The Dress Case
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“The Dress” by Julia Darling is a short story about two teenage sisters and their mother. It goes over a day, from afternoon till evening; it is not just any day but the mothers birthday. They are going to a fancy restaurant in the evening to celebrate and one of the girls, Rachel, has recently bought a new dress that she has planned to wear. But her sister Flora has found it hanging unguarded, put it on – just to try, of course – and has ended up wearing it on a café trip with an Italian friend of hers.
This makes Rachel very angry. It is described how she finds the thought of having to put on something else and smile that night unbearable. She has a fierce temper and a very unforgiving attitude, and so she is not any calmer when they meet at the restaurant. She has put on something else that mirrors her mood: “a harsh, black dress and bright red earrings.” The adjective harsh describes her as much as her dress, and the bright red earrings symbol the anger that is still smouldering inside her.
Her behaviour also shows that she has not forgiven her sister. When Flora inno-cently asks if she can try some asparagus, Rachels “No” exudes implacable resentment.
Flora plays innocent. She knows very well why Rachel is so angry, but will not acknowledge her guilt, especially not in front of the mother. So she dodges the questions about the dress, at least until they get home.
In the beginning of the story, just after Rachel has realized that the dress is gone, she runs to Floras room to look for it. It is a mess of crumpled up clothes, useless make-up and cigarette packs, and it smells like Flora in there; sweet, but with a touch of something rot-ten.
The mess in the room shows how careless Flora is regarding to her own posses-sions, and therefore she does not understand or respect how much the dress means to her sister. The smell is of course a symbol of her – she seems sweet, colourful and a little childish on the surface, but underneath it there is a core of self-centredness and indifference toward everybody else.
When Rachel pulls the curtains back, the room is suddenly filled with dust. This is a symbol of her exposing Flora by making her admit that she took the dress and tell what happened to it. When she has told everything, curled up and slightly tearful, Rachel leaves, and as soon as the door slams, Flora sits back up, thinking that now she has done her penance.
Floras conscience does not bother her much. It seems to her that “the dress was meant for her, not Rachel” , and that is enough to justify her trying it on. Once she is wearing it all she can think of is the joy in how it makes her feel taller, braver, cleverer. And another argument to suppress any potential hint of guilt is, that Rachel is all these things already.
It seems that Flora does actually admire her sister a lot. Therefore it is strange that she can