Rachel Cooper

Rachel Cooper is a major protagonist from the 1955 thriller-film noir classic The Night of the Hunter. She's the kindly, warmhearted, and benevolent old widowed matriarch of a group of orphaned kids who protects them from being homeless in the Great Depression and other forms of harm including from Harry Powell.
She was portrayed by the late Lillian Gish.
== Biography ==
Not much is known of Rachel's early life or even past in general, although it was vaguely recommended that she had once lived a life apart from the goodness she engenders. What's known is that she's a widow who had a mysterious estrangement from her son. She wanted to make up for her sinful actions of her past and would mostly renounce her previous ways. She took action during the Great Depression gathering three orphaned and/or homeless children and bringing them into her house for shelter, serving as the savior of these orphans of the storm and basically a mother hen.
After, John and Pearl's widowed mother gets murdered by Harry Powell and the latter finds out about $10,000 being hidden in Pearl's doll, he'd ruthlessly and dedicatedly chases the pair of children down intending to kill them and steal the money. They'd escape on a rowboat and when they reached land, they'd beg for food, given a raw potato by an old woman. In the next few days, they pass by various creatures of nature. They spend the night on land, taking refuge in a barn, and sleeping in the upper hayloft. During the night, John would wake up to the sound of dogs barking and distant singing from Powell who was still on their tail. They'd sail away on the rowboat away until they're awakened by Mrs. Cooper's stern voice. She towers over them and briskly orders the two orphans out of the boat and up to her farmhouse. Although John and Pearl are "two more mouths to feed" in addition to the three orphans she already took care off, Rachel immediately takes them in and scrubs them clean in an outdoor tub. John is as distrustful of her and can't talk of his past (as he is of Powell), but Pearl immediately likes Rachel.
The Bible-fearing, verse-spouting, sturdy, gray-haired old lady tells the town's grocer of his worries about unwanted children put up for adoption, when she sees a young girl being romanced. She also tells him about her dedicated care and provision of sanctuary for the houseful of orphans, likening herself to a 'strong tree with branches for many birds'.
In the evenings, Rachel tells her big, makeshift family Bible stories (including the Pharaoh story - of baby Moses in the bulrushes being saved from those who kill children). This scriptural story is something that intrigues and mesmerizes John, and he slowly warms to her motherly charm and heals his unhappiness. Regularly on Thursday evenings, the oldest child on the farm, the blossoming and nubile Ruby, is given permission to go to town - presumably for sewing lessons. During one of her visits in the local drugstore, after being bribed with ice cream, the purchase of a movie magazine, and being told that she is pretty, Ruby reveals her generous and charming benefactor. It is the Preacher/stranger, who is told that there are two new children at the farm, named Pearl and John, who play with a doll.
When the Preacher leaves with the information he needs, Ruby watches him go, sensing she had messed up. Later that evening, guilt-ridden Ruby confesses to Rachel that she has been lying about her whereabouts and sneaking around with the boys in town. She also admits that she spoke to a Preacher about John and Pearl. With Ruby in tears, Rachel comforts her and then absolves her. Rachel expresses her tender concern that Ruby grow up properly guided and protected from making regretful mistakes and succumbing to flirtation, until she is more mature.
The next day, Powell comes riding up to Mrs. Cooper's front gate, claiming that he is looking for his lost children, Pearl and John. He dramatically overplays his search for them. While Pearl and John are being summoned, he begins his tale of "LOVE" and "HATE," but she cuts him off. She is immediately suspicious and instantly sees through him, when he tells her that the children have run away from Cincinnati, down the river. She knows that they floated downstream. When John and Pearl appear, John turns cold toward his "father". When Cooper asks him what was wrong, he tells her about the reality of his psychotic step-father. Powell tries to snatch Pearl's doll on the ground, but John grabs it first and dives under the front porch. Powell brandishes his deadly switchblade and crawls in after the boy. When he feels something tapping him on the back, he looks up into the shiny barrel of Rachel's shotgun, as she orders him off the property. As he retreats to his horse and rides off, chased away by the muzzle of her shotgun, he defiantly curses that would return when it was dark.
