August

August is the month in which the long, stifling summer at Manderley finally breaks, and with it the fragile peace of the second Mrs de Winter's new life. The oppressive heat and the sense of waiting that have marked the weeks since the fancy dress ball give way to a series of events that shatter the household's equilibrium. The month begins with the aftermath of the ball, where the narrator's innocent imitation of Caroline de Winter's portrait—identical to the costume Rebecca wore at the last Manderley ball—has provoked Maxim's fury and deepened the gulf between them. The weather remains heavy and airless, a physical manifestation of the tension that grips the house.

The Stranded Ship and the Discovery

The turning point comes when a steamer, mistaking the bay for Kerrith harbour in a thick fog, runs aground on the reef. The fog that blankets the coast on the morning after the ball is so dense that the narrator, standing at the edge of the woods, cannot see the chimneys of Manderley. The distress rockets that shatter the silence save her from Mrs Danvers' malevolent urging to jump from the west wing window. Maxim, who has been on the headland, takes charge of the rescue, and the stranded ship draws a crowd of holiday-makers and locals to the cliffs. It is the diver sent to inspect the steamer's hull who makes the discovery that changes everything: he finds the wreck of Rebecca's sailing boat, Je Reviens, lying on its side on the sea bed, and inside the cabin, a body.

The Inquest and the Unraveling

The inquest, held in Lanyon, becomes the stage for the public revelation of the truth. The boat-builder James Tabb testifies that the boat had not capsized but had been deliberately scuttled: three holes had been driven through her planking with a spike, and the seacocks were turned full on. The coroner, Mr Horridge, presses Maxim on the state of his marriage to Rebecca, and the narrator faints in the stifling courtroom. The jury returns a verdict of suicide, but Jack Favell, Rebecca's cousin and lover, arrives at Manderley that evening to accuse Maxim of murder. He produces a note from Rebecca, written on the day she died, asking him to meet her at the cottage. The confrontation that follows draws in Colonel Julyan, the local magistrate, who insists on verifying the note's implications.

The Journey to Doctor Baker

The next morning, Maxim, the narrator, Colonel Julyan, and Favell drive to Barnet to find Doctor Baker, the specialist whose name and telephone number are written in Rebecca's engagement diary. The journey is long and exhausting, the heat of London a stark contrast to the cool of the coast. At the house called Roselands, Doctor Baker reveals that the woman who called herself Mrs Danvers—Rebecca in disguise—had consulted him about a deep-rooted growth. He tells them that she was terminally ill, that an operation would have been useless, and that in a few months she would have been under morphia. The news shatters Favell's blackmail attempt and provides the motive for suicide that the inquest had lacked.

The Return and the Fire

Relieved but exhausted, Maxim and the narrator begin the drive back to Manderley. The narrator sleeps fitfully in the back of the car, dreaming of Rebecca and of the west wing. They stop for tea at a garage, where the attendant remarks that the weather has broken and that it will blow hard on the coast before morning. As they approach Manderley in the early hours, the narrator sees a strange red glow on the horizon, like the first streak of sunrise. Maxim recognizes it at once: "That's Manderley." The sky is shot with crimson, and the ashes blow towards them with the salt wind from the sea. The house is burning. The month that began with the oppressive stillness of summer ends with the destruction of the great house, the final, irrevocable break with the past.

Thematic Significance

August in Rebecca is the month of revelation and ruin. It is the time when the secrets that have been buried for over a year—Rebecca's true nature, the manner of her death, the reason for her despair—are forced to the surface. The heat and the fog that characterize the early part of the month create an atmosphere of suffocating suspense, while the storms and the fire that mark its end provide a violent, cleansing release. The month's events strip away the last illusions of the narrator's marriage and force her to confront the reality of Maxim's past, but they also free her from the shadow of Rebecca. The fire that consumes Manderley is both a tragedy and a liberation, a fitting end to a summer that has been haunted by the dead.