The first and the earlier Rebecca

The other day Tani sent me a message. Not much of a message, just a forward, but a sharp, smart one which gave me something to smile about in the midst of my blues. I smiled and moved on. Till it hit me yesterday. Tani's messages, I ought to know by now, have a lot of message in the message. So it wasn't a mere forward, was it? It was a kind of course correction to me who had strayed from matters literary and cerebral to mere prosaic stuff about men women and, crassly enough- a silly sentimental mother ! I got thinking about how I could attempt to redeem myself to that companion of many nights spent sleepless in spooky sweet Shimla. I thought for a moment and I knew I had to talk about the other Rebeccas- the first Rebecca and the earlier one. This ones for you Tani, hope it measures up. (Now, those who know Tani know, this a very tall order!)

The preoccupation with the name Rebecca. Tell me, I'm not being paranoid about this. Why is it that the most memorable strongest female characters have old testament names? Wonder what Le Rouzic would say about this association here.

Rebecca- the second major matriarch of Israel in the Old Testament. From the Hebrew name Ribqah, possibly meaning "a snare" or "fat and full" in Hebrew, or perhaps derived from an Aramaic name. She was the wife of Isaac and the mother of Esau and Jacob who is later called Israel in the Old Testament. She is described in Genesis 24:16 as :

"The girl was very beautiful, a virgin, untouched by man."

She is the most clever and authoritative of the matriarchs, and yet she epitomizes womanly beauty and virtue, most notably her virginity, her actions at the well, in her energetic speech, thoughtful courtesy, and her self-assurance.

The story goes that Rebecca is married to Isaac, and is barren up to the moment when she prays God to deliver her from that sterility. She bears twins who seem to constantly battling each other in the womb. To her query on this, God is said to have responded that it is so as they are going to lead two separate nation. She then gives birth to Esau and Jacob, but has a special preference for the younger, weaker but brighter Jacob. It is through her devious intervention that she wins for her favourite Jacob, the blessing of the aging and near-blind Isaac. But then Jacob has to flee from Esau, thus creating a separation of the mother from her preferred child. Her story is the conclusion of the Abraham saga.She is a major actor in this saga much to the bewilderment of many Christians who continue to wonder at her Grace and how and why God worked through her devious ways to favour Jacob who had sought to outwit his own father and elder brother!

Thats for the first Rebecca! The other one now.

I embarked on reading Vanity fair when I was a teenager, shortly after I'd read Rebecca. I was immediately struck by the common name and a lot of other resonance between du Maurier's creation and Ms. Becky Sharp of Thackeray- the Victorian who sketched a Bohemian, the wickedest woman of 19th century literature.

While I was, and who wouldn't be, impressed by the sheer size of the tome, I found it extremely readable and was going through the detailed chapters with as much relish and as little time as perhaps dd does through her Potter volumes. But little did I know then of the significance of the sub-title, "A Novel Without a Hero".

Each time I read and re-read this masterly tome, I learnt more of the "dismal precocity of poverty" which makes a woman of a girl of eight, "I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year.", of her relationship and association with the "poor innocent creature" Amelia, of conquests of "the Servants hall" and the "Drawing Room".

How Becky conducts herself with aplomb : "seeing that tenderness was the fashion, ... kissed him in the presence of all the ladies... to which he said "You never kiss me at home, Mamma,", "To be a wicked woman -- a heartless mother, a false wife?... her soul is black with vanity, worldliness, and all sorts of crimes."

Her persistent dissatisfaction at every stage of her upward trail - "As Becky gains more of the externals which are the object of her conscious desires -- material luxury, status, the fashionable diversions of balls and suppers, even the appearance of respectability -- she becomes less and less satisfied", "yawning in spirit".

And the ultimate ambiguous denouement: did she or did she not commit a homicide? Did her corruption extend to murder to protect and re-equip herself, was she actually capable of such a devious plan?

The book was extremely well received given that Thackeray had embellished it with not only the most impressive heroine but all manner of Victorian 'snobs' and had illustrations in it too in his clever fashion. By exposing the crass commercial hypocrisy of Victorian era, by setting the plot among the British traders who interacted with the world within and outside England, of a social climber posed against the nouveau riche, the counterpoint offered by Ms. Rhonda Swartz, the exotic yet financially sound third woman, he definitely blew a breath of fresh air into the Victorian novel. This book has a tremendous effect on the contemporaries of Thackeray who either criticised it or were influenced by it in their own writings. All except of course, his leading rival Dickens. In fact, it earned him revenues and readership not only in England but also crossed over the Atlantic to win him accolades in the Americas. It has gone on to spawn two movies(neither of which I have seen) and the magazine and other such trivia. How telling that the blurb of the magazine still says People, Personalities, Power, Politics! Just the kind of things which were relevant for Ms. Rebecca Sharp in 19th century England and now equally so in the 21st century web enabled worldly women (and men)!

So then is there any of the Biblical Rebecca or Ms. Becky Sharp in Mrs R. de Winter???