That night as promised, he lurks outside the farm house to lay siege, singing his rendition of the hymn with the words: "Leaning, leaning..." while waiting for her to fall asleep. In silhouette, Rachel appears sitting in a rocking chair on the screened-in porch with the shotgun across her lap to battle against him with her own vigil. Rachel counters his song, defiantly and harmoniously singing the authentic version of the Protestant religious hymn with a spiritual reference to Jesus: "Lean on Jesus, lean on Jesus," filling in the words that he has chosen to leave out in a simultaneous duet. Suddenly, the preacher vanishes.
Rachel summons the children to gather in the kitchen. As the camera views an owl sweeping down and attacking a defenseless rabbit (offscreen), Rachel observes, thinking of small creatures and children as well. She lines the five children up as she marches back and forth in front of them with her shotgun, telling them the Bible story of the Massacre of the Innocents - King Herod's massacre of babies to kill the promised Messiah. When she sees Powell's shadow inside the house in the living room, and his voice quering, she sends the children to safety upstairs, cocks her shotgun, aims, and asks: "What do you want?" Powell's voice is heard in the darkness as he commands to a have the kids. When she warns that she will shoot after counting to three, he pops up right in front of her. She blasts him with her shotgun, after which he runs out of the house, yelping, shrieking and howling like a madman and wounded wolf, while grabbing his behind. Apparently, he is not badly hurt, but actually been wounded in the shoulder. Then, Rachel phones the State Troopers to come and arrest the Preacher, telling an officer.
In the kitchen the next morning, she tells John that children are mankind at its strongest. Sirens sound and the police arrive, dragging out wounded Harry Powell and arresting him for the murder of Willa Harper. As they throw him to the ground and start to handcuff him, John remembers the traumatic last time he saw his natural, 'good' father when he was arrested, and he reacts similarly to the arrest of his 'evil' stepfather. He clutches his stomach in pain then, he grabs Pearl's doll from her hands, rushes over to the policeman, and pummels and flogs the head of his captured and arrested father over and over again with the limp female doll. John screams out as the hidden/stolen money flies out of the ripped doll's body to fall at the feet of his stepfather. He has discovered that money isn't important enough anymore to justify their suffering. John collapses, and is gently carried inside by Rachel.
A trial scene follows, attended by the Spoons and other neighbors who have come to town for the event. The experience on the witness stand is too much for John - he is unable (or refuses) to testify. But Powell is still sentenced to be hanged for all the women he has killed. Rachel takes the children to a nearby restaurant, where they witness the formation of a lynch mob led by the Spoons, claiming that the children are the ones that Powell sinned against and wronged. To protect her wards from the temptations and violence of the physical world, Rachel steers her flock of children clear of the axe-wielding mob. She marches through town like a mother quail with her young scurrying behind. Rachel retrieves Ruby from outside the jail, where the young girl has gone because she mistakenly thinks the mob is going to free the Preacher - and she wants to help. She protests against Rachel. The children follow after Rachel in single-file down the street. Powell is led out the side door of the jail by the police, to be taken away in a car to the penitentiary for his execution.
During Christmas time, in the safety and security of Rachel's matriarchal care, the children present gifts of homemade potholders to her. Having no money or gift, but wishing to give something to Rachel, John sneaks into the living room, wraps an apple in a lace doily serviette, and gives it to her. She admires it and thanks him. Ruby is given a pretty brooch by Rachel - it is an object that acknowledges her need to feel pretty and adult.
Category:Tragic
Category:Mysterious
Category:Female
Category:False Antagonist
Category:Protectors of Innocence
Category:Elderly
Category:Parents
Category:Guardians
Category:Archenemy
Category:Symbolic
Category:Sympathetic
Category:Movie Heroes
Category:Honorable
Category:Supporters
Category:Benefactors
Category:Nurturers
Category:Voice of Reason