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
Miss Clack declares that Godfrey entered “exactly at the right time,” the correct distance behind his servant. Julia calls for Rachel, and Godfrey proclaims that the women should not worry about him because “I have merely been mistaken for someone else,” and his experience could have easily been far worse—he lost neither life nor property. Godfrey never wanted to go public with the story, but Mr. Luker did, and so Godfrey had no choice. Godfrey asks the radiant and grateful Miss Clack about their charity, but at that moment Rachel Verinder walks in.
For Clack, Godfrey is the opposite of Rachel: he can do nothing wrong, while she seems unable to do anything right. (In fact, he even seems to set the standard for right and wrong behavior.) Godfrey’s grace and humility are carefully calculated, even more so than Betteredge’s, but easily win Clack’s reverence, and her report about the Indians mugging him seems pulled directly from his testimony.
Themes
The “unlady-like” Rachel greets Godfrey excitedly and asks about his story. He insists that the story is in the newspapers, and after Rachel asks why he does not want to talk about it, Miss Clack interjects to remind her that “true greatness and true courage are ever modest.” Rachel insists that Godfrey is neither great nor modest, and that he must have “some private reason for not talking of your adventure,” which she wants to know. He replies that he is merely “tired of the subject,” but Rachel declares that, unlike his “lady-worshippers,” she plans to make him answer specific questions. Miss Clack is surprised that Julia simply sits and tolerates Rachel’s behavior, especially as she brings Godfrey to a chair by the window and begins to interrogate him.
Although he gladly discusses his mugging with Clack and Julia, Godfrey is more cautious with Rachel, perhaps because she rejected his proposal on her birthday, and because he knows she will not listen idly like Miss Clack. In fact, Rachel seems to have changed profoundly since the theft: excitable and full of energy, she appears finally interested in tracking down the Moonstone. Clack’s role in the family is merely to interject with unwanted moral commentary, and her comment about modesty is clearly gendered, plainly contradicting her view of Godfrey, whom she considers great and courageous, despite his obvious self-promotion, which he only covers with a faint veneer of modesty.
Themes
Clack grows more and more offended as Rachel talks down to Godfrey and orders even her mother around (but she implores her “Christian friends, don’t let us judge!”). Rachel gets Godfrey to admit that some have suggested Luker’s gem is, indeed, the Moonstone, although Luker has firmly denied knowing anything about it. Rachel asks why Godfrey defends Luker, whom he supposedly knows nothing about, and Godfrey proclaims—to Clack’s delight—to “take up the cause of all oppressed people.” Rachel rejects his plea and Julia reprimands her, but also encourages Godfrey to answer her questions.
Again, the open contradictions between Clack’s judgments and her moral principles points to not only the hypocrisy in her beliefs, but also the more general tension between characters’ outward self-presentation and real personalities. So does Godfrey’s absurd claim to fight for “all oppressed people,” something he may believe about himself but which is an unlikely commitment for a wealthy British heir such as himself. Indeed, by now it is obvious that Clack and Godfrey’s moralism is really for themselves, a way of managing their self-perception, and unrelated to the welfare of those they claim to be helping.
Themes
Godfrey soon admits that “scandal says […] I am the man who has pawned” the Moonstone to Luker. Rachel screams that “this is my fault!” and that she cannot bear to “let an innocent man be ruined.” As the others try to slip her medicine, Rachel declares that she knows who stole the Moonstone, and that it was not Godfrey. Godfrey warns Rachel against sacrificing her reputation, but she declares that she, too, has been accused of the theft, and that she will do anything to prove Godfrey’s innocence. He draws up a declaration that she readily signs, and she promises to try and “repair the wrong I have done you” as much as she is able. Clack is disgusted that Godfrey fails to kiss Rachel on the hand and then responds to her hysterics with “a gentleness of tone […] little better than a compromise with sin.”
Confronted with Rachel’s direct, honest questioning, Godfrey admits the full weight of the recent events concerning him; Rachel’s overwhelming guilt appears to explain Julia’s earlier reluctance to breach the topic of the Diamond, and her shocking declaration that she knows the truth about the theft is consistent with Sergeant Cuff’s conclusion about the case. But neither she nor Godfrey appears a perfectly trustworthy witness, and the reader must make their own judgments about their credibility. For the first time, Clack criticizes Godfrey’s demeanor, showing both that she is completely insensitive to circumstances and that she truly does put her absurd morals before her loyalty to Godfrey.
Themes
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All of the sudden, there is “a thundering knock at the street door” from the three “audaciously dressed women” who are to accompany Rachel to a flower-show. Before she leaves, Rachel asks her mom—tastelessly enough—if she has been “distressed,” and Julia kindly insists that she has not. Miss Clack attempts to confront the tearful Rachel on her way out, but Rachel recoils, offended and insistent that she is happy. Clack writes of her pity “for this miserable and misguided girl.”
Rachel’s medical orders (to attend flower-shows and enjoy herself) suddenly intervene, and inexplicably, even Rachel’s concern for her mother is “tasteless” to Clack, whose standards for feminine morality seem clearly unachievable. Despite her professed concern for Rachel, there is no evidence that any of Clack’s interventions so far have helped.
Themes
Literary Devices
After Rachel’s departure, Godfrey destroys the declaration of innocence she has written, for the sake of Rachel’s own reputation. Clack is charmed by “his noble conduct” and feels a “pure, unearthly ecstasy” when she kisses his hand—by the time she recovers and opens her eyes, he is gone. To fill the time, Clack—who reveals her first name is Drusilla—asks Julia about her health, but Julia responds that this is a “very distressing subject.” Clack gets up to apologize and leave, but Julia tells her to sit and explains that she has a secret to tell—one that she can tell, but expects Clack to keep. She also has a favor to ask of Clack, she explains: she needs her as a witness to the signing of her will in front of her attorney Mr. Bruff. At once, Clack realizes what Julia’s secret must be.
While Godfrey’s decision to destroy Rachel’s document is apparently noble, it is also secretly self-serving: it prevents him from incriminating the woman he loves and raising even more suspicions about both himself and Rachel. Clack’s “pure, unearthly ecstasy” clearly has sexual overtones and suggests that her affinity for Godfrey may be about something more than just her admiration for his charity work. Unintentionally, Clack further hurts Julia by asking her about the “very distressing subject” of her apparently deteriorating health, and it becomes clear that Clack is only truly useful to the family because of her distance from it (to Franklin, she can be a witness because she has no interest in the Diamond, and to Julia, she can be a witness because she has no interest in Julia’s property).
Themes
Literary Devices
