the nightdress

The nightdress is the apricot-colored silk garment Rebecca de Winter wore on the last night of her life, preserved by Mrs Danvers in the west wing bedroom as a fetish object that embodies the narrator's haunting sense of inadequacy and Rebecca's lingering presence at Manderley. More than a piece of clothing, it becomes a charged relic through which Mrs Danvers exerts psychological power over the second Mrs de Winter, forcing her to confront the physical reality of the dead woman she can never replace.

Appearance and Preservation

The nightdress is described as "thin as gossamer, apricot in colour," kept inside a monogrammed case bearing the initials "R de W" in corded letters against golden satin. Mrs Danvers has preserved it exactly as it was left, unwashed and untouched since Rebecca last wore it. When the narrator touches it, she finds it "cold, quite cold," but still carrying a "dim mustiness" where the scent of white azaleas once clung. The fabric shows creases and a ruffled texture, evidence that it has never been laundered or even smoothed since it was worn. Mrs Danvers keeps it laid out on the bed alongside the dressing-gown and slippers, maintaining the room as a shrine where Rebecca might return at any moment.

Mrs Danvers' Ritual Display

Mrs Danvers uses the nightdress as a tool of psychological intimidation during the narrator's first visit to the west wing. She takes the garment from its case and holds it before the narrator, saying, "This was the nightdress she was wearing for the last time, before she died. Would you like to touch it again?" She forces the narrator to feel its softness and lightness, then explains her ritual: "I haven't washed it since she wore it for the last time. 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." The act transforms the nightdress from a mere object into a relic of death, deliberately designed to make the narrator feel like an intruder in a room that still belongs to its dead occupant.

The Narrator's Encounter

When the narrator first enters Rebecca's bedroom alone, she discovers the nightdress case on the pillow and draws the garment out, pressing it against her face. The cold fabric and the lingering scent trigger a "sick dull aching in my heart" as she realizes the nightdress has never been touched or laundered since it was last worn. This moment crystallizes her sense of being an interloper in a house where the dead woman's intimate possessions remain in daily readiness. The nightdress, like the brushes and slippers, testifies to Mrs Danvers' refusal to let Rebecca die, keeping the bedroom as a stage set awaiting its actress.

Thematic Significance

The nightdress functions as the most intimate symbol of Rebecca's undiminished presence at Manderley. Unlike the public rooms where Rebecca's taste is visible in furniture and flowers, the nightdress belongs to the private, bodily realm—the space where a wife's physical existence is most real. Its preservation, unwashed and unaltered, represents Mrs Danvers' denial of death and her determination to keep Rebecca's ghost alive. For the narrator, touching the nightdress is the moment when Rebecca ceases to be an abstract rival and becomes a tangible, fleshly presence she can never equal. The garment's apricot color and gossamer texture also evoke the sensuality and vitality that Rebecca embodied, making the narrator's own plainness and inexperience feel even more inadequate by contrast.