How Significant Are Journeys in Rebecca and Death in Venice for Developing the Narrative?

How Significant are journeys in Rebecca and Death in Venice for developing the narrative?

Daphne Du Maurier's novel, Rebecca published in 1938, could be seen as semiautobiographical, similarly to Death in Venice, as Du Maurier's husband's previous wife was apparently a beautiful model, who unfortunately committed suicide. Consequently, Du Maurier was made to feel jealous and insecure alike to the nameless narrator in Rebecca. As mentioned, Thomas Mann's novella, Death in Venice published in 1912, is also seen as semiautobiographical in that the story of is said to be based on Mann's family holiday a year prior to when it was published. Mann's family vacationed to Lido, where Mann became interested in a younger boy much like Achenbach in Venice. Both Du Maurier and Mann seem to base their texts upon themselves to represent journeys in their personal lives. Each text contains significant physical, personal and emotional journeys to help push the narrative of the story forward as well as developing the character's personal growth. The significance of such journeys will be examined in light of context, form, structure and language and will be compared accordingly.

Throughout Rebecca, the unidentified narrator and Maximilian make various physical journeys. The first important journey may be when the narrator leaves Mrs Van Hopper to live in Manderley with Max 'come home to Manderley with me.' This is a significant journey as it is the beginning of the Narrator's overall journey in the novel which begins to develop the narrative. Tzetan Todorov's theory may be applied in that each novel has a three part structure, and that the story starts with equilibrium however something in "Rebecca" unbalances it. It could be argued that in Rebecca, the part of the story that unbalances the equilibrium may be when the narrator goes to live with Max, as she leaves her life with Mrs Van Hopper behind. This is the start of the Narrator developing from a young girl into a woman 'one day when you reach that exalted age of thirty-six...' This conveys that that novel is in the form of a bildungsroman which is emblematic of a personal journey, and is supplemented by Du Maurier's choice to omit the Narrators name save for when she becomes "Mrs De Winter." This is illustrative of the importance of the choice to embark upon a journey with Max and to subsequently marry him. Such an omission highlights that the Narrator's identity is lost and insignificant prior to the all-important journey when she begins the process of finding herself. Similarly, Aschenbach goes on a journey to Venice (ironically the same location that the Narrator and Max go for their honeymoon) to be inspired and escape from daily life 'if one wanted to travel overnight to somewhere incomparable, to a fantastic mutation of normal reality, where did