Rebecca Quotes
A self-conscious bride is tormented by the memory of her husband's dead first wife.
Mrs. Danvers: [as the second Mrs. de Winter runs into the room] I watched you go down just as I watched her a year ago. Even in the same dress you couldn't compare.
The Second Mrs. de Winter: You knew it! You knew that she wore it, and yet you deliberately suggested I wear it. Why do you hate me? What have I done to you that you should ever hate me so?
Mrs. Danvers: You tried to take her place. You let him marry you. I've seen his face - his eyes. They're the same as those first weeks after she died. I used to listen to him, walking up and down, up and down, all night long, night after night, thinking of her, suffering torture because he lost her!
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [turning away in shame and shock] I don't want to know, I don't want to know!
Mrs. Danvers: [moving towards her] You thought you could be Mrs. de Winter, live in her house, walk in her steps, take the things that were hers! But she's too strong for you. You can't fight her - no one ever got the better of her. Never, never. She was beaten in the end, but it wasn't a man, it wasn't a woman. It was the sea!
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [collapsing in tears on the bed] Oh, stop it! Stop it! Oh, stop it!
Mrs. Danvers: [opening the shutters] You're overwrought, madam. I've opened a window for you. A little air will do you good.
[as the second Mrs. de Winter gets up and walks toward the window]
Mrs. Danvers: Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you... he's got his memories. He doesn't love you, he wants to be alone again with her. You've nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you?
[softly, almost hypnotically]
Mrs. Danvers: Look down there. It's easy, isn't it? Why don't you? Why don't you? Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid...
The Second Mrs. de Winter: You knew it! You knew that she wore it, and yet you deliberately suggested I wear it. Why do you hate me? What have I done to you that you should ever hate me so?
Mrs. Danvers: You tried to take her place. You let him marry you. I've seen his face - his eyes. They're the same as those first weeks after she died. I used to listen to him, walking up and down, up and down, all night long, night after night, thinking of her, suffering torture because he lost her!
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [turning away in shame and shock] I don't want to know, I don't want to know!
Mrs. Danvers: [moving towards her] You thought you could be Mrs. de Winter, live in her house, walk in her steps, take the things that were hers! But she's too strong for you. You can't fight her - no one ever got the better of her. Never, never. She was beaten in the end, but it wasn't a man, it wasn't a woman. It was the sea!
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [collapsing in tears on the bed] Oh, stop it! Stop it! Oh, stop it!
Mrs. Danvers: [opening the shutters] You're overwrought, madam. I've opened a window for you. A little air will do you good.
[as the second Mrs. de Winter gets up and walks toward the window]
Mrs. Danvers: Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you... he's got his memories. He doesn't love you, he wants to be alone again with her. You've nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you?
[softly, almost hypnotically]
Mrs. Danvers: Look down there. It's easy, isn't it? Why don't you? Why don't you? Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid...
Maxim de Winter: "I'll make a bargain with you," she said. "You'd look rather foolish trying to divorce me now after four days of marriage. So I'll play the part of a devoted wife, mistress of your precious Manderley. I'll make it the most famous showplace in England if you like. Then, people will visit us and envy us, and say we're the luckiest, happiest, couple in the country. What a grand show it will be! What a triumph!"
Mrs. Danvers: [just as the second Mrs. de Winter reaches for the door] You wouldn't think she'd been gone so long, would you? Sometimes, when I walk along the corridor, I fancy I hear her just behind me. That quick light step, I couldn't mistake it anywhere. It's not only in this room, it's in all the rooms in the house. I can almost hear it now.
[turns to the petrified second Mrs. de Winter]
Mrs. Danvers: Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [sobbing] N-no, I don't believe it.
Mrs. Danvers: Sometimes, I wonder if she doesn't come back here to Manderley, to watch you and Mr. de Winter together. You look tired. Why don't you stay here a while and rest, and listen to the sea? It's so soothing. Listen to it.
[turning away towards the window as the second Mrs. de Winter slips out the door]
Mrs. Danvers: Listen. Listen to the sea.
[turns to the petrified second Mrs. de Winter]
Mrs. Danvers: Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?
The Second Mrs. de Winter: [sobbing] N-no, I don't believe it.
Mrs. Danvers: Sometimes, I wonder if she doesn't come back here to Manderley, to watch you and Mr. de Winter together. You look tired. Why don't you stay here a while and rest, and listen to the sea? It's so soothing. Listen to it.
[turning away towards the window as the second Mrs. de Winter slips out the door]
Mrs. Danvers: Listen. Listen to the sea.
Mrs. Danvers: Oh, you've moved her brush, haven't you?
[moves it slightly]
Mrs. Danvers: There, that's better. Just as she always laid it down. "Come on, Danny, hair drill," she would say.
[picks up the brush and goes through the motions of combing the second Mrs. De Winter's hair, without actually touching it]
Mrs. Danvers: And I'd stand behind her like this and brush away for twenty minutes at a time.
[lays down the brush and looks at the portrait of Maxim]
Mrs. Danvers: Then she would say, "Good night, Danny," and step into her bed.
[moves it slightly]
Mrs. Danvers: There, that's better. Just as she always laid it down. "Come on, Danny, hair drill," she would say.
[picks up the brush and goes through the motions of combing the second Mrs. De Winter's hair, without actually touching it]
Mrs. Danvers: And I'd stand behind her like this and brush away for twenty minutes at a time.
[lays down the brush and looks at the portrait of Maxim]
Mrs. Danvers: Then she would say, "Good night, Danny," and step into her bed.
Colonel Julyan: Well, let me tell you something, Favell: blackmail isn't so pure nor so simple, and it brings a great deal of trouble to a great many people before it's through, and we know how to deal with it in our part of the world. And, sometimes, the blackmailer finds *himself* in jail at the end of it!
