Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Moonstone, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Detective Methods and Genre Standards
Intention, Identity, and Personality
Science and Religion
Gender and Victorian Morality
Class, Wealth, and Nobility
British Imperialism
Summary
Analysis
In “The Statement of the Captain (1849),” the narrator—the captain of the Bewley Castle, on which the three Indians sailed—explains that these men kept a low profile during their journey. At the end, they were forced to wait three days off the Indian coast before docking in Bombay. During this time, the passengers explored their surroundings in smaller boats, which were “left moored to the ship’s side” instead of raised back on board. The next morning, the crew learns that one of these small boats is missing, along with the three Indians. Although the authorities ultimately blame the captain, he neither knew at the time nor can do anything to change the facts of the matter.
Yet again, the Indians skillfully throw investigators off the trail of evidence and slip away without a trace. Once they get on land and can blend into their own country, it seems nearly impossible for the British authorities to track them down. In fact, their ease in outsmarting the British allows Collins to ridicule the very ideology at the heart of British colonialism: the notion that nonwhite peoples are culturally and intellectually inferior and need to be shaped and “saved” by the English (much like Miss Clack wanted to “save” her relatives’ heathen souls).
Themes
