Question About Rebbecca Novel?

Question

What evidence is there that Rebbecca Was Really an Evil Cruel Woman?

How Does her Cruelty to Ben help Clear Maxim of the Murder?

Answer 1

Rebecca was completely amoral and hedonistic. She taunted Maxim on their honeymoon about what she was, knowing he wouldn't divorce her because divorce would put a black mark on the name de Winter. She made a bargain with him to keep up an outward facade of being the perfect wife, while she lived her own, wild life full of affairs.

Rebecca basically enslaves Mrs. Danvers, knowing that she is unbalanced and using that for her own benefit.

Rebecca makes her cousin think she loves him. Rebecca also toys with all sorts of men, making them her playthings. All the while she's doing this, she is torturing Maxim with it, knowing there is nothing he can do. She purposely made Maxim's life a living h**l.

When she thinks she's pregnant but finds she actually has inoperable cancer, she schemes to get Maxim to kill her. For her it's the perfect way to commit suicide, since it would be likely that Maxim would be executed for murder.

She harasses poor Ben with the idea that she's going to have him locked away. Ben is terrified of her and what she might do. As Maxim's wife, she certainly had the power to do what she wanted. She kept Ben in line with her threats.

Ben is the only one who could have witnessed Maxim shooting her. Though Ben was already unstable, Rebecca had driven him over the edge. He was harmless, but rather mad. His babbling was not believed. He wasn't a credible witness.