Patriarchal hauntings : re-reading villainy and gender in Daphne du Maurier’s 'Rebecca'

Daphne du Maurier’s popular classic Rebecca (1938) was traditionally marketed as a Gothic romance in which two lovers conquered the evil women that separated them. In more recent years, some feminist critics have provided a very different view of the story as a Gothic narrative about the dangers women suffer under patriarchal control. In this thesis, I propose, through a Gothic Studies and a Gender Studies reading, that the victim/abuser statuses in du Maurier’s novel cannot be equated to femininity and masculinity, respectively. Instead, I argue that villainy in Rebecca comes from being in a powerful position within patriarchy—a position that is occupied by both male and female characters