Jamaica Inn is an odd book. The whole novel feels rather like some sort of surreal dream, and indeed Daphne Du Maurier is at her best when recounting the vivid nightmares experienced by the heroine, Mary Yellan. When her mother dies, Mary goes to live with her Aunt Patience and Uncle Joss Merlyn at Jamaica Inn. There she finds herself tossed into a dramatic world of windswept Cornish moors, raging seas and shocking human brutality, as she is drawn inexorably in to the smuggling, theft and murder committed by Joss Merlyn and his associates. It could be argued that the confused impressions experienced by the reader reflect the bewilderment felt by Mary herself as she tries to tell right from wrong in, what is to her, an utterly alien world.
However, while Du Maurier has successfully created a romantically gothic atmosphere, I found her characterisation less convincing. There seemed to be no underlying consistency within the main protagonists – they made what appeared to be contradictory decisions, and I found it difficult to fathom the motivations behind some of their actions and speeches. Interestingly, this was not a problem in the recent BBC adaptation of Jamaica Inn. It must be admitted that this was partly because the adaptation did indeed adapt some of the characters – Jem Merlyn, the love interest, became far kinder, while Aunt Patience was portrayed as being much more complicit in her husband's crimes. Mostly though, it was because the actors supplied an extra layer of interpretation to Du Maurier's words that is missing in the novel. They added the expressions, the gestures, the tones of voice that speak their emotions and thoughts as clearly as words, and which helped to make sense of some of the weaker parts of the novel.
On the whole though, it cannot be denied that Jamaica Inn is still a true classic of gothic romance and adventure, even if it felt rather sketchy at some points – why let details of characterisation get in the way of a rollicking good yarn?
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