the slippers

The slippers are a pair of bedroom slippers that belonged to Rebecca de Winter, preserved by Mrs Danvers in Rebecca's untouched bedroom in the west wing of Manderley. They serve as a tangible relic of Rebecca's physical presence and become a tool of psychological manipulation when Mrs Danvers forces the second Mrs de Winter to touch them, emphasizing the narrator's inadequacy and Rebecca's enduring dominance over the house.

Identity and Preservation

The slippers are kept in Rebecca's bedroom in the west wing, a room that Mrs Danvers maintains as though Rebecca might return at any moment. When the second Mrs de Winter first enters the room, she sees the slippers placed beneath a chair, alongside a satin dressing-gown laid out on the chair itself. Mrs Danvers has preserved the room exactly as it was on the night Rebecca died, with the slippers forming part of this frozen tableau. The slippers are small and narrow, a detail that surprises the narrator given Rebecca's height, and Mrs Danvers forces the narrator to put her hands inside them, saying, "They are quite small and narrow, aren't they?" This act of physical contact with Rebecca's personal belongings is deeply unsettling for the narrator, who feels like an intruder in the dead woman's space.

Symbolic Function

The slippers function as a material symbol of Rebecca's physical perfection and the narrator's perceived inadequacy. Mrs Danvers uses them to demonstrate that Rebecca, despite being tall, had "little feet for her height," a detail that underscores her grace and proportion. The narrator, by contrast, is made to feel clumsy and inferior. The slippers, along with the dressing-gown and nightdress, create a complete image of Rebecca's body and habits, making her absence feel like a presence. Mrs Danvers's insistence that the narrator touch the slippers is a deliberate act of psychological cruelty, designed to reinforce the narrator's sense of being a usurper in Rebecca's home.

Connection to Rebecca's Death

The slippers are part of the ensemble that Mrs Danvers laid out for Rebecca on the night she died. Mrs Danvers tells the narrator, "I put it out like this, and the dressing-gown and slippers, just as I put them out for her the night she never came back, the night she was drowned." This revelation transforms the slippers from mere objects into relics of a death that was not an accident but a murder. The slippers, like the nightdress and dressing-gown, are preserved in a state of readiness, waiting for a woman who will never return. This preservation is a form of denial and mourning on Mrs Danvers's part, but it also serves as a constant, silent accusation against Maxim and the new Mrs de Winter.

Narrative Role and Thematic Significance

The slippers, as part of the preserved west wing, embody the theme of the past's inescapable grip on the present. They are a physical manifestation of Rebecca's lingering influence over Manderley and its inhabitants. For the narrator, the slippers represent the impossible standard she is measured against and the dead woman's continued possession of the house. The act of touching them is a moment of profound humiliation and fear, contributing to the narrator's psychological breakdown. The slippers are not merely objects; they are instruments of Mrs Danvers's campaign to drive the narrator away, and they ultimately contribute to the narrator's desperate desire to escape Manderley's suffocating atmosphere.