Rebecca: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

Maxim goes to answer the phone, leaving the narrator alone. She has the strong sense that she, along with Maxim, has murdered Rebecca. And yet she’s no longer afraid of Rebecca, nor does she hate her—indeed, as long as she knows that Maxim never loved Rebecca, Rebecca seems to have lost her power over her.

Maxim returns from answering the phone, and explains that he’s just spoken to Colonel Julyan, the police magistrate of the local area. Julyan has asked Maxim if he has any idea whose body it could be in the boat. Maxim has answered that he has no idea whatsoever. He’s also told the Colonel that it’s possible that he made a mistake while identifying “Rebecca’s” body last year. As Maxim explains this, the phone rings again, and Maxim goes to answer it. When he returns, he says that the caller was a journalist, asking about the identity of the woman in the boat. This, Maxim concludes, signals the beginning of the gossip about the incident. Tomorrow morning, the police, led by Colonel Julyan, will retrieve the boat from the water and proceed with identifying the corpse.

The next morning, the narrator wakes up to find that Maxim has already left the house, presumably to meet with Colonel Julyan and Captain Searle. The narrator orders Robert to send a message to Mrs. Danvers about the menu for the week. Mrs. Danvers comes to meet with the narrator, complaining that Rebecca never used Robert to deliver messages. The narrator coolly replies that she doesn’t care what Rebecca used to do—this information is of no concern to anyone anymore. While the narrator says all this, Robert announces that a reporter from the local paper, the County Chronicle, wants to speak to her. The narrator tells Robert to tell the reporter she’s not at home.

Mrs. Danvers stares silently at the narrator, then asks why the reporter wanted to speak to her—the narrator replies that she doesn’t know. Danvers also asks if the rumors about Rebecca’s boat are true—again, the narrator denies knowing anything. Mrs. Danvers leaves, and the narrator thinks that she’s no longer afraid of the old woman—now that she knows about Rebecca, she has nothing to fear.

In the afternoon, Colonel Julyan comes to Manderley with Maxim and Frank Crawley. The narrator remembers seeing the Colonel at the ball, dressed as Oliver Cromwell (a ruler from English history). Julyan is very respectful to the narrator. They chat casually about golf and the weather in France and Monte Carlo. Then, unexpectedly, Julyan turns the conversation to Rebecca’s body. The problem, he explains, is that Maxim has already identified one body as Rebecca’s, when it turns out that a different body is hers. Frank points out that it’s quite natural to mistake one body for another, especially considering the emotional circumstances, and the fact that the body was highly decayed. Julyan agrees, but stresses that the case of Rebecca’s discovery will attract a great deal of unwanted publicity for Maxim and the narrator. As the narrator listens, she makes eye contact with Frank for a second, and realizes that Frank knows what really happened to Rebecca.

Colonel Julyan thanks the narrator and Maxim for their patience, and bids them good day. Maxim and the narrator go to speak in private, and Maxim tells the narrator that the doctors have been unable to find any evidence of the bullet in Rebecca’s body—as far as anyone can tell, Rebecca drowned. Maxim points out that the narrator looks years older—it’s as if by telling her about Rebecca, Maxim has killed off the look of youthful innocence that made him fall in love with the narrator to begin with.