The Dress

”The Dress” By Julia Darling is a short story about the deterioration relationship between particularly the two sisters Flora and Rachel but also their relationship to their mother. A certain dress is a pivotal point of the disputes that ends up having serious consequences. The mother of the two mature sisters is forty years old, and it is her birthday. Already on the first page, where Rachel finds out that Flora has taken her dress, the reader gets the impression that the mother is less capable of handling conflicts domestically than on her job. The mother is bereavement counselor, and it is suggested numerous times that she needs to distance herself from her job when she’s at home. She has difficulties dealing with the constant intrigues between her daughters. She tends to take Rachel’s advantage, because she’s the tidy and conscientious one while flora is a mess and desperately trying to get her mother’s attention. (…)It made her feel taller, braver, cleverer, and Rachel was all those things already(…)The mother neglects her children and is not willing to deal with their problems. This obviously had an effect on the two sisters and in particular on Flora. The mother deals with her client’s problems and issues professionally and therefore she has a great need of a safe and loving environment, when she’s of work. She needs to outdistance the client’s problems and deal with her own problems instead. The children’s perpetual fights are too much for her to dealing with. (…)All day she had sat tearful needy people. It was her birthday, and she wanted to relax. She wanted to feel loved(…) In the end her neglect of her daughters leads to her “loss” of not only Rachel but also Flora. She involuntarily pushes her daughters away from her by not dealing with their disputes. The relationship between the two sisters is mostly characterized by perpetual intrigues and jealousy. They both fight to get their mothers attention, who sadly cannot deal with both her client’s and daughter’s problems but in very different ways. Rachel tries to identify with her mother by being very tidy and neat and thereby accommodating her mother. Because of her demanding job the mother has a need for order and tidiness in the house (…)Rachel walked back into the blue kitchen, with its neat bowl of shinning apples on the long table, and the purring silver fridge(…) On the other hand Flora is completely contrast, she lives, to put it bluntly, in a rubbish dump. (…)Rachel stamped up the stairs, pushing open the door of her sister’s room, wading through disordered heaps of crumpled discarded clothes, empty cigarettes packets, broken lighters, dried-out mascara brushes and lidless lipsticks(…) Rachel buys a nice dress to please her mother on her fortieth birthday, but flora wrecks her plan to get their mothers attention, it is a warfare without an end. Finally it is too much for Rachel, and she moves to her fathers place, in a desperately attempt to get some attention. Even then the mother seems not to care. Julie Darling uses numerous symbols to emphasize atmospheres, feelings and motives. For instance Rachel’s black dress and red earrings symbolizes her love- and hate feelings toward her sister. Furthermore Flora’s distinctive scent, which hangs in the air hours after she has left a room, has the added meaning that she takes up a lot of space in her sister’s life. “The Dress” deals with the theme “non mutual respect”, and how it is to live a life as a single, career woman who tries to get their everyday to work. Julia Darling also deals on the rivalry between twins and the possible motives. One message could be, that there is always something under the surface.

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[ 1 ]. side 9. L. 1-2
[ 2 ]. side 10. L 96-97
[ 3 ]. side 8 L. 13-14
[ 4 ]. side 8 L. 5-6