Rebecca a lesbian?

Mrs was a prefix added to housekeepers. She was most certainly never married. As for being a lesbian?no no no. You've understood nothing at all about it. She was a devoted maternal figure. Rebecca would manipulate anyone who felt in a sexual way for her. Mrs danvers had been with her her whole life! She adored her. But not in a sexual way.

Falls,

Good post, and I agree with your position on the thread's subject. I would like to add a couple of points.

First of all while there is much to confirm your observation that Danvers worshipped Rebecca, there is nothing at all to prove that there was any physical aspect to the relationship between them. i recognize of course this does not mean that there clearly was no such element, but merely that we can't look to evidence of a physical relationship between the two in answering the OP's speculation.

Second, on what might seem a semantic point that would, I of course concede, not rule out a relationship between the two is that Rebecca is implied to have had a voracious appetite for sexual encounters. And that, in a polymorphous sense, could have included along with the implied history of a number of sexual escapades by Rebecca a variety of types of sexual behaviors. There is certainly a flavor of the old notion that Rebecca's sexual appetite raised the specter of possible nymphomania. that in turn was historically seen as connected to, in a usual sense, the accompanying attribute of an inability to achieve orgasm, or frigidity. But we have no reason to think from the way Jack Favell seems to have felt about Rebecca that she was frigid, and found heterosexual activity to be lacking in that regard. in other words perhaps she was only unable to achieve satisfaction in a heterosexual relationship? Again, Favell seems to suggest no such understanding of Rebecca.

Still if one takes out the now well discredited perceived connection between an ambitious sexual appetite in women as connecting nymphomania with lack of sexual satisfaction, there is still the possibility that Rebecca's appetite may have led her to a variety of types of sexual behaviors. But... this would tend at least on the literal level to go against the designation of her as a lesbian. After all in the real world and despite the somewhat idealized view some hold of bisexuality, women who are lesbians in fact have very little in the way of sexual dealings with men. In other words it is quite unlikely Rebecca was voluntarily engaging in sex with, among others, Mr. Falwell merely as some manipulative exercise that she did not enjoy, while (and because?) she was actually a lesbian.

Third, and a much shorter point, Danvers was Mrs. Danvers, and while that certainly would not rule out that she was or had become a lesbian, the fact that there was at some point a Mr. Danvers is problematic, at the least.

I think the issue is something more than a merely prurient sort of superficial question, and worth talking about. It goes to the motivations of Mrs. Danvers, but as you point out ends up being rather inadequate and contradictory in relation to things obviously in film. At the very least you are absolutely correct that some past lesbian relationship between Rebecca and Danvers does not fit with Danvers's apparent alliance with Favell. But if we can conclude there was no actual relationship between Danvers and Rebecca, does that mean that there was no interest by Danvers in Rebecca of a sexual nature?

Of course we cannot rule that out. But on the other hand I am not sure we can say there was, either. The hair brushing, the caressing of negligees, of furs, the references to intimate discussions of Rebecca's doings and conquests, on the surface tend to suggest Danvers had a sexual attraction to Rebecca. But it is far from conclusive, I think, that such was the nature of Danvers's interest in Rebecca.

I think instead that Danvers admired Rebecca greatly, and may even have identified with her, but that does not mean the nature of her interest was sexual. A much better fit for the overall story is that Danvers admired Rebecca for her ability to cynically use other people. Danvers I think should be properly seen as a subtle sociopath whose real function in the story was rather subversive. On the face of it she was the proper head of the servants in the house, enforcing the rules, making it all run and work as it was supposed to. But in fact she was all along assisting Rebecca in making a mockery of the whole situation, and to my mind assisting in the undermining of the whole aristocratic life and ideals that Maxim's family and class represented. In the process in which Rebecca was involved, Danvers saw Rebecca I think as her alter ego, someone she perhaps wished she could be more like, but even putting that aside was someone who Danvers saw herself as helping to achieve her goals. I think Danvers knew what those goals were, and it was not limited to the superficial of Rebecca's object of giving birth to Falwell's child, who would become Maxim's next in line. This is why the logic of her finding out that Maxim and the second Mrs. deWinter had escaped the destruction that would have been visited on them if Maxim had been found guilty of killing Rebecca led Danvers to burn down Manderley.

