Happy Valley
The Happy Valley is a secluded, enchanted valley within the Manderley estate, celebrated for its profusion of azaleas and rhododendrons, its running stream, and its sudden, dramatic opening onto a white-shingled cove. It serves as the novel's most potent symbol of natural beauty and romantic promise, yet its very perfection becomes a site of painful contrast, first when Maxim de Winter describes it to the narrator during their courtship in Monte Carlo, and later when the narrator discovers that the valley's intoxicating scent is identical to the perfume that lingers on a handkerchief left behind by Rebecca.
Description and Location
The Happy Valley lies within the deep woods of Manderley, approached by a winding path that descends a wooded slope alongside a running stream. Unlike the dark, encroaching woods of the drive or the monstrous, blood-red rhododendrons that flank the approach to the house, the valley is a place of grace and delicacy. On either side of the narrow path grow azaleas and rhododendrons, not the aggressive crimson giants of the drive, but in shades of salmon, white, and gold. The air is filled with their sweet, heady scent, which seems to mingle with the running waters of the stream, the falling rain, and the dank, rich moss underfoot. The valley is so quiet that when Maxim speaks, his voice is hushed, as if unwilling to break the spell. The birds begin to sing, first a blackbird, then another, making the still air turbulent with song. The path ends in an archway of flowers, and beyond it lies a narrow cove of hard, white shingle, with the sea breaking on the shore. The contrast is so sudden that it almost hurts.
Narrative Significance: The Promise of Manderley
The Happy Valley first appears not as a place the narrator visits, but as a vision Maxim conjures for her during their drive in the hills above Monte Carlo, before she has ever seen Manderley. He describes the daffodils massed like an army, the crocuses, the primroses, and the bluebells that choke the bracken. He speaks of the azaleas and rhododendrons planted along the path to the bay, whose scent on a May evening is so intense that the shrubs seem to have sweated in the air. He tells her how one can stoop, pick a fallen petal, crush it between one's fingers, and hold in the hollow of one's hand the essence of a thousand scents. This description, delivered with a passion and intimacy he has not shown before, becomes the core of the narrator's romantic fantasy of Manderley. It is the Manderley she dreams of, the place where she imagines she and Maxim will walk together, hand in hand, in perfect happiness. The valley represents the promise of a shared, idyllic life.
The Shattered Illusion: The Scent of Rebecca
When the narrator finally walks through the Happy Valley with Maxim on their first afternoon at Manderley, the experience is initially everything she had hoped. The spell of the valley is upon her; she feels it is the core of Manderley she will learn to love, in contrast to the vast house and the uneasy stillness of the west wing. However, the idyll is shattered later that same day. After a quarrel, the narrator finds a handkerchief in the pocket of a mackintosh she had worn. It is grubby, with a monogram of a tall, sloping "R" and the letters "de W" interlaced. There is a pink mark of lipstick on it, and a dull scent clings to it still. She recognizes the scent: it is the same as the crushed white petals of the azaleas in the Happy Valley. The valley, which had been the symbol of her own hope and Maxim's love, is thus revealed to have been Rebecca's place first. The very scent that had seemed to promise a new beginning is the scent of the dead woman, a ghostly presence that permeates the most beautiful and seemingly untouched corner of Manderley. The Happy Valley becomes not a sanctuary from Rebecca's memory, but its most potent and painful embodiment.
