The Moonstone

The Moonstone

by

Wilkie Collins

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Moonstone makes teaching easy.

Reformatory Term Analysis

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:
Detective Methods and Genre Standards Theme Icon
).
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!

Related Characters: Gabriel Betteredge (speaker), Rosanna Spearman (speaker), Franklin Blake
Related Symbols: The Shivering Sand
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 39
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Moonstone LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Moonstone PDF

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
Gender and Victorian Morality Theme Icon
Class, Wealth, and Nobility Theme Icon
...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
Detective Methods and Genre Standards Theme Icon
Class, Wealth, and Nobility Theme Icon
...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)