Of course it is also true it was already clear that Danvers was not going to get her inital wish of Rebecca triumphant when Rebecca died. But it is the somewhat lesser but still satisfactory result of Maxim's destrution that she hoped for (and of course this is why she tried to help Favell).

In the time between Rebecca's death and Maxim's reappearance in Manderley, we have every reason to believe Danvers passed the time to her satisfaction by engaging in a fetishistic immersion in Rebecca's effects and environment, even feeling her spirit around Danvers. It is entirely plausible that Danvers in effect passed this time as one would in a period of mourning, not necessarily addressing the "what do I do next?" question. Her time in answering that question at first is spent attempting to eliminate the threat the second Mrs. deWinter presented to her ongoing interlude with Rebecca's memory, or even spirit. and of course the "strategy" changed when the boat was found, and the second Mrs. deWinter did not jump from the window.

In conclusion, I suppose the takeaway here is that if there was, as is unlikely, a lesbian relationship between Danvers and Rebecca, it would be best understood as an aspect of a voracious and polymorphous sexual appetite on Rebecca's part rather than a result or attribute of an underlying basis of her lesbian nature. In fact such a perceived nature would too easily in the minds of some become the basis for her sociopathic agenda and behavior, and even in 1940 I don't see Hitchcock and de Maurier (or one or the other) going there. But on balance it is unlikely there was such a relationship. As for whether Danvers had a sexual interest in Rebecca even if unconsummated, I think it more useful to see them as more partners in undermining the deWinter social order and lifestyle.

Now (and finally) that is arguably a conservative, in the social and political sense, way to view the story, but I would argue not necessarily so. After all the film hardly stands as a rousing approval of Britain's aristocracy and its social role, or benefit. Very briefly on that point, just look to the awful and destructive ends Maxim's desire to keep up appearances led him. Instead on this political aspect, perhaps it is enough to say about attacks on the deWinters as a standin for undermining the social order they represent, that there is a right way and a wrong way to go about that. Where Rebecca lost any moral claim she may have had was in lying to Maxim in order to get him to kill her, and that loss was one that also undermined both Favell and Danvers. But despite their overall failure, the physical manifestation of the power and wealth of the deWinter family, Manderley itself, lay in ruins, and quite obviously was not to be rebuilt. Even if there is a happy ending for the second marriage of the scion of the family, as I think there is, the social order of his family has taken a big hit. Interesting, I think it is, that the "happy ending" did not rule out Manderley's destruction.

(To be clear I hardly am suggesting that Danvers had some conscious political point of view. Instead it is more plausible that her motivation against Maxim and his family was visceral, which would have been more than enough given Danvers's obvious sociopathology.)

Perhaps it should not be surprising if i end this post with a digression, that being about Judith Anderson. I coincidentally recently say Laura, which of course is Gene Tierney's star turn in the title role (and an interesting comparison Tierney makes to Joan Fontaine in the beautiful Golden Age movie stars department, btw). Judith Anderson has an excellent performance in Laura in a supporting role, and it makes for a worthwhile comparison to Rebecca. See it if you have not already.

fallsguy77, I love this movie too, and your post made me smile...needed it today. Anyway I agree about the remark Rebecca made about "fooling them all" not referring to a sexual relationship with Danny but not about Mrs. Danvers having a sexual feelings for her. Her obsession with Rebecca had nothing to do with sex, in fact, she would not have considered herself worthy of such a relationship with the object of her idolatry, would have considered it blasphemous. Although we are not told exactly what Rebecca disclosed to Maxim shortly after their marriage that so shocked and disgusted him, it seems likely it included various sexual escapades with males, females and possibly some monkeys (LOL)...she was a narcissistic sociopath and fed on the shock value her behavior instilled in others. Mrs. Danvers justified her behavior by choosing to believe Rebecca was above any rules of decent behavior, she was "above all that"...Anyway, just my opinion as another one who loves the book and the movie.