Forms and Functions of Ritual in My Cousin Rachel: Comparing the Novel and Film Versions

Rituals permeate people’s lives, so it is unsurprising that authors often leverage them in constructing narratives in novels, films, and plays. Rituals can propel plots and illuminate characters’ proclivities and personalities. Engaging in rituals makes characters’ experiences characters resonant and realistic and may induce identification and empathy from readers/viewers. Many of the novels created by the popular and prolific author Daphne du Maurier feature a plethora of rituals at the micro (involving intimate others), meso (involving community members), and macro levels (reflecting traditions and norms of the culture). This chapter explores the roles of rituals in du Maurier’s acclaimed novel My Cousin Rachel, comparing their forms and functions in the 1951 novel with those in the 1952 and 2017 film adaptations. It illuminates the important functions rituals serve, and how their representations and reconfigurations enable a text to resonate with audiences to reflect contemporary cultural norms and values. It explores these questions: Which rituals are most salient in the different versions of My Cousin Rachel? How do these rituals differ across the versions to drive the plot, illuminate characters, and reflect the contemporary cultural context? The chapter identifies and interprets four salient categories and functions of rituals across the versions.