The tone of The Moonstone is intense, self-aware, and sometimes hectoring. The reader is bombarded with information from a variety of sources, as Collins employs a complicated system of multiple narrators. Each of these narrators has a different purpose and a different set of motivations and sympathies. Collins's tone in each of these "Periods" and "Narratives" is so different that various sections of the novel almost feel like separate books, linked by a common plot.
The narrator is always in the first person, but rarely remains the same person for long. The longest section with a consistent perspective in The Moonstone is the First Period, in which Mr. Betteredge the manservant narrates events and sets the scene in a way that's alternatively highly stiff and stodgy, and contentedly good-humored. The reader is invited, through Betteredge's eyes, to see the Verinder household from the perspective of a servant before they encounter it from one of Collins's more privileged characters. This provides context and variety, as well as supporting the novel's realism as it depicts many aspects of Victorian life in detail. Betteredge's sections prioritize plot exposition and the recounting of conversations and memories, and are often tonally more anecdotal and sentimental than many of the others. Other narrators range from sounding similar and having comparable attitudes to Betteredge, to being the total opposite in every aspect of their narrative approach.
For example, Miss Clack, Rachel Verinder's religious fundamentalist cousin, is catty, apparently absolutely unaware of her own pious tendency to sermonize, and convinced of the validity of her own judgmental "Christian" values. Clack seemingly cannot resist incorporating high-handed moralizing into what is supposed to be a factual account of her experiences. Collins uses the tone of these wordy chapters to point out and highlight the hypocrisy of people who preached Christianity publicly but acted selfishly in private.
Other sections have still more diverse tonal qualities, but these tend to be more clearly focused on progressing the plot and journalistically recounting the sequence of events. Within such narrative, Collins still gives each narrator a distinct attitude and approach to their story. Mr. Bruff the lawyer's parts are full of legal language and due process. Franklin Blake's are emotional and intense, and prioritize psychological considerations and the pursuit of the truth. The reader gets many versions of connected segments of the story, each of which uncover aspects of the novel's central mystery. The effect of all these narrators together is a kind of cacophony of tone. The mystery of the Moonstone has a long history and a complicated resolution, which spans many generations and several countries. The novel's complex tonal structure mirrors this.
In general, although The Moonstone's tone is initially mysterious and oblique, the novel becomes very expository and clear toward the end, especially after the Narrations subtitled "The Truth is Revealed." By the end, the tone becomes quite historical, as the narration is framed through letters and legal statements in the Epilogues. Throughout the book, Collins inserts moments of tonal lightness with his mocking portrayal of Miss Clack's hyperbolic, endless wittering and Betteredge's old-fashioned comedic asides. He varies and punctuates these with moments of frightening, almost Gothic narration of the Shivering Sand and the actions of evil characters.
