rebecca ♡ lingering thoughts

Spoilers

I feel rather unsure about how I feel after completing Du Maurier's Rebecca. Towards the end of this book, I felt myself rooting for Maxim de Winter. I rooted for the man who killed his first wife in cold blood, to get out of his sticky situation unscathed. It makes me frustrated with myself in a way, because was Rebecca really all that conniving? Could the way she is addressed, both by Maxim and eventually the narrator, be a product of the time, an adherence to patriarchal complacency and neglect to acknowledge the confining nature of marriage when Rebecca takes place? Is Maxim's grand confession really all that telling of Rebecca's true nature at the end of the day? When a woman reclaims the power taken from her within the restrictions of the rigid institute of marriage, should this divergence be a crime worthy of death? I feel that I am left with so many questions about my own morality, and ability think more deeply before being swayed. If I were to be confronted by a Maxim de Winter of my own, would I be so blinded? Anything that leaves me with questions about myself is a good read in my book, so I am pleased that I picked this one up.