Rebecca is a traditional gothic novel written by Daphne DuMaurier. Daphne DuMaurier was born in London, England in 1907, and later died in 1989. Her novel Rebecca, was published in 1938, and was soon after made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. DuMaurier uses the basic plot conventions in her novel Rebecca. These plot conventions consist of exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. DuMaurier utilizes all of the basic plot conventions listed above in the expansion of both characters and suspense in her novel, Rebecca.
             The exposition of a novel is the introduction or background information provided by the author. In the exposition; the setting, main characters, and point of view are established. DuMaurier introduces the narrator, who remains nameless, as a traveling companion to a wealthy older woman named Mrs. Van Hopper. The narrator is young, fragile, and others easily intimidate her. In the narrator's travels she meets and falls in love with Maxim de Winter. Mr. De Winter is a wealthy man whose wife, Rebecca, died a year ago. At this point, the conflict of the novel is introduced. The conflict in this story is one of man vs. man. The narrator, the antagonist of the novel, becomes jealous and intimidated by Rebecca, the protagonist of the novel, immediately. The narrator is plagued by feelings of inferiority. Rebecca's constant presence at Manderley is a gigantic part of the conflict:
             She was in the house still as Mrs. Danvers had said, she was in that room in the west wing, she was in the library, in the mooring-room, in the gallery above the hall. Even in the little flower room, where her mackintosh still hung. And in the garden, and in the woods, and down in the stone cottage on the beach.... (233).
             The narrator thinks of Rebecca as being a very powerful person who she can never live up to. From this point in the novel on the narrator creates a dream world in which she ...