YMMV / Rebecca

• Accidental Aesop: Divorce needs to be completely destigmatized, and no-fault divorce needs to be available everywhere. If Maxim had been able to easily divorce Rebecca without fear of people's judgment or having his family name tarnished, much of the story never would've happened.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Maxim a villain, hero or anti-hero? Is everything Maxim says about Rebecca true? Do Maxim and the Second Mrs de Winter get a happy ending or not? That said, it's not as though anybody else gives a very good impression of Rebecca either, so it's not exactly Maxim's word against a woman who can't defend herself.
  • Given the way that Maxim initially verbally degrades, patronises and bullies his second wife, it's possible that the stronger-willed Rebecca simply refused to accept such treatment, leading to the two falling out of love, affairs and escalating animosity.
  • On the other hand, there's a chilling possibility that that's how Rebecca spoke to him, and like many abuse victims, he's absorbed some of his abuser's bad habits.
  • A minor one regarding Mrs Danvers's trick on the heroine. Was tricking her into dressing up as Rebecca just a Kick the Dog moment as revenge for being stood up to? Was she hoping to remind Maxim of the love she thought he felt for Rebecca, further ruining the new marriage? Or was it some way for her to get to see Rebecca (or someone who resembled her) one last time?
  • Did Rebecca have an affair with Giles and ruin his marriage with Beatrice? Maxim says it, and the narrator notes the tension between the couple. Beatrice also does all she can to make her new sister-in-law welcome and comfortable, comforting her when a surprise costume goes wrong. Favell seems to think, however, that he was Rebecca's only lover. Mrs. Danvers denies that last point, though.
  • The second Mrs de Winter staying with Maxim after finding out he's responsible for Rebecca's death. Does she truly love him in spite of it? Or is she realising her best chance for comfort is staying with him - since she's an orphan and has no other family to speak of?
  • There's the possibility of Rebecca being a lesbian who only married Maxim because it was expected of her - especially given her closeness to Mrs Danvers.
    • For that matter, did Rebecca actually feel any sort of affection for Danny, or did she just need a confidante for practical reasons, including someone to stroke her ego?
  • Did Ben stick to his story of seeing nothing and hearing nothing to protect Mrs. De Winter, who was kind to him? Or was he just scared of the strange men demanding answers?
  • Did Mrs. Danvers burn Manderley down solely to get revenge on Maxim, or was it also revenge on Rebecca for not telling her about her illness?Or did she have the realization that the second Mrs. de Winter had finally found the strength to stand up to her and put her own imprint on the house and on the way things were ran, and therefore her carefully constructed shrine to Rebecca would eventually be destroyed?
  • Favell cornering the narrator in the beginning, visiting her without Maxim's knowing. A means to scope out the new wife, to find a way to cope with his grief, or was he hoping he might seduce her?
• Cry for the Devil: Some adaptations portray Favell as this, rather than a never-to-do-well Jerkass trying to blackmail Maxim. He was quite happy to sleep with his cousin, no matter how it pained Maxim, and confronted the heroine simply for being the new Mrs. De Winter. However, he's gobsmacked when Mrs. Danvers confirms that Rebecca never loved him, because she wasn't in love with anyone, showing he did have feelings for her. The miniseries shows him Drowning My Sorrows after learning Rebecca wasn't carrying his child but instead had ovarian cancer, far too developed to treat. It meant she was dead anyway, and he tried to avenge her for nothing.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: The heroine, particularly in the novel, is the epitome of the Shrinking Violet. While some of this is chalked up to her having a naturally shy disposition and being young and inexperienced, and very out of her depth for 99% of the story, the sheer level of No Social Skills she displays, along with her Imagine Spots that to a modern audience read very much like someone in the throes of a panic attack catastrophizing, and her extremely low self-esteem can make one wonder if she has an actual anxiety disorder.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Plenty of people apply this treatment to Rebecca herself. While we never get confirmation what she was truly like, she was definitely having an affair with Favell. Yet everyone except Maxim paints a glowing picture of her, which would still be the case for a high functioning narcissist who knows how to perform in public, while abusing others in private. Not to mention that her last act after finding out she was dying was to spitefully get someone to kill her, having to get one over on Maxim one last time.
  • Mrs Danvers herself gets this treatment. While there's definitely something sad about her grieving for a mistress she truly loved, she still bullies the heroine, sets her up to be humiliated and tries to get her to kill herself. She also burns the house down. In the book she's much older and is said to have watched over Rebecca since she was a child...which adds some creepier dimensions to her character.
