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Chapter 4
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Cousin Rachel, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Guilt
Women, Sexuality, and Society
Home and Belonging
Identity and Destiny
Jealousy, Possessiveness, and Unknowability
Summary
Analysis
Philip returns to Florence from the Villa Sangalletti. Still in a daze, he finds himself wandering into a cathedral. As he stands in the church with Ambrose’s hat in his hands, Philip “realise[s] suddenly and sharply the full measure of [his] loss.” Philip leaves the church, eats a meal near the cathedral, and then goes to find Rainaldi’s house.
Though Philip never fully expresses his grief over Ambrose’s loss, it is worth noting how alone Ambrose’s death has left Philip. This loneliness provides important context for Philip’s later relationship with Rachel. Because Rachel’s ancestors were Ashleys, she occupies a unique role in Philip’s life, as she is both his love interest and his only living relative. This further complicates the romantic relationship between Philip and Rachel, as she functions as both Philip’s romantic counterpart and a pseudo-mother figure.
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Themes
Rainaldi is surprised to see Philip, and Philip himself is immediately wary of Rainaldi’s “dark and deep-set” eyes and “disdainful” demeanor. The two men discuss Rachel’s departure, and Philip makes the “bold move” of showing Rainaldi Ambrose’s last two letters, in which he expressed clear distress. Rainaldi insists that Ambrose’s doctors believed “there might be something pressing on his brain […] that would account for his condition.” Philip finds himself distrustful of this claim, wondering: “Why did this Italian watch my eyes?”
Philip takes an immediate disliking to Rainaldi. Though he will be just as aware of Rachel’s eyes as he is here of Rainaldi’s, Philip will not have the same negative gut reaction to Rachel that he did to her closest friend. This seems to suggest that part of the reason Philip finds Rachel (initially) non-threatening has to do with her gender. Up until the very end of the novel, Philip persists in thinking Rainaldi guilty of controlling Rachel’s decisions. This likely has to do with the attraction Philip feels to Rachel, even as he comes to believe her guilty of conspiring to kill Ambrose, but it also seems plausible that Philip will never be able to fully consider Rachel accountable for her own actions because he sees her as a passive person based solely on her gender.
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Rainaldi offers to contact Ambrose’s doctors on Philip’s behalf, but Philip declines. Rainaldi then produces Ambrose’s death certificate, saying that he has sent a copy to the Ashley estate in Cornwall and one to Nick Kendall, whom he says is the trustee of Ambrose’s will. Philip is slightly taken aback to hear this new information; he is even more surprised to learn that Rainaldi has actually read Ambrose’s will. From reading the will, Rainaldi is aware that Nick Kendall is also Philip’s new legal guardian, now that Ambrose is dead. Philip is confused by this, since he is twenty-four years old, but he decides to focus for the moment on learning more about Ambrose’s death.
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Themes
Philip continues to press Rainaldi for details about Ambrose’s letters, which he claims are proof that Ambrose was “surrounded by people he [could not] trust.” Rainaldi insists that Ambrose was suffering from a brain tumor, which caused him to be “troubled by delusions.” Philip finds Rainaldi’s approach “cold” and “confident.” He is unsure what to believe about Ambrose’s illness—“all [he] know[s] [is] that [he] hate[s] Rainaldi.”
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Themes
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Philip demands more answers from Rainaldi: why didn’t Rachel contact him, Philip asks, when Ambrose fell ill? Rainaldi replies that “a woman of feeling does not easily give way.” “[Women’s] emotions are more primitive than [men’s],” Rainaldi explains. “They hold to the thing they want, and never surrender.” Philip realizes he has “no more to say” to Rainaldi and rises to leave.
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Rainaldi offers to make arrangements for Philip to visit Ambrose’s grave, but after a brief conversation, Philip realizes he does not want to see the place; Ambrose “would be with [him],” he believes, no matter where his body is buried. Philip tells Rainaldi to inform Rachel of his visit, but Rainaldi replies that Rachel is “a woman of impulse,” and that he is unsure she will ever return to Florence. Philip leaves the house, feeling Rainaldi’s eyes “follow[ing] [him] from behind his shuttered windows.”
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Philip finds himself again at the riverside, and he stands there reflecting. He decides he believes “in the truth of those two letters” from Ambrose, rather than in Rainaldi’s version of events. He then makes a vow to seek revenge on Rachel. He thinks: “Whatever it had cost Ambrose in pain and suffering before he died, I would return it, in full measure, upon the woman who had caused it.”
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