CONTENT WARNING: abusive relationships
My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne du Maurier, is a gripping novel told from the perspective of Philip Ashley, a man who becomes obsessed with his older cousin Ambrose’s widow, Rachel. At the start of the book, Philip vows to make Rachel suffer; however, upon meeting her, his loathing soon turns to obsessive love. From the beginning, the reader is led to believe and anticipate that Rachel is going to be the villain, as Ambrose’s letters to Philip suggest Rachel may have poisoned him. However, as the story unravels, what Daphne du Maurier does so brilliantly is she turns Philip into the villain. The widowed Rachel is not the villain, but Philip and Ambrose, the men who become obsessed with her, are.
A notable clue that Rachel is not the villain is when Philip’s guardian and godfather, Nick Kendall, says: “There are some women, Philip, good women very possibly, who through no fault of their own impel disaster. Whatever they touch somehow turns to tragedy”. This quote suggests that Rachel is innocent, and that things only unravel because Philip becomes obsessed with her, which is not her fault.
Before Ambrose and Philip meet Rachel, they already have a very sexist attitude towards women, with Philip’s personality and thoughts being shaped by his older cousin. When Ambrose shows a young Philip the hanging body of a dead man, Ambrose says: “It’s true his wife was a scold, but that was no excuse to kill her. If we killed women for their tongues all men would be murderers”. The last sentence is very telling of Ambrose’s attitude towards women.
Philip and Ambrose have also lived a very sheltered life from women, as Ambrose keeps an all-male staff and Philip’s closest interaction with a woman is his childhood friend Louise, whom he harbors no romantic feelings towards. As Philip says regarding Ambrose: “Although invariably courteous he was shy of women, and mistrustful too, saying they made mischief in a household”. Ambrose’s mistrust in women proves itself in his marriage to Rachel, whom he believes is his doom and is poisoning him. Since Ambrose and Philip are not used to women, it contributes to their obsession with Rachel.
Though we never see how Ambrose and Rachel interacted with one another and only know our information through Ambrose’s letters and Rachel, a great deal can be inferred about their relationship through Philip’s relationship with Rachel, as Philip is considered a copy of Ambrose. Philip even says that he emotionally “…felt like Ambrose”. Upon reviewing the first chapter, a noteworthy quote from Philip jumps out:
“We were dreamers, both of us, unpractical, reserved, full of great theories never put to test, and like all dreamers, asleep to the waking world. Disliking our fellow men, we craved affection; but shyness kept impulse dormant until the heart was touched. When that happened the heavens opened, and we felt, the pair of us, that we had the whole wealth of the universe to give. We would have both survived, had we been other men”.
Philip is saying that Rachel would have come and gone like any other person had he and Ambrose been different men. This is an important paragraph because it emphasizes Philip’s obsessive nature. As soon as Philip’s “heart was touched” by Rachel the “heavens opened”. The “heavens opened” suggests an obsession, since it implies that he jumped right in instead of taking it slow. “Asleep to the waking world” suggests that Philip was so blinded by his love for Rachel that he failed to see any fault in her, such as her extravagance beyond her means (for now I am excluding a possible poisoning of Ambrose and Philip). “We had the whole wealth of the universe to give” foreshadows Philip’s impulsive actions in giving Rachel the entire estate and all the jewels.
The reader may be quick to place some blame on Rachel for perhaps “bewitching” Philip since he goes very quickly from loathing her to being in love. However, when you carefully read the first interaction between the two, Rachel behaves like a normal and kind person. She is perhaps a little different because she lets Philip smoke in her boudoir, but it is not enough of a reason to be so bewitched by her. She behaves politely. Even though Nick Kendall takes an instant liking to her as well, he is not spellbound by her and becomes suspicious of her behavior when he learns that she has been known for excessive spending. When Philip learns this news, he becomes angry with his godfather and his opinion of Rachel does not change. Nick’s attitude towards Rachel is drastically different than Philip’s, emphasizing Philip’s obsession. As Philip says regarding himself and Ambrose and their relationship to Rachel: “We would have both survived, had we been other men”. Nick Kendall represents “other men”, as he was never swayed by Rachel.
