A Brief Analysis of Butterfly Dreams in Foreign Literature
England Morillier
Daphne du Maurier (1907-1976), a British woman writer, was born in a bookish family and received a good literary training since childhood. She wrote 17 full-length novels in her life, and many other genres of literary works came out. Her major works include "Jamaica's Inn", "Pirate Encounters", "Islands" and so on. Butterfly Dreams (1938) is one of the most prestigious of them, and the author has gained a high reputation for it.
Butterfly Dreams was translated into more than twenty languages and widely circulated around the world within twenty years of its publication.
Butterfly Dreams is an outstanding romantic novel, which describes a strange and twisted story through the dream of an unnamed heroine, and portrays the image of a bourgeois upper-class woman. The conception and writing method are very unique. The conflict between the nameless heroine and Mrs. Danvers is a concrete manifestation of the struggle between the "new and the old", "good and evil". The novel exposes a certain degree of hedonistic corruption, extravagance, hypocrisy and deceitfulness of the British high society.
Last night I dreamed I was back in Manderley, which was as mysterious and serene as ever. In reality, I was lying in a foreign land hundreds of miles away. I woke up thinking of Mandalay, which no longer exists, and this estate is a tomb. All our fears and sorrows were buried in its ruins.
Memory is like a bridge connecting the years: like a timid puppy, I trailed behind Mrs. Van Hooper as she walked toward the table by the window in the dining room, when suddenly she put down her fork, stared without blinking at the newcomer, and said excitedly, "This is Maxime Derwent, the owner of Manderley Manor."
I was kneeling in a chair by the window, watching the afternoon street scene, when the waiter brought me a note and handed it to me, unsigned, with neither address nor name of the addressee, strange.
The morning after the bridge meeting Mrs. Van Hooper was ill, and the doctor put her to bed, and as soon as the nurse came I went downstairs to lunch. Who knew that Derwent was already sitting at a table beside me. I touched down a bottle of Silver Lotus, and he immediately appeared and invited me to dine with him. He inquired about my relations with Mrs. Van Hooper, and I told him I was employed by her. I had no shame at all in talking to him about everything I was doing. He was going to drive me to the Place du Maroc to sketch. The car circled from side to side above the mountain range. "Have you been here before?" I asked. He looked as if he didn't recognize me, showing a face like a sleepwalker. Suddenly he apologized as if he had awakened from a dream. He said, "It's been years since I've been here and I wanted to see if it had changed."
We descended the winding mountain road. Night had fallen and the pleasant tour came to a hasty end.
First love is wild. For two weeks I went out every day in the car with Mr. de Winter, and ate at the same table in the restaurant. He often waited for me in the driver's seat. As soon as he saw me, he would smile slightly and say, "How are you feeling this morning, my friend? Where do you want to go play yo?"
"It's quite cold this morning, you'd better put on my coat." He said. Even putting his coat on for a few minutes was a victory and made my morning bright.
I've seen a set of relationship tricks in books, and they don't really concern me. I would just sit in the car with his map spread out on my lap, and I dreaded going back to the hotel.
Mrs. Van Hooper is well enough to go to New York. Before I left, I wanted to say goodbye to him. While Mrs. Van Hooper sent me to the desk to change my ticket, I went to his room on the fourth floor.
"Mrs. Van Hooper wants to go back to New York, and I'm going back to Manderley, where do you love to go?" He asked me, and I felt that he was joking with me, that he wanted me to marry him and be his wife, and it was all too sudden for me.
In early May we arrived at Manderley, the hall was packed with people welcoming us, and Mrs. Danvers came up to me and held my hand. I felt her hand weak and heavy. Something in her face disturbed me.
The welcome departed. I was left alone with Maxim and I felt a little more comfortable inside. As he read the letter, he said, "Go and make friends with Mrs. Danvers." I felt nervous again.
Mrs. Danvers always stared at me with a look of contempt. Whenever she talked about the dead Mrs. de Winter, she would suddenly become agitated, and this frightened me.
After breakfast, Maxim told me that his sister was coming to see me today, and that he himself had to go to the chief steward for something. I simply did not know what to do. The old servant Frien told me that the dead Mrs. de Winter had often used the sitting-room, and I had only to go into it.
Suddenly the telephone rang for Mrs. de Winter. I said, "Mrs. de Winter has been dead for over a year." The call was from Mrs. Danvers. My blunder was so stupid.
