Published in 1951, it takes place-not unlike her earlier Rebecca (1938)-on a sprawling estate in the author’s beloved Cornwall. At the conclusion, he’s married with children, but a headache constantly haunts him as a sort of punishment.Daphne du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel is a study in character ambiguity. Does it matter whether Rachel killed Ambrose or not when it comes to condemning Philip? It doesn’t, because his motivations for hurting her are completely unrelated. And it’s Philip that kills her at the conclusions, by suggesting she visit a perilous cliff (just go with it, it’s a Gothic story). It’s Rachel fault for not wanting to trust him again? No, It’s Philip who lost that trust. It understands that Rachel did not make him like this.

Other films this year with similar figures, like Colossal or even The Beguiled, understand that facade. However, after outbursts like that there really is no going back as much as he wants to once again be the good romantic.

He tries to reassert his love in trying to win her back, speaking softly, lovingly, and increasingly with desperation. We’re taught that this means “keep this in mind because it will become important later on,” and yet in these films the objects never return in a significant way.īut after an incident where Philip puts his hands around her neck, just as Ambrose allegedly did, we become heavily aware of just how much the film was aligned to his view. This may be an unintentional allusion to the abundant visual misdirections of others du Maurier adaptations like Don’t Look Now, where the camera constantly pauses on certain details-an accessory, a portrait, etc. This kind of evil is one that Romantic plots rarely leave unpunished, usually with death.Ĭonstant lingering shots on the tea she brews also place the suggestions of poisoning early on in the film, long before Philip even suspects this (another popular theme, also in Crimson Peak!). The blue-beard character, the one who murders their spouses one after another is another familiar Gothic trope (one that Guillermo del Toro similarly plays with in Crimson Peak), as is the hidden spouse, and while they aren’t present in My Cousin Rachel the possibility appears when we’re told Rachel keeps sending money away to a mysterious place out of the country.

Cousin rachel book