Analyse af Julia Darlings novelle 'The Dress'

’’The Dress’’ is a modern short story written by Julia Darling. The story portrays how a single material object, ruined the relationship between the two sisters Rachel and Flora. The story also shows how their mother handles the situation, or rather drastically deteriorates it. In the following analysis, I will try to shed some light into the complicated relationship of the sisters, followed by a characterization of the mother. I will also uncover some of the symbolism, which plays an important role in this short story.

The story begins abruptly in medias res. Rachel can’t seem to find the dress, she’s been planning to wear for her mother’s fortieth birthday. We follow the frantic Rachel, who wanders around the house looking for her dress. In the midst of her frenzy, she realises that it has been taken by her sister. When Rachel acknowledges there’s nothing more she can do, she calms down a bit. The scene switches to a restaurant where Rachel, Flora and their mum is seated. The atmosphere is tense, because there is this certain calmness before the storm. The author expresses Rachel´s frustration in the following line (P.1 L.38) ‘’The thought was unbearable. She grinded her red nails into the hard surface of the table’’. This gives the reader a feeling of Rachel is about to explode, and confront Flora about the dress. And indeed she does, but instead of getting an apology from her sister, Flora just starts to laugh out loud in a mocking manner, and furthermore tries to justify that she took the dress. Aware of the unclean air between the sisters, their mother constantly tries to change subject, but it’s clear that she sides with Rachel. It seems that the mothers attempt to light up the mood, is redundant because Flora keeps provoking Rachel. When they’re all back in the house, the turmoil continues. Rachel threatens to move to her dad’s house, who I think the mother resents. The situation culminates and the mother kicks Flora out of the house. As far as we know, the bond between the sisters is never established again.