Maxim's sister came. Maxim asked her to show me around the garden, and as we walked and talked, she wished Maxim and me happiness. I felt a little doubt in her tone. Then there was talk of Mrs. Danvers, and she said that Mrs. Danvers hated me for coming here because of her immense admiration for Rebecca.
After seeing Mr. and Mrs. Atreus off, Maxim asked me to take a walk with him. I was mesmerized by the view of the Valley of Happiness. Maxim went to look for the dog. I realized that there was another cove, and on the beach stood a man named Bourne.
Maxim was a little angry when he found me on the beach, and told me that he did not want to go to the beach, nor to the hut. His face was white, and his eyes had the same look of worry, confusion and frustration that they had when I first met him.
For a whole week it rained incessantly. One day I visited the bishop and his wife, who talked to me about Rebecca and the masquerade. On my way back, I met Frank, the head steward. I asked him about Rebecca and he told me that Rebecca had drowned in that bay. This surprised me very much.
Mandalay was my home, but I always felt like a guest, and an irrelevant remark reminded me not to forget who I was.
One morning I went to the house with the windows facing the sea. Everything in the room was in order, as if someone had used it. Mrs. Danvers walked in and she grabbed my arm and led me on a tour of the room that had me practically swooning. She told me about Rebecca and Maxim's life and how Rebecca had died. Mrs. Danvers had her eyes on me, and showed a sinister and venomous look.
The guests have asked us to have a fancy dress ball. I had been worried about what to wear at the ball, and Mrs. Danvers very kindly suggested that I wear the style of a dress from a painting in the gallery. I was going to surprise Maxim at the ball, so I didn't reveal anything to him until then.
On the night of the ball, I hid in my own room and had a servant help me dress, and I was quite a different person. I guessed that when I came downstairs, they were bound to clap and loudly announce my arrival.
I did not expect either applause or laughter. Instead, they stared at me like clay figures. Maxim didn't move a muscle, his eyes spewing fury. "What the hell have you done!" He said, "Go change." As it turned out, the outfit I was wearing was the one Rebecca had worn to her last masquerade ball. I sensed that Maxim didn't love me and that he was still in love with Rebecca.
The next morning, I went to Rebecca's bedroom and Mrs. Danvers said that I would never outgrow Rebecca. She grabbed me by the arm and pushed me towards the open window, saying why I didn't jump, and I was dazzled.
In the afternoon, the yacht of the deceased Mrs. de Winter was recovered from the bay with the body of a woman in it.
I was horrified when Maxim burst into the house and clung to me.
I held his hand tightly. He said that he had not loved Rebecca, and that they had pretended to be a loving couple so as not to damage their reputation. He told me that Rebecca was a vicious, hateful, corrupt and degrading woman. She was constantly seducing men, and often spent the night with her cousin Favell in that cottage on the bay. One stormy night, Maxim found her in the cabin on the bay and she said she was pregnant. He shoots her and sinks the boat in the bay.
The time of the public trial was set, and the newspapers carried the news in large editions. I didn't want to leave Maxim for a minute, so I accompanied him to the public trial, Mrs. Danvers and Favell were there, my heart was pounding, and gradually I fainted, and Frank sent me back to the manor early. At half-past five Maxim returned. "It's all over, it's established that she committed suicide." He said.
Mr. Favell came and said that Rebecca hadn't killed herself at all, and he took out the last letter Rebecca had written to him. Maxim is furious and immediately calls for Colonel Millian. Favell says that Bourne can testify, so he calls Bourne, who says he doesn't know Favell. There was no choice but to bring out Rebecca's diary, according to which Rebecca spent her last two hours in London with Dr. Baker. Colonel Miriam decides to go to London the next morning with Maxim and Favell.
At Dr. Baker's house in London, the three check Rebecca's medical records. She has cancer and it is terminal.
Feiffer's blackmail did not work. We had survived a life-and-death situation. Feeling extremely relieved and happy, Maxim said, "Rebecca deliberately lied to me, she wasn't even pregnant, she was willing for me to kill her, she anticipated the whole thing."
Things are finally over. Frank called and said that Mrs. Danvers had suddenly disappeared. We decided to make our way to the estate overnight. It was almost dawn when we finally arrived at the manor. By now, Mrs. Danvers had been reduced to ashes along with the estate.