How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"The pain was slight as yet, but the growth was deep-rooted […] and in three or four months' time she would have been under morphia. An operation would have been no earthly use at all. I told her that. The thing had got too firm a hold. There is nothing anyone can do in a case like that, except give morphia, and wait." (26.106)
Dr. Baker's shocking revelation that Rebecca was terminally ill has the ironic effect of confirming the coroner's ruling that her death is a suicide.
Quote #8
"The X-rays showed a certain malformation of the uterus, I remember, which meant she could never have had a child; but that was quite apart, it had nothing to do with the disease." (26.108)
This is a bizarre twist, since Maxim and Favell both seemed to believe Rebecca was pregnant. This new information also provides subtle grist for the story that she killed herself. If women are valued for their ability to produce an heir, a woman with a malformed uterus couldn't consider herself of much value, could she?
Quote #9
A face stared back at me that was not my own. It was very pale, very lovely, framed in a cloud of dark hair. […] The face in the glass stared back at me and laughed. And I saw then that she was sitting on a chair before the dressing-table in her bedroom, and Maxim was brushing her hair. […] [Her hair] twisted like a snake, and he took hold of it with both hands and smiled at Rebecca and put it round his neck. (27.101)
After Maxim is cleared, Mrs. de Winter dreams of Rebecca seeking judgment: on Mrs. de Winter by taking back Maxim, and on Maxim by possibly choking him with her hair, the way a boa constrictor might choke an animal. Creepy.