Rachel’s Name
Very early on, the narrator, Philip, creates of metaphor out of Rachel’s very name which acts as foreshadowing even though technically it is a memory of what happened in the past. The reference to poison will become especially significant to the story as he ponders saying her name, suggesting that:
“It lingers on the tongue, insidious and slow, almost like poison, which is apt indeed.”
The Misogynist Marries
Philip’s uncle Ambrose is a little older than Rachel and a notorious misogynist whose distrust and dismissal of women runs so deep that Philip grows up hardly even exposed to the femininity of the world. And the word comes of marriage to Rachel? What gives? Rachel provides Philip with her answer:
“He was like someone sleeping who woke suddenly and found the world, all the beauty of it, and the sadness too.”
What Is He to Rachel?
But why does Rachel accept the proposal of someone who only wakes up at such an advanced age? Especially when she is already a widow? Well, despite her first husband being an Italian Count, his death left her deeply in debt. Her metaphorical reasoning doesn’t cover that aspect, however:
“To me, lonely, anxious, and a survivor of too many emotional shipwrecks, he came almost as a savior, as an answer to prayer.”
Not Talking About New Mexico
Philip has convinced himself that Rachel is a malevolent agent long before he meets her. Once they meet, he is instantly bewitched and slowly seems to enter a state of mind not entirely connected to reality. This becomes clear in one of the most telling and insightful metaphorical images in the book:
“People who mattered not could take the humdrum world. But this was not the world, it was enchantment; and all of it was mine.”
The Ambiguity of It All
This novel is all about ambiguity and the elusive nature of truth. This fundamental structure is indirectly addressed when Philip recounts the teachings of an old teacher:
“My tutor at Harrow, when teaching in Fifth Form, told us once that truth was something intangible, unseen, which sometimes we stumbled upon and did not recognize, but was found, and held, and understood only old people near their death, or sometimes by the very pure, the very young.”
