to burn? I have a theological explanation for why Manderley had to burn for Maxim and his new wife to start a new life as they so desperately wish for.

In Christian theology and doctrine, a repenting sinner has to face the challenge of purgatory in the afterlife. In the purgatorial fire, he or she is cleansed of the sins they committed, and once purged, there is still hope for admission to heaven. The souls must undergo a finite purification process through fire to make up for those sins that were not fully atoned for during their lifetime. Only through this purification are the souls of those who still need cleansing prepared for future glory. This purification process, in ecclesiastical texts often described as molestia, i.e. a burden or hardship that the soul must endure, is, however, temporalis et transitoria, depending on the severity of the sins.2 The fire will not burn forever, but it is necessary. The punishments in the purifying fire are not to be equated with the eternal punishments in hell, which the souls of sinners must suffer if repentance is lacking before death. Even Augustine, the church father, had chosen the allegory of Paul the apostle to describe the fiery trial in the afterlife: Ipse autem salvus erit, sic tamen quasi per ignem.3

The burning of Manderley is hinted at and foreshadowed from the beginning of the novel as the story is told in retrospect, and even the young Mrs de Winter knows that the fire was unavoidable:

The imagery couldn’t be clearer in my opinion. As the young Mrs de Winter begins her retelling of the events at Manderley, she talks of an ordeal by fire which must be endured in order to emerge stronger after suffering. The burning of Manderley acts as a trial. In ecclesiastical writings, purgatory is often described as a trial or examination to discern the severity of the sins. The new Mrs de Winter talks of the devil who has been tormenting the couple, referring to Rebecca.

I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering, and that to advance in this or any world we must endure ordeal by fire. This we have done in full measure, ironic as it seems. We have both known fear, and loneliness, and very great distress. I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end. We have conquered ours, or so we believe.

page 5

Having overcome these trials, Maxim and his new wife “ride no more tormented” and “both of [them] are free” (9). For the couple to start anew and truly leave the past behind, they had to undergo purification through the fire. Even though Maxim was spared imprisonment and a possible death sentence, he had to undergo trial and endure the purgatorial fire to cleanse himself of his sins. His new wife, the accomplice, had the same faith. Her greatest wish was to live peacefully in Manderley without the shadow of Rebecca walking these halls. Peace was not attainable without having to pay for her sins, and in the end, there was no Manderley without Rebecca.

The couple ends up living a new life without a permanent home, without the luxury of Manderley surrounding them. Maxim and his new wife travel around Europe, living from the suitcase, sleeping in hotel beds forever. When the couple still lived at Manderley, they lived in a mansion with countless bedrooms, wasting food like angel cakes and cucumber sandwiches day by day: “There was enough food there to keep a starving family for a week. I never knew what happened to it all, and the waste used to worry me sometimes” (8). Not very Christian of them to be so wasteful about their food and luxuries, never opening their gates for the town except for their last masquerade ball right before Rebecca’s ship was found. Thankfully, the fire also purged them of their pride and gluttony, of Maxim’s wrath, and the new Mrs de Winter of her envy of Rebecca. A happy ending that came with a price? A happy ending that was only attainable after the flames had washed away the evil they had done.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and read this fabulous book, please 🙂

Literatur:

Aurelius Augustinus, Enchiridion/ Handbüchlein. De Fide Spe et Caritate/ Über Glaube Hoffnung und Liebe, hg. Joseph Barbel, Darmstadt 1960, p. 124.

Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca, A Virago Modern Classic, 2025.

Eckbert von Schönau, Sermones adversus pestiferos foedissimosque Catharorum, qui Manichaeorum haeresim innovarunt, damnatos errores ac haereses, in: Patrologia Latina 195, Paris 1855, Sp. 59D–60A.