Some Free Writing Based On My Coursework

To what extent do previous wives effect male protagonists?  Jane Eyre and Rebecca.

Whilst Mr Rochester appears to be completely over his first wife and unaffected by her entirely, the effects of her madness are shown through his attitude to other women. When Jane discovers him whilst walking to (that place where he lives.  I'll remember to bring books to the library next time), and he falls off his horse.  Her kindness towards him is not particularly welcomed, potentially because Mr Rochester has been hurt so many times by other women such as Adele's mother and Brenda.  Brenda's madness has left her volatile and prone to hitting out at people she finds distasteful, and Adele's mother cheated on Mr Rochester, despite all the lovely clothes.  Jane's kindness is then alien to him and so he doesn't know how to react. Whilst he knows how to love still, it has perhaps become a foreign concept because he has not experienced it in so long.

Within Rebecca, Maxim de Winter has retreated into his shell from the effects of Rebecca, avoiding his family home because of the memories of her and instead taking it upon himself to travel around Europe.  Whilst those around him think his grief is based on his wife's untimely death, it would seem more likely that his actions are due to mourning the woman he though Rebecca was, rather than the woman she revealed to him after their marriage.  The intensity of this love then results in total heartbreak as he tells her the dreadful things she does, so dreadful he never repeats them to anyone.  He sees her more as a demon to be forced to live with rather than a wife.  This perhaps then is the reason he finds it so easy to kill her in the end; instead of seeing her as a woman he sees her as a demon in a woman's body.  Even in her final moments she is vindictive and horrible, and so his retraction into his shell may be a result of the shell-shock of finally being rid of her, but still having to clean up the mess she has left.  Rebecca's effect is also reflected throughout the house, as Mrs Danvers loses her head several times and an entire wing is shut off by Mr de Winter in an attempt to block her out finally.  Despite his closing off the wing, he doesn't do at all well at blocking her out, as her belongings are still scattered about the house, like an old macintosh and her dogs.  Her menus remain and there are still lipstick marks on handkerchiefs.  For the majority of the novel, the effects of Rebecca on Maxim remain self-contained, with one of the few large outward bursts being at the ball when Mrs de Winter inadvertently dresses in an outfit identical to one Rebecca once wore, and Maxim is confronted with the nightmare that Rebecca has returned and is going to continue to make his life hell.  He demands that Mrs de Winter returns to her room to change, and she only discovers her folly once Maxim's sister comes up the stairs to try and remedy the situation.  This reveals that even in his outbursts, Maxim has been vacuum-packed into a repressive shell by Rebecca, leaving him miserable.