Critical Quotes for My Cousin Rachel.
‘Beautiful Creatures’: The Ethics of Female Beauty in Daphne du Maurier’s Fiction -
Margaret E. Mitchell.
Mitchell aims to analyse how female characters are considered beautiful in textual and
contextual ideas. Mitchell suggests that ‘du Maurier’s enigmatic beauties consistently
function as a locus of moral possibility; that beauty - whether it promotes justice or its
opposite - both delineates and complicates the moral landscape each novel explores.’
The theme of justice seems lost in the beauty of female characters like Rachel. The
moral landscape of ‘My Cousin Rachel,’ becomes confused as readers, much like
Philip, are forced to accuse and feel sympathy towards Rachel. Even the ambiguous
end of the novel leaves no clues as to whether or not Rachel intended to kill Philip.
Mitchell goes on to say, ‘Philip’s recognition of his error accompanies an infatuation
amounting to a kind of madness and initiates a never-ending process of ‘self-adjustment
that, as the opening passage suggests, becomes his dominant mode of being.’ Philip’s
error, which Mitchell explores, is his inability to recognise how Rachel’s beauty takes
hold of him. This leads to his obsession with his cousin however, this also leads to a
kind of madness. His infatuation leads to a violent outburst when Rachel decides she
will never marry him. Philip then tries to control his feelings for Rachel through
apologies and so forth but he can never remove his feeling of guilt as suggested by the
novel’s opening passage when he is, ‘burdened with the knowledge that he is
responsible for Rachel’s death.’ Philip’s lingering guilt makes the memory of Rachel’s
beauty even more melancholic.
Best Sellers and the Critics: A Case History - LaTourette Stockwell
Stockwell argues that the ending of the novel, ‘leaves both the surviving Englishman
and the reader still guessing, all enhanced with a soupcon of period flavouring. But its
suspense is hypnotic.’ The ambiguous ending of My Cousin Rachel leaves readers in a
state of which illustrates the lack of justice that is presented throughout the novel. As
readers, the only justice that is served is through Rachel’s death.
‘Beautiful Creatures’: The Ethics of Female Beauty in Daphne du Maurier’s Fiction -
Margaret E. Mitchell.
Mitchell aims to analyse how female characters are considered beautiful in textual and
contextual ideas. Mitchell suggests that ‘du Maurier’s enigmatic beauties consistently
function as a locus of moral possibility; that beauty - whether it promotes justice or its
opposite - both delineates and complicates the moral landscape each novel explores.’
The theme of justice seems lost in the beauty of female characters like Rachel. The
moral landscape of ‘My Cousin Rachel,’ becomes confused as readers, much like
Philip, are forced to accuse and feel sympathy towards Rachel. Even the ambiguous
end of the novel leaves no clues as to whether or not Rachel intended to kill Philip.
Mitchell goes on to say, ‘Philip’s recognition of his error accompanies an infatuation
amounting to a kind of madness and initiates a never-ending process of ‘self-adjustment
that, as the opening passage suggests, becomes his dominant mode of being.’ Philip’s
error, which Mitchell explores, is his inability to recognise how Rachel’s beauty takes
hold of him. This leads to his obsession with his cousin however, this also leads to a
kind of madness. His infatuation leads to a violent outburst when Rachel decides she
will never marry him. Philip then tries to control his feelings for Rachel through
apologies and so forth but he can never remove his feeling of guilt as suggested by the
novel’s opening passage when he is, ‘burdened with the knowledge that he is
responsible for Rachel’s death.’ Philip’s lingering guilt makes the memory of Rachel’s
beauty even more melancholic.
Best Sellers and the Critics: A Case History - LaTourette Stockwell
Stockwell argues that the ending of the novel, ‘leaves both the surviving Englishman
and the reader still guessing, all enhanced with a soupcon of period flavouring. But its
suspense is hypnotic.’ The ambiguous ending of My Cousin Rachel leaves readers in a
state of which illustrates the lack of justice that is presented throughout the novel. As
readers, the only justice that is served is through Rachel’s death.
