Women, Sexuality, and Society Theme Analysis

My Cousin Rachel builds to a sexual crescendo: the climax of the novel occurs when Philip and Rachel have sex in the early morning hours of Philip’s twenty-fifth birthday. On a plot level, this moment is critical. By this point, Philip is in love with Rachel, the widow of his cousin Ambrose (which means that Rachel is Philip’s cousin-in-law). In this scene, he hints strongly that he wants to marry her, and the narration of this scene indicates that Rachel understands what Philip is asking her. Though Rachel does not give a direct answer, du Maurier implies that the pair have sex. Philip misinterprets the act of sexual intimacy as an acceptance of the tacit marriage proposal he has just made. The emotional fallout of this misunderstanding is so intense that it ultimately results in a disillusioned Philip standing complacently by as his former beloved walks to her death. However, the sex scene between Philip and Rachel is even more important on a thematic level because it illustrates the fact that Rachel’s power is rooted in her expression of her sexuality. At the same time, du Maurier explicitly shows that because Rachel’s exertion of sexual power runs counter to social norms (which code women as subordinate to men), Rachel’s power ultimately becomes her undoing. In this way, du Maurier argues that society rigidly circumscribes women’s lives: while reducing women to roles related explicitly to their fertility (wives, mothers), social norms also punish women for enacting their sexuality on their own terms.

Philip is completely bewildered by Rachel’s comfortable, overt sexuality because he has not grown up around women; the only means he has for understanding them is the limited framework handed down to him by society. This social code rigidly constrains women’s sexuality, limiting to expressing their sexuality only in the context of their roles as wives and mothers. Before meeting Rachel, Philip follows his cousin Ambrose’s lead, viewing women as either simpering flirts or insufferable nags. As he begins to know Rachel, Philip struggles to identify what he believes must be the fundamental rules of female behavior. Thinking of the difference between men and women, Philip muses: “We were surely different, with our blunter comprehension, moving more slowly to the compass points, while they, erratic and unstable, were blown about their course by winds of fancy.” Philip views men as more rational in their thinking and their actions. In contrast, women are unpredictable, emotionally unstable creatures. Rachel’s sexual attractiveness and open sensuality make her unique among the women Philip knows—yet Philip is incapable of understanding Rachel beyond the limited definitions of womanhood that society (and, more directly, his father-figure, Ambrose) has handed down to him. Philip thinks of Rachel as his own future wife, Ambrose’s widow, and even a kind of pseudo-mother figure. Since Ambrose was a father figure to Philip, Rachel’s marriage to Ambrose makes her, in effect, a stepmother to Philip, and Philip frequently remarks on the ways Rachel’s mannerisms make him feel like a naughty child. Philip is also obsessed with seeing Rachel wear a family heirloom, a pearl collar last worn by his own mother—as if Rachel were a kind of stand-in for Philip’s own deceased mother. Ultimately, while Philip is captivated by Rachel’s sexuality, he also refuses to accept this sexuality on Rachel’s terms.

Philip’s ambivalence towards Rachel’s sexuality is clearly seen in the pair’s sex scene. Philip interprets this act of physical intimacy as proof of his engagement to Rachel; by agreeing to sex, Rachel is agreeing to marriage. Du Maurier makes this situation especially ironic because Philip is aware that, four months into her pregnancy, Rachel miscarried the child she had conceived with Ambrose and, as a result, is now unable to become pregnant. On a purely biological level, then, any sex that Rachel has is independent from reproduction and growing a family—and, by extension, from marriage. Sexual intercourse becomes solely an act of pleasure. Because of Rachel’s sterility, sex exists definitively on her own terms, and she makes this clear when she tells Philip that her decision to sleep with him was “to thank [him], that’s all,” for gifting her the family jewels. Appalled, Philip reacts by choking Rachel, then repeating his marriage proposal. Philip’s violent reaction emphasizes that he is intolerant of Rachel’s sexual power, even as he is attracted to it; the only way he knows how to respond to Rachel’s exertion of sexual autonomy is by trying to physically overpower her.

In fact, du Maurier shows that Philip is unable even consciously to admit that Rachel actually has power over him. Reflecting on their night together, Philip wistfully claims: “Wonder is mine forever, that a woman, accepting love, has no defence. Perhaps that is the secret that they hold to bind us to them. Making reserve of it, until the last.” Even by the end of the novel, Philip remains woefully unenlightened. In reality it was he who accepted love from Rachel—she was the one who instigated their sexual encounter. Prior to his experience with Rachel, Philip was a virgin. Furthermore, Rachel explicitly announces that she had no intention of binding Philip to her by having sex with him. In contrast, Philip is desperate to bind Rachel to him by physically dominating her. And, of course, Philip’s idea that Rachel is rendered defenseless by the act of lovemaking is ludicrous—du Maurier makes it clear that in the novel’s sole sex scene, Rachel is at the very height of her power.

In My Cousin Rachel, Du Maurier clearly explicates the constraints that society puts on women. Rachel represents the ultimate threat to the societal norm of women being wholly dependent on their male partners. Rachel is determined not to remarry, she expresses her sexuality as she chooses, and she even becomes economically independent by the end of the novel. All these things make Rachel a character who defies the status quo. Philip is incapable of accepting this quality in Rachel, and thus he allows himself to be complicit in her death. Furthermore, du Maurier suggests that society itself is determined to root out and destroy people who pose such a clear threat to social norms: before Philip can enact or even fully form a plan to kill Rachel, the Ashley house itself brings about her end.