How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"I nearly killed her then […] It would have been so easy. One false step, one slip. You remember the precipice." (20.38)
This line suggests that Maxim actually wanted to kill Rebecca for the majority of their marriage, however long that was. We find it extra-creepy than Maxim also took the soon to be Mrs. de Winter to the same precipice during their courtship. Did he consider killing her, too?
Quote #11
I too had killed Rebecca, I too had sunk the boat there in the bay. I had listened beside him to the wind and water. I had waited for Mrs. Danvers' knocking on the door. All this I had suffered with him, all this and more beside. (21.2)
Mrs. de Winter so identifies with Maxim that she not only imagines herself as an accomplice, but sees the murderer (Maxim) as the suffering or victimized party. Could this be because of her own desperate need for Rebecca to have been despised in life?
Quote #12
And the ordinary people […] said, why should the fellow get off, he murdered his wife, didn't he? […] This sentimental business about abolishing the death penalty simply encourages crime. […] He will have to hang for it, like any other murderer. […] Let it be a warning to others. (23.44)
Mrs. de Winter is imagining what the "ordinary people" would say if they read in the papers of Maxim murdering his wife. The passage presents an opportunity for us to talk about the death penalty. Does Maxim deserve it? What do you think? Why?