14 March 2012
Dark Romance: Rebecca [1940]
“Domestic Space as a Suppression of Female Sexuality in a Patriarchal Culture”
It is obvious that throughout history, Herstory (the necessary and vital experiences for which histories cannot exist without) are typically repressed in relationship to male-dominated narratives. The lives of women, both in and out of the realm of film, tend to be ignored or treated in stereotypical ways. Media frequently reinforces women’s representation as vehicles for both the sexist and racist imaginations. These imaginations contribute to erroneous forms of gender socialization: stereotypical definitions about what it means to be a ‘man’ or a ‘woman.’ Hitchcock’s Gothic Romance Rebecca, (while not necessarily offering solutions to these problems of gender representation) illuminates the dialectic of the domestic space as the suppression of female sexuality within the realm of Patriarchy. Hitchcock himself states “The house was one of the three key characters in the picture” (Truffaut 131). The sequence where the nameless “Second Mrs. De Winter” wanders into the seemingly forbidden room of the First Mrs. De Winter--- embodies the house as a patriarchal space for which women narratives exist and suffer through each other in a space they ultimately have no control over. See, the following sequence:
1. Eerie music ensues: A long shot of Rebecca walking up the large wooden steeple, in the direction of the First Mrs. De Winter’s room.
2. Everything is darkly lit and contrasted against the bright, blinding lights of the large window at the top of the stairs.
3. Second Mrs. De Winter pauses at the stairs for a bit, (long shot) and we see her look in the direction of the room, looks around, biting her fingernails nervously.
4. Cut to the magnificent wooden doors, carved in leaf formations with many elaborate relief square cutouts.
5. Cut back to Second Mrs. De Winter approaching the door anxiously/Cut to a shot of her hand opening the door
6. Enter Room Sequence: We see curtains that reach high vaulted ceilings, open empty spaces filled with domestic items meant for queens or the wealthy.
7. Enter Mrs. Danvers, who appears like a ghostly hawk out of nowhere. Who basically tells the audience and Second Mrs. De Winter that “everything has been kept just as Mrs. De Winter liked it.”
8. We come to learn that Mrs. Danvers is obsessed with Mrs. De Winters.
9. We also come to learn that Second Mrs. De Winter becomes even more neurotic and insecure after coming to understand how much Mrs. De Winters is idealized through Mrs. Danvers interpretation of her.
This entire sequence is disturbing. The black and white tones, chiaroscuro, and shadows express a dark, obscure reality of the situation: everyone is obsessed with the idealization (a false reality) of a woman who does not exist anymore, except in the minds of those who knew her. Everyone in Manderlay is living in the past and cannot move on. This is the twist of dark romance, but also raises the question: what are women’s roles in a male-dominated narrative (a Patriarchal space, a patriarchal society)? From the beginning to the end of the film it appears women are only pitted against one another [through jealousy, contempt, insecurities, and economic dependency on men] ---and seek men’s approval. The women who provide alternative roles are either dead [by the hands of man] or kill themselves! And these alternative roles are not very positive representations either.
Rebecca calls into question what defines a woman? Her clothes? Her beauty? Her sexuality? Her virtues? Her sexual repression? Her monogamy? Her marital devotion? It appears it is her stereotype that defines her. And I wonder if Hitchcock was aware of this reality, for he visually recreates it very well. As a filmic art historian, Hitchcock imagines narrative that indeed concerns the nature of women’s identity in the real world.
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