• Ending Fatigue: After The Reveal that Maxim killed Rebecca and that he never loved her, the major source of conflict for the heroine is resolved...but the story keeps on going into a Reverse Whodunnit. In the 1940 film it's a good half hour more of screen time, and has the effect of turning the heroine into a more passive character.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Mrs. Danvers for being very mysterious, charismatic and Creepy Awesome (the Trope Codifier for the Creepy Housekeeper, in fact).
  • Jack Favell, an oily Smug Snake who unwittingly instigates the climactic Plot Twist, is quite memorable for a secondary character, particularly in the 1940 film, where he's played by George Sanders at his most dynamic.
• Fanon:
  • The heroine's real name being Daphne. It was this in early drafts, and the film considered giving it to her. However there's no confirmation, except that her narration says it's uncommon and people often misspell it.
  • The painting in the hall being of Rebecca. It actually is a painting of Maxim's ancestor, Lady Caroline, as Mrs Danvers says. The plot point is that Rebecca dressed up as her once at a costume ball.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: Yes, the costume for the ball ends up horrifying Maxim, and his poor wife is nearly Driven to Suicide over it. But that doesn't stop Joan Fontaine from looking fantastic in the dress.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Despite Mrs. Danvers goes out of her way to torture the Narrator, a lot of fans online ship the two together. It helps that it is hinted that Danvers is a lesbian.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Early on, the heroine speculates that Frank might've secretly been in love with Rebecca. Turns out not only is this not true, it's the furthest thing from; Rebecca repeatedly sexually harassed him and refused to take "no" for an answer, taking advantage of the fact that he'd be too gentlemanly to make a public issue of it, and the fact that he likely wouldn't be believed. Fortunately, the one person he told, Maxim, did believe him, but they never told anyone else, leading the heroine to innocently wonder if Frank loved his abuser.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Favell tried to break up Maxim and Rebecca's marriage. Fast forward to All About Eve where George Sanders (who plays Favell) expresses disgust that Eve plans to break up Karen and Lloyd's marriage. What makes this even funnier is that Anne Baxter (who would play Eve) screen tested for this film.
  • Due to a casting overlap with Elisabeth and being written by the same people, this trope comes up a lot if you cross-reference the shows.
    • Both shows have a Character Title. The logo for Rebecca features her monogram, while Elisabeth's logo is Sisi's signature. The titular characters are in unhappy marriages that looked like a fairytale to outsiders, is revealed to be ill during the course of the show (cancer for Rebecca, syphilis for Elisabeth) and doesn't reciprocate their husbands' love ^note Rebecca never loved Maxim, Sisi grew out of love for Franz Joseph.
    • Mrs. Danvers has been played by at least three former Sisis - Pia Douwes, Maya Hakvoort, and Ock Joo-hyun - an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette dressed all in black, haunted by a specter of death (and is a Death Seeker because of tragedy).
    • During "Mrs. De Winter bin ich!" Danvers comments that the power of Death cannot defeat Rebecca, over the sound of Ich singing that she wants to live for herself - Sisi's character arc revolves around her independence and refusal to bow down to anyone, not even Death.
    • In both shows, Uwe Kröger plays a character that takes the titular character's life: Death, and Maxim de Winter.
    • Although in different productions, Wietske van Tongeren (Ich) and Susan Rigvava-Dumas (Danvers) played Empress Elisabeth and Archduchess Sophie. The latter is contemptuous of the former, thinks of her as a child, and is antagonistic towards her for the entirety of Sophie's stage presence. Sophie and Danvers both attempt to break apart the marriage of Sisi/Franz Joseph and Ich/Maxim.
    • Shadows are associated with the antagonists: Rebecca and Death - one is a ghost, the other a Grim Reaper.
    • Sisi and Ich both wear white nightgowns ("Ich gehör nur mir"/"Hilf mir durch die Nacht") and have reveals involving gorgeous white dresses ("Ich will dir nur sagen"/"Der Ball von Manderley"). In some productions, Sisi also descends a staircase in said dress, like Ich.
• Ho Yay: For the stage musical, it can be interpreted that Frank is onesidedly in love with Maxim, especially with Favell's snarky remark about how devoted he is to Mr. de Winter. James Park in the 2013 Vienna revival plays it as such.
• It Was His Sled: The twist that Maxim actually hated Rebecca is far more well known these days. With the Alpha Bitch trope becoming commonplace, modern viewers can pick up on the way other characters describe her.
• Jerkass Woobie: Whatever her ultimate relationship with Rebecca was, Mrs. Danvers is still clearly heartbroken over the loss of Rebecca, and her callousness seems somewhat understandable in that context. She even attracts some more pity at the end once it becomes obvious that Rebecca ultimately victimized her as much as anyone else.