Nick and his daughter believe that Rachel is only affectionate towards Philip because she wanted the estate. However, if she was only interested in the money, then why did she not take the jewels to Florence and instead left them in the bank in England? Why did she tell Philip that she trusted him and he could spend what he liked without having to ask for her permission or send her receipts? That does not sound like a woman who only wanted money. Even if she did come to the estate in hopes of getting some money since she was left out of Ambrose’s will, one cannot completely fault her for that, as she was his wife. Also, during that time women did not have the same opportunities as men to make money, leaving Rachel in a worse place than if she were a widowed man. Rachel can therefore not be condemned for wanting money.
Is there some truth in Philip’s belief that Rachel at least likes him as more than cousins (the book takes place in the mid-1800s)? Yes, as he and Rachel do end up having sex on the morning of his twenty-fifth birthday. However, she is free to express her sexuality and never says she wants to marry him. Instead, she frequently suggests that Philip marry Louise. Even if for argument’s sake Rachel was in love with Philip, it does not excuse his behavior. He becomes obsessive, jealous, and abusive. He is very suspicious of her friend Rainaldi and waits outside her window at night when he comes to visit; he does not like visitors because he rather be alone with her; and he impulsively decides to hand over the estate and all his jewels to her. His abusive nature is demonstrated when he chokes her. Rachel asking the vicar’s daughter to stay with her and telling Philip that she cannot be in the same room as him, locking her door at night, is powerful and shows a strong woman who wants to protect herself.
When Philip is accusing Rachel of having a relationship with Rainaldi, which Ambrose had also accused her of, she says: “A woman can’t suffer twice. I have had all this before”. And lifting her fingers to her throat she added, “Even the hands around my neck. That too”. This is a very telling moment regarding Rachel’s past and her relationship with Ambrose. She is a woman who has suffered at the hands of men.
Now of course I would be remiss if I did not talk about the possibility that Rachel was poisoning Ambrose and Philip. The argument that Rachel was not poisoning them is because Ambrose’s symptoms were similar to his father’s, who died from a brain tumor. An argument that Rachel was poisoning Ambrose and Philip was because she kept seeds with her that were lethal to humans. Philip’s symptoms were also similar to Ambrose’s, suggesting a poisoning; however, his symptoms could also be related to genetics or his bout of meningitis. If Rachel was trying to poison Philip, how come when he contracted meningitis she saved his life by suggesting medical treatments? If she wanted him to die, she could have easily withheld key medical information, but she did not. Also, when he falls ill the second time, before she is getting prepared to leave England, Philip notes:
“But when Rachel came to sit with me…it seemed to me that she had upon her face that same expression of the night before, a kind of weariness. I could imagine the thought within her, ‘It is going to start again? Am I doomed to sit here as a nurse to all eternity?’”.
If she wanted him to die, then one would assume she would be happy that he was ill again; instead she is weary, which suggests that she does not want to be a nurse to Philip again, as she had already been a nurse to Ambrose. In regards to Philip, Rainaldi says in a letter to Rachel: “…you cannot bring yourself to leave that boy…”. This suggests that Rachel cared for Philip and did not necessarily want to leave him, meaning she would not want him to die. It is Philip who lets Rachel die. He remembered that the bridge was unstable and yet he let her go on her walk without telling her. He was suspicious of her but he was also jealous, believing that Rachel and Rainaldi were having an affair. Rachel dies because of Philip’s actions when she had saved his life.
I do not think the focus should be on whether or not Rachel was poisoning Philip and Ambrose. I believe the focus should be on the abusive and obsessive natures of Philip and Ambrose. Rachel is a woman who has gone through a lot, as evident by her abusive marriages and the miscarriage she had with Ambrose. Rachel is the victim of men. It goes back to Nick Kendall’s quote, where he says: “…good women very possibly, who through no fault of their own impel disaster”. Rachel is a good woman who through no fault of her own greatly stirred the wild emotions of two men who “craved affection”. As Philip says: “We would have both survived, had we been other men”. It is not Rachel’s fault, but theirs, if other men would not have been so strongly affected.
Daphne du Maurier’s excellent twist on the suspense novel features a strong woman who is not the villain of the story but is the victim of men.
December 3, 2020
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