In Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” the main female character is portrayed with the qualities of a child being influenced by her parents. While away from Manderley, Mr. de Winter encounters a girl in Monte Carlo and quickly decides to take her back to be his wife: the second Mrs. de Winter. She was in Monte Carlo as an assistant to an older American woman, indicating that even being there was not something she had done independently and was more like a trip taken by a mother and daughter. She was always at the mercy of decisions made by the woman, such as when the woman quickly decided they were leaving Monte Carlo for New York, which she quickly found a way to avoid.

Even after leaving with Mr. de Winter instead of the American woman, the second Mrs. de Winter’s actions are constantly monitored like those of a child. At Manderley, Mrs. Danvers, while acting as the gaze of the late Rebecca, surveils the second Mrs. de Winter’s every move. Hitchcock often quickly shifts the camera angle from Mrs. de Winter’s point of view to one that shows Mrs. Danvers in the background, depicting her presence as a sudden and slightly unsettling one. As discussed in class, in a hetero-masculine reality, men can want a child in their wife instead of a full woman. For Mr. de Winter, his new wife is similar to the child he never had. He tells her to do things like a “good girl” and refers to her as a child given their age difference. He is the father as the head of the household, and Mrs. Danvers, by acting as Rebecca’s gaze, is taking some of her role as a mother always watching her child. The film easily diminishes the second Mrs. de Winter’s role as an independent woman and instead portrays her as one always under the influence of another, just like a child controlled by their parents.