• Les Yay:
  • Implied (much more heavily in the book) to be a major component of Mrs. Danvers' devotion to Rebecca.
  • Depending on the staging, Mrs. Danvers tends to have a rather sensual manner towards Mrs. de Winter during the song "Rebecca" and its reprise, with far more touching than necessary or appropriate. In the latter's case, it even becomes suggestive of sexual assault in certain versions, as Mrs. de Winter is only half dressed in her nightgown, and certain versions, the Hungarian for example, have Mrs. Danvers back her onto Rebecca's bed.
  • In the film, Mrs. Danvers also encourages the new de Winter to feel the old de Winter's underwear, obviously testing her reaction to see if she, too, is attracted to it.
• Narm: For some, there's the inherent Mood Whiplash in the reveal that Maxim killed Rebecca. The heroine is more delighted to discover that he hated the woman, because it means he loves her. It's a little better in the film, where Rebecca's death was accidental.
• One-Scene Wonder: One guest is kind to the second Mrs. de Winter on learning her Halloween costume wasn't ready so she's wearing a simple blue frock. He says that she looks like a flower, specifically a forget-me-not, and invites her to dance. It's a sweet gesture from a complete stranger.
• Ron the Death Eater: Maxim tends to get a raw deal from a lot of people who imagine him as a maniacal serial killer. He did kill Rebecca, but some people like to ignore the confirmation from other characters that she was by all accounts a rotten human being - and portray her as an innocent victim. In fact, since the situation seems to be that Rebecca wanted him to shoot her and kept goading him to do it, that's recognised as another abuse tactic called 'baiting' - where the abuser tries to get the victim to do something violent so they can villify them. In the film at least, Maxim didn't deliberately kill her and he does love his new wife.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The Reveal, all of it. Maxim tells the narrator that he killed Rebecca in a fit of passionate anger, and explains that she spent her marriage cheating on him and emotionally abusing him. She broke their one established rule, that she was to keep their affairs discreet, and then goaded him about being pregnant with another man's child. After that, Maxim apologizes to the narrator for killing her innocence.
    • For the stage musical, if the actor manages to truly sell that Maxim was a victim of abuse, who would never be believed because he was a man, physically imposing, and Rebecca's public image was just that good, him sobbing helplessly that he swears he doesn't know why he didn't just call the police can wring a few tears.
  • In the miniseries at least, Favell is gobsmacked to learn that no, Rebecca never loved him and she wasn't pregnant with his child. She had terminal ovarian cancer. Favell realizes that he can't avenge Rebecca because she was dying anyway. No wonder he starts Drowning My Sorrows before calling Mrs. Danvers.
• Values Dissonance:
  • There's a bit where Maxim does threaten to divorce Rebecca, and she claimed that no court would grant it. He points out that he has proof that Rebecca broke up Beatrice's marriage, and adultery is grounds for divorce, but Rebecca gave an Evil Laugh and pointed out that Beatrice would come off as a jealous shrew and nobody would believe her. In 2020s England, couples don't need to find grounds to divorce, which means Maxim could have walked out of there without Rebecca goading him to murder her.
  • At the costume party, Beatrice's husband comes as a "sheikh", complete with brown facepaint. Nobody bats an eye at a blatant example of brownface.
• Values Resonance: In an era where sexual harassment of men is still not always taken seriously, and is often still portrayed as a joke in fiction, the fact that Rebecca repeatedly pursuing Frank and refusing to take "no" for an answer is held up as proof of what an awful person she was is downright refreshing.
• The Woobie:
  • Maxim if you think about it. He spent forever trapped in an unhappy marriage to a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who had no problem having open affairs in front of him - all the while the rest of his high society friends thought of her as a perfect angel. Even after her death, his house is a shrine to her, partly thanks to Mrs. Danvers. Of course since he was the one who killed her, it muddies things a little. But he does genuinely love his new wife, and it looks as if Rebecca will continue to hover over them from beyond the grave, especially after his house is burned down by Mrs Danvers, all in the name of Rebecca. At the very least, they are able to live a content, mundane life in Switzerland, with no want for any luxuries.
  • The second Mrs de Winter is looked down on by nearly all of Maxim's high society friends and employees - Beatrice being the lone exception - and she's frequently treated as if she's a street urchin. She spends the whole story feeling that she's a Replacement Goldfish for Rebecca. Not to mention the horrible moment where Mrs Danvers cruelly tricks her into dressing in a costume Rebecca had worn - where she's embarrassed in front of her in-laws and is nearly Driven to Suicide over it all.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: In The Musical, Manderley looks terrifyingly realistic in flames. In close proximity to wood and electrical wires, in a room full of people.

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