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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Spoilers for the 1940 film. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, the unnamed second Mrs de Winter arrives at Manderley feeling overshadowed by Maxim’s first wife, whose memory Mrs Danvers keeps alive throughout the house. Maxim eventually tells his new wife that Rebecca’s death followed a confrontation in which he struck her; the film presents the death as accidental. Mrs Danvers’ fixation ends with Manderley engulfed in fire.
How the new Mrs de Winter comes to Manderley
“Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” That opening line frames the story as a return to a place bound up with memory and loss. The film then follows a shy young woman swept into a whirlwind courtship with widower Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo. After their marriage, she moves with him to his Cornish estate, Manderley.
The new Mrs de Winter is never given a first name. At Manderley, she struggles to find her place in Maxim’s life and household. Rebecca, his dead first wife, remains a powerful presence, especially through Mrs Danvers, the housekeeper’s fierce devotion to her memory. Mrs Danvers’ treatment of the new wife deepens her insecurity and makes the house feel as if it still belongs to Rebecca.
Did Maxim kill Rebecca?
Maxim eventually tells his wife that Rebecca died after a confrontation between them. He says he struck her and that her death was accidental. He concealed her body, leaving him exposed to suspicion and investigation.
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This is a major change from Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel: in the book, Maxim admits that he intentionally killed Rebecca. The American Film Institute connects the film’s altered account to Production Code constraints. AFI Catalog: Rebecca (1940); BFI Sight and Sound: “Love to death: Hitchcock, Du Maurier and Rebecca”.
What changes after Maxim’s confession?
Once she knows what happened, the new Mrs de Winter stops imagining Rebecca as an ideal she must measure up to and sides with Maxim. Their attempt to move forward is disrupted when Rebecca’s boat is discovered and her death is investigated. The inquiry keeps the couple’s secret at risk even as their relationship changes.
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What happens to Manderley at the end?
Mrs Danvers’ devotion to Rebecca culminates in Manderley’s destruction by fire. The film ends with the estate consumed in a conflagration, bringing the house that has sustained Rebecca’s influence to ruin. This ending is distinct from du Maurier’s novel, whose conclusion takes a different, more circular and unresolved direction, as Alison Light discusses in BFI Sight and Sound.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the film differs from the novel
| Story element | 1940 film | 1938 novel |
|---|---|---|
| Rebecca’s death | Maxim says he struck Rebecca during a confrontation and that her death was accidental. | Maxim says he intentionally killed Rebecca. |
| The second Mrs de Winter after the disclosure | She supports Maxim and stops treating Rebecca as an ideal rival. | The cited sources establish a different account of the death and ending; they do not establish a directly comparable change in her response. |
| Ending | Manderley is destroyed by fire. | The conclusion differs from the film’s and has a more circular, unresolved aftermath. |
The film is Hitchcock’s adaptation of du Maurier’s novel, starring Joan Fontaine as the unnamed second Mrs de Winter and Laurence Olivier as Maxim. David O. Selznick produced it; Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison are credited as writers by the BFI. BFI: Rebecca (1940); BFI film catalog: Rebecca (1940).
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