Mrs. Danvers

Oh my dear Rebecca, how I loved her so dearly. Nobody could ever live up to her; I just couldn’t see how anyone could. I still keep up with her room. I go up there and remember our talks about the parties she would go to, and I would brush her beautiful black hair. She would tell me about her hatred of men, and we would laugh together at their foolishness. Nobody could live up to her. When news of Mr. de Winter’s marriage came to me, I was furious. I hadn’t even met the girl and I already despised her. She could never fill Rebecca’s shoes; she could never fill what’s missing at Manderley. When Mr. De Winter arrived back at Manderley and introduced his new bride, I was shocked. She was nothing like Rebecca. She didn’t look like Rebecca, sound like Rebecca, dress like Rebecca. What then could he see in her? Rebecca was perfect, and the new Mrs. De Winters was the opposite of that. Rebecca was assertive, beautiful, popular, and confident. This intruder was none of those traits, and without them, there was no hope of her being the lady of the house. I wanted her gone the second I laid eyes on her. She didn’t belong here! Nobody did, nobody but Rebecca. It would never be the same without her.

I decided the best thing to do was to remove this intruder from Manderley. I had to get inside her head, make her feel even more worthless than she already was. Make her want to leave Manderley, better yet, die. I made sure to bring up Rebecca every moment I had a chance. I showed her Rebecca’s room, explained how beautiful it was, how much more beautiful it was than her room. I showed her Rebecca’s closet and all of her beautiful furs and dresses. I wanted to let her know she was inferior to Rebecca and that Maxim could never love her because she was nothing like Rebecca.

The De Winter’s decided to have a ball; I found this to be the perfect opportunity to ruin her. I found some petty little sketches of costumes for the ball she had drawn. I went to her room and decided to give her some “advise” on what to wear. I suggested this portrait in the gallery, a beautiful one that was Maxim’s favorite in the whole house. Little did she know, Rebecca had worn that same costume. Oh how I remember Rebecca in that costume. I had never seen her look so beautiful in her whole life. Everyone said so too; everyone knew she was the most beautiful woman in the whole room. I knew having the new Mrs. De Winters wearing that same costume would infuriate Maxim and make her want to leave Manderly forever. It worked for the most part; she was humiliated and Maxim was furious and didn’t speak to her the whole evening. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to make her leave. I took action. I saw her by the window up on a high floor; I visualized her jumping off to her death, better yet, my pushing her. I went up to the window, and spoke ever so sweetly to her. “Just jump” I told her, “it won’t hurt, nobody will miss you.” She looked at me with her weak eyes almost begging me to say something to help her. Ha, I just wanted her to jump. Unfortunately rockets shot off when she was about to jump. I was infuriated. We were so close, Rebecca and I, we almost had Manderley back to how it should be.

They found Rebecca’s body in the wrecked ship. Oh, I was hysterical. I was re-living the day I found out that she drowned. After that, the new Mrs. De Winters started acting so different. I came up to her that evening offering leftovers, and she sternly declined and ordered me to fix her something new. Who does she think she is, Rebecca? I hated her even more after that; her attitude was getting to me. She was getting more confident, and I had no idea why. Maxim was seemingly…in love with her. I was furious, he had replaced Rebecca; he was acting as if Rebecca had never been there! If Rebecca couldn’t have Manderley, then nobody could! That’s why I burned the place down, so that Rebecca’s memory would live on there, and nobody else’s, because nobody could live up to Rebecca, nobody ever could.