Unveiling The Patriarchy Secret

Rebecca(1938) is the masterpiece of Daphne du Maurier's. The novel became an instant bestseller when it was firstly published. Its film version was also a great success. However, compared with its popularity in common readers, Rebecca doesn't receive enough attention among literary critics and is only classified into the catalogue of popular gothic novel. In recent years, with the flourishing of feminism, criticism on this novel from feminists' point of view comes into the fore, while there are few analyses which combine female subjects and gothic elements in this novel.This thesis aims to analyze Rebecca from the perspective of female gothic. According to female gothic theory, there are quite a few differences between female gothic novels and male gothic novels in plot and narrative techniques. Female gothic novels are mainly about the heroines' experience in revealing the secrets which are kept by masculine society represented by her male relatives. They put emphasis on the female characters' attempt to escape from a confining interior, and end with the evils punished and the good rewarded. In terms of narrative techniques, the female gothic novels focus on the creation of terror and explain the supernatural elements. The thesis tries to analyze Rebecca from three aspects: the heroine's undergoing the transition from an innocent girl to a mature one in the process of disclosing the secret, the relationship between the house and the female characters, and female gothic narrative techniques in the novel.