Music to accompany my words:
Opposites attract? What attracts me to Gothic literature? Frustration, psychological horror, sexual tension, weak women, easily-duped men? It surely can't be any of those as each page turned leaves my rage-residue contempt. Instead, my attraction lies in settings: isolated castles and grand houses whose walls drip ancestral knowledge, moody weather-vanes spinning out of control during a tempest, supernatural events that defy reason, omens, etc. The grotesque, in a nutshell.
Rachel escaped the weak woman trope; she is a fabulous enchantress. Her green thumb, though, did it have a hand in Ambrose's demise? Did she hex both Ambrose AND Philip? I do enjoy the development of femme-fatale types in literature. Poor Philip sequestered himself away all those years in his Cornwall manor purposefully removing the feminine from his life, he had no chance when encountering Rachel...All those pent-up desires just simmering.
Rachel, using her power of seduction, has lazer-focus (in my mind) and has set her sights on her nexgt victim (who really knows, though). Philip, slow to the game (again, is IT a game?), both revers her and is repelled by her, when he weakens- which is often. Who are these other men? Does she have other men? Philip is so moody (dull?) and predictable, always needing confirmation. It drives him mad. It drove me mad...
Reading the book, it seemed as if it was written earlier than mid-20th Century. Perhaps that is Du Maurier's gift of prose. The slow-burn leading up to Philip's 25th birthday, and, from what I inferred to be his 'de-flowering', the start of his demise. Mistaking sex for consent to marriage... Rachel demeans him (unknowingly?), and he doesn't seem capable of recovering from this episode.
I am thoroughly enjoying the novel at this point, understanding his descent into jealousy and violence in an effort to tame 'his' wild creature. His suspicions of Rachel's foul-play over Ambrose's death turns him against her- especially when finding her garden seedlings. Poison? Adulterer? Witch? he can't help himself at the end- leading her to her death. He's left wondering, "did she or didn't she?"
Perhaps she really did love him. Perhaps she didn't poison Ambrose. I like it that we just don't know for sure. I'd like to think that Rachel was indeed a Black Widow. I mean, why not?
It's a slow read and the story doesn't really get moving until a quarter through, maybe. This is only my 2nd Du Maurier work; The Parasites was my first, and I found it to be more of a 'wacky' nature with comedic episodes entwined into a dysfunctional family dynamic. I didn't get a 'Gothic' vibe from Parasites. My cousin Rachel, however, littered with Gothic themes. Perhaps I'll be encouraged to read Rebecca now.
-H
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