summer

Summer is the season of the second Mrs de Winter's arrival at Manderley, a time of deceptive beauty and mounting dread. The novel's central action unfolds within this single, fateful summer, from the first drive through the encroaching woods in early May to the final, catastrophic fancy dress ball and the discovery of Rebecca's boat. The season's characteristic warmth and light are consistently undercut by a sense of oppression, secrecy, and the relentless pressure of the past.

Arrival and First Impressions

The second Mrs de Winter arrives at Manderley in early May, a time Maxim describes as coming "with the first swallows and the bluebells." The journey from London is marked by a superstitious fear of rain as an omen, but the clouds clear at Exeter, and they arrive under a brilliant sun. This initial brightness, however, is immediately contradicted by the landscape. The drive is a dark, serpentine tunnel through a colonnade of trees, and the first sight of the garden is dominated by "blood-red" rhododendrons, described as "monsters, rearing to the sky, massed like a battalion." This powerful, almost violent imagery establishes summer at Manderley not as a gentle season but as a time of overwhelming, almost predatory natural force. The house itself, though beautiful, is presented as a formal, intimidating stage, and the second Mrs de Winter's first experience of it is one of being scrutinized and judged, a feeling that will define her summer.

The Season of the Fancy Dress Ball

The summer's central social event, the Manderley fancy dress ball, is a microcosm of the season's deceptive nature. The day itself dawns "misty and overcast" but clears to a "glorious still summer's day without a cloud in the blue sky." The preparations fill the house with flowers and activity, creating an atmosphere of excited anticipation. The second Mrs de Winter, in a rare moment of confidence, feels that "Manderley had come alive in a fashion I would not have believed possible." This peak of summer festivity, however, is the setting for the novel's most devastating public humiliation. The ball is not a celebration of the new bride but a trap, sprung by Mrs Danvers, that forces her to unwittingly impersonate the dead Rebecca. The summer's warmth and light become the backdrop for a cruel, calculated act of psychological warfare, shattering the second Mrs de Winter's fragile confidence and exposing the fault lines in her marriage.

Oppression and the Return of the Past

As the summer progresses, the weather becomes increasingly oppressive, mirroring the second Mrs de Winter's internal state. The days are described as "hot and airless," with a "thunder in the air" that never breaks. This stifling, waiting quality defines the period after the ball and before the inquest. The sea, a constant presence, is not a source of refreshment but a "sullen, slow" sound, and the fog that rolls in from it is "damp and clammy," smelling of "seaweed dank and chill." This oppressive atmosphere is the physical manifestation of the secret that lies beneath the surface: Rebecca's boat, with her body inside, has been discovered. The summer heat and stillness become a pressure cooker, forcing the truth to the surface. The season that began with the promise of a new life ends with the revelation of a murder, the collapse of the second Mrs de Winter's world, and the final, fiery destruction of Manderley itself, a cataclysm that occurs as the summer night gives way to a dawn "shot with crimson, like a splash of blood."