The Ashley Home
The home in which Ambrose raises Philip is one devoid of feminine or maternal influence. This lack leads to the acquisition of the older man’s fear and distrust of women by Philip. Upon the death of Ambrose, Philip observes that that “the whole living entity of the house was mine, and mine alone.” The home thus become an incestuous breeding ground for the misogyny that will doom the ability of both men to capably deal with Rachel.
Laburnum
The deadly poison in the seeds of the laburnum is suspected to be the method by which Rachel may poison the victims of her black widowhood. But there is not actual proof that this is so or even that anyone has been poisoned. Nevertheless, Philip latches onto the presence of the seeds as evidence so strongly that they become the symbol of his institutionalized distrust of women nurtured by the father-figure who raised him.
Rachel’s Hands
Philip is positively obsessed with Rachel’s hands. She is a “woman whom I considered unremarkable, save for her hands” described as “slender, very narrow, like the hands of someone in a portrait painted by an old master” but whom at one point he is forced to wonder “how could I fear anyone who did not measure up to my shoulder, and had nothing remarkable about her save a sense of humor and small hands?” There is within his obsession both the misogynistic dismissal of Rachel as a danger and the suspicion that those small hands have crushed the laburnum seeds into a poison used to kill husbands. As a result, Rachel’s hands are the symbol of Philip’s conflict toward Rachel and the ambiguity of her character he cannot full reconcile.
The Pearl Collar
The pearl collar symbolizes another aspect of the misogynistic view toward women that Philip has been nurtured into developing. In this case, it is the aspect of viewing women as possessions which belong to a man and are not to be shared. When the ownership of the pearl collar which begins as a gift is legally transferred to her on Philip’s twenty-fifth birthday, he notably enjoys seeing it around her neck less than he has before because the jewelry is now no longer his possession alone.
The Bridgeway
Philip is warned by a worker about construction of the bridgeway across to the sunken garden who informs it is only a framework still and not stable enough to support any human weight. He then warns that anyone trying to cross it would surely fall and could possibly break their neck. Not much longer afterward, that is exactly what happens to Rachel. Philip now knows about the danger, but neglects to tell anyone. Rachel doesn’t know about the danger and falls to her death. Did Philip purposely keep this information a secret to serve a sinister purpose or was it simply oversight? Just as with the Rachel’s potential for murdering Ambrose, the truth remains unknown: the bridge is the central symbol of the novel’s obsession with the cause and effect of that which is unknown and remains a mystery.
