In Victorian England, reformatories were prison centers and schools designed to teach young criminals marketable skills (rather than relegating them to a life of crime). Rosanna, the maid at Julia Verinder’s estate, went to a reformatory after living as a petty criminal for many years.
Reformatory Quotes in The Moonstone
The The Moonstone quotes below are all either spoken by Reformatory or refer to Reformatory. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Loss of the Diamond: 4
Quotes
“Do you know what it looks like to me?” says Rosanna, catching me by the shoulder again. “It looks as if it had hundreds of suffocating people under it - all struggling to get to the surface, and all sinking lower and lower in the dreadful deeps! Throw a stone in, Mr Betteredge! Throw a stone in, and let's see the sand suck it down!”
Here was unwholesome talk! Here was an empty stomach feeding on an unquiet mind!
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Reformatory Term Timeline in The Moonstone
The timeline below shows where the term Reformatory appears in The Moonstone. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Loss of the Diamond: Gabriel Betteredge: Chapter 4
...employed Rosanna Spearman—who used to be a petty thief in London—after meeting her in a reformatory. Rosanna proved a competent worker, but did not grow close to any of the other...
(full context)
The Discovery of the Truth: Third Narrative: Franklin Blake: Chapter 4
...something else. She writes about how ashamed and lonely she felt after going through the reformatory, taking responsibility for her crimes, and moving to work at the Verinder estate. And she...
(full context)